Rich writes…

G'day from Oz! We got here a couple of weeks ago, taking a bizarrely inexpensive business class flight from Kuala Lumpur (we felt very out of place among the respectable business people).

First stop was Melbourne, an incredibly pleasant (if slightly unexciting) city, where we met up with Nic's parents. We each had a few gifts to exchange, although the contact lenses and fresh clothes we received were admittedly a little more welcomed than the selfie stick and durian sweets we presented to Jan and Nige.

With Nic's parents and their friends, we took a day trip to Phillip Island, a little way around the bay from Melbourne. On the trip we ate some cheese, drank some wine, saw some koalas and tried some bushtucker.

The highlight of the day came at the end, when we went to see the world famous "Penguin Parade". Phillip Island is the home of the largest colony of penguins in Australia, and shortly after the sun sets, they return from their fishing trips in the ocean (sometimes after a number of days at sea), and form groups to run up the beach to their nests which are scattered around the coast. We were essentially watching a farcical re-enactment of the opening to Saving Private Ryan, with colourful fireworks providing explosions (a display held in the distance for Chinese New Year), tourist seating at the top of the beach in place of machine gun nests, and cute little penguins storming (waddling) up the beach in groups as fast as they could. Thankfully no limbs were blown off.

After leaving Melbourne, we spent a couple of days driving west along the Great Ocean Road. This scenic route was built by the soldiers returning from WW1, and is considered the world's largest war memorial. It was very picturesque and we enjoyed several walks in the varied landscapes, carefully keeping an eye out for scary snakes and spiders (none seen).

One of our immediate impressions of Australia has been how expensive it is. It probably doesn't help that we have come from Asia, but most things are even more expensive than we remember London being. Beer has become a special treat, we actually walked away from an ice-cream stall on a hot day (£3 for a scoop) and we have been cooking for ourselves again (which has actually been quite nice).

The last few days have seen us pass through Canberra (which was notable for not having all that much to see apart from an utterly fascinating museum about Australia's actions in the world wars), and journey into Sydney (the bus from Canberra to Sydney left early and arrived early…a first on our trip). Sydney is a lovely city and we have really enjoyed walking around and ticking off all the sites: the opera house, the bridge, bondi beach etc. The evenings in Sydney have been really enjoyable too, due to a 'love' festival that is going on which has led to a couple of free firework displays. We also got to enjoy cocktails and desserts at a restaurant thanks to a voucher we were given for Christmas by Nic's sister and her boyfriend. Thanks Beck & Andy!

Our travels have continued to feel like a very pleasant holiday, with beautiful weather, sight-seeing, and occasional frozen yoghurt when funds allow (we have become addicted to the self-serve 'fro-yo', it could become a problem). Tomorrow we will pick up a car, which will take us to Brisbane over the next ten days via the Blue Mountains and Byron Bay. We have booked a few places to stay via 'Airbnb', which we have not used before, but it seems to offer much better value than most of the hostels here. If it works out well, we might use it a lot in New Zealand too.

Right, now back to the Neighbours omnibus. When in Rome…