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It was a much longer flight to Australia than either of us were expecting taking 9 hours - the same as our flight from London to Delhi. This made us appreciate that despite the "world getting smaller" due to cheap flights and technology, it is still a rather big place. When the map on the plane showed that we were over Darwin but still had over 4 hours of the flight remaining, we also realised quite how big Australia is. Apart from a large lightning storm, which Heather was blissfully unaware of but rather unnerved Drew, the flight was pretty uneventful. We were flying with Jetstar which is a budget airline and charges extra for all services including baggage, meals, entertainment and blankets. Having opted out of all of these except for bags, we took on a picnic and Drew had charged up all of our mp3 players and laptop with plenty of stuff to keep us amused.

We had been warned that the Australian customs is very strict and you cannot bring in any food, wood, seeds etc. We had managed to finish off all our picnic on the plane but Drew had his guitar which we had to declare. Although very friendly, we were slightly unprepared for the interrogation we got about what we were doing, where we had been and where we were going. The customs officers gave us some comic relief by requesting a tune on the guitar as condition of passage.

Having got used to arriving in a country slightly dazed and having to fight our way through touts, try and find the correct bus and traipse around guesthouses with all our bags trying to get the best deal; it was an absolute delight to be picked up by Peter (Drew's cousin Anna's husband) and daughter Eva. We were driven back to Drew's Aunt Tricia's house. It was fantastic to see all the family again and to get to know Anna's two lovely little girls Zoe (4) and Eva (2 and a half) better. We had only met Eva once before and only for a couple of hours.

We also met up several times with a couple of friends from Uni, who have been living in Melbourne for almost 2 years. We'd only really seen them at weddings in the past few years, and it was great to spend a few evenings reminiscing and setting the world to rights over a few beers.

Generally we have been loving the food in Asia, but there are things that we have missed. Over the course of our stay there, our hosts treated us to all our favourites from back home including roast beef with horseradish and yorkshire puddings, cottage pie, marmite, HP sauce and of course a fantastic Christmas dinner. We were delighted to have a proper kitchen and enjoyed cooking a few meals although it took a little while to remind ourselves how. We also enjoyed indulging in lots of different cheeses and Australian wines. We had our first Australian barbie on Christmas Eve and were even given our own stubbie holders to keep our beers cool. Our uni friends also treated us to a barbecue, which saw us trying kangaroo for the first time. It was pretty nice - a bit like beef. There are lots of reasons why it should be popular; it's a lean meat, its production isn't as gassy as that of beef, and it's cheap. However, apparently lots of Aussies are reluctant to throw one of their national symbols on the barbie, and it remains a bit of a niche.

The girls excitement about Santa's imminent visit was reaching fever-pitch by the time we arrived and this certainly made us feel more Christmassy than the few twinkling lights that had been put up in shopping malls in Bangkok. Christmas Day was a large family affair at Anna and Peter's new house with 18 for dinner, for which an impressive choice of turkey, ham and lamb was on offer. Drew's contribution to the festivities included playing his Christmas with Des O'Connor album (from 1978) which he has inflicted on many people over the years since buying a scratchy LP of it from a charity shop in Bristol whilst at Uni. Slightly more modern entertainment was provided by the girls' new wii. Peter's 93 year old Nana was in the grand final of wii bowling which came to a rambunctious conclusion after midnight.

We had a couple of trips into Melbourne city during our stay to have a look around and also to organise Thai visas for our return. The city centre skyline can be seen from the beaches miles down the coast and is a very compact area of sleek skyscrapers and an interesting mix of new and old architecture. We enjoyed strolling along the south bank of the Yarra river and exploring the lanes and arcades with interesting shops and trendy cafes. There is an excellent tram network which makes getting round very easy. We had a look round the very interesting Shrine of Remembrance built as a memorial to Victorians killed in the World Wars. This is in a commanding position and has a balcony with good views straight along the city grid. The idea is that the shrine can be seen from Melbourne's streets from miles away. One of the most impressive features is a small window which is designed to channel a shaft of light onto the word 'love' at 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11th month. We wondered whether George Lucas had visited here before he made Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Anna and the girls took us on a day trip to a wildlife park just outside of Melbourne in the Yarra valley region. It is developed to protect and display indigenous animals from Australia and we got to see koalas, kangaroos, emus, duckbill platypus and a Tasmanian devil as well as an alarming collection of snakes. We also went to a couple of interesting displays by parrots and birds of prey; however, the girls seemed to be more interested in their lunch and the other children in the audience.

We also had a trip with Tricia up to the Dandenongs, a hilly area on the outskirts of the city which is covered in gum trees and huge ferns. We went for a walk up in the forests at the top of Mount Dandenong and enjoyed the incredible smell of the gum trees. We were up in the clouds and it seemed very damp and lush so it was strange to imagine the forest fires that ripped through here just a couple of years ago but the burn marks on the trees bore the evidence.

Melbourne is situated in the middle of Port Phillip Bay a huge bowl area protected from the full force of the ocean by the Mornington and Queenscliffe peninsulas which almost curve round to touch each other. This means that the waters along the miles of beaches within the Bay are relatively calm. We were lucky enough to be taken on a tour of the Mornington peninsula by Tricia's cousin and husband who were visiting for a few days on their Australian holiday. The area is a big holiday destination with the calm beaches within the bay on one side and the rough rolling waters of the Bass Strait on the other. We had a stop in Mornington town and spotted a huge ray gliding through the water in the harbour. We went for a walk down by dramatic Cape Schanck, the southernmost point of the peninsula where the ocean waves crash into the cliffs.

Aussies seem to be fond of telling scary stories of sharks, spiders and snakes. We were told that sharks had been spotted in the Bay not too long ago and were horrified by Anna's uncle's recent misfortune; he was bitten by a red-back spider while clearing out a shed and a few days later had to have an operation on his finger to remove some necrotic flesh. This put a bit of a downer on his Christmas celebrations as he was in considerable discomfort and unable to have a drink to take the edge off. By New Year though he seemed to be on the mend and thankful that the top of his finger did not have to be removed which he had been warned was a possibility.

On one of our jaunts into the city we wandered along the beach at St Kilda. The beach was busy and there were lots of people in the water. As we looked closer we noticed nobody was really swimming, instead they were standing in the surf and many seemed to be looking around themselves a bit nervously. We soon found out why - as we walked up the pier and onto the breakwater, we could see hundreds of very large jellyfish (perhaps bigger than a rugby ball) in the water. So on this occasion, Heather didn't go in for a dip. She did get in a couple of swims though - the first since we left the UK. One of these was in Brighton baths, which is a fairly large caged-off area on the beach with great views along the coast to the city skyline, and a trendy cafe where we had a skinny cap(pucino) afterwards.

Coming up to the New Year, there had been a few 'stinkers' (apparently the aussie term for a very hot day) with temperatures reaching up to almost 40 degrees. This had made some of our day trips quite tiring and a struggle to keep out of the sun and hydrated. We were round at Anna's house for the New Year celebrations and had heard that there was a change in the weather due, with storms forecast which were casting doubt on the firework displays in the centre. The weather in Melbourne is notoriously changeable, with fronts rolling in off the ocean and making it seem as if the season has changed in only a few minutes. We got to witness this first hand as a huge bank of clouds loomed over us in the evening. Stood on the balcony in 30 plus degree heat and sunshine with a hot breeze from the north, the wind dramatically changed direction and became much, much colder. A drop of 10 degrees or more is common and that is pretty much what it felt like. Half an hour later we were cowering inside as diagonal rain pelted down and the kids were treated to a New Year firework display of fork lightning and booming thunder.

Our original plan had been to fit in a trip to Sydney for a few days but, in the end, we decided not to spread our time and finances too thin. Having already spent more than 6 months travelling and with a few more to go, it was lovely to put the brakes on and enjoy home comforts and family hospitality for a few weeks.

A couple of random observations from our first foray in the southern hemisphere. We were a little disappointed that there was no discernible change in direction of the water swirling down the plughole, but this was made up for by the sun going round in a different direction, rising in the east and travelling round the north to set in the west. This was highlighted when people talk about their north facing gardens catching the sun - an obvious fact when you think about it, but one which we had not appreciated before.

We are now back in Bangkok enjoying a return to spicy Thai food. We've extended our holiday from the usual budget for another couple of days and last night treated ourselves to Avatar in 3D at the Imax cinema which was quite an incredible experience. We are now just back in from an all together more Thai evening of entertainment; Muay Thai boxing in Lumphini stadium.

We plan to stay in Thailand for the next couple of months before moving on. The Christmas holiday was a good time to reflect on what we have done and what we have ahead of us and we are looking forward to four or five more months of adventures before heading home.

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