Queensland - 31st March - 7th April

We left Sydney feeling like we could have easily spent several more days there, despite cramming lots in to the time we had. I had to laugh at the level of Sydney/Melbourne rivalry, which is especially clear in some of the museum exhibitions. And they really are proud of that bridge!

Anyway, our next stop was Brisbane - aka Brisneyland aka Brisvegas according to some of the marketing stuff you read. We have spent time in the area before as Andrew's dad lives nearby, but this time we decided to spend a few days in the city itself before heading out to see the family. There is much talk of Brisbane being a rapidly expanding city and a long way from the country town feel it used to have. This is probably true but coming from Melbourne then Sydney it did still feel very small!

We had a good wander through the city on day one, and found very good food in Chinatown. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well the next day so we didn't get to do some of the things we had planned. Of course we know that we'll be back in the area in the future so we weren't too worried. We then headed out to stay with Gary & Co, and has a relaxing few days there as well as spending some time on the Sunshine Coast. This is where Andrew's Grandad (Pa) and his wife Lil live, and it was really good to catch up with them again. Also, as you can see, Andrew and his dad made the most of the surf!

All in all it was a good break and also nice to have the rest of the Easter weekend to enjoy when we got back to Melbourne.


Cath testing out the can crusher


Three generations of Bickertons - Andrew, his Pa Laurie and Dad Gary



It's not called the Sunshine Coast for nothing!


Believe it or not Andrew and Gary are in these waves...

See, told you!



Owls at Gary & Helen's place

Sydney - Aquarium & Manly - 29/30th March

Not usually high on our list, but we really enjoyed our visit to the Sydney Aquarium, which is housed in the Darling Harbour area. Keeping with the worldwide theme of making the docklands look good, there has clearly been a lot of devlopment in that part of town. We also caught the ferry out to Manly (beach area) where we met up with Tania, the girl from London we have seen at various stages of our travels. I don't think any visit to Sydney would be complete without a trip on a ferry, and it was really good to be heading back into the harbour at sunset. The tour of the Opera House was another must see highlight.

One thing I did notice in Sydney is an amazing number of English accents and not just amongst the hoardes of tourists. Most people I know who have spent time in Australia have based themselves there - just as most Aussies go to London I suppose. We met up with one of of our former London housemates who is now living there, and loving the lifestyle espeically as she is very sporty and appreciates having a beach to run along every morning - a bit of a change from Tooting Bec Common! Our other catch up was with Maz and Chris, Sydneysider friends of Andrew's who were in London but have now headed home, so all in all it was quite a sociable few days.

Great Ocean Road

We had managed to fit in a day trip to part of the Great Ocean Road when my parents & Katherine were here in December, but we were still keen to see more of it and so last weekend we decided that it was time for a road trip. Our little car is doing us proud, and all I can say is thank goodness for air conditioning! Temperatures when we left Melbourne on Friday were already in the 30s, and stayed that way for much of the weekend.

Although the Great Ocean Road drive is described as an easy trip from Melbourne, it is only really close by Australian standards! It took us about 4.5 hours to drive to Warrnambool along the most direct road - it's more along the winding Ocean Road - whilst on the map it all looks very close together. We stayed the night at a nice motel, had some great seafood for dinner (well, at least I did) and started on our way back along the ocean route on Saturday morning.

After passing through Peterborough (a bit different from your version J&V!), we stopped at a series of lookout points all with gorgeous views. The most famous is the 12 apostles which we reached early afternoon. Although you can't see 12 of them any more as some of them are obscured and the sea is constantly eroding the rock, it is a very beautiful sight. What's left of London Bridge (see 1st photo below) is also really impressive; it used to join the mainland until part of the "bridge" collapsed in 1990, leaving 2 unfortunate tousists temporarily stranded on the newly formed island! We also passed through a lot of forest throughout the day, beautiful in its own right but it is definitely not an ocean road in many parts.

We went for a dip in the ocean when we reached our stop for the night, Apollo Bay, which was a much needed opportunity to cool down. We stayed the night at the Eco Lodge YHA, an interesting new hostel designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. After heading out for some fish & chips (had to be done) we watched a film on the hostel's huge plasma TV - not sure on the energy consumption angle there... Hostels here seem to be pretty posh, and a double room can cost as much as an en suite motel room! We will have to be a bit creative on our accommodation choices as we travel in Australia, as we were definitely more than a little bit spoilt with South American prices.

The winding drive from Apollo Bay to Lorne on Sunday morning was one of the prettiest sections of the route. I tried to take photos from the car with limited success, but the one below should give you an idea. It was still blue skies all the way and as we reached the beaches closer to Melbourne (including the famous Bells Beach) it was clear that the surfers were out in force. When we stopped at Lorne beach just before Christmas it was pretty much deserted, but this time you couldn't even find a parking space!

We returned to the city mid afternoon and having got the travel bug back immediately started planning our next trips. We have just booked to go to Sydney then Brisbane late March/early April, and aiming to fit in some shorter trips in the meantime...