After a night in Ceduna we head for Adelaide. It’s a long drive so we arrived there late in the evening but upon arrival made our way into the city for a look.

Adelaide is a well laid out city with a perfect grid formation in the city centre. There are lots of lovely old wooden buildings with large balconies on the second floor which are real colonial buildings! The pace in Adelaide seems really relaxed compared to other cities. There is a city circle tram that’s free so it is a really easy way to get around the city centre.

We decided to escape the heat from the city so we hopped on a tram to Glenelg beach only a few miles out of town. There are beautiful botanic gardens in Adelaide and at night you can head to the Moonlight cinema in the garden. You can rent bean bags and sit back, relax, and enjoy a movie in the great outdoors! I still haven’t got over the novelty of going to the cinema outside!

The next day we head out of Adelaide to yet another wine making region! We visited the famous wineries of Penfolds, Jacob’s Creek and Wolf Blass. Many of the men like Wolf Blass who set up these wineries came to Australia with nothing and started a small vineyard from which these global brands grew!

There was a lot of German influence in Adelaide during it’s foundation; the small town of Handorf is true example of this. From the houses to the shops it was like stepping into a quaint German town.

We left Adelaide for Melbourne but as the journey is about 1000km we stopped halfway at a town called Warrnabool on the coast for the night and continued to Melbourne the next day along the Great Ocean Road. This world class road has some of the most spectacular coastal sights every few km. We saw some amazing cliffs and rock formations such as London Bridge; which was a series of massive arches in the cliff-face reaching out into the sea before part of it collapsed due to erosion!

The amazing part about it collapsing was that there were two tourists on it at the time, luckily they weren’t on the part that collapsed but there were stuck on the outer part of the structure until they were rescued by helicopter! The views all the way along the road were fabulous, the twelve apostles, named after 12 sea stacks bunched closely together, was amazing to see too and one of the inlets along the way was called Loch Ard after a boat of the same name crashed into it full of immigrants. I wonder where that boat was from! We finally reach Melbourne late that night after all the stops on the Great Ocean Road; it turned out to be a long day!

Melbourne was worth the wait as it is a really fantastic, modern and beautiful city. There is a free city tram which takes you on a full lap of the city centre. A great way to familiarize yourself with the city. We also visited Eureka, an 88 floored building to get a view of Melbourne. The view from the top was pretty scary! The next day we visited the Old Melbourne Jail which was used until the early 90’s. Ned Kelly famously spent time and was hanged there. It is a cool but spooky place to visit. You get to see the death mask of those who were hanged there (they used to take a mould of their faces after they died).

As part of the experience you get arrested and charged, your mugshot taken and locked in a cell. Great experience when you know you’re getting out in 5 minutes!! We took a walk up to the Queen’s Markets where you could spend hours walking around the different stalls. We hopped on a tram out to St. Kilda; a seaside town near Melbourne. Some parts of St. Kilda are remnant of a place that thrived as a seaside town in the middle of the last century, but there is regeneration in the form of a new promenade with lots of shops, restaurants and seaweed baths on it. The jetty is a sight to behold too with an old fashioned building on the end of it with a café- the type of thing you expect to see in seaside town. We saw a little Penquin just off the jetty!

It would be wrong to leave Melbourne without heading to home of 'Neighbours'. So I headed to Ramsay Street which is really called Pine Oak Court. Actual people live there!! They have 24 hour security on the street! I spoke to the security guard who told me when 'Neighbours' originally started they thought it would only last 12 months so they decided to use a real street!

Over 20 years later they are still shooting on the same street. The people who live on the street are compensated for the interruption the shooting causes! They can’t drive in and out of their houses when the 'Neighbours' crew comes to shoot. They can film in their gardens and right up to their front doors! Imagine living in a road like that it would be crazy!

After Melbourne we stopped for a night in Albury and then continued onto the capital of Australia and a new Territory; the ‘Australian Capital Territory’ with Canberra as its capital. We headed straight for Parliament house which anybody can go into and have a stroll around. It is a magnificent building built only in 1988 with a great view of Canberra as it is perched on a hill above the city. It is hard to believe that over 300,000 people live in Canberra when there is so much green to be seen. We also took a trip to the War Memorial museum which is a museum dedicated to those who’ve died in wars. The museum was massive and full of interesting stories and old planes. You could see everything from food rations given to shoulders to first aid kits. There was so much to see there you would need to stay the day to see it all.

I’ll be hitting Sydney soon! I’ll let you know how Christmas and New Year's Eve goes Down Under!

It’s amazing how fast you settle into the routine of going to work again! Weekends are treasured rather than everyday being the same when you’re on the road. As our time is so short in Perth we wanted to use our weekends to see as much of the city and its surrounds.

I had heard lots about “Rotto” or Rottnest Island so we got up early one Saturday and headed out there. We rented bikes and cycled around the island which was 30km long!! The island is amazing it is just one fantastic beach after another! It is paradise- that is so close to the city! I would have loved to stay the night there but you need to book a couple of months in advance because of the island’s popularity and lack of accommodation.

After work some days I head to Kings Park. It’s a bushland right in the middle of the city. The views of the Perth skyline from there are amazing! Lots of people head there for some exercise after a long day at the office. We also have a huge leisure centre around the corner from the house with an Olympic sized outdoor pool which is another nice spot to go and chill in after a hard days work.

After 4 weeks in my job in Perth I was offered another 3 weeks in the same job which suited me perfectly as it takes me right up until I leave Perth! The Team I work with are so amazing and they do so much to help people. There is a really positive vibe in the office which makes it such a pleasure to work in.

On our way down to Perth from Darwin we missed out on a visit to the pinnacles. They are basically limestone structures up to 3 metres tall in the middle of the desert so one weekend we back tracked and headed about 300km north of Perth. 

It was really cool to be in a desert and these structures are truly amazing! The reason I had to go and see them was because I was told they are getting eroded by weather and people, so they mightn’t be there much longer! The nearby village of Cervantes is by the sea and a nice place to drop off for lunch after a couple of hours in the desert! I had the best chips ever there!

The great thing about coming to a country with a warm climate is that they often have water parks so I’ve been pretty excited about the fact that Perth has one. The housemates and I all headed off for a day at Adventureland! We spent the day racing down slides it was such good craic (I won most of the time it has to be said although the lads were super competitive!!) and since the temperature was in the mid thirties it was the perfect way to spend the day!

The Christmas decorations are all up here in Perth which feels so strange when the weather is baking! It’s going to be a very different Christmas over here! It definitely won’t be a white Christmas over here!

Next weekend is our last weekend in Perth. After that we’re hitting the road to Sydney! Another roadtrip!!

I finished work on the last day of November and was really sad to be leaving as I really enjoyed my seven weeks working there, but at the same time I was looking forward to hitting the road again to Sydney. It was the office's Christmas party before I left which meant dressing up as angels, as costumes were a necessity, and heading of to play bowls! I thought we were going ten-pin bowling so it was a bit of a surprise when we landed out at a bowling green! Although we were complete rookies our team came second and we got medals! I was well excited! It was a great way to end my time working in Perth.

On Monday we headed for Margaret River; a wine making region south of Perth. The landscape as you head south from Perth is very green and in some parts you could almost mistake it for Ireland! We rented Bikes and cycled around to some of the wineries. The rows of grapevines are so cool to see and you learn an awful lot about wine making by visiting the different vineyards! I’m now a wine connoisseur!!!

Heading south again we stopped for a night in a place called Pemberton. It rained non stop while we were there it was like being at home! The next day we headed off to climb an 80ft Karri tree, the third tallest trees in the world! It was tricky business holding onto the metal spikes and getting safely to the top of the tree but it was worth it the see the view from the tree top! Sticking with the theme of trees we headed onto Denmark to do the Tree Top walk which is a 40 foot high metal walkway through the trees! It was cool although it didn't feel that stable to walk on!

Next stop was Albany! There is some beautiful coastal scenery around Albany! We for a walk up to cliffs and sat beside a blow hole which gave such a fright when I first heard it.

After two nights in Albany we headed to the beautiful town of Esperance. Near to Esperance is Cape Le Grand National Park. The beaches there were unbelieveable it was literally one beautiful beach after another. We headed to Frenchman’s Peak a 3km high rock and climbed to the top for a spectacular view of the Park. We headed for a swim in Lucky Bay which had the bluest water I had ever seen. The highlight of the day was as we were about to leave, we walked along the beach and saw a group of six dolphins surfing in on the waves then heading out and surfing in again! It was clear that they were loving it as they would jump up into the air at the end of each wave! The next day we went on the scenic coastal drive and see some more amazing beaches! Esperance is definitely the place to go if you want to spend time on some of the most beautiful unspoilt beaches!

Before I left Perth when I told people that I was driving to Sydney first of all people think you’re crazy and then they say “You’re going to be crossing the Nullarbor!!” and really look scared when they say it! The Nullarbor is a plain which besides some scrub, is completely barren and goes on for over 1200 km. All you see ever few hundred km is a road house which is usually a garage/restaurant/hotel/campsite/shop all in one. Realistically you have to stay in at least one of these on your way across! You are literally in the middle of nowhere!

There is one straight that is 147km long so you literally on a straight road for over an hour. No turns, no bends, no traffic, just you, the wilderness and a road! The best part about stopping off on the Nullarbor is seeing stars at nighttime. As there is no towns or cities for 100’s of km there is no light pollution so the sky and the stars look amazing at night! We crossed the Nullarbor safely anyway, the worst thing we saw on the roads were dead kangaroos but they seem to on the sides of roads everywhere in Oz! We arrive in Ceduna and it feels like such a luxury to have the choice of shops! That’s what a few days on the Nullarbor will do to you!!