We headed down from Sydney to Canberra last Sunday morning. In the afternoon we did all the touristy-sightseeing-type-stuff around Capital Hill, getting a tour of Parliament House and walking around the Parliamentary Triangle which contains many of the embassies, museums and state buildings. We also got to see the Floriade flower festival in one of the parks by Lake Burley Griffin. It's a nice city, but very spread out and the centre is pretty dead in the evenings.

We spent the next few days taking a slow route to Melbourne, stopping over first in Cooma near the Snowy Mountains from where we headed up into the hills and where we spent our anniversary, then back to follow the road down to the Victorian coast, staying at the seaside resort of Lakes Entrance.

In between obligatory rainshowers in Melbourne we've had a really nice time around the city centre, and we've managed to meet up with some friends from previous tours we've taken around the country. We liked the Botanical Garden and St Kilda in our one day of sunshine! The Melbourne Fringe Festival is happening at the moment, and we've been to see a comedy show last night which was a parody on US news/entertainment shows -- pretty funny actually.

Anyway, as Fiona tells me, the pictures of our trip are much more interesting than what I'm writing. :-) We also have a handful of pics from underwater at the Great Barrier Reef which I took a couple of months ago.

Chris and I have both finished our jobs now and are preparing to leave Sydney. Tomorrow we drive down to Canberra and from there we head up into the Snowy Mountains.

Last weekend we visited Watson's Bay and Royal National Park going for nice walks along the Pacific coastline.

The weather has been getting warmer and it's lovely to sit on the beach here in Bondi. We're a bit sad to leave, but we're coming back for two weeks to sell the car before flying off to New Zealand.

At last - here are some photos of our journey through the north of New South Wales and our time in Sydney so far.

I'm still working at Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookshop and have very enjoyable lunchtimes browsing the shelves and reading the sample books - they're not all in Japanese!

Today we're planning to walk over the harbour bridge to North Sydney and then have a relaxing day in Bondi tomorrow.

We're still working full-time during the week, but finding time to go out in the evenings and at the weekend. Last Saturday we took a trip to the Blue Mountains. Gale force winds were blowing, but we still managed a 4 hour walk near Katoomba and the Three Sisters. The scenery was outstanding, but the winds became a little scary as we made our way across a landslide with lots of loose gravel and a steep drop to one side. After crawling between rocky outcrops for a few minutes we were relieved to make it back onto solid ground and into the trees which protected us from the worst of the wind. Phew.

We've had a couple of aborted attempts to see Mars from the Sydney Observatory in evenings after work. The first night, on the 27th, the queue to take a look through the telescopes stretched right around the block. On our second attempt on Monday it had clouded over by the evening, so we went to see the film Finding Nemo instead. I'm not sure whether we'll find time to try again. :-(

I've found a new use for the handheld GPS that my ex-colleagues kindly bought for me as a leaving gift. I've bought some running shoes and have been going out a few mornings a week for a run along Bondi Beach and the coastal paths. The GPS is very useful for measuring my speed and distance, so I can see whether I'm improving. Thanks again!

Okay, okay. I know you only want to see photos, rather than my rambling. I hope to have some pictures of Byron Bay, The Hunter Valley, Sydney and the Blue Mountains uploaded at the weekend.