And so to the final chapter.......

Arrived in Melbourne to an unseasonal 10 day heat wave of temperatures in the mid thirties. Had no AC in the studio apartment I had rented but as soon as I arrived the nice landlady rushed out and replaced the tiny desk fan with the equivalent of an aircraft propeller, so at least I had high speed warm air!

I really liked Melbourne and spent a happy few days just wandering around. I was only a few minutes walk from Albert Park where the Australian Grand Prix was setting up, so I had a little wander round the track which was pretty cool. I went on a day trip to Philip Island officially to see the penguins but the stop at a chocolate factory and vineyard were quite high on my list of 'good things to do on a day out', also saw koalas so all in all a perfect trip.

No visit to Melbourne would be complete without......... Yes - a trip to Ramsey street!!!! I am not at all embarassed to say that a visit to the Neighbours set was one of things I had most been looking forward to. IT WAS FAB! We visited the set and I got to stand outside Harold's store, Lassiters, and I actually sat at the desk in Lucas's garage pretending to answer the phone. Yes this was cheesy, cheesy, cheesy but I loved it. Next was the street itself and of course photos with the Ramsey street sign - perfect! Not content with doing the tour, I also went to the Neighbours Night where I got to meet Dr Karl Kennedy and Malcolm and Libby, my life is now complete ; )

Anyway back to reality. Had a few days detour in Brisbane staying with Nicole and Darren who I had met on my South American tour. It was lovely to be shown around by 'locals' and having a good old gossip. We spent a lovely day on the beach at Noosa on the sunshine coast, ate lots of great food and cruised on the river ferry through Brisbane.

Back to Melbourne where I then took a 3 day Great Ocean Road tour to get me to Adelaide, as bizarrely this was cheaper than hiring a car. It was a pretty cool journey and we got to see kangaroos, emus and koalas in the wild. The local birds are parrotts, cockatoos and kookaburras so a real wildlife experience. We saw an amazing sunset from the beach, and the 12 Apostles which are 45 m high limestone stacks in the sea, although there are actually only 8 left now. The whole coast is full of eroded limestone and looks wild. We detoured into the Grampian mountains, and stayed at a Wilderness Lodge called the Asses Ears, where I got to try yet another new meat, this time Kangaroo which was pretty tasty.

Arriving in Adelaide I stayed at the rather aptly named Wright Lodge in Wright Street, and spent a few days hitting all the tourist spots, Hahndorf the 'german' town in the Adelaide hills, Mount Lofty, Cleland Wildlife Park and Glenelg on the coast. That was quite funny as next to Glenelg are two towns called Brighton and Hove!

So now to the very, very last place on my tour - Singapore. I stayed at Hotel Re! a retro boutique hotel where everything was bright pink including the sparkly mosaic tiles in the bathroom, it also had a free mini bar so every day you got a water, coke, prawn crackers and oreo cookies. It's the little things that please me ; ) But boy was it humid. A few times I had to wait for my camera to de-fog before I could take any photos. I went to the legendary Raffles Hotel, and peered through the windows at the hoards partaking in afternoon tea, it did look pretty good, and had I been rather more suitably dressed I would have been tempted to join them. Gardens by the Bay is a new addition to Singapore, and is a huge green area full of supertrees. These are huge structures with plants growing up them between 25m and 50m tall, and form an incredible vista. I also treated myself to a trip to Universal Studios which was fun but on a much smaller scale than in the US. Wandered around all the tourist spots and finished off with a foot massage in China Town, a welcome treat for my feet which have pounded endless pavements in endless continents.

And so my six months have come to an end. I am writing this from my house back in chilly England, and trying to get my head around the 'real world' again. It already feels like I have never been away, but I know that I have seen and experienced so many amazing things and that those memories will stay with me for a lifetime. So this is me signing off, hope you enjoyed my ramblings!

love

Kirstie