Hello there!

Time for another update on what we've been up to. Hopefully this one will be shorter than the last! And Kate is hoping for this too, therefore taking over in the typist' chair!! Unfortunately nobody won the cherry ripe bar. Mainly because there was only one applicant and they got it wrong! Still up for grabs but the best before date is looming!! A second possible winning opportunity for those soap lovers amongst you....which one of the original Kennedy family was spotted wandering around a park in Melbourne?? (Phil, negative despite having a head start, try www.neighbours.com or www.google.com.au)

Anyhow, have been in Melbourne for around three weeks and have stayed in two different hostels. The first one was back in the huge student union like place and we soon hot healed out of there when they failed to honour their promise of cheap accomodation over the Commonwealths. So we are now in a smaller place which is much quieter, cheaper and we have spoken to lots more people! Excellent!

The Commonwealth Games were clearly a highlight and were amazing. Much better than on the TV, the atmosphere in the city was really good. We happened on the Baton Relay one day and managed to catch some of the bands there. We saw DJ Dexter from The Avalanches which was amazing and a band called the Rogue Traders, which cunningly features a current star from Neighbours. Can you name her? There's a cherry ripe bar in it for you (except Lucy Sammons who already has inside information and need not apply!!!) surprisingly! (They are Cadbury's you know!) We went to watch the Rugby Sevens, Mens Gymnastics and an Athletics evening. They were all fantastic, although the Rugby was probably the best atmosphere and we did beat the Australians in the last game of the evening much to our pleasure! Felt quite sorry for some of the smaller countries (Sri Lanka/Kenya/Uganda) who were just brushed aside by the huge players from teams like Fiji/NZ/England. Have you ever seen a mouse try to knock a bull over and win? We haven't either. They gave it their all though and got some of the biggest cheers of the night. We managed to get ourselves on the TV watching the gymnastics and apparently we looked extremely bored, although we both really enjoyed it and couldn't possibly bend the way some of those guys do! We cheered on anyone from Britain but still didn't get a medal that night! Never mind. The Athletics were overshadowed by the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground where they were held. There were 83 thousand people there by all accounts. And we did manage to get some medals, although we were still sick of the Australian National Anthem by the end of the evening!

During the Commonwealths they had the Melbourne Festival running in the parks nearby. There was loads of stuff going on. We saw a band playing whilst suspended from Trapeze-like ropes and swinging around upside down. That was ok but again there is a limited amount you can do while you're trying to play music! All sorts of dancing going on including hip hop, Aboriginal dancers, and Kenyan dancers.But I think Rich's clear favourite was a show called Legs On The Wall which was an animated film projected onto a wall and the characters were abseiling down and swinging around the wall within the animation. It was pretty amazing and very unique.

Between doing all of this we have visited some beaches and seaside towns and sampled their very fresh and lovely fish and chips! Done the museums and art galleries so much so that we need not do any more for some time. I think the Immigration museum was the last straw! We have been up the heights of the Observation deck and the Sofitel Hotel (where I got chatting to a N. Ireland 100m runner in the toilets and where Prince Edward stayed during the Commonwealths!) to look out over Melbourne, which is always impressive to see. We visited the old Gaol where Ned Kelly was hung and the Casino where we watched people lose all their money. One guy we watched lost $600 in about ten minutes. The local market here has a night market during the summer which has lots of jazz music, food stalls (cracking Ethiopian curry and dutch pancakes) and lots of gifts (although we didn't buy any so uncross your fingers!). We met up with Alexander, Amy's brother, and his girlfriend here and had a few drinks with them. We also met up with a guy Rich met travelling five years ago and learnt that he is now married (Congrats again Brett!). Oh yes and (un)willingly took part in some street theatre which involved the act juggling on a tightrope, lots of sticky tape, 7 men, one little boy and Kate! Ask no questions, tell no lies.......

We found some time to research a distant relative of mine on behalf of my Dad. We got a bit addicted to the thrill of the chase and spent quite a bit of time going between different towns and their libraries, looking through old newspapers, the registry office, cemetary and the funeral directors. We found out loads of info and decided it's a bit like fishing. Tad boring unless you catch a big shark! Tee hee!! It's a shame though because people in hostels always ask what your doing each day and by the time we had said Registry office twice, funeral directors and cemetary it was getting a bit embarrassing!

So we have checked out....off to Canberra on the bus tonight. Apparently there is nothing there and it's going to be very boring. The only people that go have never been before! Good job we have our own little minds and can make our own decisions eh! Well, maybe, we'll let you know! We'll put some new photo's up again soon to keep you interested, hopefully!

Hope this finds you all well. Hope to hear from you all soon. Keep smiling

Love

K & R xx

Hi Guys

Thought its about time we updated you all on what we've been up to! Last time we posted as you know we were headed to Tasmania. It's been two weeks, so be prepared! The flight was eventful in itself because they come in really low, overshoot the runway and then turnaround to come into land! Kate thought we were going to make an emergency landing in the sea and didn't like it! I must admit my hand was sweating, or so I thought until I realised Kate was just squeezing all the blood out of it! Might lay off the flights for a bit now............

We got into Hobart and stayed there for a couple of nights before picking up the car, the weather was pretty bad but we went on a brewery tour and fattened up on Fish and Chips to make up for it!! Our first destination was Port Arthur down the south east of Tassie, on the way we stopped at some lookout points of different bays/beaches and rock formations. We then stopped in a Tasmanian Devil park - I wasn't leaving without having seen some! We saw one in the wild later on, unfortunately it was already roadkill! We got to feed some wild Kangaroos and Wallabies as well. Then got to our hostel at Port Arthur (population 170) only to find the house open but deserted, with only some Germans looking around longingly for some staff! A woman turned up later on to check us in and we got free entry to the Port Arthur Historic site (an old bustling port that housed many British convicts) so we went for a look around there which was interesting/eerie/close to home (with them being British, not that we've turned to crime for cash!).

Day two involved a lot of driving (we've excelled as a driving/navigation team!!) we arrived at Freycinet National Park (the first of many) and headed to Wineglass Bay for some picture postcard views, unfortunately the weather was pretty awful so we've got some nice cloudy pictures! A bit gutting after an hours trek uphill to get there! We stayed the night in a little place called Bicheno and went off on a tour to a Penguin Rookery to see some Fairy Penguins (the smallest in the world). The Penguins come up the beach every night to their nests in the bushes to feed their young. Apparently they bullied the Rabbits out and some now live in burrows! They come up and literally walk right through your legs which was really cool, the photo's are all a bit rubbish though because of the lack of flash and Penguins not wanting to pose for photo's!

I'm going to quicken the pace now as I've been told I'm rambling! Go stick the kettle on, make sure you're sitting comfortably then continue reading .................... (or just leave!)

Ok, day three was bushwalking through Douglas Apsley National Park, picnic'd in the river as the Gorge was so dry (see the picture - and the lizard was from there too). We drank 5 litres of water with the heat and didn't need the loo, though the pit toilets weren't so inviting anyway!! Onto Launceston the next day stopping at the Bay of Fires - the second best beach in the world by all accounts, but not in crap weather! We climbed some 20m high sand dunes which were amazing but the wind getting up and blowing sand in our eyes wasn't! We planned to stay two nights in Launceston but abandoned that idea when we figured that the hostel was pretty horrible - you win some you lose some. On our way to our rearranged destination of Devonport the next day we were heading towards the Marakoopa Caves (complete with Glowworms and Spiders!) when Kate spotted an Echidna ambling along the side of the road, needless to say I was transfixed and took a bunch of photo's! They have weird feet, its almost as though they are walking on the back of their wrists! We arrived at the YHA in Devonport - suddenly 2 nights in Launceston didn't seem too bad!! The place was full of nutters, I think because these places are so small the hostel's double up as Looney Asylums! The best description that we came up with was that parts of Tasmania are a little bit 'League of Gentlemen'!

After escaping 'the asylum' the next morning Kate drove us up to Stanley which is a really pretty little coastal town. In the evening we headed for Rocky Cape National Park, so that we could go wildlife spotting (don't think Kate was too keen because it was pitch black and in the middle of nowhere, with all sorts rustling in the bushes!) Anyways we saw quite a lot of wildlife around dusk mostly from the safety of the car! The next morning we got up and walked up 'The Nut' (not one of the residents!) for which Stanley is famous, it was a steep climb and we didn't fancy the precariously balanced chairlift but worth it when we got there apart from being eaten alive by flies!

Onto Cradle Mountain National Park the next day, a little too comercialised for us but with fantastic views all the same. We did a couple of bushwalks around there but didn't fancy the 5 day overland trek to Lake St Clair. We then stopped on our way to Strahan at Montezuma falls, which were around 100m tall and very impressive. Strahan brought us into what appeared to be another looney asylum with a crazy lady telling Kate how she'd cured herself from diabetes by not drinking milk! Imagine the horror when she then asked if she could borrow some milk!!! We ran off then and hid when we saw her looking for us to return it!!!

The next day we stopped at the other end of the overland track (Lake St Clair) and did a couple of walks there (tried to spot some Platypus's with no joy) and then drove onto Maydena to stay in a really nice but deserted hostel. Actually it was a guys house who had opened it up for backpackers, the beds were really comfy! We did another evening bushwalk and saw some more wallabies, possums, owl and a bandicoot! In the morning the guy that owned the hostel started telling me about how distraught (ie the most emotional moment of his life!) he was about trees being logged, one of his mates turned up and started talking about how some tree huggers had been arrested in a 'peaceful' protest! I think we stumbled upon a little fraction of Greenpeace or something, although Kate was hiding in the bedroom at this point and was blissfully unaware until I filled her in later!!! We went off in search of a tree to hug and boy did we find some! Big Styx, the biggest hardwood trees in the world, standing around 87m tall and over 400 years old - It was the best hug of my life!

Kate then drove us down to peaceful little Dover and we stayed in another really nice place with Maureen a 60 yr old yank from Cape Cod as our only company! The hostel had a small jetty which we went and chilled out on and spotted a Ray in the water (Sting or Manta we're not sure!). Forget Attenborough, Irwin, Nutkins or Strachan the amount of wildlife we've seen on this trip so far we should have our own show! Bring it on!

After breakfast on the beach (just to make you jealous! Don't talk to us about snow!!!) the next morning it was time to return the car although the new coat of 'fly squat' paint wouldn't do it any harm, 2500km in 11 days, 0 roadkills and Tasmania done and dusted! A beautiful part of the world that would be even better in the height of summer.

So we had a wicked time. Have a little look at the photo's. We selected 18 out of 360, so just be grateful. We'll get the slideshow sorted for when we get back!!!

Back in Melbourne now, the Commonwealths have commenced, we're off to the Rugby Sevens this evening and yes we do have a St Georges flag in tow (3ft x 5ft) , Swing Loooow ...................................

WAKE UP!! Will let you get off now and will fill you in later! Byeeeee....

PS Did we really see two of the cast of Hollyoaks in Tasmania? Yes I think we did!!! There's a Cherry Ripe bar in it for the first person to guess which two ..........................