Tefelobe

We've found a nice place to stay in Melbourne and we have a phone in the room so if you like, and if you get your timing right, you can call us.
The number is (03) 98608109
Not sure of the Australian bit you need to add but I'm sure you can work it out. We'll be on this number at least until the 6th March, probably longer. Time difference means it's best to call at 10:30-11:30 in the evening or 7:30-11:30 in the morning UK time. If you let it ring it'll go through to reception where you can leave a message I think.
Speak to you soon
Kieran & Julie x

Photos as promised!

Lakes Entrance

Big Ned Kelly

The penguins of Phillip Island. Only 30cm high. Adorable but we weren't allowed to pick one up unfortunately.

Sydney to Melbourne

The weather wasn't quite what we expected for the first few days.

We didn't let it stop us though, barbecuing through a thunder storm.

Hurray! The sun's back!

90 mile beach

Sydney

Here we are at Manly Beach!

Andy and Julie at Palm Beach aka Summer Bay

On the set of Home and Away! Can you spot Alf?

Victoria

Following the excitement of Sydney we decided to hire a car and take a slow drive through Victoria to Melbourne. We took six days and somehow ended up staying mostly in caravan parks. Little cabins, perfect for the three of us and only slightly more expensive than backpacker dorms. We headed down the coast, taking in 90 mile beach, Lakes Entrance and the Alpine Highway through recently burnt forest. Lots of barbecues along the way, the most memorable one we were joined by a hungry possum. We walked in the footsteps of Ned Kelly visiting a pub where he used to hide from the cops, a bank which he held up and the town of Glenrowan, the place of the final seige where Ned was captured. We headed into the Yarra Valley for more wine tastings and then to the Dandenong ranges near Melbourne. Our last night was spent at Phillip Island watching the penguin parade. Hundreds of little penguins coming out of the sea at sunset and running up the beach to feed their young. All amazing, beautiful scenery and really mixed weather. Tons of photos to follow...still not got the charger sorted out but check our rival site through the Garner link to the right.
We're now in Melbourne, a class city.

Closer each day....

Apologies for not updating the blog much recently, little problem with the camera. I'll give you a quick written update instead. We arrived in Sydney and were met by Andy who's been travelling with us ever since. We spent six days in Sydney, seeing the sights, retracing our old footsteps from six years ago and trying to sort out some work in Japan. The highlight had to be our trip up to Palm Beach aka Summer Bay from Home and Away. We'd visited the lovely beach and taken photos of Alf's surf shack thinking it a shame that they weren't filming today when we decided to take a water taxi to the nearby Ku ring gai chase National Park. We had a picnic and saw some wallabies and decided to take a 2km walk to some ancient Aboriginal stone carvings. Walking through the dusty bush track, no sooner than Julie could say "I bet this is the place they film the 'lost in the bush' sections of Home and Away" than we had stumbled onto the set of Home and Away! Kit and Kim stuck in the bush, car broken down, delivering a baby! I've never felt more like Michael Palin. Things seemingly couldn't get much better when on our way back from the carvings Alf Stewart drives past! We got back to the scene in time for a familiar yell of "Strewth! How's the bub?" as Alf saved the day again. If you can't wait for our photos, click on the Garner link to the right.

Sydney

We made it! An eighteen hour journey across the dateline meant we landed two days after we left. More to follow....

Goodbye to South America

So we made our way up to Santiago and Julie's Dad booked us into the Crowne Plaza! Luxury after our long journey through Patagonia. We spent our penultimate day at the Concha y Toro vineyards which was a fitting end after all the wine tasting we'd been doing through Argentina and Chile. After saying goodbye to Julie's Dad, we spent our last day sightseeing Santiago before saying goodbye to South America and flying to Australia.