Round the World Travel

For a state capital it is a fairly small place, and nice enough, but after Melbourne has high standards to meet. The central market was really good for food shopping. The meat is really great quality, we ate really well thanks to this place.

We didn't do a great deal in Adelaide in the end. We visited the museum and art gallery, which are free and reasonably good. We also went to the Wine Centre of Australia, which was a good overview of the wine industry in Australia and well worth a visit.

The free internet in the Library was a bonus and good to book onward accommodation and check emails, as you get an hour a day.

So now onto Singapore and the East!

We drove from Melbourne along the great ocean road visiting surf spots, beaches and the monoliths eroded in the sea.

It wasn't quite as impressive as Highway 1 in California, but pretty spectacular. The 12 Apostles at Sunset are a sight to see.

Some of the towns are a bit hicksville along the way. Our favourite was Port Fairy.

I wouldn't recommend Mount Gambier, a strange place. Avoid the Jail hostel!

We ultimately ended up in the Barossa Valley and stayed at a great place, Doubles De'Vine. There we had free wine tasting and met some nice people. Cycling after a few glasses was fun, but they had very sensibly put in an off road cycle track for safety.

From here it was the last of our driving to head to reach Adelaide.

Yes everyone we are still here. It's not always easy or cheap to get on the internet so we've not been able to update the blog recently.

Melbourne is without doubt our favourite place in Australia so far. There's culture, friendly people, sport, great climate a great public transport system..... The list goes on.

The only thing which has been annoying is the difficulties we had getting our Indian Visa. We had to hang around here a lot longer than initially planned. However in such a nice city it's not too bad. There's plenty to do.
We had a really great time here.

We we're lucky enough to get some tickets for the first round of the Australian Open Tennis here. We didn't see any of the really top players, but we saw some really good matches. Federer's first game we saw on a giant screen, right next to the big centre court stadium, Rod Laver. So we could hear the crowd noise. We also watched lots of the other games on a big screen in one of the public squares to feel the crowd atmosphere.

Our hostel was right near a really cool area of the city, Chapel Street. There are bars, places to eat and nice shops. We also explored another popular area around Brunswick Street in the Fitzroy area. There was a great atmosphere down there. People really seem to enjoy meeting up in Cafe's and bars for food and a few drinks and socialising. It seems to have a similar feel to San Fransisco.

We saw various museums and parks and enjoyed them all, but Melbourne was ultimately like a home from home that we instantly liked.

For anyone visiting Melbourne we can really recommend the Zoo!

A long trek out was Pin Oak Street, or Ramsay street to us.

We got the train from Sydney, which took two hours. Don't be tempted to buy the three day pass unless you really hate walking. We saved loads by getting single tickets.

We found a real home from home at the Flying Fox backpackers. It was such a great place to chill after the hectic time in Sydney. The free breakfast was a bonus.

We had a nice walk on from Echo point to Scenic World and back, and were really glad that we did. We managed to escape all of the tourist crowds, and soak up the atmosphere. We were amazed by the change in the scenery from thick fog in the morning to crystal clear skies later in the day. Such a contrast.
We were so glad that we decided to take this trip out during our journey.

We arrived into Sydney with only a few hours to settle in before our long day out to see the fireworks. We headed to Lady Macquarie's Point at lunchtime and joined the long queues to get in.

We got a reasonable spot to spend a hot and sticky afternoon, to eat our picnic and have a couple of drinks.
It all got started at 9pm with the children's fireworks, which were impressive enough.

Around 10pm we moved to the front of the point and were lucky enough to find a spot at the barrier with prime views of the harbour, bridge and opera house. Wow, it was fantastic! It was worth all of the waiting. The atmosphere was really good, everyone in high spirits. The best New Year we've ever had!

As to other things we've seen, there's so much it's hard to summarise. We have had a tour of the Opera House. A bit pricey but interesting.
We had a night tour at the observatory and saw Mars through the telescope. We would really recommend this to everyone coming to Sydney. Ever since seeing the stars at the Great Barrier Reef we've been fascinated by the night sky here in Australia.
We went to Luna Park at night and got great photos across the harbour. The Royal Botanical Gardens are also great, with wild fruit bats hanging in the trees, making a real racket.

We took the ferry to Manly, however because of the Cyclones northwards the beaches were closed. Still it was a nice day out.
We also spent nearly a full day in the Australian Museum. This is really worth visiting from the Indigenous exhibition and performance to the wildlife exhibits. We also visited a couple of galleries that were free, so great for us.

Currently it is Sydney Festival and we managed to see Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) for free. A really great performance.

Other musical hightlights were seeing a couple of people playing the Digeridoo. After having a go we realise how difficult this actually is. These guts can actually creat animal noises using the instrument.

A waste of money was the Sky tower. This wasn't worth the money that we spent. I'd advise anyone else to think twice if they are short on cash. They really sell the audiovisual OZtrek, but we thought it was rubbish. All good in hindsight. You get good views, but all through glass, so the photos aren't the best.

We headed to the Blue Mountains after this for a few quiet days to chill out.