Down Under

Winter – I’ve finally decided that I have a favourite season and it’s Winter. After spending the last seven weeks or so in warm and humid places, it feels wonderful to be somewhere where I can wear trousers and warm clothes again and don’t have to worry about suntan lotion, insect repellent or trying not to sweat! Unfortunately we still have to take the anti-malarial pills every day (they need to be taken for four weeks after leaving an affected area) as they make me feel a bit sick and have the strangest and most vivid dreams nearly every single night.

Surfers, Great Ocean Road

We’ve spent the last week just outside Melbourne staying with our pals Michelle and Justin and the smiliest baby in the world, Molly. Molly is just shy of one, and spends the majority of her day grinning from ear to ear and pointing at things – she makes me want to be one again too :-) We had a much appreciated break from the now routine task of looking for a place to stay, places to eat and places to visit as we just sat back and got ferried around everywhere by our lovely hosts – I have to say I really enjoyed it and spend a lot of time dozing and drinking tea, but we also got to see the sights – the Mornington Peninsula, Great Ocean Road, Torquay, Otway Treetop walk, the Twelve Apostles and some very cosy Vineyards with big log fires and lovely wine :-) We had some top notch tucker in both Michelle and Justin’s parents houses and even had a morning tea date with the neighbours complete with the scones, jam and cream!

Twelve Apostles Natural Bridge, Great Ocean Road

Ferns

We didn’t actually see Melbourne city until the day before yesterday so only spent two days there. My mums cousin Eileen took us for lunch and later that day we headed up the mountains for another slap up meal with her daughter Jane and her family. Melbourne’s a really nice city in which you could spend days wandering around and exploring and we’ll hopefully return at some stage in the future to see it properly but we had car hire booked and a not too many days left in Oz so we needed to make tracks towards Sydney.

Tonight, we’re on our first stop on the route to Sydney in a little gold-mining town called Foster about 200 km south-east of Melbourne. We had planned on hiring a camper van for the few days but it was working out stupidly expensive so we decided to take a car and stay in hostels and motels instead. The hostel here is like a little house and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had the place to ourselves (the owner came to settle up and left again) but another chap has since checked in – his rented camper van shit itself about 5 km away. Maybe hiring a car wasn’t such a bad idea after all!

Riona and Eileen, Melbourne Canopy Walk, Great Ocean Road

Start of the Great Ocean Road Molly off to Work

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3 Responses to “Down Under”

  1. Ains Says:

    Hi guys. Ye finally in oz. Quite an adventure ye have had so far..not missing much on this side. I am now a 30yr old surf bum!! Miss ye lots;-) enjoy the rest of your oz trip. X

  2. aoife Says:

    Hey Ri got ur text from nz but dont think u would have got my replies so its probably too late- but in case its not, nz is like an adult playground but expensive if u try to do everything so need to pick ur activities- we did the fox glaicier instead of the franz jospeh just a hike and it was crap basically for all levels of fitness including the 20 stone american.. so boring snails pace… and not very informative- then of course we get to sth america and can get individual tourse ice climbing and everything in argentina for a fraction of the cost (i.e 20 euros for a whole day) and way better becuase they are far more adventurous, almost proficient ice climbers by te end – so my advice is spend that money in nz on advanced canyoning in queensland by far the best activity and head to to tierre del feugo national park south argentina for some amazing glaciers. not much news here o yeah movign into new house in ten days mad furniture shopping and seriously kmowledagbale on the spin cycles of washing machines and the like at mo, also made 14,000 on charity cycle for mamma amelia plus a drinking session to top all, and im going ot be an aunty did i tell u that anyway thats me all out of news muct go read ur blogs ciao chica (just helping u brush up on hte aspanol wont be long now…. xxxx

  3. PJ Says:

    Hi guys,
    Just looking at Rionas Pics of Oz,what great pics !
    Your both looking relly well & enjoying down under.
    I guess by now your in New Zeland,(Get to queens town if possible,Its great)
    Send us a text or email & let us know the craic & where your heading next
    Love Lenny & PJ xxx (2 for riona & 1 for eddie)

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