Melbourne to Sydney--- the Last Australian post : (

Photos:

1. a real live wombat in the wild... he was pretty freaked out by our group, but posed for photos for about 5 minutes!

2. I love this photo of the kangaroo

3. rainbow after the rain

4. yup real live snow in Australia! In the Snowy Mountain area (where the movie as about and filmed near by!)

5. coat of arms- chosen because neither animal can walk backwards- so it is all about the progress of moving forward. their Parliament and senate works and looks much like ours.

6. an Australian road sign.. they think we have wacky animal signs, but there's are plain nutty sometimes!

7. me at Pillar look out in Wilson's Promontory national Park (like NFLD)

8. rocks on the south end of squeaky beach

9. squeaky beach

10. a close encounter with the very poisonous red back spider... too close for me, see a little shaky too!

So this is it. I have made it back to Sydney and have two sleeps until I fly over and start a new adventure in NZ (New Zealand that is!)

This last stretch was quite relaxing compared to the rest of my journeys and our hostels are a lot nicer, but having a stuffy head cold wasn't too pleasant to travel with... I have a dream it will clear by tomorrow, so I do not fly this way.. that too would be no fun!

So we started this trip to Wilson's Promontory national Park and a hike to an area that reminded me of NFLD. So pretty with the rocks and views. We walked along a beach called Squeaky Beach-because it actually squeaks when you walk on the sand. This is caused by the rounded grains of quartz rubbing against each other. Then we stopped at an old airstrip created during the WWII to prepare for the German invasion which did not happen. It is now home to thousands of kangaroos, emu, wombats, and other creatures. That evening we had fish and chips and went to bed.. pretty lazy day.

The next day we went down some bumpy back roads and to some odd places, like Seldom Seen (really that is the name of the town). Some strange folks live here and have a kangaroo (not sure of what it was made from) on the lawn wearing a bikini with a beer can in its pouch riding a bicycle.. weird stuff.. then to a town (if you can call it that) called Suggen Buggen to look at an old school house.. then on the Kosciuszko National Park and to the highest mountain in Australia (Mt. Kosciuszko at 2200 meters high) and into a snow storm.. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??? It was nutty, but fun to see. We didn't do the scheduled 3 hour hike because of it and got to go to the hotel early and go for a swim and sauna, so really it worked out well!!!

Day three was a day on the bus and a short stop for a tour of the Parliament and Senate in the capital of Canberra. (YUP that is the capital, created because Sydney and Melbourne were fighting over who should be the capital.. Seriously!) And after a 1 1/2 hour tour and a lunch in town, we drove the last 200 km or so back to Sydney.

I have two sleeps and I am on the plane to New Zealand for brand new adventures and to meet up with Larry and Dixie. Yippee..

I have loved all the parts of Australia I saw and only wish I had more time in a few places and felt better along the way as well. I will be back to watch a sporting game of some sort in Melbourne, back to Adelaide to see what I missed, Tasmania and the West Coast to see and possibly up to see Litchfeild national Park which i didn't have time to see. So My visit to Australia is not over yet!

Chat to you all next from New Zealand!