Australia

After an overnight flights from Singapore we arrived into a sunny Melbourne. We hired a taxi and went to Altona to meet Una's cousin Emma whom we were staying with. Emma has been in Melbourne for the last 18 months and her mother sends her out Irish food every few months so we were surprised to a proper Irish fry up with sausages, rashers and baked beans. It was delicious.

I bought rugby tickets for the super rugby game between the Melbourne Rebels and the Sydney Sharks. After a lot of delays with the transport getting into the city due to repair work we eventually got to the AAMI stadium. It was a good match as there was plenty of tries but it was slightly one sided and ended 46:14. The stadium itself was really nice and even though their was a small crowd there was a.good athmosphere. After the match we walked along the Yarra river bank with a lovely view over the city.

The following day Una, Emma, Rob and I got the train into the city and did the grafitti walking tour. There are a lot of lanes with grafitti on them, some of the art was quite nice. When we got back to Altona that evening we had our first Aussi barbeque.

While we were in Melbourne the Formula 1 Grand Prix was on as well so we booked tickets for the event. The race was happening in the suburbs of Melbourne in St Kilda. We arrived in time for the airport flyover which was followed by the warm up to the race. It was class to watch the race and watch the Formula 1 cars racing by. Sebastian Vettel won the race. After the race we walked along the race track to the home straight and got our pictures at the starting line.

We then walked to St Kilda beach just in time for sunset where we had a beautiful view over the city but most importantly to walk the penguin parade on the beach. Every evening penguins who hunted in the sea that day come back to nap on the beachrock during the night. They swim into the sea rocks and then find a hole in the rocks to nap. It was so cool to watch them migrate back into the sea rocks.

The next day Rob and I went into the city to rent a car. We hired an automatic Suzuki Swift, it was my first time driving an automatic. It took time to get used to driving it but was handy not having to change gears. We drove three hours to the town of Port Campbell which is at the western start point of the Great Ocean Road. We visited the London bridge which was a rock arch that fell into the sea 27 years ago leaving tourist standed on to the newly formed rock island for three hours until the coast guard helicopter arrived. We also went to the Grotto rock and the Bay of Islands. After lunch we drove easterly on the Great Ocean Road and visited the Twelve Apostles and Gibbons Steps. It was nice to be able to drive along the coast and then stop and walk around viewing getting an even better view of the coast. That night we stayed in a hostel in Apollo Bay and cooked our first homemade meal of the trip, it was great.

The next morning was Robs birthday however he forgot and only realised after I was treating buying him dinner that evening. We went to Otway lighthouse in Great Otway National Park. It was Australia's oldest working lighthouse. The telegraph station which was located beside the lighthouse was used for communication with Tasmania. The tour of the site was really interesting as we learned about how the children were homeschooled and how the lighthouse and telegraph station worked. There was also great views over the coastline too. I enjoyed this visit very much.

Further along the coast we stopped at Lorne surfer beach for lunch and then hiked along the Erskine river to the peaceful Erskine waterfalls. We also stopped at another lighthouse, Split Point lighthouse, for a walk around before we came to the end of drive the Great Ocean Road at Torquay village. I really enjoyed driving the Great Ocean road, there was alot to stop and see along the way and the scenery was amazing.

The next morning before dropping our hired car back to the garage, we drove to Brighton and saw the picture famous beach huts. The beach was busy with tourists as it was a lovely day. It was cool walking by the 60 huts looking at their different colours and trying to decide on our favourites. After lunch we returned the car to the city and relaxed on the grass in Flagstaff Gardens before we headed to the airport for our flight to Sydney.Read more