Australia

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Next stop Melbourne, Australia. After arriving at so many airports in new countries on our own, it was so nice to be greeted by Brett and Becky, who had kindly let us stay with them. We had a great night out on the waterfront in the city and then the next day hit the Great Ocean Road. This road trip was slightly different, however, in that Brett and Becky did all the driving and we just sat back and lapped up the beautiful sights. It was so nice to not be worrying about where we would be going next and where we would stay. We just sat in the back like a couple of children! It was a great weekend, with great seafood and sauvignon blanc, walks along beaches, a tree top walk through the rainforest and the amazing limestone rock formations of the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge. It was equally good when we got back. It was so nice to be staying in a home, watching videos, eating homecooked food, having baths and best of all spending time with Becky and Brett. I fell in love with Brett and Becky's little dog called Pickle (and so to his surprise did Bruce) and we loved taking her for walks in the surrounding countryside. Bruce also enjoyed being tutored in the Ozzy Rules Football League and a drink called Frangelico by Brett. We also met up with Phil, who we had met at church in London, and he gave us an insider's tour of Melbourne. We followed him up dirty alleyways filled with grafitti and wondered where he was taking us and then an amazing bar would appear out of nowhere. One of them, Dr Croft, was fitted out like a laboratory with gas taps for bunsen burners, a chrome sink and taps recessed in to the bar and even a hospital bed in the toilet!

Next was a flight to Cairns to work our way down the East Coast to Sydney. It was fantastic to get some sun again after spending winter in the southern hemisphere, but we struggled to adjust a bit. We really missed Brett and Becky and we found the backpacker scene a bit difficult to get used to. There were lots of young backpackers partying away and it made us feel really old. We also didn't have much flexibility to explore because we were travelling down the coast on the Greyhound. Our first stop was Magnetic Island, where we had some relaxing time on the beach. We then headed down to Airlie Beach, the access point for the Whitsunday Islands and booked a yacht trip for 3 days and 2 nights. We soon discovered that it was high season for the Whitsundays, so Airlie Beach was crammed and it was really difficult to find a place to stay. We eventually found a hostel with a massive bar and nightclub attached, which was party central of Airlie Beach (itself party central). We felt rather scared as we walked to our room, past young drunken people and signs inviting us to take part in a wet t-shirt competition. We decided if you can't beat them join them, so although we did not take part in the wet t-shirt competition, we did head to the bar to watch England v Samoa. We had a few beers and before we knew it it was half past three and we were the last people left in the bar. Shaking our heads at the lack of endurance of these young people, we staggered to bed.

The next day we were up bright and early for our yacht trip. Bruce felt that I took my mortal fear of running out of books and wine a bit too far when I packed 3 books and 2 litres of wine for our 3 day sailing trip and I must admit I might have slightly overpacked. We waited in a crowd of people to be called for our yacht. When it was announced that the 82 foot ex competition yacht, the 'Matador' was ready we stood up and headed towards it, only to be bemused that everyone else seemed to be going in that direction as well. We had serious concerns about all fitting in as we realised that 31 other people and 4 crew would also be boarding it. As it was a budget version of a sailing holiday, the downstairs area was completely fitted out with bunks and a small kitchen. There were only two toilets for us all and the shower consisted of a hose coming from the sink. Despite this, we soon settled in and it felt great to be sailing along with the wind in our hair. We anchored at a bay and snorkelled the incredible Great Barrier Reef. That evening we had drinks and dinner on deck and then went to our bunks.

The next morning we woke up to see a queue of people snaking past us waiting for the toilets. As we were on the top level in a double bunk our eyes were directly level with these people. It was quite strange to wake up looking in to the eyes of someone brandishing a toothbrush. We decided there was no point getting up yet, in fact it was almost impossible, so we went back to sleep again. We woke up a little later to the yacht violently rocking. Given that we were sailing it wasn't entirely surprising, but I wanted to get up so that I wouldn't feel sick. However a few minutes later cold water started pouring down on to our heads. It was also pouring in to other parts of the berth and someone was screaming in the toilet. I told Bruce to get out of bed quickly but being tall he was practically jammed in to the bunk and it took a while to extricate himself with me trying to push him out from behind, all the time being showered with water. We went running out as one of the staff members arrived to rescue the poor person trapped in the toilet. I went rushing up on to the deck still in my night clothes with eye mask in hand! Bruce was on his way but was distracted by the sight of breakfast so he went for the toast first. He soon realised that it was impossible to eat while being thrown around the yacht and so joined me upstairs. Slightly worrying that Bruce was so easily distracted by food on a potentially sinking ship! It turned out that they'd got in to rough seas but they hadn't ensured that the hatches at our end of the yacht were closed so the waves had broken over the bow of the boat and the water had gone straight in to our berth. Apart from our bed being soaking, we were really lucky as all of our stuff was dry, but some other people had their mobile phones and cameras ruined.

After such excitement, we reached calmer waters and next stop was Whitehaven Beach. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, in fact it went up in the rankings just while we were on the yacht. The Captain started off by saying it was the fifth most beautiful beach, then later promoted it to third then second! We walked through some bush to get to the viewpoint and felt it took the shine off it a little bit that we had to queue with hundreds of other sightseers to see it. It was actually worth it though and was definitely the most beautiful beach we had seen. We then walked down on to the beach and revelled in the brilliant white powdery sand. As the sea retracted from the undulating beach it left behind little pools of warm water that we bathed in. We also saw stingrays in the shallow waters of the sea and Bruce spotted a little shark before we left for the yacht (not sure it was actually dangerous though). We then headed to our overnight anchor for more snorkelling, drinking and eating. We had a final day sunbathing and sailing and then headed back to shore for a very welcome shower.

The next day we reacquainted ourselves with the delights of the Greyhound and headed to Rockhampton. This was mainly just to break up the journey to Fraser Island but we actually quite enjoyed it there as it was quite peaceful and there were a few old buildings, which we hadn't seen for a while. We then arrived at Hervey Bay, access point to Fraser Island, which is an island completely consisting of sand. Money and time precluded us from spending much time there so we took a day trip, which was a bit restricting. Our last stop was Lake McKenzie. It was so beautiful - two tone blue water sitting in a massive sand bowl framed by green trees. Bruce dived straight in but it was a bit too cold for me. The beautiful scenery was only slightly marred by the tour guide (Captain Kangaroo) saying that we had a total of 40 minutes before we had to get back on the bus or he'd leave without us and we'd be stuck on the island for the night. The island is full of dingos and at the end of the tour we were disappointed that we hadn't seen any in the wild. However, as we waited for the ferry, a dingo came walking along the beach just below us. He hadn't noticed anyone and his face was a picture when he looked up and did a double take as he realised that there were about 50 people above him all getting very excitable and pointing cameras at him. After Bruce's previous dog encounter, I encouraged him to stand well back!

We then headed further south to Brisbane, where we spent a lovely few days with our friends Jake and Sarah, who introduced us to the highly agreeable Ozzie lifestyle of eating barbies on the balcony every night. It was then just a few short hours away to Surfer's Paradise, full of sky rises and nightclubs, and a place that could probably make Tenerife look like a bastion of high culture. We were not there for the culture, though but to feed Bruce's international waterpark fetish. As someone who took me for a romantic trip to a waterpark on our honeymoon and practically has a spreadsheet on the relative merits of them around the world this was a highly enjoyable trip for Bruce. One of our favourites was a slide that you went down on a mat on your front and raced against seven other people. Bruce is still feeling cheated after being robbed of his first place because of an apparent flase start detected by the beam. If spending more time in the air than on the actual slide contributed to this then I am secretly not surprised. The following day we had a few hours of surf lessons on the beach.

Next stop was Newcastle, access to the Hunter Valley. We had been planning a trip there for a spot of wine tasting but we were so exhausted after an all night trip on the Greyhound that we decided to stay where we were and treated ourself to a nice bottle of local shiraz at a restaurant instead. By the time we arrived at our final destination, Sydney, we were absolutely frazzled. Travelling a distance of 2500 kilometres, including a night on the Greyhound, being eaten alive by bed bugs in a hostel at Surfers Paradise and carrying backpacks in searing heat had taken its toll on us. We went to see a great play at the Opera House (which was smaller than we thought it would be) and walked along the Harbour Bridge and checked out Bondi Beach but couldn't muster up the enthusiasm for much else. We tried to rest and recharge our batteries and prepare for our next and final installment: Tokyo.

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