Wayne & Julie Down Under

Day 58 (Flying home) 7am (Singapore time) As expected, we didn’t sleep much on the plane. Food was OK. Watched a movie which was OK. A fair bit of turbulence along the exit and extra precautions taken after the tragedy from last week. My airline TV screen came up with breaking news from CNN so I watched, with muted glee, the latest act in the circus that is Trump unfold. 34 guilty verdict. Will they ever stick? Now chilling with a cup of tea in Changi airport with an hour and half to kill. We’re outside the amazing coffee shop that I might have mentioned about 6 or 7 weeks ago on our way to New Zealand. The famous waterfall is in a different terminal which would mean going through immigration so that is off the to-do list. That leaves the butterfly house when I’ve finished my tea. 08:05 Hmmm! Spent so long in the coffee shop choosing one to take home (and it was about a nine and a half mile walk to our gate) that there wasn’t time for the butterflies.  Got to the gate and our cabin...

Day 57 (Day 32 in Australia) 10:15am: Our last day! We’ve just dropped Sophia off at Deakin University. At lunchtime we shall go back to see her in a play called “Faith, Fear & a Home-Cooked Dinner”. In between it is packing! We’ll be returning with one case more than we arrived with so we need to make sure that one case is a max 32kg and the other two a max of 35kg between them. Plus two cabin bags at 7kg apiece. The weather has been glorious for the entire trip except for a couple of hours torrential rain that prevented a better view of Mount Cook in New Zealand and 2 days of low cloud that prevented the helicopter-hike on the Franz Josef Glacier and seeing any views at all in the Blue Mountains. Typically, as I type (at 11am) the forecast for 8pm tonight when our Uber arrives is very heavy rain. Timing will be everything as the front door to Phil & Carolyn’s beautiful home is 60m from the roadside. C’est la vie! Comme ci comme ça! Mange tout Rodney! 12:00pm: packing update: ...

Day 56 (Day 31 in Australia) As we wind down on this epic holiday and begin to tire and all gifts for family back home have been bought (hooray!), Carolyn took us to Melbourne City to see some of the sights and a few things most tourist will not have come across. I genuinely can’t remember all of them but it included: Hosier Lane (full of graffiti and ‘alllowed’ by the council); AC/DC Lane (nearby and also full of graffiti but themed); Chinatown; a couple of huge shopping malls (one at least six stories); the National Gallery of Victoria (including a Monet, Picasso, several Pissaro works and a lot of ethic sculptures plus an amazing table).  Lots of these little chaps on central reservations.  They serve no purpose other than to look good. We had coffee and cakes at Brunetti’s and, later, French Earl Grey at the art gallery. I’d not heard of it before. Earl Grey with rose petals apparently. Surprisingly refreshing, especially after a lot of walking. We walked most of the way b...