Last day round up.

Well we have had a fantastic holiday, with lots of highs and a few lows.

We would recommend this holiday to everyone.....;New Zealand is fantastic and the people are so laid back and kind.  Australia is busy, fast and the cities are far busier but again the people couldn't have been nicer.

What we would say is that if you intend to go on this type of holiday DO IT YOURSELF.  It is easy to do as everywhere we stayed can be accessed online and booked online.  Using a travel company is not the way to go. We have had bad experience with our company Tropical Sky (part of Aus Sky and New Zealand Sky).  The accommodation they booked for us in Australia was very bad in some places, using cheap motels.  At least if you do it yourself you can see what type of accommodation you are getting.  There are plenty of very good hotels which are not too expensive and even in the smaller areas some of the motels are much better than the ones we stayed in.

All in all though, we have had a fabulous time and have enjoyed this wonderful experience.

Lorna and David xxx

A day trip to ride the Great Ocean Road

 The start of the Ocean Road, hand built by returned first world war Australian soldiers.

 A comemmoration

 At the beginning!!

 One of the many bays along the way.

 What lovely weather again!

 A stop for a lunch shared by a cookabbora(how every you spell it!!)

 Hand held birds..

 A very hidden Koala

 Here he (or she) is again

 towards the shipwreck coast.

 We also managed a rainforest walk again..

 Part of the twelve apostles, the shipwreck coast.

 From the air, taken by David in a helicopter.

Another air shot..

Loch Ard Gorge

Standing on the beach in Loch Ard gorge

Another shipwreck area....

London bridge has fallen down..

Watching the surf.

Today we chose to go on a coach trip along the Great Ocean road, built by returning soldiers from the first world war.  It gave them a job on their return and they were all volunteers who where paid very well.  The only thing was that it was dug out by hand and instead of taken 3 months as first predicted, it took a year with extra help being employed.

We started off going to the road via Geelong, made famous many years ago when Prince Charles was there for two years of schooling.

Once past this we drove to the start of the Great Ocean Road and it took us along wonderful winding roads hugging the cliffs and down to beautiful bays.  These bays are famous for their surf and many world comps are    held here every year. One of the beaches Bells Beach was just being set up for a major competition next week, but we did manage to see the great surf swells from the road and these were all along the coast.  

We stopped off at many bays some of which were very rocky so no good for surfing, but it was wonderful to see such great big waves crashing into shore. 

Lunch break was joined by many parrots and other birds and they were very interested in the bird seed sold locally!!  The Koala bears here are twice the size of the ones found in captivity and are very wild.  You certainly would not want t hug these, they have no interaction with humans at all.  They have very sharp claws and can inflict nasty injuries if provoked.  So we left them alone!!!

We then went on to walk in the rainforest again.  Each one was so different from the last, this one was mainly large beech and many ferns (and leeches!!).  The walks are all controlled so there is no problem with anyone getting lost thank goodness.

Onward again and we found ourselves at Loch Ard Gorge, so named after a shipwreck.  The sailing vessel had completed its journey from England with immigrants aboard.  They were celebrating the fact that after all the weeks at sea they had arrived off of the coast.  Unfortunately a thick fog came down and the ship lost its bearings and wrecked on the rocks of this bay.  Two people survived, one lad Tom Pearce got himself to shore and then heard cries and swam out again and dragged a young Irish girl to the beach. 

Seeing the pounding of the waves and the rocks it is a wonder they survived at all.  The area was then named Loch Ard.  All along this coastline there are large rocks of sandstone jutting out to sea,  twelve of them in formation are called the Twelve Apostles.  David took the helicopter flight to see them from the air (I stayed firmly on the ground).  The weather was closing in and we got soaked!! We made it hot foot to the coach and then drove on to see London Bridge.  This area was in fact all one piece until 1990 when part of the sandstone bridge collapsed. There were a people stranded on the far side and a helicopter had to be brought in to rescue them. Unfortunately for the couple, they had been on a days jolly from work and each were married to different partners!!! Caught in the act!!!

Melbourne a time in the city.

 One of the many older churches in Melbourne

A well earned sit down!

 Parliament building used before the main capitol was made in Canbera.

 St Patricks the Catholic cathedral

Inside.

When we visited Colin and Leonie yesterday we were given a paper on a guided walk through the older part of Melbourne.

We had a slight setback as it was tipping with rain (what a cheek) so instead of waiting for it to stop we decided to go on the free tram again and go around and around until it stopped!

Eventually we were able to start the walk which was given in steps around various parts of Melbourne.  Melbourne is a picture of very old and very new and a lot of the older buildings and churches are surrounded by very large new skyscrapers.

We managed to find all the mentioned places, one being an old bank, which still exists as such and has wonderful teller's stations where the general public still go to use a a conventional bank.  It was mainly wooden and and halls adjoining were amazing.

There are many churches in Melbourne.  Because of all the early immigration each sector had its own religion and so churches were founded.  Welsh, German, English (catholic and anglican) and many others.  These buildings are all being kept (thank goodness because Australians do not seem to have a sense of history and the old buildings rot and then are taken down).  We saw the old Parliament building (only used as a state building now as Canberra is the official capital territory now).

We managed to find all the steps written down and came back exhausted with all the walking, but had a really good day.

Melbourne - The Savoy.

Well we drove along the coast into Melbourne city and found our hotel. As the company had only put us in a guest room (very small) we decided to upgrade ourselves and have found ourselves in an end room with four large windows overlooking the Southern Cross railway station (very quiet though on the 6th floor).  It is airy and bright and very tastefully decorated. It is one of the older type hotels,but very welcoming. After finding our bearings we had a walk around the city and took the free tram ride to explore, making notes of what we could do for our 5 days.

 A bridge leading from Melbourne city to Geelong (famous for Prince Charles schooling many years ago)

 Melbourne City Skyline taken from Port Philip Bay

The Highest point on the Mornington Peninsula, just look at the colour of the sky and the sea, we were so lucky with the weather.

The next day we were met by Colin (a friend of Mike's) who took us back to his bungalow in Frankston, just beyond where we had stayed in Brighton.  We were bound for the Mornington Peninsula where there are plenty of vineyards and golf courses. We arrived at his abode and then picked up Leonie his wife and went on a lovely trip around the peninsula, stopping for lunch right at the end, a place called Sorrento.

We drove past all the very up market properties and the very expensive golf courses.  Some of them looked impossible to play!  We had a lovely day and then went back to their home for a bbq before being taken back to the hotel.  

Melbourne-Hemisphere Hotel, Brighton Beach

We arrived in Melbourne to the Hotel of our choice!  The Hemisphere is a hotel on a university campus and was very new. The room was spacious and light.  The only thing was that there was no bar or restaurant because it was the weekend.  There were quite a few people staying for the Grand Prix and so we took the time to visit the beaches, mostly named from English areas.  This is Brighton Beach complete with huts!  The area is covered with bays and lovely swimming areas.  We walked up and down the promenade just as we would in England.  We found lovely restaurants and bars and the people were very friendly.

We felt very relaxed their and enjoyed the views of the Port Philip and Melbourne in the distance. The main thing was to watch all the dog walkers, this being a 'posh' area it was guess the breed (no mongrels here!).  The restaurants  along the front allowed dogs to sit with owners if they were on the terraces. All designer gear here.
Bet the prices of the properties match as well.

Albury to Melbourne

Well we are nearly on the last leg of our journey and we are getting into home mode...but we still have one week to go.  Albury was quite a quiet place, especially as we were 10 minutes drive from the town, but we decided to make the most of the pouring rain, yes we had rain and lots too..we went to the pictures to see John Carter.  Its a star trekky type fild with a few et lookalikes but it passed an afternoon.  We then went for dinner before returning to our motel,  yes yet another one.  Still  at least we had the next location to look forward to as we had booked it ourselves.

The journey to Melbourne was a bit fraught as we had to go through the flooded areas of the Murray river, and as it rained again last night we saw quite a bit of flooding.  We were going to a place called Enchuca near to Albury but the road was closed off and so instead of taking the diversion of 93km there and then 93km back...we decided to drive onto Melbourne.

We had to fight our way through very busy traffic as the hotel was the other side of Melbourne centre and we had to pass Albert Park, where the grand prix is taking place.  We actually heard the cars as we drove past, they were extremely noisy.  Unfortunately we could not get tickets at all so once we found our hotel on went the TV and we watched the qualifying round.  Good British result!  The hotel we have chosen is in a quiet suburb near to the sea.  It is fairly new and very comfortable, but is mainly a conference centre so no restaurant  or bar over the weekend, but there are plenty not 5 minutes away.  We are going to the beach tomorrow if the weather holds (its sunshine again!) and then back to watch the grand prix.  I will try and blog tomorrow with the days findings, but the hotel wi fi is not working so they have let me use their conference facilities.  We will also take some pictures of the coastal area.

We are also very near to Brighton beach!!with its little beach huts, so thats a place we will venture to tomorrow.

Canberra

 An inland lake which has actually got water in it for the first time for 50 years!! You can't see much of it but there were a lot of locals taking photos for history!!

 On the telecom town, grabbing on the side for dear life.  Good views across Canberra.

 The parliament.  We went inside and had a guided tour and ended up sitting in on a debate in the House of Representatives (MP's). Just the same as UK no-one there just on MP spouting out to two other members!!

View of the telecom tower from Parliament.

It was an interesting day and very warm.
We went first to the Telecom tower and went up to the highest viewing point.  This took a lot of courage from me as I am not good with heights, but I feel that I have achieved something....the views were fabulous in the clear blue day.

We drove to the Parliament and had a free tour around.  We sat in on a debate which was quite boring actually, but we felt as though we should do it.  Their Chambers are split half and half like ours.  The first the Representatives, very British and the other the Senate, very American.  In fact Australia leans more to the American lifestyle than UK.

We then decided to have a quiet night in the hotel which made a nice change.  Tomorrow Albury.