Well it turns out we have convinced the rental people that the motor home they gave us was a piece of junk and we have a replacement.  What a dream to drive in comparison.
To do this we needed to return to Melbourne.
We then headed to Canberra - the capital of Australia - here is the House of Representatives

and the coat of arms on the front of the Parliament Buildings

Here is a shot of Black tower

here is the Parliament buildings in the distance with the war memorial closer to us

The next day we traveled to Sydney and went over the Harbour Bridge

We are staying in Narrabeen and took the Manly Ferry this morning to see the Circular Quay -

 the Sydney Opera House

 and to walk the Harbour bridge

We had a great tour of the Opera House and got some great photos

March 22

Well well what a day
We started off with our friendly neighbour at the campground helping me with repairs to the motor home.  More later....
Then on to some of the most spectacular scenery yet -

at Childer Cove we had a couple down on the beach with us and Barb and the 2 of them had to run from a wave - you know one of those rouge waves that come with the tide
Think I coming back toward them at that moment and I caught it on film - what luck -

Well we got back to the motor home and decided it was lunch time.
The couple was in the parking lot and I invited them in for tea.
we chatted for a while over tea and this was our 2nd or last stop before the end of the Great Ocean Road...
they were very interesting and filled us in on their travels in Aust and we filled them in on ours - of course you know I had to bore them with my pictures LOL
well on we went to Camperdown - the great lady at information in Port Campbell told us about this great treasure hunt (known as geocaching in Canada and US I think)
you get a GPS unit - they actually loan them out and you find the 5 treasure spots or 6 in and around town
I was fired up... Barb was tired from the long day
I ask the guy who was caretaker for the campground where I could rent a bike that way I could get some exercise with this geocaching thing and Barb could rest.  He told me his son had a bike I could borrow.  Wow - you know who was running down the road in FRONT of his little truck toward the main office.....
And there was a helmet there.  I said can I borrow helmet as well - he said you gotta.....
I could bore u for hours with the rest of the story
I had been trying to figure out the GPS
  I did now know the points were programed into this thing already and was trying to get them in with no luck  I am still keen to go
thats where the bike comes in - I get bike
head to motor home to get biking gear on - yahoo
but it is approaching 4:40 and the GPS rental place is closed at 5
so Bob hops on bike and heads for a new GPS unit ( he realizes he did the wrong thing minutes after doing it)
he makes GPS place by 4:55 and gets a new unit. thankfully it is mostly downhill to the GPS rental place and I am still in reasonable shape and this is some bike - nicer than any mountain bike I own -
so 1 hour and 10 minutes later after half of it was riding in the rain and I was trying to keep GPS dry under my coat I finally end up to where I can see point 1 and I am at campground   --- only 15 wrong turns or more LOL but lets be positive I got a workout
I stop at motor home for a break and Barb is up
we agree to do it in morn now that Bob has finally figured out this GPS and realizes how the game is really played.

We spent yesterday from 9 AM to 6 PM on the ferry from Tasmania to Melbourne.  Here is Melbourne as we approached on the ferry

  We lucked out with relatively calm seas 3 meter swells with 3 meter waves.  We were told normally the spray is covering the windows with water.
We passed the sister ferry on route

We then traveled to Anglesea where we spent the night.  This morning we stopped at Point Roadnight where there was a shelterd beach and where they have plovers (an endangered shore bird) That nest in the weathered sandstone

Today we traveled the Great Ocean Road along the south coast of Victoria

We saw some great waves

unfortunately someone else in the family is now in love with waves and guess what - we now are stopping for

you guessed it - more wave pictures
We stopped at Kennett River and got some shots of parrakeets

and some of koala's

Some monster trees on our walk through the rain forest

We walked down Gibson's steps and you can see the huge monolith - you can see the hole ??

On to the twelve apostles

 on to Loch Ard Gorge

We got a camp site at Port Campbell and had some pasta for supper.  We then headed back to the Twelve Apostles for the highlight of the day.  We saw the fairy penguins crossing the sand.  It is tough to see them but we could see them moving ( the black blob or dots in the middle of the photo just beside the darker brown sand which is caused by then dragging their tails across the sand)  Where you see them their trail was washed away by waves.  We saw lots more come out but the photos were no good.

for those that can't see them I have circled them below.  Trust me there were 30 other people there that saw them too

We did the hike up to Wine Glass Bay.  Was a half hour each way up most of the time.
You can decide if it was worth the the hike.

We headed back north and spent more time with John and Wendy.  We both got to milk cows

We are currently on the ferry back to Melbourne and will arrive at 6 PM.  It looks like the wind is a bit stronger but there is less swell than on the trip over to Tasmania.

Just a side note.   In this photo there is the lemon and the Lemon Rock

My goodness where to start.

We will start with some pictures of Trish and Graeme's wedding

There is a story about the team Canada jersey.  Ann gave it to Graeme as a welcome to the family gift when she did the speech to the groom.  It was a very nice thing to do.  

We drove to Sydney after the wedding and then down to Melbourne where we caught the ferry to Tasmania.  We have caught up with our friends John and Wendy whom we met in 1980 on our tour of Europe.  We did a walk through the Cataract Gorge

Barb was very impressed with the city of Launceston.  The next day we visited both of the Wilson's Farms in Deloraine and in Smithton.  On the way to Smithton we stopped at "The Nut"

where the view was stunning

We walked around Dove Lake and saw Cradle mtn up close

And closer

We drove to Hobart and up Mount Wellington

after spending time in Hobart looking at the harbour

and some huge homes

Today we visited Port Aurthur and saw where the convicts were housed in 1.3 by 1.5 metre cells  in chains at night and worked all day

In later years they were in a different prison where they spent 23 hours a day in a room and 1 hour a day in the exercise yard.  They were not to be referred to by n

ame only their cell number.  Complete silence was adhered to and the guards used sign language. Following this treatment they had to build an asylum - wonder why.  

We are now in Coles Bay

Tomorrow we will walk up and view Wine Glass Bay in Freycinet National Park and then on to meet up with John and Wendy again for tea.
Of course what did we do after supper.  Went for a walk and did what Bob loves to do - look at crashing waves