After making a very difficult and life changing decision in Australia I spent a week in New Zealand before returning home the UK. My 6 months in Australia was great, spending time with amazing people and doing brilliant things, but sadly I couldn't see myself living there forever so the decsion was made to return home.

I am now back in the UK for the time being comitting to very little apart from a few new adventures!

In September Pete and I will be climbing Mont Blanc so it's full steam ahead with pelnty of training and preparation. Running, climbing, gym work, and walking in the hills is filling pretty much all of our spare time.

After 3 weeks of fun in the sun Tom has left for home leaving me very poor, half a stone heavier, and a tad homesick. Tom's antipodean adventure ended with 2 days driving along the Great Ocean Road followed by a beer and pool fuelled night in a town called Ballarat.

It was great to have someone from home to show around.

So it's back to work this week with normal life coming back into focus and holiday time over...for now!

Friday was Tom's birthday so we headed down to Melbourne for a few beers before flying out to Tasmania the next morning. A fun time was had and at about 1am we headed to Flinders Street Station to catch the last train out to Abbey's Aunty Linda's house where we were staying. At around 2am we woke up at the end of the line with nothing but a small puddle of dribble on our shoulders to explain the past hour....we had fallen asleep. Luckily a taxi ride later, a few hours sleep, and an understanding Abbey we found ourselves drinking coffee at Melbourne airport waiting to board the 8am flight to Hobart.

The next five days were brilliant fun. We hired a Nissan X-Trail for the trip so we had plenty of power and room to play with which made the travelling very pleasant indeed. Our first day was spent in Hobart before heading out to Port Arthur on the peninsular to the east of the capital. Here we found some great accommodation with a 2 bedroom unit, heated pool and spa, table tennis, pool table, outdoor bbq area, free DVD hire etc. It was hard to leave but after 2 days of relaxing, eating, drinking and exploring the area we headed north up the coast towards St Helens and Launceston.

St Helens was a sleepy town but we found a nice bar and an even better restaurant so the last evening of our holiday was defiantly spent in style, I can still taste the steak now (figuratively of course, I have cleaned my teeth since).

A quick flight back from Launceston, a 2 hour drive home from Melbourne, and noodles for tea (well for Abbey and Tom at least - I was in bed with man flu) rounded off a belter of a break.

Tom has arrived safe and sound from England has although suffering with a bit of early evening jet-lag related tiredness is coping rather well with life down under! We have sampled a number of different Australian Lagers and eaten our own body weight in ham and bacon. Both have been consumed with much haste and gusto which probably why we are both feeling a little lethargic and flat today. Nothing a huge lasagne and a night in front of Peter Kay live from the top of the tower couldn't fix.

We have been camping in Bright and spent 2 days at the River so far as well as a bit of time at home in Shepparton.

Tomorrow is Tom's birthday so we are heading down to Melbourne to soak up some of the Comedy Festival before flying out to Tasmania early Saturday morning for 5 days. Let’s hope we manage to steer clear of the spiders, bugs and devils whilst over there. Especially as we have both been spooked by a rather large cicada who has taken up residence on our patio door fly screen!

As I sit here bleary eyed at work feeling what can only be described as drunk I’m begin to wonder if having Tom here for the next 3 weeks is actually a good idea.

After collecting Tom from the airport we had a 2 hour drive home to catch up on the events of the last 6 months. This we did and on arrival in Shepparton at 10pm after a long day for me and an even long day for Tom we should have shook hands and gone to bed. Sadly however what actually happened was rather different. In preparation Abbey and I had been shopping and stocked the fridge with food, then moved some of the food out of the fridge and filled it with beers.

We drank, we ate sandwiches, we ran out of beer and realised it was 5:30am....ooops!

I feel a bit worse for wear today....better go to the bottle shop on my way home as we're going camping later!

I have been to a few places in my time but not many compare to New Zealand. Spending 4 days in Nelson I sampled just some of what the country has to offer.

The flight path from Sydney to Wellington takes you directly over Nelson offering amazing views of the City and its surrounding terrain and coastline. As can be seen in the pictures the sea is blue and the trees are green.

I haven't seen Lord of the Dorks but people tell me they were filmed in New Zealand and I can see why. The views are simply stunning. Unspoilt landscapes in every direction.

A friend who recently moved to Nelson from the UK with his family has purchased a Scenic Flight business that operates out of Nelson Airport. Flight Corporation fly clients over the Abel Tasman National Park. Paul is learning to fly at present and so took myself and Tony (the chap he bought the business off) in a 4 seater Cessna to a place called Awaroa Lodge for a coffee.

Awaroa Lodge is a paradise resort and landing on the grass airstrip was a pretty cool way to arrive.

Nelson is a brilliant place and I'll definitely be back there soon.

It certainly didn't feel like Summer Bay last weekend in Sydney. In fact torrential rain and temperatures akin to a grim November in England made me feel right at home...or maybe that was the thousands of gap year students fresh off the lates BA flight from London.

Arriving in the capitol of New South Wales felt like a different world to the hot burning state of Victoria we had left just an hour earlier.

Leaving the airport in a taxi I reflected that Americans and people who appear in Big Brother would sit here happy to have arrived in the capital of Australia. Chuffed with my "brain joke" and the feeling of aloofness I reached for my iPhone to update my Facebook status.

Thursday evening was spent eating Thai food and drinking white wine which set the culinary scene for the weekend with Friday evening the only deviation from the Asian theme. My Friday meeting was over by 1pm leaving Abster and I three hours to find each other in the city and navigate our way back to the hotel in hurricane grade rain before catching a train out to where Beth lives.

We spent the evening eating, drinking, and catching up which was great fun. Saturday was spent visiting tourist attractions in the rain whilst I battled an acute bout of depression (homesickness bought on by the inclement conditions maybe). The emotional cloud was lifted however by beer and buffet food at a birthday party we invited ourselves too!

Waking up in a hot, stale, 18 bed youth hostel dorm with a hangover is shit...hotels are better!

Sunday was a slow starter but we managed a bit of shopping plenty of walking and a visit to Darling Harbour before heading out to the airport mid afternoon. Flying back into Melbourne was interesting as we flew over some of the bush fires that were burning. It was a bit unnerving to smell smoke in the cabin but nothing in comparison to the ordeal the people on the ground where still going through.

Late afternoon on Sunday and a much needed cool change sweeps through Shepparton bringing with it a much needed reprieve from the crazy temperatures of the last 10 days. This change however has come as little comfort to those directly affected by the bush fires here in Victoria with many areas still under threat.



Here in Shepparton we are about 90 minutes away from the nearest major incidents although there have been some small localised fires. The air has been heavy with smoke for the past 3 days and as I type this the sun is just a red/orange disc in the smoky sky.

Let's hope the fire crews can bring things under control over the next few days and that people can begin to rebuild their homes and lives.

Whilst the UK enjoys its best winter for years the heat wave here in Australia persists bringing with it bush fires and further drought. Looking at photographs of the snow back home I find myself longing to be hit full in the face with a packed ice ball just for fun... alas I will be making do with factor 30 sunscreen and a cold beer.

Today is forecast for some ridiculously high mid 40°C temperature so I'll be hiding inside all day out of the sun which kind of spoils the fact it is summer and we could be outside doing things. Hopefully the heat wave will break tomorrow and we'll see the temperature drop to a more humane 28°C, little chance of it dropping to -5°C though I think.

I have to fly to Sydney for a meeting next Friday so Abbey and I have decided to make a weekend of it and both head over to NSW for a few days. We're flying out from Melbourne Thursday evening and will return Sunday evening and hope to catch up with Beth Mitchell and one of Abbey's friends over the weekend. Russell Crow and Kylie have said they will meet us off the plane and Rolf is booked in as chauffer for the weekend. Bloody nice folk these Aussie's

Keep cool / warm depending on which hemisphere you are in!

Yesterday I became a member of the 27club. The 27club is not a particularly well known organisation mainly because I made it up for the purpose of this blog. But now I think about it I quite like the idea of an age themed club. Yeah, and membership could be based on a referral fee for introducing an ever increasing number of friends to the club... a recession has to be the best time to start a pyramid scheme!

My birthday consisted of an early start for present opening at 5:45am as Abbey and I were both at work at 7 then out to Abbey's Brother's house for tea.

I received some brilliant presents from both here and home so thank you to everyone.

It's 43 degrees here in Shepparton at the moment and the forecast is for 46 tomorrow with temperatures plummeting to 38 by the middle of next week, air-con is keeping us alive at the moment.

I suppose it makes a change from a cold (and recently wet birthday) so I shouldn't complain too much. Ah well it's time for me to drive to the river for an evening ski and give my snazzy new ski gloves a go - I hope I can get up on that bloody slalom ski again...

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