G'Day! It has been a very long time since I have written one of these but seeing as my days in Melbourne are now numbered I thought it would be good to get back into the swing of it (plus Mum has been nagging me!).

As most of you know I have spent the last two years (cannot believe it has been that long) living and working in Melbourne. It is a city that I absolutely love and will be very sad to leave. All good things come to an end I suppose but I certainly hope that I return at some point. I have explored many areas of Victoria including the Great Ocean Road, Gippsland, the High Country, Phillip Island, Wilsons Promontary and have visited the Gold Coast and Adelaide during my time. I have been wine tasting in the Yarra Valley; I have successfully evaded tram ticket inspectors; I have become a huge fan of Melbourne Storm (rugby league team now embroiled in huge wage scandal); I have seen the Grand Prix twice, seen Roger Federer play at the Aussie Open and witnessed a very unimpressive performance by Robbie Fowler for the Gold Coast Fury v Melbourne Victory (to be honest any "soccer" here is pretty poor, and they call it soccer. In this case two negatives definitely don't make a positive). I have become an expert at vending machine care and maintenance (if it doesn't work push some buttons then turn it off and on again). But most importantly I have made some brilliant friends.

So it is now time to move on. I am not going to try and go "cold turkey" but rather wean myself off Australia slowly but surely. On the 25 I fly to Adelaide to start a ten day outback trip up to Alice Springs including Uluru (http://www.headingbush.com/10-day-Outback-Adventure-Tours.html) . This tour looks brilliant - I will be heading right into the outback and sleeping under the stars in a "swag" (and yes, I do have travel insurance before anyone asks! As I have an uncanny nack of discovering the only stinging nettle in 500 miles I'm pretty sure I may have a run in with a poisonous spider/mental kangaroo). This ends in Alice Springs. I am then hoping to go to Darwin to visit the Top End, Kakadu and Lichfield National Parks. Bizarrely it is cheaper to fly from Alice Springs to Melbourne then up to Darwin. And not just a tiny bit cheaper but half the price!!! If you look on a map you will see how ridiculous this is. So I will be heading back to Melbourne for a couple of days before flying over Alice Springs up to Darwin! Then my plans become a bit wishy washy. I need to get to Perth for my flight to Singapore which is booked for 31 August. I may be hiring a campervan to drive this 4000km trip or I may just fly to Perth and do a tour a little way up the coast. We shall see.

Once I land in Singapore I will hopefully be meeting up with a friend who is moving there from Canada to spend a semester abroad. Then I will spend three months heading up South East Asia through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. My trip will finish in Hanoi early December in time for a flight home (which is booked now so that I don't run out of money!). Then that will be it, my adventures will be over and I will be home in time for Christmas (as nice as Christmas is in the sun I really miss my Mum's roast dinner!!!).

I have no idea if anyone is still reading this but if you are I hope you will enjoy the updates to come over the next few months.

See you all soon

Kiera x