The land down under

Nearly a month has gone by already here in australia - crazy! only seems like we got here yesterday. here's the fun we've been having so far...

mebourne - a very nice city, a bit like london in some respects, where we saw all the typical sites (art galleries, botanic gardens, beaches, historic buildings etc.). the highlight was of course neighbours night! meeting toady, stu and lyn for enough time to take a photo in a room packed full of british people. also our venture to ramsey street (aka pin oak court) was wicked. the street was so small in real life and there's a house that doesn't exist on neighbours - a concrete box, although it could be toadys house as you never see the outside of his house (not that we can remember anyways). took a road trip along the great ocean road to see the 12 apostles at sunset which was very impressive.

canberra - not really worth a mention. a planned city which didnt have much to offer.

sydney - absolutely fantastic!! a brilliant stay there with fletch's sister and her flatmates in her Manly home. the city is so nice surrounded by beaches and harbours. very lucky with the weather there. walked over the harbour bridge, went to see a ballet at the opera house, did the manly scenic walk in the pouring rain, paddington market, bondi and coogee beaches, the nighlife of darling harbour and manly and lots more.

since then... spent a couple of nights in the blue mountains. a bit of a shock to the system as it was freezing compared to sydney. then onto the hunter valley to sample the austrailian wines. now in byron bay but the weather is awful and they forecast rain for the next week or more, so not sure what we are going to do. we need the sun to shine!

have also bought a car - a 1980 holden commodore - a bit of an old banger which takes about 10 mins to start every morning. is ok once going so we will just have to wait and see if it can get us up to cairns so we can complete our east coast adventures!