Searching for the wizard

Austalia is a very easy place to get used to. In fact it's so easy here it feels uncomfortably like home. I say it's uncomfortable coz I don't really want to be at home yet and being here is making me a little homesick. That is both unexpected and a bit off putting.

So far we have travelled from Sydney to Brisbane and from there to Melbourne. We're a little restricted on where we can go here as it's expensive to get around and I've decided I'm not willing to drive all over Australia and then tackle a month of the same in New Zealand. Besides it's even harder trying to get around New Zealand so driving is supposed to be the best option there.



We're doing lots of fun things here all the same. We've taken hikes and treks into the rainforrest. Visited animal sanctuaries and fed beautiful birds. The museums here in Melbourne are well worth a visit and of course we did the necessary in Sydney in terms of harbour cruises and the Opera house.

I have yet to take a wine tour here but to make up for that I have been sampling lovely Australian wines aplenty. So far my favourite has been a very fruity Shiraz by Oxford Landing. Very Yummy with absoloutley everything I say and to prove the point I've drunk lots of it!

We've been pretty lucky with the weather here as well. We had some rain in Sydney but some very fine days as well. It's not a bad show when you go to Bondi beach in the middle of winter and there are bikinis all over the place, it's not what I'd call typical winter at all at all. Not a vest in sight. Here in Melbourne it's colder but very fine and sunny and is quite pleasant and fresh. We're heading to see The Human Body exhibition tomorrow and off on another hike on friday so I would say all in all things are going well.

Unfortunately there is no sign of the elusive Wizard of Oz so far but I've been tracking sightings and am still hopeful of finding him...

Calling from the Land Down Under

Greetings from Oz. We've reached a new continent and a new capital in one piece.



It's been a relatively quiet week here for us as we've been catching up on sleep and the home style comforts that we've been missing in various degrees over the last four months.

I've really missed breakfast cereal. A strange thing to miss but it's top of my list. That and salt and vinegar crisps. So I've been indulging in lots of both!

We've been exploring Sydney in between all of the eating and sleeping and I'm impressed. It's a cosmopolitan and cool place to be and a good place for us to kick back in. We've done the usual tourist things here and have also taken a trek in the Blue Mountains which shook the cobwebs off a bit.

We've done quite a lot of planning here for the rest of our trip and I can now tell you that today we reach our official half way point. We've also got all of our sleeping needs covered for here and New Zealand and have changed our itinerary a little bit. Not bad work for the few days that we've been here.

That's it for the mo, we're off to Brisbane on the train tomorrow and then it's down to Melbourne for a few weeks. Brisbane looks to be HOT!! Which is good and Melbourne looks coooooooollld, which is bad, but it's amazing that one country can offer you that kind of variation so we'll take it in our stride.