Dear All,

So here we are again in Melbourne, though a very different stay it has been for us what with the addition of a new family member in the Belsey household here. Little Ben is gorgeous and thus far not too much of a handful for Mum and Dad. He's a strong little thing though and will no doubt be causing mayhem around here in the not too distant future. The other big story as I'm sure you'll all be aware is the Victorian Bush Fire disaster. After the hottest day ever in Melbourne and the surrounding areas the bush fires raged on Saturday 7th and are still going now. We were very safe here in Altona Meadows but the scale of what has happened has really hit everyone!

Here is our latest update on what we've been up to, hope you enjoy.

Monday 2nd February - Haydn kindly dropped us in downtown Adelaide and we pretty much spent the day wandering around the shops. We seemed to duck in and out of lots of female clothing stores though! Liz claims it was purely for the air conditioning to escape the 40 degree heat but going on the shopping bags she was carrying at the end I have my suspicions! That night the four of us headed to a great little Aussie pub called the Austal for some food and drinks. I (Phil) had a burger that has to fit well in my top five burgers ever you'll be delighted to hear.

Tuesday 3rd February - Haydn again dropped us in town where we picked up our second Hyundai Getz (Silver this time). We drove for about 4 hours to a place called Robe where we'd booked a night in the YHA there, a big old manor house which had massive rooms and very grand bathrooms. Robe was pretty and we had a little stroll along the beach in what was much cooler temperatures now, phew!!

Wednesday 4th February - We drove along the coast to Port Fairy. Once there we walked from the hostel to check out the river, beach and then took a stroll around Griffith Island as the sun was coming down.

Thursday 5th February - Great Ocean Road. When going West to East the Great OCean Road doesn't really start on the ocean which was a surprise to us though there were lots of different places where you could take advantage of the look-out areas to see some pretty spectacular views of the rock formations and ocean. The best and most famous are the 12 Apostles which made for some good photos once we got passed the throng of Japanese tourists taking pics of eachother in every possible pose.

We continued on from there to our overnight destination, Lorne. Our hostel was again a YHA but very different to anything we'd stayed in before. This one was part of a luxury cabins complex and was beautiful and tucked away neatly on the side of a hill. On many of the cabins balconies there were parrots perched and the whole place was very idyllic. Our room was part of a cabin that had been converted to just bedrooms and bathrooms but was very nice still. We took a stroll to the beach and wandered along the main street before heading to the supermarket for some food. We couldn't really decide what to eat that night so somewhat tongue in cheek I suggested that we simply gorge ourselves on chocolate and hit the sack. To my surprise we came away with a chocolate swiss roll and not a lot else which was dinner and then breakfast the next day (I think there was some fruit in the basket too before you have visions of us both coming back several stones heavier!).

Friday 6th February - We finished the 'official' part of the Great Ocean Road as we headed back towards Melbourne and the luxury of James and Renee's house. We again made a stop off for a spot of lunch, this time in a town called Torquay. Given that Liz's parents and good friend Amy live very near Torquay, England we felt it was only right to stop off and give them an opportunity to see the Aussie version (see pic in album). We wandered down to the beach where there were hundreds of kids doing what looked like there school PE lessons both in the sea and on the beach. The kids in the sea looked like they were learning to surf which looked like a lot of fun to a big kid like me!

We arrived in Altona Meadows later in the afternoon where we had the pleasure of meeting Benjamin for the first time. Very good looking fella, clearly taking after his uncle hehehe!

Saturday 7th February - Today was ruled by the weather as the temperature rose from about 25 to 45 in the space of a few hours. By 3pm it peaked in the city at 46.7 degrees, the highest recorded temperature in 150 years. Coupled with this were gale force winds which meant if you went out side it was like standing in a wind tunnel with a giant hair-dryer at one end! Needless to say we remained house bound all day waiting for the cool change to arrive in the evening. This is when news started breaking of the bush fires and how serious they were.

Sunday 8th February - Though the temperature had dropped to the low 20's by now we were all pretty much glued to the TV watching the scale of the bush fire disaster unfold.

Monday 9th February - Liz's Birthday. After picking up Renee's sister Ruth from the airport we headed down to Phillip Island (I christened it Elizabeth Island for the day in Liz's honour). On the way we saw a small patch of land that had been burnt out. Though comparatively tiny compared to the main fires, you could imagine what it looked like alight and the damage was evident as several cars and buildings had been damaged / destroyed.

On Phillip Island we visited Smiths Beach, The Nobbies (rock formations that are home to seals and sea birds) before heading to Cowes, the main town on the island, for some dinner. The main highlight of the day was the Penguin Parade at dusk. Every night hundreds/thousands of "Little" penguins make there way back to their burrows from fishing at sea, making their way up the beach in large numbers, passed the strategically positioned viewing platform we were in to the safety of their homes. A fun experience to see this naturally occuring event.

Tuesday 10th February - Pretty chilled out day with Renee, Ruth and Ben.

Wednesday 11th February - Got a lift with James in to the city where we spent the morning wandering around the shops. In the afternoon we jumped on the free tram to the docklands area for some lunch and more shop browsing. On a whim, mostly encouraged by the cheap price, I (Phil) got my hair cut for the first time in 3 months. This was mostly because a mullet was appearing but also due to some strong words from my Mum on Skype the night before!! Impressed by the quality of the $20 cut, Liz also decided to get a trim too so we are both nice and tidy now you'll be pleased to hear!

OK that's about it for now. Thanks for all those who contacted Liz on her birthday and those who checked to make sure we're OK here in Victoria. It is always nice to hear from people and that will be especially true now that we don't have any 'luxury/friend/family' stops for a long time! So do keep us imformed of what you're up to and leave us messages on the message board or emails when you can.

Love

Phil and Liz

xxx