More Sydney, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road and Grampians

Ok... Sydney was fantastic! Thanks Khang for such nice hospitality and guide through the city... would not been the same without you!

Tuesday was another nice day in Sydney; we started off with the ferry from Parramatta to Darling Harbour in Sydney. Very nice to see the city from the water side. In Darling Harbour we went for the Aquarium for almost 2,5 hours... there were Dugongs (mix between Hippototumus and a Whale), sharks, sting rays, crocodile and a loooot of different fishes... It was enormous and very nice!

After that we deserved a lunch and it was a quick one on a familiar Thai place. Then we took the bus to famous Bondi beach!

The sun was shining (although, it was not that hot) and Jacob was persistent in getting in the water... if he would... I should...

So.. we plunged in the BIG waves!! And it was very nice.. much warmer than in the air. But since it was late afternoon the waves were getting bigger and all of a sudden, the life guards closed the beach for swimming... But, we made it! The surfers were still going strong... Can't believe they want to do that...

We spent the evening on a Chinese restaurant before we went to the movies...

Thursday morning we took the flight to Melbourne. After finding a hostel we strolled through town and actually managed to get some left over tickets to "Billy Elliot- the musical" the same night, I was thrilled!! It was fantastic (according to me... Jacobs’s first musical... maybe not of the same opinion)!!

The next day we had a busy schedule going to the market and taking the tram to St Kilda, famous for good cakes! We got cakes and a lovely present for my sister! We strolled St Kilda’s beach walk way


and also got a look at Melbourne’s Formula 1 track (located in the beautiful and huge Albert Park, with great views of the city skyline)!!


Very exiting to imagine the pit stops during the race. The day ended with an Australian football game... rugby, but still not... Very popular, but a bit long... 4 x 30 min... But it was nice to see, and we really got a good grip of the game!


The next day we picked up our second Wicked camper-van. A crap-van! So old... so bad... It smelled... it made funny noises and third gear just worked like 60% of the time... Marvelous!! Oh, well.. only 4 nights!!


We spent the days driving Great Ocean Road, with beautiful beaches

and exciting rain forests


Along the way, we stopped at the great surf museum, close to the world-famous "Bell's beach"


After driving along the ocean road, we head up to Grampians national park


(were we actually were allowed to bush-camp in the bush!!), and then back to Melbourne going south. The days on the road got us near wild kangaroos, wallabies (not on photos), emus and koalas!


So, we are now back in Melbourne and tomorrow heading for Harvey bay to explore Fraser Island and Great Barrier Reef.

Australia is nice... but expensive! A lot more expensive than NZ... and people were a bit friendlier on NZ... (one example, when hiking we always got a "How'yr doing" if we met someone... here they look strange on us when we try that...).

Got to go!