We drove into Sydney today. We overnight here and board the Diamond Princess tomorrow for New Zealand. We dropped off the car after having logged 11,500 km. (the Europcar agent was astounded). Also did 1,000 km. in Tasmania with another car.. Driving wasn't too difficult. A bit stressful in the cities but the GPS saved us. The drivers here are not bad except in Melbourne and Sydney where they are very agressive. We had a Hyuandai Accent. Not much power on...

The last two days have been spent touring Canberra, Australia's capital. Yesterday we toured the Parliament House and the parks and buildings in the area followed by an afternoon at the War Memorial. The War memorial is very impressive. At 5:00pm there was a ceremony honouring all of the soldiers who were lost in all of the conflicts in which Australia has been involved. The new Parliament is quite modern and certainly distinctive. We noted that the landsca...

Happy New Year!!! It is now New Year's Day in Canberra. A short drive from Cooma this morning brought us into Canberra. We spent the afternoon driving around including a stop on Black Mountain to view Canberra from the top of the Telstra communications tower. Dinner in downtown Canberra and then watched the 9:00 pm fireworks presentation. That allowed us to get back to the hotel to watch the midnight fireworks from Sydney.

After leaving our friends, the Redways, in Wagga Wagga, we headed south to cross the Snowy Mountains on the Alpine Way, a beautiful, but very twisty and slow highway from Khancobahn to Jindabyne. The route took us near Mt. Kosciuszko, Australia's highest peak at 2229 meters. Although the mountain was not visible from the highway, the drive was very enjoyable and scenic. The mountains may not be as high or dramatic as those in BC, but are quite attractive nonet...

Arrived in Wagga Wagga on Dec. 27 and have spent the last three enjoyable days with the Redways. We toured the city on Dec. 28, the Snowy Mountains on Dec. 29. Copious quantities of PepperJack Shiraz from the Barossa Valley of South Australia (very good). It was good to have a few days of no driving. Off today again.