GoughyandJoey

And so we reached our final stop on our 5 month World tour - Singapore, where we stayed for 4 nights before flying back home. We hadn't thought much about Singapore in advance as it was the very last place we were visiting, and we didn't have a guidebook, so we weren't really sure what to expect. Once we did eventually get a guidebook at Cairns airport it mentioned that Singapore had previously had a bit of a reputation as being dull, this is certainly not our experience of the City State. Singapore is a smallish island off the southern tip of the Malay peninsular. What used to be dense, swampy rainforest is now a thoroughly modern metropolis having first been colonised by the British in the 19th Century and then becoming home to migrant communities ... read more

Upon arriving back from Fraser Island we jumped on an overnight bus for the gruelling 13 hour trip up to Airlie (pronounced early) Beach for our departure point to the Whitsundays. There are many boats sailing from Airlie Beach so we had decided to wing it and try and get a good standby rate for a boat or one of the island resorts when we got there. We didn't have our heart set on sailing partly due to previous sea sickness and also because most of the boats are maxi yachts, involving pretty cramped conditions, but when a travel agent proposed Whitsunday Magic it seemed like an excellent idea and we couldn't refuse the offer. Whitsunday Magic is a beautiful tall ship with plentiful space, a large sun deck, private ensuite cabins and a restaurant/bar area ... read more

From Noosa we travelled further north to Hervey Bay. This is principally the gateway for Fraser Island but it is also the "whale watching capital of the world" so we could hardly refuse the opportunity to go meet some friendly whales. It is a well-known whale watching spot in July to October as Hervey Bay is en route of the humpback whales southern migration down to the Antartic waters in the southern hemisphere summer months. Hervey Bay is a sheltered bay where female whales come to give birth in a safe environment before sticking around in the warm waters of the bay for a couple of months. This allows their calves, weighing 1.5 tonnes at birth, to up their weight to about 4 tonnes, by drinking 600 litres of milk a day!! so they are large ... read more

A short hop on the plane from Melbourne and we landed in Sydney. Unfortunately, it seemed like we had taken the rubbish weather with us but after a bit of rain on day one we got glorious blue skies and sunshine for the rest of our time in Sydney. It was an actioned packed 4 days in Sydney starting off with a good old walk around the main sights in the city centre, taking in the botanic gardens, Anzac memorial, opera house and harbour bridge. It says in the guide book that you get tingles the first time you see the opera house and harbour bridge and we would have to agree with that as they are such iconic images that everyone associates with Australia and they certainly must be two of the most photographed sights ... read more

We waved a fond farewell to New Zealand after a few last days in Christchurch (attempting to sell the car - not sold yet but with a car market to deal with it for us) and got on the plane for Australia, first stop Melbourne. The main reason to call in for a few days at Melbourne was to visit Sarah's uni friend Em who has been living out here since 2006 with her Australian boyfriend (now fiance) Jimmy. They have a flat in the Windsor area of the city and kindly took us in for a few days and showed us a good time. On our first evening we went out for dinner and drinks in the St Kilda area, which is an area full of funky bars and restaurants popular with Pommie backpackers. We ... read more