We were picked up from Sydney Airport by our friends Rob and Maree and taken to their house in Ashtonfield near Newcastle. We found them both in much better health than expected and in the first week we managed a trip up to Hawks Nest a lovely quiet village on the coast, plus we also got Rob's boat out onto Lake Macquarie. It was the first time they had had the boat out for nearly a year due to their health issues. After being on the move for so long it was really nice just to spend time in a home environment with them and to get all the washing and ironing up to date.

It had been arranged to travel to Albury to see their daughter for the weekend and we were going to travel down the south coast of NSW before crossing inland to Albury. However, having reached our first overnight stop at Kiama Rob was not well enough to carry on the journey so we all decided to return to Ashtonfield. Emma (their daughter) still wished us to visit so we made arrangements to travel there by train from Sydney. Rob got the all clear from hospital when he got back so we set off for an overnight stay in Sydney before catching the 7am train to Albury, we had booked first class seats as it was an 8 hour journey and it was only a difference of AUD$25 each extra.

We had a good time in Sydney as we arrived at 1pm and were based in Darling Harbour. We went for a walkabout and spent time at Circular Quay and Opera House watching the movements in the Harbour with the ferries, yachts, tour boats and people. It was much as we had remembered it from the last trip and just as enjoyable. We walked back through the city to Darling Harbour which had changed a lot and a lot of which we didn't recognise. When we were here in 1999 much of the Harbour was not built up but now it's all complete and very busy, there were bits that we remembered but on the whole it had changed quite a lot.

We eventually arrived in Chinatown and found some food and couldn't believe how far the restaurants reached into the precinct (road with no traffic), virtually leaving only enough room in the centre for a single line of people to walk through.

The compartment we had on the train was a sleeper converted to a day sitter and we were lucky to have all three seats to ourselves. Between these compartments was a toilet/shower serving a pair of compartments. In the toilet we had to pull the pan down to use it and then put it back up again (perhaps a bit too much information, but Tony insists that you will want to know that). The 8 hours soon passed, the countryside was very brown due to the drought and was not really spectactular, we were however, offered Devonshire Teas (2 scones, jam and cream), very British eh! First class was not like ours and the train only had a buffet car, we were better off in our compartment compared to the other first class seats which were normal seats but were able to recline.

At Emma and Josephs we went to Beechworth and had one of the famous pies that they are apparently renowned for (sure you are all aware of that), they were delicious. Beechworth is where Ned Kelly roamed and also where there was a Gold Rush, so very interesting. The town has been preserved much in its original state, so there was a lot to see. The next day they took us to a wine and food festival where you bought a glass and this entitled you to taste wine at 21 different wineries, plus you had two tickets each for meals, where each winery was offering different food with a glass of wine. So we started with Barramundi (fish for those who don't know) plus a glass of sparkling Shiraz, next we sampled some wines then onto have chocolate truffle dessert (2 between 3 of us) and 2 glasses of wine. Tony used his 2nd ticket to have another main course. This left one ticket that we exchanged for a cheese platter at another winery to have betwen 3 of us, there was so much cheese that we struggled to finish it, we were amazed. Tony found that this winery had 6 different ports, 3 10 year olds and 3 25 year olds for tasting, so he was well away. After this winery we felt it was time to go home.

As we had a 12 midday train to Melbourne and Emma and Joseph had a day off for labour day we all went into Albury for breakfast before they took us to the station. We were late arriving in Melbourne and somehow we had got the location of our apartment wrong. Basically we landed in Albert Street looking for No. 90, but were at No. 520 so we had a long walk up Albert Street.

Our first day in Melbourne we had quite a bit of planning to sort out i.e. reconfirm our flight to Singapore, sort out visa for India and book our Borneo trip. Qantos was quite easy, but India visa was an experience. We had to catch a tram to the Embassy in the suburbs, but it terminated 1Km from the stop. The Embassy wanted 10 working days to process a visa and the tram back developed wheel problems, to sum up we dumped the idea of visiting India, having cost us a whole morning. The rest of the day was spent in the Flight Centre (travel agent) booking our next trip after OZ (you will find out where later). We also booked a trip to Philip Island and bought tickets for day 1 of the F1 Grand Prix.

We were picked up in town at 11am and went out to Phillip Island where we saw several beaches eventually arriving at the Nobbies. This is where there is a board walk from which you can see penguin tunnels and if lucky see the young in their nests. From there we went into Cowes for free Pizzas before returning at 7.30pm to take our place on the beach to watch the penguins come ashore. This is an area of concrete steps where at least 1500 people gather to watch this amazing scene. The penguins didn't come ashore till about 8.45 and we saw about 4/500 land, it was fascinating to watch and see them waddle/stagger up the beach and into the dunes to feed their young. Some of them have so much food inside them that they topple forward as they are waddling.

Up till now we had temperatures of between 26/30C, but on the Thursday we went to the first day of the Grand Prix at Albert Park, it shot up to 39C with very little shade in the Park. We found that there were no F1 cars there that day and as it was so hot we only stayed 2 hours before heading into the city. We did the Rialto Tower, which gives 360 degree views of Melbourne from the 55th floor. We had also heard about an Ice Bar so we checked that out and after donning parker coats, huggie boots and thermal gloves we entered the bar at minus 8 degrees. In the price we were allowed one coctail each, Thea chose one with no alcohol unfortunately it became slush before she could finish it and hadn't got a spoon. The glass that it was served in was also ice as were the seats and the bar itself, we were allowed 25 minutes but only managed 15. When we got out it was strange as we were back in the heat, but the bits that had been exposed like the bottom of Thea's legs and our faces were freezing cold. We rounded this day off with a trip back up the Tower to see Melbourne at night, but it was not as spectacular as during the day.

When we arrived in Adelaide someone was aiming hairdryers at us as they were in their 13th day of heat above 35C which had equaled the longest consecutive period of weather since records began. The next day it was again above 35C and broke the record, the actual temperature on both these days was 40C. The reason we had chosen Adelaide was because Ayres Rock would have been too hot we were told, Adelaide was hotter.There was a light show at night where they lit up old historic buildings and changed the imaging with light which was quite effective. We had flown to Adelaide to start an Adventure Tour to Melbourne via The Grampians and The Great Ocean Road, the only trouble was it started at 6am and we hadn't changed our alarm clock from Melbourne time, so we were awake 1/2 hour earlier.

The first half day we covered 500 kms in 40C heat, we then saw some white kangaroos and took a walk to Hollow Mountain, and another to McKenzie Falls and finally one to the Balconies. We had drunk between us 5 bottles of liquid and we were still hot and thirsty, but the scenery had been really good. We had also seen where 2 years previously a bush fire had been through and devastated the area.

The next day we set off at 7.15 to start a 5km walk to the Pinnacles by 7.30am. We finished at 10.30am kna.....ed. We had gone up the Grand Canyon clambered over rocks, up specially erected staircases to reach the top. Some people at the top asked if we were with the Oz Experience as we didn't look like that sort of person. As you can guess the remainder of the group were in their 20's, we hadn't booked with Oz Experience but they combine trips out here so that's how we came to be on that tour. We have found in Oz that there is nothing between the backpacker type trip and the full blown luxury coach trips that don't do much exercise. Needless to say we did upgrade our accommodation, but the driver came to fetch us to have dinner with everyone else which we really enjoyed and were made most welcome. After the walk we drove down to the coast and stopped at a few places before going to our accommodation at Princetown (population 8). In the evening we went to see sunset over the 12 Apostles, sunset didn't happen due to cloud and there are only 8 Apostles. But the temperature had dropped and it was a lovely evening watching a sunset behind cloud over the sea. When we got back to our upgraded accommodation we sat chatting to the landlord and landlady as it was also a pub till 10.30pm and they refused payment for our last round of drinks and a bottle of water. He was called Anthony usually known as Tony but she called him Tone a nickname Tony used to have at school.

Next day we set off in cloud and mist to the Otway Tree Walk, the temperature was quite reasonable and if anything a little chilly with the mist. We did the canopy walk which was not that exciting as it was very solid structure, but by the time we had finished the sun was back out and everywhere was warming up. We headed back to the coast and along The Great Ocean Road, we stopped at one section to see wild Koala's which we were fortunate to see some at very close quarters. We then had lunch at Apollo Bay a beautiful semi circular bay of golden sand. We then moved on to Bell Beach where the Pro Ripcurl surfing event was being held which meant a lot to some but nothing to us and from there we went to Torquay, the surf capital of Victoria again of no interest to us. Although Thea found a chocolate cafe to amuse herself, some of you would have had to have been dragged out. After seeing some wonderful views of the Ocean Road and stopping for photo shoots we headed back into Melbourne to be dropped off to go to our Hotel at the airport ready to fly to Sydney the next day.

Today in Sydney we have 2 things to achieve one being a Vietnam visa and the other to meet Michelle and Stewart's friends for dinner. We decided to go directly to the Vietnam Consulate to see about a visa as we had several different pieces of information about how to get one. As it turned out we paid our money and in 1 hour we had our visa's and were back outside waiting for a taxi. We met up with Gemma and Leigh as planned and walked to Darling Harbour to a Beer House where we enjoyed a meal and some drinks and heard all about their experiences and travels since leaving the UK over 12 months ago.

We are now back in Ashtonfield with Rob and Maree after catching the train from Sydney. Today has been spent catching up on the washing again and the next job we need to do is sort out our photos to put another album onto the blog. It is Easter and we would like to wish everyone a Very Happy Easter, we leave here on Wednesday (26th) to fly to Singapore. Just to show how small the world is 2 people who were on the tour from Adelaide are also on the same flight out on the 26th. We hope you enjoy our photos of OZ, not quite as many as NZ but this part of our trip has been more of a leisure and catch up rather than travel. We can also report that Rob went to the Hospital on the 20th and was told to wean himself off the drip and onto solids and if successful they will remove the tube next month, which really rounds off our trip with good news, considering we came here under a big health cloud.