Flying out of New Zealand we touched down in Sydney on the 4th October for the last time and for one more roll of the dice in the company of Mr Jace O'Connor. It was a short but sweet visit as we were flying out to Perth on the 6th at 7am. We had said our "See you later" for the last time to a sleepy eyed Jace at five in the morning before heading to the airport. We cant thank Jace and Deb enough for putting us up not once, twice but three times and we hope that we will be able to return the favour one day as one thing is for sure, we haven't seen the last of Mr O'Connor. But as sad as we were to say goodbye to the O'Connor's of Sydney, we were happy and excited to say hello to the Finley's of WA. We had last seen Ashleigh's aunty Enid and uncle Tom back in 2009 along with their son Neil, his wife Donna and the kids when we came over for Ashleigh to be godmother to Neil and Donnas youngest, Tynan. After a five hour flight we touched down in sunny Perth. Walking through to claim our bags we were met by Enid and standing next to her was Fritz, a guy we worked with on Lindeman Island. Small world eh? After our welcome of "Hello Honey!" and cuddles all round we grabbed our bags and made our way to the car. It was great being back in WA and seeing family again. It feels like years ago since we had left from Enid and Tom's other son's home, Dan in Canberra, and we had been looking forward to seeing family again ever since we left. "Well hold on to your hat's cause we are going straight to Neil's and Donnas as the kids are dying to see you both" Enid told us and after a short drive we were there. We couldn't believe how much they had all grown in the past two years. When we were last here Tynan had just turned one and was crawling around. Now he was running everywhere and having conversations with us. You should see him on a computer, he is a right wizz kid. What a difference a little time makes. But not being strangers to the kids, it was only a matter of time before they were climbing all over us and showing us what they had got for birthdays and Christmases which was great as last time here it took the kids a few days to warm to us.

After an hour or so we hopped back in Enid's car to drive to one of our favourite places in Australia and the place where Enid and Tom live, Rockingham. After making ourselves at home at Enid's request it wasn't long until the worker was home. Walking through the door shouting "Where is sha? Where's wor Ash?" you would think Tom had just flown in from Newcastle as he has never lost his Geordie twang even though he has lived in Australia for over 30 years. It was great seeing Enid and Tom again and I'm sure it was great for them to see us too as they don't get many visitors coming to this side of the world. Before Tom had even sat down he had two beers cracked open and in stubby holders with a glass of wine for Enid and the Mrs. Welcome to Rockingham! We spent hours catching up and telling tales of our travels as Enid and Tom are very well travelled themselves and wanted to know everything. We loved reciting our tales and listening to Enid and Tom's as it brought back loads of memories. The next few days were spent the same catching up on anything and everything over dinner. They fed us well and we loved it especially the deserts. With Tom owning a cheesecake shop there was a different cheesecake, cake or pavlova every night. Heaven, one thing is for sure though, our waistlines definitely took a hammering. We spent our mornings trying to run off the previous nights cake along the beach. The thing we love about Rockingham is not only the beautiful beach but the people who live there. If you run, walk or cycle along the beach front everybody says hello to you or asks how your doing and it has a real friendly vibe. We would make sure that we would go for a walk along the beach front everyday and if you could see it you would know why. We have been on hundreds of beaches around the world and Rockingham beach is still one of our favourites. It is busy yet quiet if that makes sense and it still has that traditional seaside town feel to it without it being to over developed. It's the place that originally got us excited about travelling Australia and we wish that a lot more of it was like Rockingham.

Now with the time difference it can be hard catching up with the footy, but with Tom being a life long Newcastle Untied fan he has this impracticality sorted. Tom's mate records all the Newcastle games for him onto DVD and as soon as he has a few matches worth he hands them over to Tom. Because of this I had one of the best Sundays ever. Now I had only managed to catch one game so far this season and that was the rather dull game against QPR. Even though the games were a few weeks old it was great to just sit down on the sofa and watch four Newcastle games back to back, 360 uninterrupted minutes of football, brilliant. And to round it off the football finished just in time for us to start watching the rugby world cup semi finals, Wales against France, which Wales should have won. Best sporting Sunday ever.

After a few days we were joined by an Irish couple, Marie and Michael who Enid and Tom had met on their holiday. They were visiting family in Sydney and decided to fly over for a week also to catch up with old friends. They are a smashing couple and we all spent many a night taking about anything and everything. We had been to Perth and Rockingham before so we knew our way around so leaving Enid and Tom to show Marie and Michael around, we hit the library and hunted down job agencies trying to land us some jobs as we would need money for our 'homeward bound' leg of the trip. We spent a good few days applying for different jobs and we didn't hear back from a single one after a week so if we didn't want to be getting on a plane back home in a couple of days we needed to think of something fast. Ashleigh came up with an idea and saved the day "Should we try Lindeman Island again and see if they have any work?" The idea sounded good and she wasted no time getting in touch with Nadja in HR. Even though it would mean flying back over to the other side of the country and taking a ferry to reach the island, the more we thought about it the more it made sense. We knew what to expect, we knew the jobs, we knew some of the people there and once we were there we wouldn't spend any money. We calculated the cost to get there and what we would make in 5-6 weeks and the numbers looked good. Sign us up Nadja where coming back to Lindeman. Obviously this is not what we had originally planned and we hope to be able to find jobs in the Perth/Rockingham area but none where forthcoming. So we would have to cut our stay a lot shorter than we would have liked too but Enid and Tom understood that we had to do what was for the best.

So it was confirmed that we would back going back to Lindeman Island for another stint working for Club Med. Ash back in her old role of housekeeping but I would not be scrubbing pots and pans this time as I had a position working in the restaurant. Knowing that we would be leaving on the 17th October we had to make sure that our last few days were good ones. We took a ride into Perth with Enid, Marie and Michael and took a walk around Kings Park. We had been before but it is a beautiful place and a great walk. Kings Park is a bit special to us also as my Dad had stood in a particular spot and took a photograph looking out over Matilda Bay and Perth Water around 30 years ago. Ashleigh by chance had taken the same photograph from the exact same spot when she was 13 years old and the comparisons in the photographs are staggering. So we made sure that we visited the same spot once more and took another photograph to compare it to the original when we get home. It is a strange feeling to stand in the exact same spot on the other side of the world knowing that your Dad stood there before you were even born. After a spot of lunch with Enid, Marie and Michael, me and Ash decided to take a walk into the city centre as we had never had the chance to walk around it before. Spending a few hours walking down by the water front and into the bustling city centre was great as we had missed walking around the big cities a little. One of the funniest things that we saw was one of the worst street performers that we have ever seen. Basically a man was dressed in rainbow trousers and sporting a rainbow afro wig. He was drinking a carton of milk with a straw whilst dancing badly to Meatloaf songs. Needless to say his buskers hat was empty but I couldn't help but watch him as I kept cocking my neck to take a look at his crap routine as we walk down the street. After treading the streets for a few hours we were content with our little expedition into Perth city centre and headed for the train station to take us back to Rockingham.

The day before we were due to leave, Enid and Tom had a BBQ with some of their friends in the street popping round and Neil, Donna and their merry band of cheeky monkeys came to. The food and drink was flowing and I couldn't think of a better way to spend our last day and night with them all. We had a right laugh and it was great ending to a great visit even though it was shorter than we would have liked it to be. Hopefully we will be able to pop back for a week once we leave the island and before we set off on our homeward bound voyage. We loved our time there as it is always great catching up with family and familiar faces when you have been away from home as long as we have. We had some great nights out with them and their friends and laughed from start to finish. We would like to thank Enid and Tom for their hospitality as they made us feel right at home from the off and also thank them for all the food, not forgetting the cakes. So the only thing that stands in our way now is a 5-6 week stint on Lindeman Island to get some well needed funds in our bank account to a) get us some flights in the general direction of home. b) have some fun in some European locations as we travel home and c) be able to buy a few drinks once we get there. Not long now folks....

Love Peter and Ashleigh x