Sat 4th - Wed 8th January (Week 15)

Sat 4th - Caught the 10am shuttle to the airport and hung around until our delayed flight to Melbourne at 1pm. Landed at 2:30 and caught another shuttle down to our hotel in St Kildas. Had a wander around the area and it really reminded us of a mix between Torquay and Brighton back in the UK - palm trees along the promenade, amusement park, pier etc, but all a little run-down and tired looking. Met up with our Aussie friends we met in Bolivia and travelled with in Argentina and Brazil, and went out for some drinks and a lovely Malaysian meal. It was great catching up with them and felt like meeting up with old friends !

Sun 5th - Wandered around St Kildas in the sun for an hour to see the Palace Theatre, Luna Park, the promenade etc and watched a few paddle-boarders and jet boarders in the sea. Caught the tram to the Shrine of Remembrance, then walked around the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens which were probably one of the best we've been to. Brandon went off to a James Bond exhibition at 2pm, while I did the Neighbours tour ! Been looking forward to that for ages, but it was actually a little disappointing. The set has been shut for a month over the Christmas period, so all the props were away, no filming and no actors were around, so it all looked a little dis-used. But I did see Grease Monkeys, the garage, Lassiters, Harolds, the lake, and Ramsey Street, so it was still pretty good ! (See separate photo album).

Mon 6th - Left Melbourne at 7am on our 2 day Great Ocean Road & Grampions tour. The weather was surprisingly cold and cloudy and we had to quickly change into trousers, trainers, jumpers and coats - weren't expecting that in Australia ! We drove past the lighthouse from "Round the Twist" - one of my favourite programs as a kid ! Past Anglesea, Lorne, and then stopped at Kennet River where we saw cute Koalas asleep in the trees. Lunch stop at Apollo Bay which looked like it should have been a stunning long sandy beach, but we were still wrapped up in all our layers so it wasn't the beautiful blue sky we were hoping for. We stopped for a quick walk around "Otway's Rainforest (Mait's Rest)" which was a beautiful rainforest with some of the tallest trees in the world and tree ferns everywhere. Onto Castle Cove then finally to the 12 Apostles which were pretty spectacular and quite dramatic with the stormy sky. Then onto Port Campbell Loch Ard Gorge and stacks which were equally as impressive, and where I bizarrely bumped into someone I used to work with at Detica! Small world. Then onto London Bridge which used to be 2 arches but now just one, and finally made our way into the Grampions to Halls Gap for the night, arriving at 10pm.

Tues 7th - Left "Neds Beds" at 8am and drove through the Grampions to explore. Stopped at the 2 overhanging rocks called The Balcony/Jaws of Death, then onto McKenzie Falls which were pretty impressive and some brave souls went swimming ! The final stop was at "Ngamadjidj Shelter" where we saw some aboriginal rock art. Stopped at Horsham for lunch and we changed onto a Firefly bus for the remaining 6 hour journey to Adelaide whilst the rest of the group continued back to Melbourne. Once we arrived into Adelaide at 7:30, we walked the 15mins to our beautiful hotel - the last of our fancy hotels with 2 double beds, fridge and flat-screen tv, before hitting the £5 budget hostels in Asia! We are going to struggle getting back into backpacker mode !!

Wed 8th - Explored Adelaide today, checking out the historic buildings such as the churches, cathedrals, universities, museums, and government & parliament houses. Spent a few hours wandering around the lovely Botanic Gardens and had our lunch of curry puff, pork bun, satay bun and bread bought from the Central Markets. We were really surprised how flat everything is, and how wide and spacious all the roads are and there is barely any traffic. You can just stroll across the roads without barely looking, which just seems strange for Australia's 5th largest city. We had beautiful sunny weather all day with not a cloud in the sky - such a change from the last 3 days ! Spent the evening packing and getting ready for the start of our S.E.Asia leg of the trip as we fly to KL tomorrow. I can't believe S.America, Easter Island, French Polynesia and now Australia are already over. Time is going way too fast and we thought Asia was so far away, and we get into Thailand on Friday ! We've enjoyed Australia as much, if not more than we expected. The weather has mostly been fantastic - you just don't get pure blue skies like that anywhere else, and everything is so easy, and the people so friendly. We will miss it.