Our two city stops of Melbourne and Sydney were special, not only do John and I absolutely love Melbourne but we met up with some friends and family in Sydney.Firstly in Melbourne, we stayed in a great Air BnB that had a washing machine AND a dryer, we did about 8 loads of washing and we smelled lovely again. It also had Netflix, something we don’t have at home and we could watch ANYTHING our hearts desired, the kids decided on The Parent Trap, Benji and Cat in the Hat, which they both now say are their favourite films – ever! We made them watch Penn and Teller. We were car less again so we relied on trams to get us around the city and into the suburbs of Fitzroy and Collngwood, our favourite bohemian, family friendly areas – and a bit like home.

We elevated ourselves up the Sky Deck, 88 floors up at sunset to see the fantastic views of Melbourne. The kids had already written 11 postcards to home and we posted them for the highest post box in the Southern Hemisphere at the top of the Sky Deck, little did I know that it would cost us £19 to post these bloody post cards.

Now, we felt lucky to have caught the Adelaide Art Biennial earlier on in our trip but now we stumbled on the inaugural Melbourne Art Triennial! We dragged the kids around the gallery and we all really enjoyed it. It’s a wonderful city to walk around but Arlo spent most of his time on either of our backs, piggy backing as he’d (4 days earlier) hurt his foot whilst jumping 2m off a climbing frame.

We made a beeline for a special vegan cafe called Lentil as Anything, a charity based venture where you ‘pay what you feel’ meaning it feeds the local homeless people, vagabonds and low waged as well as middle class travelling bastards like us. And it’s the MCTB that pay for the less fortunate people’s food.

We flew to Sydney 4 days later and we met our funny freaky friend Merry. John met Merry years ago whilst working in summer camp in America, she came to the UK for a few years after that and hung with us. She now has a family and lives in Collaroy, a lovely area by the beach in Northern Beaches. Her 13 year old Tess was a huge hit with Henna and Arlo, they really loved her. It was great spending time with an old friend. Although we have met lots of people on our trip, they are all fleeting relationships so it was really special to see a familiar face. We stayed at Merry’s place and her 15 year old Zack kindly gave up his bed for us.

It was during this time that Henna started her 10th birthday celebrations, she and I climbed up Sydney Harbour Bridge, it was spectacular. The climb wasn’t as hard as you might think, there are 4000 steps but it’s all taken at a slow pace with loads of breaks. John and I did this 12 years ago, almost to the day and it was amazing to do it again with Henna – who’d a thunk it?

It’s strictly forbidden to take anything up the bridge with you, including a camera, even jewellery has to be removed. You may have realised by now how tight I am and refuse to pay £60 (£35) for a set of photos taken at the top of the bridge. I thought I was ‘C as F’as I snuck the GoPro in my bra – my coolness soon faded as I saw the airport style metal detector we all had to walk through. Of course it was gonna bleep when I went through and it did, the guide diligently scanned me with a hand held thing but as she did so she noticed my open toed shoes and got distracted, calling her colleague to fetch me an new pair of pumps to climb with. I was was saved my incorrect sandals. I, of course got some very sneaky & great shots of me, Henna and the sublime view from the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge – and it didn’t cost me a thing!

We said our goodbyes to Merry and crew and headed down the coast to Curl Curl, another lovely beach town where my cousin Pamela and her partner Sven live.

It was wonderful to see her…Pamela and I were very close whilst growing up, I always looked up to my older cousin who was not only beautiful but funny too. She moved to Sydney when she was 18 and hasn’t looked back since.

Again our two loved ‘aunty Pam and uncle Svenny’, we all had a laugh playing cards on their roof top garden. It was April Fools day so we decided turned all their furniture, pictures and ornaments upside down…it took them a while to notice (we thought it was hilarious!) We said hello to Claudia (Pam’s daughter) who the kids also loved being with, she did an Easter egg hunt with them on the roof top garden, the kids were beside themselves with joy – apart from when Sven ate Henna’s no.1 Easter egg! Meanwhile, Henna’s friends and family from home had sent her some very special birthday cards to Pam’s house. We spent time at the beach (obviously), went snorkelling at Manly beach, ate out at vegan cafes and all had a jolly spiffing time. We had to leave all too soon and but wished we could have stayed for another week.

Bye Sydney and Australia, you’re beautiful, warm, sunny, friendly, easy, fantastic coastlines with great wildlife, kid centred, you’re relaxed and well equipped – but you’re too expensive!