snapd

The first thing to see when you get to Australia is, of course, the wildlife.

These koalas were at Healesville Sanctuary, north of Melbourne.

They also had other animals like this monitor (?) lizard. He didn't particularly want to be photographed.

The platypus are nocturnal, so you're not allowed to photograph them in their darkened enclosure using a flash. So this is what they vaguely look like. They're surprisingly small.

Don't get food out near pelicans. They're entirely not afraid of people.

This may be the best photo I took in the whole trip. Vicki, sat next to me at the time, got a better one. This is a fork tailed eagle during the birds of prey demonstration. It was very impressive.

Echidna, or 'big hedgehoggy things'. We saw some in the wild later on but they were very shy.

I liked this statue on the way in but couldn't get anyone to pose in front of it. In case you're wondering, there were kangaroos but I got much better pictures of them later on.

Vicki and Sheila at the Healesville Sanctuary.

Afterwards, Sheila took us to see some of the damage caused by the fires in the area that happened last year. While a lot of new green growth has occurred since then, the tree trunks in many places are still scorched black from the blaze. It was strangely beautiful in places.

After a few days in Melbourne we went on to Canberra. This is the Canberra War Memorial.

Inside is an extensive museum about war, which includes this genuine WW2 Lancaster bomber.

The names of the fallen are inscribed all around the memorial's hall of rememberance. There are thousands of them.

View from the war memorial down back towards and across Lake Burley Griffin to the Australian Parliament house.

Weird bit of outdoor sculpture round the back of the national gallery in Canberra, that I quite liked.

The Parliament house of Australia. It's built into the contours of a hill overlooking the city. The flag at the top is the size of several double decker buses and is changed manually by a small team of climbers once a month.

Inside the Parliament house. I forget whether this is the house of representatives or the other one, which is like this but blue.

View of the flagpole from inside the building.

View of the flagpole from outside the building. It was quite impressive close up.

An odd but enjoyable evening in Canberra - carols by candlelight. In a park, in 25+ degree temperatures. We British are not used to such things.

The previously mentioned candles. This is either a clever arty shot conveying light and movement or a really poor photo. You decide.

Canberra botanical gardens had lizards running around the place, but was otherwise fairly dull unless you're into plants in a big way.

Road trip! This is possibly Narooma, where we stopped to check out the beach and saw dolphins (not pictured).

Vicki found the ocean. It was right there next to the beach all along.

Stopping for lunch, and look at that ocean.

Our accommodation for the week, set up for a night's stop at Mallacoota.

Now begins a brief obsession with Australian road signs. Number one, the, umm.. moorhen?

The Fairy Caves, at Buchan, in Snowy River National Park. Most of my photos didn't come out well, unsurprisingly, but the caves were amazing.

Walking along the beach.. possibly Ninety mile beach. Yeah, it's pretty long.

Number two, a cow and a sheep. Exotic, yes.

A sand sculpture at Lakes Entrance, another of our overnight stops.

Vicki demonstrates her golfing skilz. Raise toes... protrude tongue... whack it. I can't mock really, she did win.

Me, reportedly looking very British. Huh.

Number three. Getting much more Australian here.

Wilson's Promontory, the southern most point of mainland Australia. A national park and stunningly beautiful. Photos don't do it justice.

View from Mount Oberon down to Tidal River, the main camp site on Wilson's Prom.

Vicki at the summit of Mount Oberon. Admittedly you can drive much of the way up.

Number four. We'd been on the look out for one with a koala on it for some time.

Number five. Another koala, admittedly, but we had to complete the set.

On to Tasmania, and the small town of Sheffield, known for its murals. Here's one that was particularly realistic.

Another of the Sheffield murals. They were all over the town, but this was part of a special display. Look closely. How much of this picture is real?

Christmas dinner with the family in Tasmania. Morag is hiding from the camera.

Cradle mountain, Tasmania.

Me with everyone in Tasmania.

On the trip down to Hobart we stopped at Wineglass bay, where Vicki found a new hat.

Wineglass bay.

Vicki takes a breather on the climb back down.

Hobart, Tasmania, where we hung out at the harbour and explored the Taste of Tasmania festival.

Hobart from the top of Mount Wellington. The highest point but not the best view available, although this was probably the best photo I managed to take.

Us at a lookout point on Mount Wellington I can't remember the name of right now.

If there's a crazy golf to be found, we'll find it.

Mini golf with Matthew and Yvonne. Somehow, Vicki managed to win again. Well, I'm still better than her at... uh, hmm.

Back to Melbourne for a spot of cricket at the MCG. This is half time, when teams of children were allowed to run on and play a short game or two.

Flinders street station, Melbourne.

A dingo! We hadn't seen one of those up til that point. It's essentially just a dog.

A kookaburra. This was at another wildlife sanctuary outside Melbourne, where our tour to Phillip Island stopped briefly.

It's a wallaby, mate. Inside the sanctuary they were very tame.

Up close and personal with the kangaroos. I think that's mud on its arms.

On to Phillip Island to find penguins. You aren't allowed to photograph them at the Penguin parade, but this fella was out by the point underneath a boardwalk.

Skeleton of a blue whale (?) at Melbourne museum.

Vicki disobeys the rules to get a comedy dinosaur photograph and I muck up the lighting.

Where is this tram going? Are we still in Melbourne?

Lying on the floor in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Honestly, the attendant suggested we do it to get a better view of the ceiling (not pictured).

On to Sydney, and our new home for the week. We even got a tiny stretch of balcony to ourselves.

Darling Harbour, Sydney. This is one of a number of semi interactive water sculptures around the place.

A working replica of Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour, at Sydney Maritime museum.

The Chinese Garden in Sydney. A little slice of tranquility in the middle of the city.

Another bit of the Chinese garden.

A pagoda type building thing in the Chinese garden. Spot the Vicki.

And on to the Opera house. I took way too many pictures of this building. This is one of them.

Yes, amazingly, Vicki is wearing her waterproof, in fact out of necessity.

View of the Opera house from the harbour bridge.

The harbour bridge is another landmark I took way too many photos of.

On board Captain Cook's replica ship. Very cramped interior and very interesting.

And now for a tour of a submarine. This was very popular.

On board the sub, where it was even smaller than in Captain Cook's ship.

We took a day trip to the Blue mountains, so called because there is actually a blue tint to the air caused by eucalpytus oil or something. This is the Three Sisters rock formation.

Me and a termite mound.

Trekking through the Blue mountains. The walk took us down into a rainforest canyon and lasted about three hours.

Sydney Harbour bridge again.

A sunnier shot of the Opera house.