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15th January 2010 Today we decided to buy a day ticket on the Brisbane transport network which would allow us unlimited travel on all the cities ferries, trains and buses. When we arrived in the city, we started our exploration by jumping on one of the CityCats. The CityCat service runs along the Brisbane River between Apollo Road in the suburb of Bulimba in the east and the University of Queensland at St Lucia, via South Bank and the Brisbane CBD. This is a pleasant way to travel past such Brisbane icons as the Story Bridge and South Bank Parklands and would give us a good opportunity to see a good portion of the city. ...

12th & 13th January 2010 Something that Aunty Mary had asked us to do while we were here was to help sort out a laptop for her and Billy, so yesterday morning was spent shopping for the right computer. With our mission achieved we returned home. Then we went for a drive around Sanctuary Cove, which is an exclusive development on the Northern Gold Coast. Ed had just finished saying how we hadn’t seen any Kangaroos and disputing their existence when we rounded the corner and there were three of them sat in the middle of an island on this exclusive housing development looking just like large bunny rabbits. ...

6th January 2010 After an absolutely freezing night on the train, where we did manage to sleep for a few hours, but that was all, we arrived tired and smelly in Brisbane. From here we got on a train to Nerang where we were met by Aunty Mary and Billy. We went for an eat all you want breakfast buffet at Jupiters Casino even though it felt more like lunchtime for us. A really lovely breakfast followed by a swift tour of Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise and the Spit with a good look at the beach and the sea which was a little rough. ...

17th January 2010 Despite the enjoyment of yesterday evening, I should have known that that much wine was going to come back and bite me on the bum! Excess wine consumed plus a late night plus not sleeping too well due to aforementioned excess wine meant a very tired Claire, although thankfully there was no accompanying headache/hangover. We slowly got ready and went out late morning to the Valley where we wandered around the Brunswick markets with Sofia taking a good look at everything like a true shopper! The Valley is the suburb with all the trendy bars and clubs and hence was very quiet while we were there as people were still recovering from the night before. ...

16th January 2010 The weekend’s here which means we get some time to spend with Anna, Nathan and Sofia. This morning we headed into Brisbane on the bus to explore the Modern Art Gallery on Southbank. An excellent gallery in a wonderfully designed, airy, modern building incorporating plenty of windows looking out over the Brisbane river and the gardens along Southbank. This is the largest gallery of modern and contemporary art in Australia and currently showing the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. ...

11th January 2010 We’ve booked a hire car for the next three days so as we can go out and explore areas around Surfers Paradise, particularly the Hinterland, which is quite beautiful. On picking up the car we decided to go to Mount Tamborine, driving up through the bush with fantastic views of Surfers Paradise and the massive Q1 building standing out on the horizon. We drove through Eagle Heights, which is the largest settlement up on Mount Tamborine with its 500m street of art galleries and cafes and headed for North Tamborine. ...

8th January 2010 Since we’ve got to Queensland, it has become quite apparent that my wardrobe is a bit too full of thick clothes to be comfortable in this climate, and it’s only set to get hotter while we travel south and then into the centre. I needed a new wardrobe and after some advice from Billy and Aunty Mary we headed into Southport to take a look in the Op Shops (charity shops to those from the UK). ...

7th January 2010 We had a wonderful night’s sleep - well overdue after last night. This morning we headed into Surfers which is about a half hour walk from Aunty Mary’s. We sat on the beach for a while which was fairly busy but with small bluebottle jellyfish in the water, we decided to give the swimming a miss. Then we wandered around the mad, touristy place that is Surfers. ...

14th January 2010 Off to Brisbane this morning, so we caught the train from Nerang to Roma Street where Anna and Sofia met us to take us back to their lovely shaded apartment in the suburb of Cooperoo. After a quick pit-stop Anna dropped us in the city centre so we could get our bearings and find out some information about the transport system for getting about in the next few days. ...

5th January 2010 We were off to Surfers Paradise today, but our train didn’t leave Sydney until 4pm, so we still had some time to do a bit more sight-seeing before we left. Our first stop was at Central Station where we offloaded our bags ready for the train later. Leaving the station feeling a lot lighter footed, we took the thirty minute walk to Sydney Fish Market. We’d read up a bit about the Fish Market, and knew that they offered a tour, but it only ran a couple of days a week, and we were too late finding out about it before we were leaving for Surfers. We still thought we’d head on over and take a look. On arrival, we found that there were a number of restaurants here, and lots of fishmongers selling an amazing assortment of fish, from salmon, to lobsters, and live crabs. Unfortunately there was no public viewing area of the trading floor that we could find, which was a little dissapointing as it was really what we had walked over to see. Perhaps we’ll have to try to schedule in the tour next time we’re in Sydney. ...

4th January 2010 This morning the weather was looking better, so our trip on the Ferry to Manly was back on. Sydney has a travel ticket which gives you unlimited use of ferries, trains and buses for a day so we bought one of these each from Central Station and set off for Circular Quay on the subway. The ferry terminal is right next door to the train station at Circular Quay, and the ferries to Manly are very frequent, so we didn’t have long to wait before we were on the boat, and being whisked across Sydney Harbour to Manly. It is about half an hour ferry ride to Manly and offers some excellent views of the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Sydney skyline along the way. ...

3rd January 2010 Drizzle heralded the start to today, so we abandoned plans to go to Manly on the ferry and headed for the Opera House via Circular Quay instead. By the time we reached Circular Quay the weather had brightened a bit and some of the street performers were starting to get going, including an Aboriginal guy playing the digeridoo and posing for photos at the same time! ...

2nd January 2010 It was time to say goodbye to the Hilton today and downgrade ourselves back to reality and hostels. The hostel we’re staying at is a little further out of town than the Hilton, but only a couple of stops along on the underground. It is cerainly pretty basic and rough around the edges, but it will do us fine for 3 nights I should think. After checking in and off-loading our bags we walked back into town with the intention of getting to The Rocks in order to catch the Saturday market. Whilst en-route the heavens opened and we had torrential rain for a good 20 minutes! We abandoned our plan of walking to The Rocks, and instead headed back down into the subway to catch the train to Circular Quay. By the time we arrived the rain had eased off a bit, and The Rocks Saturday Market was only a 10 minute walk away. We had a look round the market for a while and then stopped off for a couple of delicious salads in a little cafe before resuming our browsing. ...

1st January 2010 A late start this morning, after not getting to bed until the early hours. Our first stop was a cafe not far from the hotel for a cooked breakfast, then the hunt began to find an internet cafe so we could Skype our friends at Neil and Yvonne’s who were just getting to New Year. It didn’t take long to find a cafe and we managed to get to speak to everyone shortly after it had ticked over to midnight for them. They seemed to be having a great night and it only took 3 attempts to get the Skype call going! It was great to be able to see everyone and have a chat, and especially amusing to see just how drunk they all were - more on that later… ...

30th & 31st December 2009 Yesterday we spent the day travelling, first from our lovely spot at Halfmoon Cottage back to Christchurch where we enjoyed our final Kiwi meal of fish and chips (what else!), then onto the airport to catch the plane to Sydney. We arrived at the Hilton on George Street in Sydney, arguably the best hotel we’ve stayed in so far with its modern room, comfy bed and great view over George Street. After checking in, the priority was to do a bit of a recce in preparation for the New Years Eve fireworks tomorrow so we wandered down to Circular Quay and around the Opera House where preparations for private parties and public areas were in full swing. ...

29th December 2009 Our last full day in New Zealand today, and the weather has improved again. After breakfast we made our over to Akaroa for a final mooch around, and it was a bit quieter than it had been yesterday afternoon, although the beach was still quite busy - hardly surprising given how nice the weather was. We also found an interesting sculpture of a painter with an invisible canvas. ...

28th December 2009 Another cloudy day today, but not to be defeated we borrowed a couple of bikes from the hostel and cycled round to the two nearest bays to the hostel, French Farm Bay and Duvauchelle Bay. After some lunch back at the hostel we headed out in the car to explore some of the more remote areas of Banks Peninsula, including Little Akaloa, where we stopped for a picnic lunch, and Okains Bay. There’s a lovely beach at Okains Bay with a camping ground. Unfortunately it was rather cold when we got out here, so we didn’t linger for too long. ...

27th December 2009 Since the last few days have been truly lazy ones, this morning we decided to get some air into our lungs and go for a walk in the Hinewai Park. This is a local conservation area, most of which is on private land and is privately managed. Unfortunately, after some heavy rain in the night, the cloud this morning was very low and put paid to any ideas we may of had about climbing mountains for views of the peninsula. Instead, we took the steep (and very wet) path down into the valley for a look at some of the waterfalls. ...

26th December 2009 After last night’s feast it was a late breakfast this morning. Then we headed out to Akaroa where with it being Saturday all the shops were open for business. We took a drive down to north head, where the entrance to Akaroa is flanked by sheer cliffs, including a rock with a hole into it. We sat for a while at the top of the hill watching the dolphin cruise boats down below. ...

25th December 2009 Hope you all have a wonderful time, wherever you are. We’ve spent a lazy day in the sunshine today, not doing very much. We did take a ride out along the Summit Road which takes you right round the top of the mountains surrounding Akaroa, offering some wonderful views back down the Bay, the peninusla we walked out to yesterday, and the hostel where we are staying. ...