hi everyone!

sorry for the lack of blogs but we have been so busy everyday we havent had chance to get on here.

New years Eve: We went early in the morning to have breakfast with my mum and sis and then we headed back to make our picnic for the day. We caught a taxi to our spot to view the fireworks for the day - observatory Hill lookout - one of the best spots to view the harbour and the bridge. We arrived about half 12 and set up camp right at the front. We spent most of the day sunbathing, playing cards and me and luke sneaking off for cheeky beer at the pub accross the road. As the park quickly filled up throughout the afternoon the buzz around the park grew! As the darkness filled the park sydney lit up as the 9 o clock fireworks blew up!! these were only the warm up fireworks for the kids and famillys so we still had a few hrs to wait till the main event! a few more beers and wine later it was time and the fireworks didnt dissapoint as we cracked open the champagne at midnight! what a sight it was! the fireworks seemed to go on for ever and the ozzy government spent more than they ever have on fireworks this yr - $5 million!

New years day: We spent a relaxing day looking round the shops and going to the cinema. We also met jane and sarah to go up the sky tower which gave us a great view over the whole of sydney as the sun was setting. We then went for our farewell meal with jane and sarah as we were leaving the next morning to melbourne. We had a great meal down in darling harbour. The following day we had an early morning flight down to melbourne.

We had a night by ourselves before hazel and luke got to melbourne too so we just got familliar with the city and had tea in the crown casino.

The following day Hazel and luke arrived so we went round town and kel had to pop to the dentist to have a filling done (so expensive over here but she needed it doing!).

The next day me and kel went on the neighbours tour where we got to go round the sets of neighbours, go the ramsay street and our guide gave us all the gossip from the show. We then took all the cheesy photos with the ramsay sign etc and headed down to St Kilda beach (where all the rich people live) to meet one of the stars of neighbours and have our photos with them and sign our free neighbours postcards. We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the st kilda market in the hot sun and caught the tram back to meet up with hazel and luke to cook tea.

The next day we hired a car to drive the Great Ocean Road. We got up early and set off on the drive - we couldnt have asked for better weather as the sun was shining all day! Stopping along the way at bells beach, Angelsea, Lorne, Koala Spotting (we saw loads - they are a different kind to the ones up in Queensland too), Appollo bay, and then to the Twelve Aposols for sunset which was amazing! by this time it was getting late so we headed to our hostel in the small town of Port Campell by the sea which was beautiful. Our hostel only had 4 beds left for us but we ended up with a room in the kitchen with no doors or walls just 4 beds!! it was cute in its own way and we got the nights accommodation for free when we told them the next day that we wanted a room with walls and not a 4 bed kitchen! That night we headed out around 10pm to go Kangaroo spotting in the fields around the town - Kel and hazel driving in turns and me and luke with our torches out the window. sadly We spotted 2 dead kangaroos by the road side - just when we were about to give up kel saw the largest kangaroo come out next to our car but hazel slammed on the brakes and scarred the kanga away! at about 12pm we decided to go back to rest in our Kitchen.

The next day we got up early and set back off on our road trip back the outback way to melbourne. Stopping off to see londons bridge, The grotto, bay of islands and red rock. We got back to melbourne at 4pm just in time to check in and change before setting back off on our 2 and half hr drive down to Philip island to watch the penguins (smallest breed of penguins in the world). Around 9pm we caught the first few penguins in the water and they came out the water onto the beach and then they would climb up to the nests to feed their chicks. Group after group of penguins came up onto the beach and they were so cute - some of them scared of the seaguls on the shore and kept darting back into the sea! after watchung about 4 groups of penguin famillys we headed to their nests to watch mother and father penguins reunite with their chicks to feed them. When we got back to the car there were lost penguins around the cars too!! we all crashed out after a long drive home and got back around 1am.

Our last couple of days have been spent around melbourne checking out the sights and museums. We fly to New zealand 2mz morning - another 4am start! we get into christchurch and will make our way around the south and north islands in the next 4 to 5 weeks.

Happy new year to everyone back home - we are missing erveryone lots! we will be home sooner than we know it!!

love Kelly and tom xx