After BBQ egg sandwiches we set off on Monday from Airlie Beach towards Mackay, with a detour via cedar creek falls which we were told we quite pretty, we got there and there was no falls and the water at the bottom of where they had been looked gross, we names them no water falls. We got to Mackay about and hour later and stopped for a coffee, before going to the airport. The flight back to Melbourne was about 3 hours it was all dead easy and we got our bags straight away. We then got back to pick the van up and drove through the toll road to Pauline's where we would be staying for a couple of days. We had not eaten for hours so we dashed around the corner and picked up a curry from their local Sharvans, it was lovely and off we went to sleep.

We woke in Laurels room , me in her bed and Wayne on a blow-up bed, which had flattened out during the night. Mum and Dad were in the spare room, we had some cereal and toast for breakfast. Stephen had left us his car to use for the day, so we took advantage of it and went back down to the Mornington Peninsular. We stopped in Sorrento, we made our way to Back Beach, which faces the Southern Ocean and Bass Straight. It was a bright day but there was a bit of a chill, a typical Melbourne Autumn day. We walked along the beach and as the tide was out there was a lot of rock so went investigation and found some massive rock pools, some were quite deep and very clear. It was a strange formation and something none of us had ever seen before. After a coffee at the beach cafe we went back to the town centre in search of some lunch. We stumbled upon a chip shop, a fisherman's basket for two was on order for each of us. It came out a huge portion of chips to big pieces of fish, 2 massive prawns, 2 calamari and the 2 most enormous scallops you have ever seen in your life, we were unable to move by the end of it, but it was so fresh and tasty, I think the best fish and chips I may ever have had. To walk off our food, we went to the front of Sorrento, this time the edge of the water is on Port Phillip bay, the water is calmer and a milky blue with jellyfish floating around. Off we went in the car again, this time back on to the Southern Ocean side of the peninsular, but further down from Sorrento back beach to London Bridge.

It was quite a steep walk from the car park to the beach, the waves were very choppy, but there were surfers out in them. We walked down the beach until we came to London Bridge, a collapsed arch which had another hole eroded into it. As we walked back along the beach there were a couple of guys fishing from the beach, we stopped and had a chat to them and we even saw them catch one. We drove to Portsea again on the Port Phillip side, here there is a pier and as it was late afternoon there were plenty of people casting their lines in search of a bite. One older man came running across the pier and grabbed a red spool, this was his hand line he'd missed whatever had been on the end, but he insisted it was a Shark, we were a bit sceptical. There were lots of Italians and Greeks on the pier, the area had a Mediterranean culture. We walked along in search of the shark and then one of the younger guys reeled in as we walked by, It looked like a flathead but was a Banjo Shark, I did not even know that there was even a species of shark called a Banjo. We had a beer in the pub behind the pier and then made our way back to Pauline's, where we had to pack our bags and sort through some of our belongings for Mum and Dad to take bits back with them.

It was Mum and Dad's last day of their holiday, so we took the train from Chelsea in to the City, from there we got a tram to the Centre and then we walked to the Old Melbourne Gaol. The old cells were made in to exhibitions. The main feature of each were the death masks, plaster casts of the imamates heads, each came with a story on the deceased criminal story. Some of the crimes were petty (stealing a sheep), others were more serious, like murder. The most famous inmate was Ned Kelly, who was a rustler and petty criminal, who killed a policeman and then went on the run, being caught at a final gun fight (Ned Kelly's last stand). It was really cold inside the Gaol, so we moved through it quickly and back out in to the sunshine. We had lunch at a tiny cafe down narrow DeGraves Street, one of my favourite places in Melbourne. Then it was of to the Yarra River bank where we walked along the Southbank to the Casino for a look around and then back to the train station and Chelsea. Pauline and Stephen had cooked roast lamb for us, it was lovely and they'd even cracked the yorkshire puddings, with Wayne's recipe. Pauline gave us directions for a more direct route to the airport, but we must have managed to take a wrong turning somewhere and we ended up going in the wrong direction. It was lucky that I recognised the area before we were too far out of the way although it did panic me a it that we would be late at the airport. We made it in time and we made it a quick goodbye, so we did not get emotional. We had a lovely holiday and want to thank Mum and Dad for coming to see us, we had a great time. x