Our Honeymoon World Tour

Before boarding our flight to Auckland we paid a quick trip to our new spiritual home:

Our flight with China Airways was really good! Very comfty, great movies (The Butler with Forrestt Whittiker and Oprah Winfrey - brilliant film!), and some surprisingly good pasta (no pesto though!) an amazing cookies!

Three hours later and we had touched down in New Zealand, home of the Maori, Kiwi fruits, rugby, EPIC scenery and Middle Earth (Nick was very excited about this).

TIP: If you are flying to New Zealand you must have you outward flight from New Zealand booked and show the confirmation at the checkin desk or your not getting on the plane. Luckily we had our flights back home booked but this caught a lot of people out who then had to desperately book a flight out of New Zealand last minute!

New Zealand is as strict as Australia for restrictions into the country, so when you are filling in your immigration card you need to be honest. So when we came to question “do you have any items which have been used outdoors, eg Tents, camping gear, shoes etc” we both ticketed yes, as we had our walking boots, last used a while ago.

At passport control the very friendly guy didn’t say anything to us ticking yes so we went through to the next area, quarantine! Where another nice man asked what items we had used outdoors, we replied “walking boots although they are clean and haven’t been used in a while” he ticked the form and sent us to the x ray machine for our bags to be scanned. To my surprise they put my big backpack to one side and asked if I had any walking boots, confused I said yes and got them out. I was then passed to another guys (who was not as nice). The conversation ran something like this:

“Why did you lie about having walking boots? This is a $400 on the spot fine”
“I didn’t I ticked yes, look”
“What did you tell my colleague”
“That I have walking boots”
“Oh, I’ll check with my colleague”
After a few minutes he came back and started writing my name on a card. “Not ticket, no boots” and hands me a ticket.
“Sorry what, are you taking my boots off me?”
“We’re cleaning them, go to the Bio Hazard window in 20 minutes and pick them up”
“Oh…ok…umm...thanks”

Being relived, slightly confused (more so that Nick has also ticked yes to boots and having food in his bag and was not searched?!) and happy I now had super clean boots!

Our hostel had advised us to get the SkyBus Express into the centre of town which should only take about 40 minutes and cost NZ$15.90 per person. Our driver was brilliant though, really fun and kept making announcements over the intercom to let everyone know the stops.

We checked into The AtticYour text to link here...Your text to link here... which was really centrally located just off the main strip and was on the top floor of a converted factory. We had opted for another private after our flight and by the time we had gone shopping and eaten it was already getting pretty late so both ended up crashing out. Sadly our hostel turned out to be pretty noisy due to it’s city centre location so neither of us slept very well.

Next morning and we were up early to make the most of our only full day in the city (until we get back in a month for our flight to London). Auckland is built atop roughly 50 volcanoes, many of which are still active and this makes for a really interesting skyline as you have random green “humps” in the middle of the suburbs. Many of these are sacred sights for the Maori, one of the most famous being Mount Eden which was only about an hours walk from our hostel. It was definitely worth the very steep climb to the top as the views over Auckland were incredible!

From here we made our way back towards the city picking up a self guided walking tour which was detailed in Lonely Planet which took in a lot of the main sights and areas of the city including the Old Town Hall, University Clock Tower and Albert Park.

Our walking tour finished at Wynward Harbour with it’s swanky bars and cool art installations.

Along the way we also swung into the Auckland Art Gallery which had some very interesting pieces of Maori art as well as lots of contemporary pieces (Believe it or not these two pictures are of the same building!).

After a whole day of walking around the city by 16:00 we were feeling tired so headed back to the hostel for a fun filled evening of packing, Googling, planning and booking - the joys! Sadly another noisy night meant very little sleep for either us, not great when you are about to start another epic road trip - 30 days driving around New Zealand!!

If you are new to this Blog then you may be thinking why do they need a holiday, they have just spent the past 6 months travelling around. If you are an avid Blog fan, you will know that we have been travelling at a fairly fast pace, trying to cram as much into our trip as possible, and quite frankly we are shattered, so we warn you now this edition is not the most riveting we have written - mostly because we didn't really do much!

So why choose Sydney for our break. Firstly, we have been before and LOVE it here, secondly because we have been before, we don't need to worry about rushing around to see all of the sights and touristy things as we did them last time, and finally where better is there in the world to celebrate New Year's Eve than in Sydney Harbour!

For the first four nights we had treated ourselves to a very nice apartment in the centre of the CBD so we could fully relax and make it feel as special as we could.

Our first night was 23 December, which as many of you may know is when Nick and I celebrate our Christmas normally as it coincides with with half year anniversary (I know that may sound strange, but it works for us!). We had already booked a table at our favourite restaurant in the city which we fell in love with when we were in Sydney in 2010. Pony lived up to our memories, located in the heart of The Rocks area of the city within spitting distance of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House and we enjoyed a delicious dinner of juicy steak and rhubarb crumble and chocolate mouse cake for dessert - yummy!! It was a lovely evening and our Christmas present to each other.

On Christmas Eve we did a free walking tour of the city which was excellent. It was really informative and took us to loads of places in the city we had not seen before (like the Queen Victoria Building which is now an upmarket shopping arcade) and giving us information we did not know about places we had! We still love doing these tours and were so glad we found it.

Christmas Day was a very lazy one! We enjoyed a champagne breakfast of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon before Skyping my Mum and Dad. We then thought it would be a nice idea to go for a stroll, but not only was it raining, Sydney seemed to be open for business as usual?? Most shops were open, all of the restaurants and cafes were packed and it just didn’t feel like Christmas! We retreated to the comfort of our apartment and spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies, eating cheese and biscuits and then Skyping Nick’s family and friends later in the day.

Boxing Day was the Australian release of the second in the new Hobbit trilogy and we couldn’t resist the temptation to go and see it! The rest of the day was spent sat in Hyde Park soaking up the gorgeous weather which had come back to Sydney!

On 27th, we had to check out of our apartment and move into a hostel near the train station. First impressions of the YHA Railway Square were not great when the rude staff wanted us to pay to store our luggage with them as our room was not ready (we didn’t and dropped it back off at the apartments concierge!), before, you guessed it sitting in Hyde Park again for the day doing nothing and stopping for a pint in Happy Hour!

That night we had arranged to meet my friend from work, another Charlie and her husband Darryl, who goes to Sydney every year for Christmas and New Year. It was so lovely to see a familiar face and the four us spent the evening chatting away. It was also great going out with someone who knew the city so well as it meant we got to go to some really nice pubs, one which had a roof terrace with amazing views over Circle Quay and the Opera House. We also got to try the Coat of Arms Pizza (which we had heard about on our walking tour) which has Kangaroo on one side and Emu on the other - it was delicious!! Thank you Charlie and Darryl for treating us!!

Nothing interesting happened on the next two days. The weather was still glorious so we spent more time sitting in the park. We did mix it up though, this time opting for the Botanical Gardens down by Sydney Harbour. One evening though we did another free walking tour, this time of The Rocks which is the oldest part of Sydney. Even though it was the same company who we did the tour with a few days before, it was pants! No tip this time!! It did however mean that we could walk back via Darling Harbour and take in their firework show which they put on for free every Saturday night at 21:00 - it was brilliant and a good warm up for New Year's Eve!

Waking up to another beautiful sunny day (oh the hardship!), we jumped on the ferry over to Manly Beach on the northern side of the harbour. The ferry only takes about 30 minutes, but is well worth, although everyone else seemed to have the same idea as the beach was packed (see Dad there are other people here!) Another lazy day of sunbathing - this time on the sand ensued!

New Year’s Eve was set to be one we would always remember - not necessarily for the reason you are thinking though! The firework extravaganza you see on the tv over the harbour is the main reason we were in Sydney as Nick was adamant he wanted to see it in the flesh. We hadn’t realised quite what an ordeal it would be though!

We had already decided that we wanted to watch them from Mrs. Macquarie’s Point which is where you get that iconic view of the Opera House and Bridge. We had also already been warned that their would be about 17,000 other people with the same idea due to this being one of the few free spots open to the public, and that although the gates to the park officially opened at 10:00, the queue would start much earlier (it turned out two days earlier!).

Armed with bags of provisions we joined the enormous snaking queue at 08:30 and were informed there were roughly 5,000 already in front of us! We had never seen anything like it and had completely underestimated this! The next FIVE HOURS were spent in the queue in baking heat with no shade (apart from our tiny umbrella), slowly shuffling forward every couple of minutes.

Around 13:30 we made it through the security point at the park gates were our bags were checked in case we were trying to sneak in alcohol. They even made us open up and show them our pasta and salad and make us throw away our bottle of balsamic dressing as it was already open. This was slightly annoying as the people who were in the queue in front of us had spent the last five hours hiding their alcohol strategically throughout their stuff and got through with barely a glance! Typical!

Then the real fun began, attempting to find a spot left with a half decent view. Obviously all of the best spots with prime views (and no trees in the way) had gone hours ago, but we managed to find with where we could see all of the bridge and a small bit of the Opera House which was better than we thought we would get. We hunkered down guarding our borders against intruders and trying to not to pass out in the heat for the next 8 hours!

At 21.00 they put on a warm up firework display for families with young kids and to get everyone else in the mood, but it is obviously no where near as big or long as the main event.

By 23:30 it was dark and it had gotten a little chilly and the crowds had swelled. People had cottoned onto our decent vantage point and were trying to squeeze into every available gap - even if it was only a tiny patch of bare grass. At this stage though we gave up with towels, fearing we could loose our view completely if we did not stand up. As the clock ticked closer the crowd pushed forward in preparation but we managed to keep our view through it all.

The entire 17,000 strong crowd counted down from 10 before the sky erupted in a blaze of fireworks to celebrate. They were quite simply incredible! Apparently using 700 tonnes of explosives at a cost of AUD$5,000,000 it was absolutely worth our 18 hour ordeal for this 10 minute show!

Needless to say all of our pictures were pants so here are some of the official ones and a YouTube link to the highlights - enjoy!!

Our Photo

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New Year’s Day and after not making it back to the hostel until 01:30, it was not an early start to the day. Nick was up about 10:30 and had just returned from the shower when his phone started to ring? Our friends were in the last 5 minutes before their New Year’s Eve countdown in the UK and wanted to Skype so we could all see it together - perfect! We got to do it twice!! It was great to see them, even though a few faces were missing.

The rest of the day was sadly not spent in the park (it was cloudy anyway!), but glued to the laptop figuring out a plan for our next stop; New Zealand. Should we hire a car, get a “bus pass” book onto a full 30 day guided tour (strangely the cheapest option!)? Annoyingly this decision took literally all day - I didn’t even get to go outside! It needed to be done though and we formulated a plan(ish) finally making it to bed about 23:00!

The past 5 weeks had been incredible! We had squeezed in so much, seen some stunning parts of Australia and had some amazing experiences we would never forget! We both wished we could have stayed longer. Our final day in Sydney (and in Australia) was brief. We were checked out by 09:30 and on the train to the airport by 10:00 to catch our plane to Auckland to begin our New Zealand adventures!

After dropping off our car and walking to our hostel at the other end of the city, we checked into Greenhouse Backpackers on Flinders Lane (the most amazing location right in the centre of the city!). Not surprisingly as it was only 10:30 our room was not ready, so we stored our luggage and set off to see what had changed in Melbourne since we were last here in 2010.

Having done many of the “big sights” previously we went in search of something different at the TI and found some cool walking tours of the Lanes with their graffiti art and funky cafes which obviously meant a coffee stop!

We also discovered that the Melbourne Museum were holding a special exhibit called “Designing 007 - 50 years of Style” so we decided to check it out. Visiting the TI had paid off as we got a discount voucher for our tickets and the exhibit was totally worth the AUS$25 each we paid. Not only did they have the original Aston Martin DB5, they had so many pieces of memorabilia from the films, as well as some really interesting information about the life of Ian Flemming.

That evening we following the Christmas Lights Trail (another leaflet we had picked up from the TI) which took in some of the cities best displays, including what had been dubbed Christmas Square with a huge Christmas tree and lots of little ones making a forest you could sit in while watching the big screen, giant presents and life-size toy soldiers. We also walked over to the Town Hall which had ben dubbed Santa’s Workshop and where we watched a brilliant animation show which was projected onto the front of the building. We even took a walk over Mistletoe Bridge, obviously stopping for a quickie under the giant, illuminated mistletoe.

The next day was a boring one, so nothing exciting to blog about sadly. Due to the infamous erratic, Melbourne weather - we had gone from shorts and flip-flops (thongs) to jeans and hoodies (still flip-flops mind you!) - we went on a reckie to find our bus station for that night, took a short stroll around the new Dockland’s area (which was being constructed last time we were in town), and nursed a coffee for hours to make the most of their free wifi! See, told you it was boring!

By 18:30, we were at Southern Cross Bus Station, only a 20 minute walk from the hostel waiting for our overnight bus to Sydney where we would start our Christmas celebrations!

Our hope of being able to drive from Adelaide to Perth by securing another relocation campervan deal had sadly not panned out, so we had no other option but to hop on a cheap(ish) flight down to Melbourne which only took an hour. We then collected another hire car, this one a Hyundai I-20 who we named Holly for our second road trip in a matter of days - not quite as far this time, but equally as iconic!

Day 1

Melbourne - Warrnambool 273km/170m

The Great Ocean Road is one of those "must see's" and is on most people's bucket list and promised us some incredible coastal driving and scenery. After collecting Holly, we set off, again with the aim of getting the big distances done on the first day heading across country on the highway to Warrnambool just past the start of the GOR itself. The drive was simple enough, only taking 3.5 hours with a small stop for lunch in a town called Colac (which Nick is convinced he knows because of some characters from Neighbours!), and we arrived at the Raglan Motor Inn about 16:00. The Motel was really nice, and we got upgraded for free to a larger room with a sea view! Being a Motel it was right on the highway, but it was only a 2 minute drive down into town and to the foreshore.

Deciding to make the most of the evening we drove the short distance to the Lady Bay foreshore, where we strolled along the beach, for about half an hour, reaching the Yacht Club Cafe a few minutes to late.

Walking back along the beach to the car we drove a short way out of town to Logan’s Beach and the Whale Viewing Platform. Unfortunately we were out of the whale migration season so there were none to be seen, the beach was still impressive with large sand dunes and huge waves.

Trying again to find a place to have coffee we drove to Proudfoot Boathouse, a preserved 100 year old boat shed, now a cafe, recommended to us by the Motel owner. Unfortunately this had a large event on so was closed too. Giving up we went to the supermarket to get dinner, before getting an early night sleep, ready for the next day.

Day 2

Warrnambol - via Port Fairy - Apollo Bay 215km/134m

The GOR officially starts from Nullawarre but we had google’d Port Fairy a little further up the coast so thought we would start our journey from there as it looked beautiful. However when looking for accommodation we discovered it was really expensive, so we stayed in Warrnambool just 27km drive away, settling for short visit it instead. When we arrived in Port Fairy the next day we soon realised why it was so expensive. This Port Side town was made up of old but beautifully restored colonial houses, row after row of yachts and small fishing boats, plus it had a lovely sandy beach, making it a prime holiday spot.

The weather was surprisingly good for Victoria being, in it’s 30’s, so after the small walk around the port and river we were rather hot and sweaty. It was then a great pleasure to see the beach and cool sea which we jumped in straight away (after stripping down to our swimwear of course).

After a drying off in the sun and walking back to a very hot car, we hit the road again for a short 100km drive to the first of many lookout points, the Bay of Islands.

The Grotto, Nick did this one on his own as we thought it was going to be a quick photo stop, however it turned out to be quite a walk down to a lookout, which in the heat was not good.

The London Bridge, so called as it used to be 3 arches looking a lot like the London Bridge, until it finally collapsed leaving two unconnected arches.

It was now time for a lunch and beach stop at Port Campbell, a small town perfectly situated for a holiday. The town was the usual one street, but had lots of nice bars and restaurants, looking out on the sea with a small sheltered beach. Again we had a swim and took the opportunity to soak up the rays, wishing we could stay here forever, but there was more lovely scenery to be seen.

Just 12km down the road and we were stopping again at the stunningly beautiful Loch Ard Gorge. This was named after a clipper which was shipwrecked hear in 1878, leaving only two survivors. Today it is a major tourist attraction due to it’s hidden beach at the bottom of the gorge and again we took the chance to cool off.

It had now reached 38 degrees (dad that’s 101F), melting the tarmac which splashed up the car and Nick accidentally left a footprint in it.

The last lookout of the day was the big one, the world famous 12 Apostles. This is such a big tourist trap it has its own shop/visitors centre with very over priced drinks and food. This has afforded a tunnel under the GOR to the other side making it safe and easy to stop for lots of photo’s. Even though we had to fight past the tour groups, they were very impressive to see.

By now it was getting late in the afternoon and due to all the stopping at lookouts, we were still over an hour away from that nights stop at Apollo Bay. Luckily, the ‘GOR’ takes a large detour inland, however we couldn’t resist some guaranteed Koala spotting. This meant taking a short detour down the Cape Otway Road, which due to it being a quiet road meant we could drive at 20kmph pulling over and running in the middle of the road to take pictures, along with other drivers. It was well worth it as we saw lots of them and did lots of “ahhhh they’re so fluffy and cute” noises.

We finally made it to Surf Side Backpackers on the outskirts of Apollo Bay and were sadly disappointed by the rundown hostel (our room obviously hadn’t been cleaned for a while, as it was covered in dust, dead flies and spiders webs, lovely!). Deciding against using the equally dirty kitchen we treated ourselves to fish and chips. These were soooo good and made better by sitting on yet another stunning beach watching the sun go down.

Day 3

Apollo Bay - Torquay 92km/57m

After a not very relaxing nights sleep fending off insects, we checked out early not wanting to linger any longer than necessary, so we went for a mooch and a coffee around Apollo Bay for an hour or so (which was much livelier than the previous evening!).

Feeling more alert, we set off for the next leg which is the actual coastal part of the road, and as we had been taking the driving in turn typically Nick got to drive this (the jammy bugger!). Imagine, tight bends, steep inclines, sheer cliffs on one side and amazing scenery around every corner (you could even imagine James Bond speeding along it during a car chase!).

We stopped a few times during the morning at some deserted beaches and some lookouts (Grave) before arriving at Lorne. This is yet another small sea-side town with a nice beach, foreshore and some very nice looking cafes - however it was ham and cheese sandwiches on the beach for us as usual! The sun was just about still shining (it had been getting cloudier during the morning), so we made the most of it by having an hour on the beach, before getting back on the road.

En route we of course had to stop for photos of the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch which pays tribute to the men who somehow managed to build it!

From here we trudged straight through to Torquay which is the official start / finish of the GOR. It was not the nicest town we had seen, but again had a number of nice beaches. We checked into Bells Beach Backpackers, which was really nice and only a 10 minute walk to the foreshore, so we went for a wander along the coastal path to the lookout point at Point Danger (we couldn't resist a name like that!), before sitting on Cosy Corner beach watching the amazing kite surfers do their thing - so cool!

After a nice chilled evening watching movies with everyone in the communal lounge (and being outraged when two teenagers had never heard of Wayne’s World - god we felt old!) we settled into out 6 bed dorm for a good nights sleep.

Day 4

Torquay - Melbourne 94km/58m

Our final day with Holly and with the Great Ocean Road behind us it was simply a case of getting back to Melbourne. We had not realised when we picked her up that they were charging us a whole extra day because we picked it up 45 minutes early (meaning they wanted us to pay 5 days for 4 days + 45 minutes!). Not wanting to be charged for this we were determined to be back in plenty of time!

We planned to have a quick stop off at Geelong for a look round and maybe a coffee on our way, but got completely lost in the one-way system, and somehow managed to miss the town completely and get back on the highway! Oh well! The whole way back we were also on petrol watch as we had foolishly paid the hire company for a full tank (and paid a fortune in tax on top!), so were again determined to get our monies worth by giving it back to them with an empty tank, so when the light came on with about 50km to go we decided to risk it...thankfully this turned out to be more than enough and we arrived in Melbourne with plenty of time to spare.

We were not doing well that morning though as we had also planned to drive to the hostel first to dump our bags then go and drop off the car, but for the second time in less than an hour we were getting lost in the one way system and could not find out hostel - oh well again!

We said goodbye to Holly, sorted out the issues with over-charges and walked the 20 minuets to our hostel for a couple of days in Melbourne, but that is for another blog...

It had taken 6 days and been one incredible adventure across the Nullarbor Plain, but 3,033km later and we had made it to Adelaide in surprisingly good weather! The sun was shining and the temperature was soaring so after checking into the YHA Central Adelaide hostel (we had opted for a private room knowing we would need some sleep!), we set off to explore what the city had to offer.

Sadly we discovered all to soon that the answer was not a lot. We walked around the main shopping precinct, having to buy some new flip-flops (or thongs!) for Nick after his snapped - they really aren't designed to be worn every day for 6 months straight - finding some nice Christmasy shopping arcades.

We sat by the riverside for another picnic lunch and then walked over to the Museum and University district which has some stunning architecture and felt like we had just landed in Oxford.

We got lost in the Gallery of South Australia for an hour or so which was really good as the exhibits were done via a theme rather than by date meaning you had old masters alongside modern pieces. We called it quits for the day and headed back to the hostel for a much needed early night!

Next morning and we decided to go for a stroll around the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide which were very nice.

Then after another picnic lunch we jumped on a tram and headed to Glenelg which is Adelaide's main beach and spent the afternoon soaking up the sunshine, before taking advantage of Happy Hour at a beach side bar for a couple of beers!

It was time to say goodbye to Adelaide. Sadly we had not been able to find another relocation car deal as we had hoped to get us to Melbourne, so it was off to the airport for our 1 hour flight.

Day 1

Perth - Kalgoorlie (594km/369m)

Our final morning with the Holans and we were up early to say goodbye to John before he went off to work, and were given pictures that each of the kids had done for us which were lovely! We then walked Alex and Christian to school and said our goodbyes to them too. After some last minute faffing, H (and Sophie) very kindly dropped us off at the car rental depot and after massive amounts of paperwork we were told to watch an instructional video about how the campervan worked and were amazed at all of the facilities it came with - shower, toilet, digital tv, gas hob, pull out barbecue and even air conditioning, the list goes on... Thinking there must have been a mistake we were even more amazed when we were handed the keys to a HUGE campervan who we named Marlene (with an Aussie accent!) It was so cool and all four of us spent ages looking around it! The time had come though to say our final goodbyes to H and Sophie and it all got a bit emotional.

We were on the road and it was now past 11:00 meaning we really had to motor to make it to our first stop; Kalgoorlie, almost 6 hours driving if we wanted to make it before dusk when the roos come out to play in the road, very dangerous!!

The traffic thinned out, the road got narrower, the buildings disappeared, the bush got thinner, and the “road-trains” grew longer!

not our picture but Googles

After going for about 3.5 hours, we needed to stop for petrol (we had agreed early on that we would treat half a tank as empty as we had no desire to get stuck in the middle of the outback with no fuel!) and had our sandwiches in a rest area by the side of the highway.

Another 3.5 hours later past some incredible, if not barren scenery, we had made it to our first campsite just before dark - phew! Kalgoorlie Goldfields Caravan Park was pretty decent, pretty basic, but decent, for only AUD$35 (£19.50)! We were too far out to walk into the town, but were both so tired after a dinner of pasta and pesto (surprise, surprise!), we settled in for an early night and were amazingly cosy, even though we had to have the AC on!

Day 2

Kalgoorlie - Mundrabilla (827km/514m)

05:45 the next morning, I was up and surprisingly awake after a really good nights sleep, which was good as we had just over an eight hour drive a head of us.

After breakfast and showers, we did the morning ritual for maintaining the van. Checking the gas is off, emptying the waste water tank, filling up the clean water tank and unhooking the electric.

By now it 07:15 and we needed to head off but we had to get supplies first. Driving into the incredibly small town (we had yet to see the even smaller ones on our journey) we went to the petrol station to fill up on diesel again and then went to see the one attraction in Kalgoorlie, if you didn’t count the street of old brothels. Just a short drive and we were at the Super Pit. Now this sounds boring but it was amazing, due to it’s colossal size. The pit is over a hundred years old and still in use as a gold mine. It was so large it had it’s own road system winding it’s way deep down into the pit, making the trucks and diggers look tiny. As you can see in the photo of Nick next to the bucket and me on the tyre (ok so we all know I’m small, but a tyre over 4’10” is large) these trucks were by no means small.

Realising we should get moving if we wanted to see the next town 150km away we hit the road again. Over an hour later on some very quiet roads we arrived at Norseman. So named as Lawrence Sinclair was riding in the area in search of ore/gold when his horse threw a shoe, seeing to the horse they discovered it was due to a gold nugget. Sinclair decided to set up a mine and a town naming it after his horse.

Now there are also some famous Camel statues made of tin on a roundabout which of course we stopped to photograph, however their story is not so interesting.

Apparently in the days of the town being founded, camels were used as transport and so the roads were wide and were kept this way when the town started to grow, hence the camels? Told you it was crap. This town was tiny with only, a petrol station (where we filled up again), a IGA (supermarket) where we stocked up on water and supplies, a bottle shop, bait shop, butchers and pub.

Back in Marlene and we officially started our journey across the Nullarbor Plain - one of the worlds greatest road journeys!! Driving for another 190km, it was yet again time to fill up with diesel at Balladonia, pulling over for a picture stop on the way at a Zebra Crossing in the middle of no where. This was actually for one of the many R.D.F.S (Royal Flying Doctors Service) airstrips, as the highway is so long, straight and quiet it’s perfect for emergency landings.

Full of horrifically over priced fuel (60cents 35p a litre more than in the city!) we now started our drive along Australia’s longest, straight road measuring a whopping 145.6km (90 miles)! This was surprisingly ok to drive as you were constantly amazed at the distance you could see ahead of you due to the flat, barren terrain.

Three quarters in to the drive and we crossed time zone of the journey and we were still in WA, moving our clocks forwards 45 minutes - very confusing! We carried on until we arrived at our stop (and the only stop for some kilometres) for the night at Mundrabilla. This is not a town, but a Roadhouse with a motel, “caravan park”, shop, restaurant, Petrol station and small pub. This one was a bargain at only AUD$20 (£11) a night!! However it was really just a gravel carpark in the middle of the bush with electric hook up. There were only 3 other people there so was amazingly quiet and surprising had a fantastic sunset over the highway, and again we would be treated to some amazing stars above us.

Day 3

Mundrabilla - Ceduna (494km/307m)

Again after another good nights sleep we were up very early as we had another time zone to cross in 75km when we entered into SA and didn’t know what the extra would be. (the internet would have been handy then). Under an hour later and we were entering SA and losing an hour thirty meaning it was now late morning.

After a quick photo stop with Rooey II at the boarder and seeing we were about half way through having travelled 1462km form Perth and having another 1253km until we reached Adelaide. We hit the road again.

We had now entered Great Australian Bight, the part of Australia were it looks like someone has taken a huge bite out of the country, hence it’s name. We of course stopped at all three lookout points to get amazing views and photo’s of the Bunda Cliffs, which really do look as if someone got a little peckish.

From here we stopped at the next Roadhouse Nullarbor Hotel/Motel along a mere 182km from the last one, to find some more overly priced fuel. Deciding we could probably make it to the next Roadhouse in 150km we stopped for lunch instead, saying hello to few travellers and truck drivers who had also stopped. There was a great sense of community with everyone, the Road Train drivers who did this everyday for 12 hour stretches and the crazy travellers like us doing it for fun. Not many people have done this and everyone has to stop at the same places so you start to see and nod at the same folk, it was really nice.

Luckily we made it to Nundroo Roadhouse and seeing much cheaper Diesel, our gamble worked, we filled up the tank which was just on a quarter and spent a whopping AUD$100. Back in Marlene and passing ever changing landscapes we made it to Quarantine Check Point. There are two of these on the way one for people heading west out of SA and one for people heading east out of WA, these are to stop pest and insets crossing states and ruining each others farming. Knowing this was coming up we had tried to use up all our fruit and veg the night before but were still left with a tomato, mushrooms and lettuce. Not being sure what was and wasn’t allowed we declared it all at the check point. Now they are very serious about this, you arrive at a barrier, your number plate is noted down and then they take any fruit and veg that’s not allowed from you. We got to keep the mushrooms, but had to handover the rest and even the banana skins in our bin! Everything declared they opened the barrier and we drove the short 20 minutes into Ceduna town.

Being in SA, Ceduna was a slightly bigger town with a shopping centre, restaurants, pubs and beautiful foreshore. Heading to Ceduna Foreshore Caravan Park (a Top Tourist Site), which was labelled on our map we checked in-- Marlene, somehow getting a discount paying only AUD$27 (£14) and got a site on the sea front. The views from Marlene were lovely and after doing a much need pant wash we went for a walk along the pier and into the town, which was sadly full of homeless Aboriginals. Deciding it was still a bit chilly but not wanting to miss the views we made a cuppa and sat on the grass bank eating biscuits watching the sunset.

Day 4

Ceduna - Port Lincoln (402km/250m)

Up early again the next morning we ate breakfast and did the van rituals of filling up, emptying and switching off, to be ready for the off.

Again the scenery was ever changing with more farm land and massive salt water lakes which had dried up or just had a small amount of water left.

We had decided in the first few days to break the back of the journey and get the long days of driving out of the way, so when we came closer to the coast we could take our time and enjoy stopping at small port towns. Our first one of these was Streaky Bay, so named as Flinders (who named everything and discovered everything, even naming a bay after his brother “Flinders Bay” haha) thought the water looked streaky with the white of the waves and blue of the sea. (think he invented the catchphrase game, ‘say what you see’) This was again a tiny town, hardly a street, on a beautiful bay. The sun was shining and so we decided to stop for a coffee taking in the lovely view and soaking up the rays.

Reluctantly leaving Streaky Bay behind we traveled further down the coast making a quick detour into a farmers field to see the famous Hay Stacks. These were large red rock formations Inselbergs. It was so strange to see these huge red boulders raising out of the ground in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields.

After lots of photos, we went back on to Highway Alt 1 to Elliston nested between Anxious Bay (Flinders apparently felt nervous once sailing here hence the name) and Coffin Bay (again with the imaginative name due to many ships meeting their deaths here). Here we stopped for a spot of lunch and a walk along the beach before heading to our final stop for the day, Port Lincoln.

Stopping at another Top Tourist site after a huge debate wether to stop as this larger town or drive up the coast to Tumby Bay, we paid another bargain price of AUD$30 (£16). Again we managed to secure a spot on the sea front and I soon decided we had made the right decision, largely due to the rabbits which were walking around happily eating grass right outside our window.

Walking just 3km of the coastal trail into town we explored the slightly bigger town of Port Lincoln. Unfortunately the beach was dominated by a huge factory, you even have to walk through it on the walk. The town was very quiet with nothing of interest for us so we headed back to rabbit watch with a cuppa and views of the sea, perfect!

Day 5

Port Lincoln - Port Pirie (441km/274m)

Up not so early the next day we headed for Port Augusta 339km up the coast. Passing yet more dried up lakes and a train with 96 wagons (the very long video is attached if you fancy watching or checking my counting), we soon arrived and decided that we would drive another 92km down the other side of the coast to Port Pirie hoping it would be a nicer smaller town.

We were right this was a smaller town, so following signs to the riverside and caravan park we booked into a small site for our last night with Marlene for only AUD$33 (£18). This site was located on the side of a river flowing into the sea and it had a man made lake you could swim in. Still being early we walked the short distance to town, deciding there was nothing to see we headed back to the lake for a paddle and cool down before soaking up the evening sun on the river bank.

Day 6

Port Pirie - Adelaide (227km/141m)

Packed up, filled up and everything clean it was time to drive the last 200km to Adelaide and say goodbye to Marlene.

Passing more farm land making us feel like we were in Derbyshire rather then Australia and passing more huge dried up lakes, one with Nessy, who was evidently on holiday from Lock Ness.

We stopped for a quick toilet break at Port Wakefield, discovering that the women toilet also doubled as an art gallery we decided to visit the gallery/TI next door and picked up a few maps of Adelaide, as we had no idea where the rental place was.

Arriving at Adelaide, we had decided to drop off our bags at our hostel before driving to the airport to drop off Marlene, making it easier for the journey back into town. However this meant navigating a huge city and one way streets with a 7 metre long van. With only a tourist map in hand we managed to find the Hostel even finding a two free parking spaces outside. Bag dropped we headed back out of town.

Six days, 3033km, two states, three time zones, a whopping AUD$690 (£374) of Diesel and it was now time to say goodbye to our now beloved van.

After some emotional goodbyes with Nick’s cousin Milly, who had been kind enough to let us stay both before and after our trip “down south”, it was back in Talulah (our trusty rental car) to head north of the CBD for the second leg of our Perth trip.

Helen is Nick’s other cousin who has now lived in Australia for nearly 15 years with her husband and three children. When we were in Australia two years ago we stayed with them in Melbourne, but they have since moved to Perth so it made perfect sense to have the next couple of days with them.

We had intentionally timed it so that we would get the weekend with them and after settling in and catching up it was time to put up the Christmas tree.

Then it was off to the local park to wear out the kids (and us!!). I loved it as for once I had a valid reason for playing on the park!!

The rest of the day was a lazy one, playing with the kids, swimming in the pool and catching up with Helen (H) and John.

Next morning and after a yummy cooked breakfast (done on the barbie of course!), it was off to the local beach for a swim, body-board and of course some fort making. Sadly the weather turned a bit windy and it was too cool to stay, so after a coffee stop it was back home for another afternoon of Chinese Checkers, Lego and another dip in the pool!

Monday morning meant John was back at work and Alex and Christian (the two eldest) were back at school. It also meant that it was time to say goodbye to Talulah. H (and Sophie) followed us into town, and after a quick delay when we realised we had forgotten to fill up the petrol tank, we jumped in H’s car and headed over to a beautiful stretch of beach which had a lovely coffee shop and great playground for Sophie. It was lovely to sit and chat with H, reminiscing, putting the world to rights and generally talk rubbish - with the occasional break to play on the park with Sophie. It was a lovely morning! Again the afternoon was a lazy one, playing with the kids and drinking coffee.

Our final day with the Holan’s and H had to work and all 3 of the kids were in school today, so we headed into the CBD for another wander round the city, a touch of Christmas shopping and another picnic at the Supreme Court Palace Gardens in glorious sunshine. There was also just enough time for Nick to get a much needed haircut, before being back in time to collect the kids as promised from after school club. Then began the best game of hide and seek we have played since we were about 10 - winding the kids up, just in time for John to come home - ooops!!

Our final morning and after saying goodbye to John and walking Alex and Christian to school it was back into central Perth. We had arranged for a relocation campervan deal to drive from Perth to Adelaide and H (and Sophie) kindly drove us over to pick it up. Then it was time for more emotional goodbyes before starting our epic road trip across the Nullarbor!

We had wheels again for the first time since we were with in Langkawi, however this time it was a significant upgrade. Our swanky Toyota Corolla was much larger than we had expected and an absolute bargain thanks to a deal the rental firm (Bayswater) had on at only AU$42 (£32) a day! We christened her Talulah before hitting the road.

Our plan was to get the big distances out of the way on the first day by heading all the way down to Albany on the south western tip of mainland Australia. The journey was about 6 hours in total with a couple of toilet stops enroute but was really straight forward - we only really needed to use Milly’s (Nick’s cousin) borrowed Sat Nav to get out of central Perth - although in fairness once you are on the highway it is just one road going south!!

We arrived at 1849 Backpackers in the centre of Albany about 16:30 and were instantly hit by the freezing cold temperatures (well to us). It was only 19 degrees and was SO windy! I guess when you are this close to Antarctica we shouldn’t have been surprised! The hostel was nice enough, although felt like an old school due it’s layout. There were also A LOT of long term residents staying with working visas so it felt a little clicky and like you were invading their space. Luckily though we had booked a private, thinking we would want privacy after our long drive and when we walked past an open dorm room door and saw the carnage within were glad we did!

We decided to go off in search of a much needed coffee to discover that Albany was not only tiny, but closed - literally everything had shut at 16:00 and it was like a ghost town. Strangely many of the restaurants and cafe seemed to re-open at 19:00 for dinner (although when we looked later none of them were!). We stumbled across a pizzeria and managed to have a coffee and cake. Feeling a little warmer we decided to explore some more, however we soon realised we had seen all Albany had to give, so jumped in the car in search of a good sunset.

After a short 25km/15m drive we were on the Flinders Peninsular, arriving just in time to see The Gap and Natural Bridge rock formations with an amazing sunset backdrop. We didn’t stay too long as it was so windy, flippin’ freezing and we needed to be careful driving at dusk due to roos.

Our next morning started off well with yummy free pancakes for breakfast. We had decided to go for a coastal walk along Middleton Beach, but when we arrived we were disappointed to find out it was just a beach walk. Being early in the morning the beach was deserted so we decided to walk it anyway.

Middleton Beach

After our walk we realised that this was going to be more of a driving trip, beach and coast hopping. We therefore spent the rest of the day visiting small towns and their beaches, seeing stunning scenery along the way. We will now bore you with loads of beach photos.

Cosy Corner

guests at our picnic

Denmark Town Centre

Walpole Beach

We checked out the next morning after more yummy pancakes and hit the road to Augusta 360km/223m up the coast. Stopping along the way at yet more beautiful beaches and the Pemberton Tree Top Walk. A 40m/131’ high walk way in the canopy of the forest trees, the views were great but the walk way was very bouncy and swayed from side to side.

We arrived in Augusta about 15:00 in beautiful sunshine, so went for a lovely walk along the river until it joined the Southern Ocean. (Sorry more beach pictures)

Later that night, we took the opportunity of a clear sky to go star gazing. Deciding to drive a little out of town while still in our PJ’s we got to see why night driving is dangerous, narrowly missing a large kangaroo and lots of bunnies, luckily we were driving less then 10kmph/6mph. The drive was worth it, getting the chance to see a full sky of bright stars meeting the sea, more then either of us had seen before.

After a really good night sleep in our 7 bed dorm which we had to ourselves, drove down the coast to Cape Leeuwin to see the lighthouse, the most south westerly point of mainland Australia where the southern and Indian collide. Booking on a tour so we could go into the still working light house, we picked up our Audio Guide and explored the living quarters around the lighthouse, while waiting for our tour to start. The audio tour was really good and filled in some of the history before we started our tour. Just as the audio tour was finishing our guide called us over to start our lighthouse tour. This was fantastic, getting to understand the workings of the lighthouse and it’s amazing engineering before going to the top to see the views and getting nearly blown off by the gale force winds.

Back down the spiral staircase and it was now time to explore the Margaret River Region. This is where all WA’s food, wine, beer and cider comes from, an area full of vineyards and farms. The best part of this area is that all the factories and cellar doors are open to the public often having free tasters on offer. Of course we made a stop at the two chocolate workshops and couldn’t miss the Cullen Vineyard, where Nick got to taste lots of wine, while I just got to have a sniff.

Due to being more north and in-land the temperature had started to increase so we treated ourselves to a pub lunch in Cheeky Monkey’s beer garden. Bellies full, we drove further north to Dunsborough discovering yet another a beautiful beach, Yallingup of Beach, and regretted not having our beachwear.

That evening after dinner we yet again did a small drive out to a local beach to get in a sunset view.

Our last day and after a hunt around town for somewhere open to get milk, we checked out of the YHA Augusta. Taking advantage of the sun we grabbed our beach stuff and drove back to Yallingup of Beach for a few hours of sunshine and swimming.

On our way back to Perth we stopped off at Rockingham which we regretted as it felt a little more like a seaside town in Britain and again being there late afternoon everything was closed or closing.

That evening was spent back at the now Christmassy Jefferson residence for chilled out night. After a huge breakfast and emotional goodbyes it was off to North Perth to stay with the Holans.

Singapore airport was amazing, it had TV area’s, a 3D experience, free Wi-Fi, free internet PC’s, an indoor garden and a children's wax rubbings area! Brilliant for entertaining us for a few hours before our 5 hour Tiger Airways flight to Perth.

The flight was the usual budget airline deal but we enjoyed an amazing sunset too.

We arrived 21:00 and were greeted by Milly, Nick’s cousin, who we haven’t seen for a year. It was so lovely to see her and very kind of her to pick us up that late. Once at Milly, Andy and Baby Finn’s house we were given a warm welcome instantly feeling at home. While snacking on nibbles we caught up until we all realised we were extremely tired, although Milly and Andy had the excuse of work and chasing after a 17 month old.

After a great nights sleep, Milly kindly dropped us off at Fremantle for the day, while they were at work. Fremantle is a lovely seaside/port town with lots of the old buildings from when the town was founded in 1829. The weather though was freezing, ok, so it was 22 degrees but after being used to 30’s this now seemed cold to us and it had started to rain. Deciding to shelter from the rain we made our first stop the Fremantle Gaol (Prison). For AU$19 (£10) each, we took a brilliant tour of the prison with our funny and knowledgeable guide. We were surprised to see the very basic conditions of prison life and liken it to some of the concentration camps we have seen and so were even more surprised to find this was still used until 1991!

After an overpriced coffee stop we visited the sights; the Roundhouse, a photography gallery, the covered markets, the port and finally stopped for lunch at Sail and Anchor. We then windowed shopped at many the lovely, quirky and creative shops, making sure we stopped at the Tin Tin shop, although we couldn’t afford anything. Stopping for another expensive coffee, (these will have to stop in Perth) we finished our drinks just in time for Andy to pick us up, on his way back from work.

Once back at Andy and Milly’s we introduced ourselves to Finn who wasn’t even crawling last time we saw him. Finn decided we were ok and we played lots of games until it was time for him to go to bed and us to have dinner, enjoying a few beers too.

The next morning while Milly and Andy took Finn to a Christmas party we went round the Kings Park, a huge park in Perth City. The weather was still cold, but this time we had dressed correctly and had our umbrella ready for the rain, which it did a lot. The park is massive with lots to do and as usual we crammed in as much as we could, going over the Millennium bridge, visiting the water garden and women memorial before racing each other up the DNA structure (a set of stair cases twisted like a double helix) and finally sitting down to take in the river and cityscape.

Andy, Milly and Finn picked us up later that afternoon in the now warm sunshine and took us to Swan Valley. This is a wine region where you can go from vineyard to brewery to vineyard having free tasters. We opted for some free coffee and chocolate tasting (they have a huge bowl full of small white, milk and dark chocolate buttons which you could help yourself to, with a spoon!!!), before going to lunch at a lovely pub and having more tasters, but of ales this time. Which Andy and Milly very kindly treated us to, thank you! It was then time for a bit of chase and an attempt at distraction with Finn who had wanted to take another child's ball. By now Finn was wiped out from all the fun, so it was back home for a bath and bed (for Finn not us).

Being our rubbish indecisive self we had decided last minute to hire a car and follow in Susie and Hughie’s footsteps to go to Albany and Margret River. Again Milly kindly dropped us off in Perth City so we could see what deals we could find. Finding a car for a week at only AU$42 (£32) a day we booked it for a Monday morning pick up and headed off to see the city.

Perth is quiet a small city and very easy to walk round, but if you can’t be bothered or are in a rush you can take one of the 3 free cat buses running loops of the town centre. The city is a melting pot of different architectural styles with everything from very British Victorian structures to modern glass skyscrapers and everything in between, somehow living in harmony and making the city the exciting place it is.

We of course did the free activities visiting the beautiful churches, London Court shopping lane, seeing the very still Kangaroo's and the art gallery. The it was a quick stop at Woolies (Supermarket) to get supplies for our picnic in the Supreme Court Gardens.

This time the weather was glorious and in it’s late 20’s, so Nick decided he would like to go back to Kings park to get better pictures. So after a quick stop at the Bell Tower (a tower with 18 bells, twelve of which were cast from the bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields and are one of the few sets of royal bells to have left England) we did a 2.5 mile walk to Kings Park, going up Jacobs Ladder on route (a steep set of stairs that people run up and down for exercise, crazy!).

Our last morning with the Jefferson family and we headed into Perth using bus and train (only AU$4.20, £2.30 ) to pick up the car and start our 4 night holiday South of Perth.

We were up at 05:00 (ouch!) to catch our bus from Melaka to Singapore and with it being both a Sunday and a National Holiday had reservations about trying to catch a bus to the station, and after waiting for 10 minutes wimped out and jumped in a passing taxi.

The bus was the new, high standard we were now used to with fully reclining seats like you get on a Business Class flight, and in only 3 hours we had reached the border. We were made to get off, go through the exit border for Malaysia to get our passports stamped while the coach drove through and waited to pick us up the other side. This was simple enough, until we reached a split in the corridor both signposted Coach Pick-Up Point? Having no clue which way was right, and everyone else from our bus being long gone we took a chance and luckily managed to find our bus - not surprisingly everyone else was waiting for us - oops! A 2 minute drive through “no-mans land” and we were ordered off the bus again, but this time had to take our bags with us to enter into Singapore and have them scanned, before rejoining our bus (we had checked where it would be this time!). The whole process took less than 10 minutes!

Another hour later and our bus dropped us off on Beach Road, seconds from our hotel, it was just a shame we walked for 10 minutes in the wrong direction before we realised how close we were! We checked into the Park Royal on Beach Road courtesy of Mummy & Daddy Cullen, but as it was only 11:00, our room was not ready but they said we were free to enjoy the pool area while we waited - so we did, soaking up the sunshine - until the thunder started to roll and the pool was closed. Just as we had dashed into the bar area under cover, I saw Nick drop his bag and run making me think something was wrong, but as I rounded the corner, I realised he had seen his Mum and Dad and was giving them a huge hug! It was so lovely to see them as it had been nearly six months and we had a lot of catching up to do!

We checked into our room which was huge and very nice before jumping in a taxi (everywhere in Singapore has a taxi rank outside it, hotels, shopping malls - literally everything!) to Clark Quay for a spot of lunch. Clark Quay is a large waterside, open-air complex of bars and restaurants, however we had not realised it was more of an evening destination so our choices were limited having to settle for some sandwiches and chips, but they did the trick.

From here we went over to the world famous Raffles Hotel for a nosey around at how the other half live. The hotel and attached complex live up to their reputations. The main building is a beautiful white colonial style with courtyards you can walk through and is very, very posh with strict dress codes in most areas. After a good mooch around we crossed over to the Raffles City shopping mall to get a coffee.

That night Nick and I had arranged to meet up for drinks, with Nick’s friend and work colleague Lisa and her husband Eugene (as chance would have it they happened to be leaving Singapore as we were arriving). They had suggested a lovely place called Chimes and at £7 a pint (in happy hour, or it would have been £10) we nursed our pints for as long as we could, while catching up with Nick’s work and each others travel plans.

The next morning after an overly priced breakfast at the hotel, we decided to do the Singapore Airlines Open Top Bus Tour. Thanks to Lisa and Eugene who kindly gave us their left over tickets, we could join Susie and Hughie on the tour for free, who also received tickets with their flight.

The Bus was the usual sight seeing, hop on hop off tour and great for getting to see the sights over the huge city. Our first stop was the Singapore Flyer (a huge big wheel which took 30 minutes to do a full rotation similar to the London Eye) and was next to the F1 Pit Lanes, much to Nick’s and Hughie’s delight.

From this side of the bay we could see views of the new Gardens by the Bay and the amazingly constructed hotel, Marina Bay Sands, cementing our decision to visit them later.

Our next stop was the icon of Singapore the Merlion, designed in the 70‘s info about why.

From here it was a short taxi ride to China Lane for a spot of lunch before heading down the street into the centre of Chinatown. This was yet another Chinatown that was a little disappointing, but at least this time there were no knock off’s, just tourist tack and the odd clothes shop.

By now it was baking hot, so we jumped back on the bus for the remainder of the tour, listening to the commentary as we went past the very British buildings and lovely Botanic Gardens, finishing next to our hotel.

Once back, I started sorting out our bags, removing the things we needed to go back, which Susie was kindly putting in her suitcase for us. I had the intention of joining everyone else, who were now chilling by the pool in the afternoon sun, however it took me longer than expected and by the time I was ready it was dinner time.

While in Raffles City mall the day before we noticed there were some really good food options, so decided to head there. It was the right choice, as we discovered a very reasonably priced Chinese (everything in Singapore is EXPENSIVE!!), where we could share a few of the mains. Then of course we went in search of cake (Hughie made us do it!) and ended up with a lovely slice of chocolate moose crepe cake (this is basically loads of thin pancakes layered up with chocolate or other fillings in between them).

After a great nights sleep in our enormous bed, we went in search of somewhere knew for breakfast, after our extremely expensive and disappointing one in the hotel the previous morning, and found a really good (and cheap!) Espresso Bar around the corner which had a decent menu and some yummy pastries! Feeling full, we headed over to the National Museum of Singapore which was the first purpose built Museum in all of South East Asia and was housed in a very ornate and grand colonial building.

We started by visiting an exhibit of Australian art from the DATES to Modern day which I found really interesting, but am not sure Nick and his parents were so sure. We headed back towards the lobby to discover that there was a free guided tour of the History of Singapore exhibit - perfect! Our guide was excellent and it was very interesting to learn all about Sir Stamford Raffles, the British Colonisation and our hasty retreat during World War II.

After a very interesting couple of hours we stopped for a quick drink, but annoyingly Nick wasn’t feeling great again, so we all agreed we had had enough culture for the day so went back to the hotel for another afternoon by the pool (this time I got to join in the fun!). That night after a failed attempt to find some food at a local Hawker Food Court we decided to head back to Clarke Quay and as suspected there was a much livelier atmosphere by night! We ate at a really nice Western restaurant - although I somehow managed to order a spicy Caesar Salad?!

Next morning and Nick woke up feeling even worse so stayed in bed while Susie, Hughie and I went back to the Espresso Bar for breakfast. We bought him back a huge croissant which seemed to perk him up so we decided to visit Gardens by the Bay; essentially a huge public park near the marina which has “Super Trees”, a Sky Walkway and two Bio-Domes (a bit like the Eden Project in Cornwall). Susie and Hughie had more free entry vouchers from their Singapore flight so while they went in, Nick and I wandered around the free bits, before discovering the Sky Walkway was an absolute bargain at S$5 (£2.5o) each, so up we went!

From here we walked through the Marina Bay Sands hotel which is enormous and very impressive (we didn’t go up to the Sky Park though sadly) and headed through to the attached shopping mall which is very exclusive, full of every designer label you can imagine and not a high street brand in sight! It did however have an excellent food court which was surprisingly cheap!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon being very lazy napping by the pool!

While we were at the Marina Bay Sands Shopping Mall we spotted our favourite food stall; Pepper Lunch which we had first fallen in love with in Hong Kong and then discovered throughout SEA so had to head back for dinner! Luckily Nick’s parents enjoyed it just as much as we did! After dinner we walked outside to the marina to watch the most fantastic light and fountain musical extravaganza! It was absolutely amazing and mesmerising to watch with pictures projected onto a mist of water, fountains shooting jets of water into the air and even flames all timed perfectly to music - there were even bubbles floating over head! It was a truly magical evening and the perfect end to our time in Singapore with Susie and Hughie!

Our final morning and after another delicious breakfast at our new local, it was time for an extremely difficult and emotional goodbye with Susie and Hughie as they were picked up for their flight home. We then had another couple of hours to finish packing before checking out, jumping in a taxi and heading to the airport for our flight to Perth.

It was the end of our second leg of our trip. First Europe, then Asia and we were still loving every minute, but our final part awaited - Australia and New Zealand here we come!

We had already done a reckie of the bus station during our time in KL as we new it was roughly 15KM outside of the city and were worried about getting lost and missing our bus to Melaka, so knew the journey to the station would take over an hour with the monorail and metro lines, but it was really straightforward. The bus station was more like an airport though with organised gates, no pushy touts and good old British queues!! This was not the South East Asia we knew!

A mere 2 hours later and we arrived at Melaka Sentral station, annoyingly another out-of-town bus station. We had instructions from our hostel so we knew we needed the number 17 and to get off when we saw the brick red coloured church. The bus was packed, but it was easy enough and was obvious when we had reached the centre (the huge tour coaches parked up were a good sign!). We popped to the Tourist Information to pick up a map and registered for a free Walking Tour the following morning (perfect!) and walked the 5 minutes to our hostel.

The Fern Loft was very similar in style to our emergency accommodation in Georgetown (Rainbow Lodge 2) in a former Chinese Shophouse. It was very basic but our room was clean and comfortable (although very dark with the only natural light coming from an internal courtyard).

We went out to explore in the last of the afternoon sunshine, but didn’t make it far before stopping for coffee and a bite to eat (satay sticks and spring rolls), but sadly my stomach was feeling bad again so we headed back to the hotel so I could lie down. A couple of hours later and a nap (oops!) we set off back out to see Melaka by night. As we were there on a weekend, Jonker Street had been transformed into the Night Walking Market which was good fun and very similar to the ones in Hong Kong and Chang Mai in Thailand.

The next morning we were up early for our Walking Tour and met our guide and about 20 other tourists at the TI. This turned out to be one of our best walking tours in our entire trip and wished we had found more of these around the rest of South East Asia. It gave us so much information, not only about the town, but about the whole country and Asian culture helping us to piece together somethings we had seen in other countries. We visited Christ Church (the brick red one we had used as our landmark the previous day), the former Governor’s Mansion, the ruins of St Paul's Church with it’s statue of St Francis Xavier.

Apparently St Francis Xavier did a lot of missionary work in Malacca and when he died overseas the decided to ship his body back to Malacca. The journey took several months and his body was left on board covered in banana leafs, well when it arrived 3 months later the body looked just as it did the day he died. They buried the body but word for around about it's condition, till eventually 5 months late another missionary and friend of St Francis Xavier came and asked for the body to be dug up so he could take it back to Portugal. Surprisingly even after 5 months under ground it was still as the day he died, so was called a miracle. Malacca wanted the saint buried at St Paul's so to make a compromise they chopped off one of his hands for them to keep (nice, I know) and to their surprise the arm bled when it was chopped off and the hand soon became a withered skeleton. Now the hand goes on tours for people to see and Malacca have a statue of St Francis Xavier instead, which in a freak thunder storm lost his right hand making this St Francis Xavier third miracle???? (Even our guide thought this was a step too far).

We also visited St John's Fort and our guide told us how Melaka is continuing to grow in size as the land is continually being reclaimed from the sea. Our final stop was the Cheng Hoong Teng (temple of green cloud) where our guide walked us through all of the different shrines and deities explaining all of the different prayers and offerings given. The whole thing lasted nearly 3 hours and was fascinating.

After our walking tour it was time for a coffee stop (surprise surprise!) along the river front. After this however we split up again as I had work to do, so Nick went for a walk around town informing me later he had visited all of the places in town I did not need to see - the new town with it’s mega-malls and the “scenic river walk” which ran along side a dual carriage way!! He did however find some funky looking shops and good looking eateries, so when I was finished we set off to look around them together stopping for dinner at the Geography Cafe which seemed appropriate!

Next morning and we were up horribly early (about 05:00) for our bus to Singapore to meet some very important people!

After our somewhat interesting time in Penang and having to say goodbye to our beautiful hotel for Nick’s (belated) birthday celebrations we were on the bus bound for Kuala Lumpur.

Roughly 4 hours later we arrived just after dark and a short 20 minute walk we arrived at the Orange Pekoe Hostel. This was one of those places that looked great in pictures, and even looked ok once you were there, but if you looked too closely you realised it was not that great after-all! There was a colony of ants in the kitchen, and our room was one of the smallest we have been in so far - absolutely tiny with nowhere to put our bags and smelt really badly of damp - it wasn’t even that cheap!

We dumped our bags and decided to go looking for food as we had not eaten all day. The street the hotel was on was a little dodgy with lots of men hanging around for no obvious reason, but a 2 minute walk (admittedly past a few ladies of the night) brought us to Bukit Bintang, a seemingly never ending road of bars, restaurants and clubs all with seemingly never ending Happy Hours. We settled in for a couple of giant burgers, before heading back for an early night and slept surprisingly well.

Next morning and after enjoying our free breakfast (albeit cereal and toast - free is free!), we set off to explore. The sky was blue, contrary to weather reports we had seen, and Nick wanted to head straight to the Petronas Twin Towers to photograph them before it clouded over (“You can’t photograph a grey building against a grey sky - it’ll look s**t!” were his exact words to convince me!). Our hotel was very centrally located, only a 15 minute walk to the towers.

They are stunning and the obvious landmark of Kuala Lumpur, but did we really need to take almost 100 photographs of them?! It was really hot, although the sky had already started to cloud over as predicted, so we escaped the heat and humidity by getting lost in the Suria Shopping Mall (which sits underneath the towers) for the rest of the afternoon.

Nick was feeling a little ropey again (we seemed to be taking it in turns to have Travellers Tummy) so we went back to the hotel for afternoon naps - which turned into a VERY early night! With Nick feeling a little better the next morning we took the MRT (metro) to Mederka Square, one of the oldest parts of the city which used to be a huge British cricket ground. All that remains of the cricket pitch is a small patch of grass and the original pavilion, both of which are still used by wealthy cricketers who can afford the club fees. Now a huge road runs along side but a few old buildings remain, the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, (which wasn’t a palace but a government building), Jamek Mosque and the Government Printing Office now the tourist information which also doubles as a city gallery.

We of course went into the TI but this time it was to see the history gallery and a large scale model of KL. The gallery was disappointing, it was only two rooms and it filled in no more history than our Lonely Planet had already given us. Now the large model, well that built up expectations we had to weave our way up stairs, then reached a curtained off room and told to wait till the next show. After a minute we were allowed into a large room which was pitch black and had a large model in the middle, then a video came on and told us nothing of interest and the model lit up once or twice then in two minutes it was finished. A real waste of time! After a quick look around the shop which had lots of Christmas items, very strange when it’s 30+ outside, we left. Upon leaving the TI we saw a sign for the “chocolate museum”! This obviously had to be done so we went down the steps into a... shop! This was basically a chocolate shop with 6 old chocolate making machines then a whole store of very expensive goodies. We sampled a few bits then made a swift exit before they could sell us anything.

From here we jumped back on the MTR across town to the National Museum (after walking down the middle of a freeway which believe it or not was the correct tourist-signposted walking route?!?!). The museum was really interesting (and free as we somehow managed to sneak in a back door without realising!) It told the story of Malaysia through it’s Portuguese, Dutch and then English rule, it’s importance on the Silk Route with trading ports like Georgetown and Melaka and the story of it’s independence in 1957.

We spent a good couple of hours in there soaking it all up before emerging into the afternoon monsoon rains. After sheltering for a couple of minutes we decided to brave it and huddled under our umbrella back along the freeway (getting splashed by cars!) to the MTR. We arrived at Chinatown with memories of Hong Kong and with the hope of exploring the night markets and maybe getting some decent food but were immediately disappointed! Not only was it tiny, all of the stalls sold nothing but cheap knock-offs of sunglasses, handbags, and football kits! I’m sure if you are into your designer labels this place would be heaven, but was neither Nick or my scene. Also annoyingly there only seemed to be fast food restaurants rather than decent eateries. Feeling annoyed and like we had wasted our time, we made our way back towards the hostel to eat.

A few hours later and we were settling down for food at an Irish Bar for pizza and salad (we know, but needs must!). There were a group of loud, drunk, middle-aged Aussie guys sat at a table near-by who were making a bit of a nuisance of themselves, but seemed harmless enough. Nick went to the toilet and while he was in there one of these guys happened to come in and asked “who the lady I was with was?” Nick replied “my wife” to which the guy responded “Ah, then that’s the end of our conversation - you’re a lucky man” Feeling rather perplexed, Nick returned and managed to whisper to me what had happened. Soon after two of the Aussie guys left leaving the drunkest and loudest on his own. Then he wandered over to our table and pulled up a stool and proceeded to tell us all about his life, how beautiful I was (and how amazing my teeth are?!), what a lucky man Nick was, how horrible Australian women are, and asked where he could find someone like me! We somehow managed to keep a straight face through all of this and even gave him tips on where in Nottingham he should go for a “good time”. As the conversation started to descend into rather adult territory with some rather personal questions we got the impression he was angling for more than just a conversation with the two of us, so we made a very quick exit!! Haha!

It was still early and we had no desire to go back to our hotel, so we walked the 20 minutes over to the Petronas Towers (again) to see them lit up by night and to watch their fountain and light show which was really cool. Another 100 or so photographs later, we decided to head back.

Our final full day in KL and the weather was beautiful - perfect for going up a tower. Lonely Planet had suggested the KL Tower offered better views that the Petronas, so our plan was to get the basic ticket up to the first viewing platform, than head over to the Petronas and get a ticket up the SkyBridge rather than all of the way to the top to save some money (again a LP suggestion). The KL Tower was really expensive RM59 (£XX), and was also quite disappointing. They have tried to make the whole experience more interesting by installing loads of shops, “cultural centres” and 3D cinemas at the base of the tower, but you essentially go up a lift, walk round and come back down - admittedly with some pretty impressive views along the way!

Again we felt a bit annoyed that something else had not lived up to our expectations so we walked over to the Petronas Towers (yes that is the third time!) to go up the Sky Bridge only to discover that yet again Lonely Planet had let us down! They no longer offer separate tickets for the bridge and the top, but one combined ticket for both costing RM80 (£15). This was too much for both of us to be able to go up due to our tight budget and we were kicking ourselves for wasting money on the KL Tower! Oh well! After um-ing and ah-ing we agreed that Nick should go up (he was desperate too and I had some work to do back at the hotel anyway), so we purchased our timed ticket for later that evening and set off to the Batu Caves on the MTR.

About an hour later and we arrived at a HUGE golden Hindu statue and an enormous flight of steps (282 to be precise) leading up. When the British had colonised in the 19th century they had discovered the vast Batu Caves and the Hindu Temple at the top. We climbed up (avoiding the angry monkeys playing with litter!) and as you can see from the photo were disappointed yet again! The caves themselves are very impressive, but as they are a “Hindu Temple” / Tourist Attraction they are filthy, covered in litter and graffiti and have tacky souvenir shops inside them! Nick had visited them 15 years previously and remembered them as being much better! Oh well…

We headed back to the city and went our separate ways for Nick to go up the Towers. Needless to say when we met back at the hotel later on he was suitably impressed! He described going up to the 42nd floor to the Sky Bridge which believe it or not is not connected to the towers! It floats on brackets between the two to allow for movement. He got 20 minutes on the bridge to take photos before getting back into the lift to go up to the 88th floor for some absolutely incredible views of KL just as the sun was starting to set. He raved about the tour and slammed LP for getting it so wrong as he was really upset that I could not share the experience with him, but he showed me the 134 photos he had managed to take in under an hour!!

We settled in for an early night for our bus to Melaka the next day...however at 04:00 Nick flinched when he thought he felt something touch his arm. Thinking nothing of it he settled to get back to sleep when all of a sudden he flinched so hard he woke me up saying he was convinced something ran across his face. I laughed at him while he went to the toilet, before squealing when I spotted the 2 inch long cockroach run across the bed!! Argh!! We spent the next 10 minutes being generally pathetic as it scurried around the room. We somehow managed to get it into the bin and tied the bag up quickly before dumping it out in the hallway for someone else to deal with. Needless to say we did not sleep well for the rest of the night!!

We checked out about 10:00 the next morning and complained about the cockroach, but they did not seem that bothered! Kuala Lumpur had been an interesting couple of days - parts were amazing, but parts had been really disappointing. It is a beautiful city with some incredible architecture, both modern and colonial, but we couldn’t help feeling a little underwhelmed as we left for our 2 hour journey to Melaka.

Sadly, all too soon, the time had come to leave Langkawi and catch our ferry to Georgetown, Penang. Nick was desperate to stay longer but it didn't work with either our timings or our budget (Langkawi was really quite expensive!) so consoled himself by spending most of the journey sunning himself on deck while I stayed glued to my seat reading fearful of feeling sea sick, as this was a catermaram and last time I was on one it was not good!

Roughly 3 hours later and we docked at the Jetty and only had a 10 minute walk to our hotel for the night. The Red Inn had excellent reviews and was relatively cheap. It also one of the few things we could find available. We had discovered after we booked our ferry tickets that we were arriving the day before the Penang Bridge Marathon so everything was fully booked! Having learnt from experience that some of the best guesthouses are not online, we figured we would stay one night and find a hotel easily enough while walking round the town- how naive we were! After 2 hours of going into every guesthouse, B&B and hotel we could find (the really expensive looking ones and the dodgy looking ones) we couldn't find anywhere that had a room - bollocks!

We stopped for food at a nice looking cafe where guests were encouraged to write messages on the walls (it was cooler than it sounds) and I had the spiciest Spaghetti Bolognese - OUCH! We also got talking to a couple from Argentina who were in the same situation and couldn't figure out what was best to do either. Leaving the restaurant narrowly missing the rain, we spent the rest of night coming up with ideas and quickly discounting them;
get the ferry back to Langkawi, however the hotels seemed to be full there too!

• Fly back to Bangkok to see what we missed when Charlie was ill - too expensive and a massive detour in the wrong direction!

• Fly somewhere random like Bali - too expensive!

• Fly to Borneo which was on our original itinerary - but we had no permits arranged!

• We even considered hiring a car to sleep in or just staying in a 24 hour McDonald!

Finally at about 02:00 we gave up deciding our only option was to get a bus straight to Kuala Lumpur and stay there for three days, buggering up our plans!

After not much sleep we set off on a last ditch attempt to find a hotel on our way to the bus station. Surprise, surprise no joy! Things got even worse when we got to bus station where our previous nights hotel had told us to buy our tickets. To be told that he was wrong and we needed to go to the bus station 12km outside of town! As some of you readers may know, this was also Nick's birthday so needless to say he was not very happy and had a complete meltdown in a coffee shop. Just as we had given up and were sulking our back to the Red Inn we walked past Rainbow Lodge 2. It was on a side street we hadn’t walked the previous day. Thinking there is no harm in asking, we went in ready for the now familiar rejection. To our surprise, she said yes. She has spare beds in a 6 bed dorm for only 18RM (£3.60) each including free wifi and breakfast! Bunks beds had not been either of our first choice for that night but it was cheap, immaculately clean and somewhere to sleep! Hurrah!! Problem solved and Nick was coming out of his birthday coma! After swapping hotels we went for a much needed coffee where I surprised Nick with a slice of birthday cake. The staff were brilliant and gave me a candle and everything!

Finally we were now able to relax and get to see some of Georgetown! It was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008 due to concentration of original Chinese Shophouses. It is quite pretty (albeit slightly rundown town) with lots of Colonial buildings and the most amazing coffee shops! After spending a couple of hours exploring the Esplande, Town and City Halls, and Fort Cornwallis we were both melting in the scorching heat - time for another drink!

As our dorm room didn't have a lock we had the laptop with us and like everywhere in SEA the coffee shop had wifi so we decided to learn from our mistakes and get all of accommodation booked, right up until we meet Nick's parents in Singapore. We also splashed out on a swanky boutique hotel for one more night in Georgetown to celebrate Nick's birthday properly and unwind after such a stressful 24 hours!

Everything booked and feeling less stressed we went off in search of some unusual street art the Argentinas had told us about. Around several street in the old town artist have created painting and incorporated 3D objects to make them stand out. They were brilliant and so creative, although we did have to wait for all the Asian tourist to have their photo in front of them one at time before we could actually appreciate them.

After a VERY hot (our dorm did not have AC!) but surprisingly good nights sleep and tasty breakfast we bid farewell to one hotel to check in to hotel number 3! Noordin Mewss]] was stunning. Tucked away on a quiet side-street the hotel was a series of converted shophouses immaculately restored and renovated with dark wood furnishings and shutters and felt like stepping back into the 1920s. The hotel only has 12 rooms spilt over two floors around a small swimming pool. Our room was equally impressive with antique furniture and an amazing bathroom!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool, being spoilt with free afternoon tea and feeling pampered - exactly what we needed! We were so lazy we couldn't even be bothered to leave the hotel to get food so dragged ourselves off the rattan sofa in the now candle-lit grounds to eat in the hotels restaurant - yummy!

Not surprisingly we slept like logs and had a late morning and fantastic breakfast before having to say our farewell to the hotel, their amazing staff and to Penang as we headed to the station to catch our bus to Kuala Lumpur.

Nick knew he wanted to return to Langkawi. He had visited once before with his parents 15 years ago and he still raves about the island and the hotel he stayed at and how wonderful it was. Our hotel in Ao Nang had a good deal on a mini-bus and ferry ticket (300 Bhat, £15 each) so Langkawi was set to be our next stop much to Nick’s delight. The mini-bus took an uncomfortable and crowded 6 hours to travel from Ao Nang down the Thai coast to Satun on the border, where we had an hours wait before boarding the ferry for the two hour journey to Kuah Port, Langkawi. Luckily, the ferry was really quiet so we were able to spread out and both fell asleep (we had been up since 05:00!!)

We docked at about 16:30 (Malaysia is 1 hour in-front of Thailand) and shared a taxi with a German guy met on the ferry who was staying fairly close to us in Pantai Cenang - the main beach resort on the island. The White Lodge Motel was a little more money that we would normally pay, but Langkawi is not exactly on the backpacker trail so prices are higher. The hotel was lovely though, almost like an American Motel set around landscaped gardens and minutes walk from the beach.

By this time it was already getting late, so we dumped out bags and went for a walk to explore the "town" (one road lined with shops, restaurants and the beach) and stopped at a beach side cafe for a drink and soak up the last of the evening sunshine before finding some food at a restaurant close to our hotel. By 21.00 we were both exhausted and crashed out for an early night...however at 02:00 we were both woken up by the most amazing thunderstorm right over head. The sound of the rain hitting the roof was so loud as it was so heavy!! It lasted for a good hour before starting to slow and before we managed to get back to sleep.

Next morning and the rain was still around (much to Nick's annoyance - although he was handling it very well I must admit!). We grabbed our brolly and went for a walk in search of some breakfast; finding The English Tea Room where we had some nice Croissants and pot of tea, while we waited for the rain to slow. We figured we may as well use the time to sort some stuff out, so booked our ferry tickets to Penang (84 RM, £16 each) for 2 days time, reserved a car (80RM, £15) for the next day to allow us to explore the island, booked an extra nights stay at our hotel and I went bikini shopping! After all of which it was still only 13:00 and the sky had started to clear and the sun was already beating down drying the pavements, so we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our beach stuff and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sunshine, swimming and being lazy, watching the sun-set and eating at another beach side restaurant.

We had picked up our car the night before (a tiny little silver thing we named Polly) so we could set straight off and make the most of our final day on Langkawi exploring the island. Nick drove an Automatic for the first time and picked it up really easily and quite enjoyed being back behind the wheel after 6 months of not driving!

Our first stop was to drive up the winding road to the top of Gunung Raya, which Nick remembered doing with his parents, however had forgotten that there is nowhere to stop at the top as it is a private communications base. There were a few roadside pull-ins where we were able to get some good views though, so it was not a completely wasted journey!

We then drove to Tanjung Rhu Beach, stopping for an early lunch at Scarborough Fish and Chips!! And spent the next couple of hours relaxing on the gorgeous and deserted beach!

Once we had too much of the sun we decided to stop at the Temurun Waterfalls measuring 100 feet with a large pool you can swim in. Although we were hot and the water was cool (after a small test with our toes) we decided not to jump in as we didn’t want to get our car wet. The waterfall was surrounded by jungle and lots of monkeys hoping to steal a snack or two from the locals.

Since Nick last visited Langkawi a cable car and sky bridge have been built and boast fantastic views of the island and Andaman Sea. Knowing it was a must see and also knowing that the bridge was unfortunately closed for repair we drove to the other side of the island via a small not very nice beach, Pantai Kok.

Upon reaching the cable car we could see this was a huge tourist trap with a holiday camp style village at the bottom, selling tacky souvenirs, food, pony rides and ice creams. Really not our scene but we bobbed and weaved round the tour groups to the ticket booth. The ticket was still full price even though you couldn’t go to the bridge but at £6 pounds each (30 RM) we couldn’t grumble. Luckily we had timed it right and didn’t have to queue, unluckily though the weather had changed and was threatening rain. The car holds 6 people so we had to ride to the first level with a large family who’s children squealed every time the car moved.

This wasn’t the best viewing platform we have been to on our journey. The views of the sea and islands were good but then you had lots of jungle and not much else.

Once down we drove back to Pantai Cenang, said goodbye to Polly and walked back to the beach for our final beautiful sunset.

On our last day the weather was baking hot, making Nick rethink leaving the island. We had breakfast at the English Tea Rooms again and went for our last stroll along the beach, it was now time to leave the island for Penang.

The night train from Bangkok was actually really nice. We were in a second class sleeper cabin which is basically just a normal train carriage until about 21:00, when they come along and convert the seats into the bottom bunks and fold down the top bunks and then each has a privacy curtain.

We both managed to get some sleep, but knew we had to get off about 04:30 so were paranoid about missing our stop - annoyingly, we did not reach our stop until 06:00, meaning we could have had an extra couple of hours sleep. We jumped off the train and were almost pushed into a waiting minibus which was packed with people and luggage. After 20 minutes it pulled in down a dirt track past a broken down bus with no wheels and arrived at a "bus station". Kicked off and given stickers (they seem to like them here) we waited for a clapped out coach. A further 2 hours later and we arrived at another "bus station". It turns out this wasn't Krabi or it's bus station but the offices of the bus company we were using and if we wanted to get to our destination we had to fork out another 100 Bhat (50p) each for a minibus to our hotel. Having no choice we purchased a ticket and jumped on the minibus for only a 10 minute drive to J Hotel.

The next 4 days were spent relaxing (and recovering) on beaches and hopping from island to island. So, if a picture tells a thousand words, then we have nothing more to say than this...

Ao Nang Beach

Railey Beach

Phra Nang Beach

Hong Island and it's Beaches

After a an amazing 4 days it was time to say goodbye to Thailand with a way too early bus to the Malaysian border.