Farewell Australia

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And so dear readers this is the final entry as to my time in Australia. This truly has been the holiday of a lifetime and its hard to pick out the highlights of the trip as everything has just simply been superb.

You find me sitting in the Air New Zealand lounge with a glass of chardonnay and a tucking into a rather nice lamb curry and trying to think how I can conclude my writings.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my adventures as much as I have enjoyed writing them, I know that I have only really scratched the surface of this most fantastic and inspiring country. True you have to travel thousands of miles to experience it, but thats part of the magic - like opening the next window on your advent calendar as a child and not knowing what would be behind it.

Its hard to fault Australia, yes it maybe stuck slightly in a time warp, but the people are genuine, warm and friendly. They want to know what your doing and why and are genuinely interested. It took me a half hour to check in today as the check in team were fascinated to hear about my travels and the "good on ya mate!" phrase was once again used. One of the check in team told me I had experienced more in three weeks than they had in 12 years of living in Oz.

I was asked last night top three things I would take away with me, and it was really hard to come up with them - but for me it had to be:

1. The magical hot air balloon ride and apartment in Port Douglas
2. The BridgeClimb in Sydney
3. Meeting Carrie, Paul and Sally after some three years, and Justine after some 33 years!!

To single just these things out is unfair - everything has been great and I shall treasure some very fond memories and pictures for years to come.

And so dear readers, I shall bid you "G'day" from Australia. And time to settle in once more to my Upper Class suite and head home. The great news is that I have just spotted some fellow travellers on the way out and we are once again all sat together so I am sure there will be swopping of adventures and much hilarity!

So farewell Australia for now... I'll be back

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