Friday 15^th February
After posting the blog, plugging into the only Internet connection in the hotel (desk in the front lobby) and a great breakfast deal down the road, we headed north towards Adelaide and tried to drive through the centre. When that failed we just gave up and hit the road back towards Melbourne, taking the shorter in-land route.

Australia is a land of more contrasts than New Zealand. As you drive through small towns there is nothing but a run-down looking gas/petrol station and maybe a dubious looking restaurant attached and then you’ll come across an equally sized place (Keith) with restaurants like this

where we had a wonderful lunch in lovely surroundings.

Overnight we stayed at the Zero Inn in Nhill (pronounced ‘nil’) – get it? We dined on takeout from the following restaurant.

They eat a lot of duck in Nhill and they had live jazz in the streets.

Saturday 16^th February
The next day we were back in Albert Park, Melbourne at Tony and Margaret’s, after stopping for a coffee here.

They had a night at the opera while we just snoozed at their place.

Sunday 17^th February
Great day in Albert Park starting with a trip to the South Melbourne Market, a couple of pints of Tetley’s in ‘The Local’, lunch at the Rigbys, afternoon snooze for some people and a wonderful al fresco supper at the Italian (run by a Greek couple) restaurant just down the street.

Monday 18^th FebruaryAfter saying final goodbyes to Tony and Margaret we called in on Aunty Vera for one last visit as we started our trek north to Sydney.

Port Albert was our first overnight stop at the Port Albert Hotel, not a place we particularly recommend but lots of boats around and good fish and chips.

Tuesday 19^th February
Following the coastal route to Sydney you pass the famous 90 mile beach and we stopped for the night in Lakes Entrance which is a big tourist destination on the way.

We stayed at an interesting place – the RSL (Returning Servicemen’s League) club – where the room was very pleasant, inexpensive and the booze cheap and the food high quality Chinese. Although Australian fish and chips, like New Zealand’s are very good, you can’t live on that and we needed a good fix of vegetables.

Wednesday 20^th February
Decided to stay an extra day here, the hotel room was very nice and there were walks to go on.
The wonderfully sunny weather finally came to an end so our walk to see the actual lakes entrance was accompanied by a fine rain that strengthened throughout the day into a downpour – very welcome in dry Australia.

They have a big problem here with sand clogging up the narrow entrance

to the whole area so they have this pumping system, involving pumping sand from the entrance to a place further down the 90 mile beach where they pump it back into the sea.Australia, like New Zealand has a tradition of stump carving. These were all done when they had to cut down some large cypress trees along the waterfront.

Thursday 21^st February
We packed up in the rain; had breakfast in the town (Vibez Café - recommended) and set off heading north up the coast through Snowy River country and over the border into New South Wales. It’s generally a lot greener there than other parts we’ve seen of Australia. We stopped for the night in Tathra at the Seabreeze Holiday Park. Here’s a bit of rugged coastline at Tathra.

Friday 22^nd February
Sunshine starts to return as we continue on up the coast to Batemans Bay after stopping for lunch at Malua Bay. At Batemans Bay we headed inland for Canberra and after some searching we found a room at the Embassy Hotel in Deakin on the outskirts of Canberra.

Saturday 23^rd February
We visited the truly modernistic centre of Canberra and looked round the new parliament buildingswhich are the opposite of the old, rather utilitarian, parliament buildings. Here’s a shot looking out through the pillars of the new, with the old buildings close-in and the war memorial in the distance.

The interior is as striking as the exterior with areas like this

and this.

This is where the MPs do their thing and the roof looks like something from a futuristic movie.

Another landmark is the National Carillon which actually is a gift from the UK.

Back on the road we returned to Batemans Bay before heading for our final stopover in the Comfort Inn at Primbee before reaching Sydney.

Sunday 24^th February
A couple of hours on the road and we’re at Ira and Anne’s place in North Sydney and a lovely place it is too. This is the street they live on

and this is the view from their room, on the peninsula of Kirribilli, out into the bay on the opposite side to Sydney harbour. We had fortuitously arrived the day of a big ship thing in the harbour. The brand new cruise ship Queen Victoria was leaving the harbour to be replaced by the QE-2 on her final voyage, before becoming a floating hotel in Dubai. Here are some pictures of the event.

We managed to find room at this hotel.

Monday 25^th February
Car returned to rental company in Sydney, new place to live in found (Elite) and a day wandering round North Sydney. Academy awards tonight.

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