Hi All,

We've made it to our last destination in Australia, and its odd to realise we are just over half way through the world quest and in less than 24 hours we'll be in New Zealand. We've done a lot of driving and seen some stunning sights and had some miserable weather since we last wrote.

Canbera was a unique city and not designed for pedestrians, AT ALL!! Its split in 2 halves, the north of the lake is shops and resturants, while the south is all the libriaries, museums and government houses. The problem is its so spread out and there is nothing between these buildings except huge fields and wide roads. There is not one shop or cafe to stop and get a drink, or any type of refreshment-exhausting stuff, especially when you have little legs and walk twice as far according to Jo.

We ventured into Questican a great science discovery center where you can free fall, test how fast you can throw, measure your hight to animals(I'm 5 1/5 monkeys, or 7 toucans), and test many other principals.

We left Canbera and headed around to the Snowy Mountains. The drive at the begining of the Snowy Hwy is full of mobs of Kangaroos and Emus (apparently more road kill here than anywhere else), which made Jo's first driving experience a lot more fun. The weather was cold and wet so we went caving. The Yarrangobilly Caves are impressive, and date back a couiple hundred million years, and our personal guide, Greg, was pretty interesting. We now know all there is about Stalicmites and tites.

Heading south we drove through boring Cooma to the platypus capital of Bombala-we waited and hour at the lookout but none of the little b*****s appeared. Through wind and rain we headed south into Victoria for Lakes Entrance.

Quite a commercial little place with loads to do if the weather is good... We left the next day and headed further South and west towards Phillip Island. As we were running out of time the decision was made by the navigator to miss the southern most point and get to Phillip Island asap to try and catch the penguin parade. We did see an echidna through the National park on our drive, to finish off the vast display of Australian wildlife that has crossed our path.

Little penguins (another literal name from Australia) return to their burrows every night and its spectacular to see over 2000 of them waddle up the beach and then feed their chicks.

Blasting out of Phillip Island we took the ferry across Port Phillip bay to drive along the Great Ocean drive. We would have enjoyed spending a few days at places like Port Cambell, however the navigator had calculated that if we were to reach Melbourne, inland was where we were next destined.

The drive north was unevetful and was a relief to splat into Ballarat and take in the mining town tour. An amusing way to spend an afternoon, paning for gold and experiencing a town of yesteryear.

Ariving in Melbourne and staying in St Kilda with Jess (friend from the UK) has been amazing, even if the schizophrenic weather has'nt been. The city reminds me a bit of Manchester CBd, just more looked after and neater. We are going back in on the superior tram system today to finsh off australia in style.

At this point I'd like to thank a few people who have made australia and even more impressive destination on the quest. My sister and mom in Perth, The Southwoods in Manly, Simon in Sydney and Jess in Melbourn, all whose generosity and accomodation for us have been greatly appreciated.

We'd also like to wish you all a very Merry xmas, though we will probaly write again before then, but you may not read it, thanks for all the updates and messages keeping usaware of whats going on up north.

Later Alligators

PS: if anyone knows how Mark and Louise are doing could they please let me know, as that lazy b*stard never writes back.