We arrived in Sydney in two parties - Lea and the kids first, then me the day after. It was a 7 hour overnight flight from Singapore and it took it's toll on us. It was a couple of days before we'd got over it really.

Sydney is excellent. We wandered straight down to the Opera House and Harbour bridge. It's an amazing sight, especially when you've only ever seen it on the TV. We stayed in the Menzies Hotel for a few nights, but found accommodation for the weekend (1st in October) impossible to get, as it's a Bank Holiday here (Labour Day) and everybody is in town. Plus, there was the Rugby League Grand Final too and our hotel was overrun with Kiwis!

So we quickly decided to hire some transport and head out. If you need wheels, William Street in the King's Cross area of town is the place to go. All the companies are based here, so you can wander and get loads of quotes.

Our first stop out of Sydney was Terrigal, a little beach resort. We'd had to arrange it quickly but found a 2 bed apartment in town that came as a welcome change from hotels. Didn't have much time to explore though, as I had to look for the next place to stay - Port Stephens.

In Oz, you can go to an Estate Agent to ask for rented accomodation for holiday let. One called PRD in Shoal Bay found us an excellent 2 bed flat not far from the beach, so we snapped it up, especially as it put us back on budget - we'd paid over the odds for our place in Terrigal as it was Spring Bank Holiday.

Port Stephens has a resident Dolphin population and at this time of the year, Humpback Whales are migrating along this coastline. We wanted to go and see the Whales as we plan to swim with Dolphins in NZ. However, the sea was too rough when we went down to the jetty and we had to do the Dolphin trip instead. Not a problem really, it just means that the boat stays inside the Bay and doesn't go out to sea, but this is the 6th largest natural bay in the world, so there's plenty to cover and 160 Dolphins to find. After about an hour, we did find a Pod of about 8 Dolphins swimming ahead of us. Not as close as we would have liked but it was still nice to see them in their natural environment. Hopefully got some good pictures.

Port Stephens is almost halfway between Sydney and Brisbane on the East Coast of Oz (own up, how many of you posess a World Map ?!). We still have a week or two to get up to the Barrier Reef.

If only I could leave this awful place

and find the tranquil waters of the sea

to swim with your abandon and your grace

and lead your life so simple and so free.

But I must travel through life as a man,

as restless and as angry as a storm.

I seek out and I find peace where I can

but, to my human nature, must conform.

What must you think of me out here afloat

just looking on, your captive as you play?

Upon this large and slow and clumsy boat,

if you could speak my words, what would you say?

They say you dream of men, perhaps you do.

But, in my fondest dreams, I dream of you.

This town is the 2nd settled town in Australia.

About 10 years after the first convicts were sent over to Sydney Cove, it became clear to the British Government that the Officers guarding them, were using their cheap labour to live a life of Reilly. The infamous Captain William Blygh suffered his 2nd Mutiny here when he was Governor. The Rum Rebellion by his officers was the last straw for the British government, who sent out Lt Cl Macquarie to sort things out.

He duly took convicts and emancipists (ex-cons) to what is now called Port Macquarie, where he began the social reforms which led to the creation of modern Australia, allowing the convicts who had served their sentences to have equal rights to other Europen settlers and the military.

The town today is very nice and has loads of excellent beaches. Unfortunately for us, the weather is a bit overcast, but we can always pop in on our way back.

For some obscure reason, we celebrated Brett's birthday here - a day early. Goodness knows why, and even Lea didn't twig ! That's the problem with travelling though. Days of the week, and to some extent dates, don't matter. We have to know what dates we're due to leave countries, but that's about it!

Will somebody send us an email about a week before Christmas, just to make sure we remember to go sit on the beach !

Byron Bay is a surfers and Backpackers Heaven. It's a pretty little town with lots of restaurants and surf shops, but its highlight is the beach. It's a fantastic sight.

This was a bit of a disaster for us. We'd booked ahead a hostel that looked good, described as 5 star governmetn rated. But when we got there it was crawling with roaches and was full of kids screaming around the place. So we decided to leave town as long as our parcel forwarde by Flo' was in the Post Restante at the GPO, which it was.

Brisbane looks like a nice city, but I'm afraid we didn't hang around any more than we had to !

This is an excellent little town. Great beaches, plenty of accommodation and shops etc, and fairly new, so it's quite upmarket, clean etc. We stopped here for a couple of days on our way north and again our our way back south towards Sydney. We found an excellent apartment, a little over budget, but a treat. Lea likes the supermarkets and shopping, the kids love the beach and there's a couple of Internet places to keep me occupied !

There's plenty to eat here, lots of nice little restaurants along Hastings St in the main town, which is a good place to stroll.

This was 2 days drive up from Noosa. We stopped briefly in the port of Gladstone, which is a nice enough town, but not touristy at all. There were more engineers in our hotel than tourist, so I felt quite at home!

Airlie Beach is a bit of a misnomer, as there is only a small shingle beach and nobody on it, thanks to a big sign reminding people of the Stingers - deadly Box Jellyfish which start to come in at this time of year, for the next 6 months.

It is really the place to explore the southern Barrier Reef from though, so we found the Sea Star apartments up on the hill overlooking the town. Got a good deal, as we were booking for 10 nights. Fantastic apartment, so we made ourselves comfortable, despite the cockroach we encountered on our first night! Unfortunately, since at least 2 cockroaches have climbed out of Lea's bag in the past, we're never sure whether the ones we see are residents, or fellow travellers, if you see what I mean.

Of course, I have the job of emptying all the bags now !

We quickly chose a cruise with FantaSea, to the Barrier Reef. Although there are reefs around all of the islands along this coast (The Whitsunday Islands), these are "Fringing Reefs". The true Barrier Reef is 2-3 hours offshore and this is what we wanted to see.

FantaSea are the biggest operator and were excellent. All the staff were genuinely helpful and friendly - they have the best job in the world though, so they should be !

Lea and I booked ourselves in for a Scuba Dive, but Lea was ruled out due to a perforated eardrum. Damn shame, but she quickly went for a "Snorkelling Safari" instead. This kicked off almost as soon as we arrived at "Reefworld", a floating Pontoon permanently moored to a section known as "Hardy Reef". I had a little wait before my dive, so I went snorkelling on my own for a while. The temperature of the water was fantastic, even without wetsuits.

After a few minutes training in emergency measures, I was off underwater, following Jean our guide along fixed ropes down to various parts of the reef. He showed us all sorts of things including what he called a Woebegone Shark - pretty scary when he just directed me to swim down and stick my head inside a cave without knowing what I'm looking for, to find a 6ft shark a few feet from your face ! All too soon it was over, but on the way back he let me swim freely back to the pontoon, which was fantastic. It's just such a weird feeling, first of all breathing underwater, then swimming around with all sorts of wildlife around you. Strangely, though, the fish don't get in your way - you could swim through a shoal and never touch one.

Back on the boat, the four of us went out snorkelling again and encountered the resident "Googly Eye" fish, a huge 3ft long thing, described as an underwater Labrador by the staff! It lives by the Pontoon and loves coming up to be stroked! Amazing experience, stroking a 3 ft long fish ! I can't wait to swim with Dolphins after that !

Fantastic Day, but nowhere near long enough!

We did book another trip, out to Whitehaven Beach, but one day we cancelled it because of the huge dust clouds blown over from the outback. Then, when we got as far as the dockside, they told us that the winds were too strong to be able to actually land on the beach. As that was the whole point of our trip, we decided to save the cash for something else instead. Nevermind!

You could spend ages up here, although there isn't a lot to do in Airlie unless you're a backpacker. It is a good place to explore the Reef, providing you've got the money and the weather is kind !

We had to come here, but didn't want to come at Indy Car Race weekend or Schoolie's Week. The latter is when 50,000 school leavers descend on the place and get drunk!

Surfer's is like a city sprawled along a terrific coastline, only there's no business district like in other cities - it's all geared to tourists. Sounds tacky, but Australia does tacky better than most places. Can't explain why, but it does.

We found an apartment on the 26th floor of the Hi Surf tower - 40 pounds a night for a 2 bed place with the most fantastic view from the balcony. You'd pay a fortune for this in Europe!

The beach is great with terrific breakers, as you'd expect, and not too cold. Boogie boarding was fun here. I caught the "perfect wave" and zoomed in towards the beach on a fast-moving froth of saltwater, and promptly swallowed a pint of it as soon as I stopped. Excellent!

Good shops to wander round too, plenty to do for a few days. We went to Carrara markets just out of town, where they have all kinds of food, junk, books, crafts, everything. Pity we don't discover these things as soon as we arrive. Might save ourselves some money!

Weather was bad for the 3 days we were here. Funny, we didn't order that!

Visited the Big Banana plantation in town and saw how they are grown and harvested. Did you know that the Banana plant is a Herb and not a Fruit ? Well, you do now, and I suggest you have a sweep on how many time Brett and/or Beaulea remind you in the 12 months after we get back!

We drove to a place called Maitland in the wine-growing Hunter Valley region (Lea's instincts leading the way, of course). Couldn't find any accommodation. So, here's an example of how organised Aussie tourism is...

At 4:30pm on a SUNDAY, I took a long shot and rang directory enquiries for the number of the Real Estate agent we used when we last stayed in Nelson Bay, about 50km away. When I ring, blow me but they're still open. And when I ask about the apartment we previously stayed in, it is not only available, but cheaper than last time. How's 30quid a night for a spotless 2 bedroomed apartment.

Bit of a drive, but we knew where we were going and enjoyed another 4 days before heading back to Sydney.

A couple of days after arriving back in Sydney, I got a coach to Melbourne to go and visit Auntie Flo' and Uncle Trev' in the suburb of Fawkner. Great to see them and a bit of a weird experience being here, so far from home, for the first time. I even rang my Mum back in England from their house.

- The New South Wales Tourist info in Sydney Airport get better rates for Sydney Hotels than does the TI in the city, so don't be afraid to ask there. And there is a good bus link into town too.

- Eating out in Sydney isn't cheap. You can find reasonable food, but it's not everywhere. This seems like a city for the wealthier individual more than the budget-conscious family. Don't let that put you off, just be prepared to walk a lot to find affordable food!

- Watch the Excess on car hire insurance. It is typically $2750 and you have to pay a lot extra per day to reduce that to $300. Better to use Bayswater ($200XS) or Ascot ($300XS) still with good prices.

- There's a big gap in the motorhome hire market. A 2 berth campervan can be had for around $65/day, but if you want a roomy 4 berth, you're looking at $200/day ! Of course, this is spring, so it is cheaper in winter, but dearer still in summer.

- One of the best supermarkets in Oz is Woolworths, believe it or not, where it is totally devoted to food, as opposed to chocolate and household goods in the UK!