We travelled in-land off the Great Ocean Road to reach the Great Otway National Park. Here we stopped off at the Otway fly, a walkway through the rainforest that takes you up into the highest canopy on raised steel platforms. The layers of the rainforest (that you learn about in geography lessons) really came to life! Our next stop was the Gibson steps that were once hand carved into the cliffs to allow passage onto the beach. Now replaced with safer steps, we were able to get down onto the beautiful beach below. Then we carried on to the most well-known part of the Great Ocean Road, the twelve apostles. Crowds of tourists gather here to get a shot of the pillars - frankly the postcard pictures look much better, so we purchased one of those! ... read more

Another sunny day in Melbourne - I have to say the weather has been much kinder to us in Melbourne than it was in Sydney! We started the day off with the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Although it was of greater interest to James, the exhibitions were all good and the interactive 'game on' bit was very fun. We had a quick walk up to Parliament House and the Town Hall before beginning our search for a pizza lunch that we both craved (it's been well over a month since we've eaten pizza!). We also treated ourselves to a pancake and ice cream dessert at the pancake parlour (yummy!). Our final stop for the afternoon was the beach at St Kilda - a bit like Brighton but with a much smaller pier. ... read more

Spoilt by our en-suite facilities we were reluctant to leave the campsite, but thought we'd best pop over to the beach and get a picture of the black swans that filled the inlet. The rest of the day was spent driving and we reached Phillips Island at 4pm. The brochure advises to dress warmly for the Penguin Parade as its pretty cold on the beach at night, so on went the jeans, hoodies and coats! We sat on the viewing platforms (along with 2000 other people) to watch the little penguins make their way up the beach. We managed to get a really good spot right in front of where the penguins were coming out of the water (we saw about 50 make their way up the beach). The little penguin (that's their actual name) only ... read more

Everybody said 'if you're getting short of time definitely give Canberra a miss'. Well we had plenty of time and thought we'd go visit the nations capital. Ok so it doesn't have nice beaches or the cool quirky shops and cafes you find on the East Coast, but it does have great museums - perfect for a rainy day. First we toured Capital Hill and Parliament House - being a weekend it was incredibly quiet! Then we spent the afternoon in the National War Memorial, a really interesting and moving display of the battles fought by the Australian and New Zealand troops. Canberra itself is 'sleek', the large modern buildings sit amongst beautiful hills of the countryside and it seems like a peaceful place to work (perhaps not busy enough to live there!). The roads in ... read more

Today we had a jam-packed itinerary around Sydney starting with the ferry from Manly to the CBD at 8am. I quite liked the idea of getting the ferry to and from work each day like the locals! Our first stop was a closer look at the Sydney Opera House, despite its slightly dirty appearance it still looks pretty impressive standing at the edge of the harbour. We then walked through the botanical gardens to Mrs Macquaries point, where a seat carved into the stone is named 'Mrs Macquaries chair'. After a quick dash back to circular quay we hopped onto a ferry to Watsons Bay; this is the landing site of the first fleet back in 1788. It also has a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean at a spot called 'The Gap'. We had arranged ... read more