This weekend we went backpacking in the Royal National Park. It's been almost two years since we last went camping...in fact that was our only other backpacking trip together, when Aaron proposed to me! This trip we were on the cliff tops rather than the mountains. A blog with photos of the camping trip to come soon....watch this space!...Next weekend we're looking forward to our first guests coming to visit. :-)

About 27C (80F) and sunny outside! Yay! Looks like the beggining of summer! Afraid though that the chances of me doing a blog this weekend are reducing!

“Daddy's gonna take us to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow...” "Look at the lemurs!" Tom exclaimed in excitement before darting back to the edge of the enclosure. The rest of us followed at a more leisurely pace, to where we could see the cute, furry animals. They were standing on their hind legs their short front paws dangling beside their chests as they sunned themselves. Soon Tom was leading the way to the next enclosure. “I'd like to see the elephants!” Ella requested in anticipation. Her mum reassured her that we'd get there later. Around the first loop of Melbourne zoo we followed the slightly older and more energetic Tom. On our tour we watched seals playfully diving up and down their wave pool. When the waves crashed against the edge of the tank I could smell the fishy water. The sound of exotic birds squawking, came from somewhere close by.   We'd heard the zoo was one of the top attractions in Melbourne, but our two young guides

 When we were in Melbourne Aaron lead us astray and we ended up in prison! Perhaps I've been hanging out in the wrong crowds lately! (See Some unexpected visitors ) Actually the tour of the old goal was really good. They have some great actors that really bring it to life and also tell the tale of Ned Kelly. http://www.oldmelbournegaol.com.au/ In the evening we went to Circus Oz - STEAMPUNK! It was a great show - very entertaining. They have some awesome clips of some of the stunts on the website below. http://show.circusoz.com/circus-oz-video.php Inside the entrance to the big top

I'm catching-up on posting some photos we took back in June (2011), when Aaron and I flew to Melbourne to meet up with our friend Sophie. She's a British friend that I met while at Penn State and she hasn't stopped travelling the world since! She's currently living in New Zealand and was visiting Melbourne for a geosciences conference, so we headed down there for a weekend to meet-up with her. Melbourne looked vaguely reminiscent of London to me... Thames and London eye? Westminster? However Melbourne is famous for it's trams We arrived a bit earlier than Sophie and checked out the art gallery and botanic gardens. Fun water feature at the entrance to the art gallery Mum - do you recognise this style? It was by the sculptor who did the people in the Mersey! I look a bit scary! The endless ladder! A gift from Switzerland!