Woke early and eager for a cup of tea, as always - headed down to the kitchen to have a look at the facilities and provisions. I had assumed that the hostel would provide milk and there was plenty of milk in assorted fridges, but there was no knowing who any of it belonged to, so I headed out into the street to buy some. It was 6.30am and I imagined I would soon come across a newsagents open. To my surprise I came across several newsagents, all of them still tightly closed. I ventured on and eventually found a small shop open. Back in the hostel kitchen I was greeted by another guest who on sight began exclaiming about the lack of hot water in the showers that morning and expecting me to join in ... read more

Tassie itinerary Friday January 14th : Cairns to Hobart * Virgin Blue flight Cairns-Brisbane - depart Cairns 6am, arrive Brisbane 8.05am. Depart Brisbane 8.55am, arrive Hobart 12.40pm. * Shuttle bus from airport to the Transit Backpackers . *Walk around Hobart CBD. *Fish and chip dinner from one of the floating fish punts at Constitution dock. Saturday January 15th : Hobart *Up early for breakfast and browsing at Salamanca markets. Last time we were there it was midwinter and raining and scallop pies made a very suitable breakfast! *Then a short s... read more

Received an email from Jetstar advising that our flight details for our flight home from Melbourne had changed. I don't fly all that often and this came as a bit of a surprise. I expected that flights would be rescheduled due to bad weather, aircraft trouble, strikes...but I did not expect that airlines would reschedule flights months in advance. Anyway now I know they do! The new flight had us leaving Melbourne 12 hours earlier than scheduled, flying out at 6am Saturday instead of 6pm...obviously the Jetstar folks have not consulted my delightfully detailed itinerary in the previous entry, or they would have realised that there is Much Planned for that day. A phone call revealed that our alternative was to leave at 6am the next day. Done, and Saturday's itinerary expanded to include another 12 ... read more

We have arranged our trip to allow us a few days in Melbourne on the way home. Eric grew up in Melbourne and I grew up immersed in my father's Melbourne references and stories, and we are very fond of Melbourne. This will be our 5th visit since we met in 1998. I vastly prefer Melbourne in the winter but for various reasons we keep ending up there in the summer - this will be our 4th summer trip. Our last two visits coincided with a ghastly heatwave . On all previous visits we have been graciously accommodated by a friend in Williamstown but this time we are staying in the CBD at the Greenhouse Backpackers. We have so many "favourites" in Melbourne that is very difficult for us to spen... read more

Exciting Plans for a Summer trip to Tasmania My husband and I are headed to Tasmania for our second visit on 14th January. We will spend 12 nights in Tasmania and then fly to Melbourne for a whirlwind 3 night stay. Our last visit, in July 2007, was a very freewheeling affair, the cold having kept most visitors away from the state so we had little need to book accommodation ahead - as with our winter road trip through Victoria and NSW in 2000, we would pull up at caravan parks and find them sitting empty and silent, inhabited only by a couple of hardy permanents, who were always bemused and perplexed to discover that we had left the tropics and headed south in midwinter! We love the cold and we seek solitude, so travelling out ... read more