The week started with our trip along The Great Ocean Road, where we were stunned by the beauty of the Southern coast. We counted the Apostles in the southern ocean and said wow each time we saw a blue and red parrot. We discovered why this state is so green, it rains for days on end, the result is stunning rolling hills and giant forests. We met up with my sister and had a great time with her. We visited the city of Melbourne and tried to understand why it is called the most European city in Australia.

Day 84 (24/11/10) The Twelve Apostles

Waking up early is great; you wake up with the sound of nature all around you. As we drove to the Twelve Apostles look out we passed 2 kangaroos and lots of multi coloured birds. Again I love living in nature nothing beats it. We visited the look out which was a little disappointing as there are not Twelve Apostles that you can see but about eight. We saw some nicer sights yesterday. We drove along the rest of the Great Ocean Road which twists along the stunning coast line. In the late afternoon we arrived in Geelong, got to our campsite then it happened, it started to rain. First it started out as just a light shower, and then it turned into a great big storm that rained buckets all night long. The only thing I hate when camping is when it rains without stopping, everything is humid, and we are unable to dry anything. Well, I know that we have had great weather so far and I know that it can not be sunny everyday, so I am not complaining, well ok just a little.

Day 85 (25/11/10) Cinema and Rain

We woke up to the sound that we fell asleep to, the sound of rain hitting our van fast and hard. The good news is that our van is really clean and shinny and white now. The bad new is it is still raining. After packing up in the rain, not really a nice thing to do we left the campsite and headed for cover in the nearest shopping mall. Still on the mission to find Reindeer ears for our Baby Hippo, that yet again we did not find. We did however find the cinema and then though the tickets are quite expensive here 16$ each, we chose to see a movie as we have not seen one since we left Paris, almost 3 months ago. Harry Potter was starting in a few minutes, so we chose to go and see that. It was a nice feeling to be watching a movie in the cinema; I used to do this at least once a week if not more in Paris. So I really enjoyed being in the cinema, and I am a Harry Potter fan, the movies keep getting better, the special effects are really cool, the only bad part of this movie is that it is made in 2 parts so we have to wait until next year to see the second part of the movie. After that we hit the road and started to drive towards Shepperton, where my sister lives.  We got stuck on the freeway around Melbourne, and got buckets of water thrown on us once we got on to the highway, so we decided to stop for the night at a rest area. The cool thing here is that there is a covered parking so we could get out of the van without getting wet. We spent the rest of the evening watching the thunder and lighting crack in the sunset sky, very beautiful.

Day 86 (26/11/10) Catching up with my sister in Shepperton

Finally the rain has stopped! This makes me very happy; I can go outside without being wet, this is important when you live outside. Today was a very special day for me; we went to see my sister in Shepperton. I am really happy to spend time with her as it has been a long time since I have last seen her. We arrived at midday and spent the afternoon catching up on all that we have missed out in each others lives and I met her boyfriend John. In the evening we went and had an Italian Pizza dinner, at a pizzeria in town, we ordered too much so we took some home for lunch tomorrow. It has been a really great day.

Day 87 (27/11/10) Endless Rain

Today we went to see where my sister works; she works 15 minutes out of town on a horse ranch. She works training young horses not to afraid of humans and gets them used to be handled by humans. It is really cool where she works, lots of horses, dogs and many bugs, the bugs are not so cool but still it was fun to see where she worked. In the afternoon Fred and I went for a walk in the forest on the edge of town, where we spotted a lot of cute little kangaroos. I will never get board of seeing them of watching them hop away from us. It has been raining all day without stopping. I am really getting sick of the rain.

Day 88 (28/11/10) Family BBQ

The magic and beauty of the State of Victoria is that one day it is raining like it will never stop and the next it is sunny and warm as if it never rained. This state is the greenest we have been in so far. Today it is Sunday, so being together on a Sunday my sister and I decided to have a BBQ. We went down to Safeway to pick up the meat and veg that we intended to cook up and then went a picked up the boys and took them down to the mini golf course where we had planned to have a BBQ and play mini golf, but the wind was too strong so we just had the BBQ. As always we cooked far too much meat and had a lot left over, which was good as for dinner all we needed to do was heat it up again. In the afternoon we watched one of my all time favourite movies, Slum Dog Millionaire, which is a heart warming and yet heart breaking story of the way the world works in Indian.

Day 89 (29/11/10) Business Day

Today we had a lot to get done in one day. As my sister starts working again tomorrow and we will be leaving in the morning everything had to be done on this Monday. The first order of business was to go and have an eye test, for Julie, as she needs new glasses. We went down got her eyes tested, and then we went to spec savers to get her a new pair of glasses. She hates glasses, as do I, but she can not wear contact lenses so she has no choice. The next thing on the list was to renew Julie’s British passport, this as always proved to be complicated. We needed to get an appointment at the post office to check over here application, and then we needed to go and print out and fill in the application and take some photos. Then we returned to the post office and made the application and were free for the rest of the day! We went shopping at a discount shop and we finally found Reindeer ears for our Baby Hippo, we are so happy. We also got ourselves some Santa hats so now we are all really for Christmas. In the evening we went to the stud farm where my sister works to say goodbye to her, for now. We then hit the road and headed in the direction of Melbourne and stopped half way.

Day 90 (30/11/10) Melbourne

Today we drove into Melbourne, we did plan to stay there for a few days in Melbourne, but soon found out that it as hard to find a camp site or youth hostel with a parking near the city so we decided just to spend the day. We were disappointed by the city; it is very complicated to drive around and is not very pretty or inspiring. We parked in parking in the city centre and went to the tourist information office, but we did not find out very much, for once the tourism office was not very friendly, so we picked up a hand full of brochures and left. What we did found out, was where Ticket Tec was. Ticket Tec is a shop that sells tickets for concerts and shows; we found out that there were still tickets left for the U2 360° tour in Sydney. Fred, being the sweetheart he is, brought us tickets to go to the concert as my birthday gift. I am so happy! We will hopefully be seeing U2 in Sydney on the 14^th of December, I can’t wait! The bad news was when we got back to the car park and went to pay the ticket we found out that we owed 32$ for 2 hours of parking! What a horrible rip off! We left this city that has not been friendly to us and parked at a rest stop and had a BBQ for dinner.