AUSTRALIA...!!!

We arrived in Melbourne in december and set about finding a house and work straight away.

Sunny Christmas!

Seafood for christmas dinner....delicious!

Dan's christmas present - tickets to the boxing day test at the MCG.  We'd tried to see India play in India so luckily they followed us to Australia.  It was awesome.  The stadium ushers were really relaxed so we wandered around and saw the match from every angle.

A Very Australian Tree

We meet a lovely guy called aaron - he is a friend of some friends we made in thailand.  We end up moving in to his lovely bungalow near St Kilda and gets Dan a job at the this restaurant, Di Stasio.

Aaron arriving for work.

Pippa gets work at a local cafe/restaurant where they roast their own coffee.  Coffee is a BIG thing in melbourne so having the best around on tap was amazing!

Our anniversary trip organised by Dan...motel,  beautiful dinner, and a surf lesson the next day!

Getting settled into Melbourne we got bikes - its a big city with wide roads and our house was ten mins from the beach by bike so it was the best way to get around!

An almost photographic representation of our surfing experience through the medium of cake.

25! And a birthday in the middle of summer!

The aquarium had all kinds of strange creatures...

Melbourne City Centre

A visit to Mornington Peninsular - south of melbourne city many beautiful beaches and where aaron's mum lives.

Massive Pelican

Lust

Yeah!

The hand of Kirtley!  Kimmy visited us on her way to New Zealand. It was so awesome to catch up with an old friend and swap travel stories of the past few months - it almost made our new life a bit more real being able to see someone from england!

Australian (monopoly!) money... in this case just enough to buy a van!

First trip in the van for Pippa's birthday...

Her birthday present - horse trekking through beautiful countryside!

After the horse trek we arrived in the national park in the pitch black and so just parked up, spread out the blankets in the back of the van and camped out.  We woke up to this incredible misty lake with kangaroos walking past and kookaburras swooping overhead.

We began work on the interior of the van.  Here are a couple of work in progress pics.  The main plan was to get some stable and safe seating for when the carter-wagstaffs and sophie arrived.

Slightly fearful passengers as we wind the coast of the great ocean road!

The incredible house of a friend of Ivanas who very sweetly let us stay.  It was so so beautiful being high up in the trees with the sea sparkling in the background. 

Kookaburra!  The owners of the house feed the birds often so as soon as we stepped into the balcony they flocked to greet us.  It was a bit ace ventura and pretty magical!

Sophie the number one bird lady!

Dude!

By May it was getting a bit colder.  We were working a lot to save for the next bit of the trip but when rare evenings off had sunsets like this it was all good.

This spider is big enough to hi-5.  A huntsman - scary but harmless (but scary!)

Drive-in movie theatre with old americanised diner!

uncanny

Charlotte's date

Our friend charlotte in one of the many cafes we visited in Melbourne.  She's an awesome musician so keep an eye out in the next few years!

We ended our time in melbourne with a camping trip.  It was really really cold!  We have both finished work and said our goodbyes to the lovely friends we have made.  The van is ready (pictures coming soon!) and we leave today to find surf , sunshine, farm work.  We'll keep you posted on the coming adventures...!