Australia is still reeling from the result of the EU referendum last week, and that is saying something because there is a General Election here on Saturday and it looks like being a very close run thing but still Brexit is stealing all the headlines. Voting is so complicated in Australia that there are infomercials on TV telling people how to fill in their ballot papers, no ticking just the one box here, there are many, many boxes which have to be numbered in order of preference.
Enough about the referendum, I can feel a rant coming on and this is not the place for it, and back to lighter issues. Zoe flew back to Newcastle with me from Melbourne for a few days holiday and managed to time her visit to coincide with a spell of wonderful weather. We had been lucky to dodge the rain the whole time in Melbourne but the sun really came out for us up here. It is the middle of winter at the moment but the days are generally sunny and temperatures hover around 20 degrees although it drops down to around 10 degrees at night, so we can be in t-shirts during the day and big sweaters in the evening. We make a fuss partly because we have acclimatised but also because the houses have no insulation or central heating and are built to get as much shade as possible. Winter only really lasts for about 8 weeks though and then it starts to warm up again.
It is the height of the whale migration at the moment and it is a bumper year. Since controls over whaling have been taking effect, the humpback population has increased each year and they are swimming past us in Port Stephens at the moment on their way to calve at the Great Barrier Reef. So we set off to Nelson Bay to hop on the Imagine Cruises catamaran for a whale watch cruise. In Nelson Bay they are marking the whale season with an exhibition of decorated whale tails around the marina (a bit like the painted elephants in London a few years ago). Each whale tail has a board beside it featuring a Whale Tale, stories about ships and their encounters with whales in the area over the years.
It was a beautiful still, sunny day and the bay was like a mill pond, the sea beyond the heads looked very calm too, so good news for whale watching. As the catamaran pulled into dock and the morning cruise passengers disembarked we heard the captain saying, 'that was the most whales we have ever seen on one trip!' We got on board with high hopes and the captain said, 'Hello everyone, it's like whale soup out there at the moment.'
Usually it takes a time for the crew to spot the first whale, they are in radio contact with the other two whale watch boats operating in the area and they let each other know when they have a sighting. No need this time, as soon as we were out of the heads they pointed out a group of three whales playing around and seemingly in no hurry to press on with the thousands of kilometres they need to travel. They treated us to a display of spy hopping (sticking their heads out of the water and looking around), tail waving, fin flapping, one even seemed to pop his head up and smile at us then, because the water was calm and quiet, the crew dropped a sound detector into the water and WE HEARD THEM! We couldn't believe our luck, last year when Ian and I went we saw a couple of whale's backs and thought we had a brilliant time but it was nothing like this.
Next the captain said he was taking us to where he thought he could catch some whales jumping out of the water because they tend to do it at 4 o'clock (?) I had heard that the experts do not even really know why they jump but goodness only knows how they can tell it is 4 o'clock. Anyway, he steered the catamaran to the likely spot and, yes you have guessed it, one jumped right beside us. Needless to say I didn't catch it with my camera, just a bit of a splash at the end so you will have to take my word for it.

I flew down to Melbourne last Friday morning because Zoe and I had tickets to see Culture Club at the Rod Laver arena (they were fantastic but enough about that). The journey is very cheap and straightforward as we only live 15 minutes from Newcastle Airport and I was in Melbourne before 10am with my own tour guide (Zoe) to show me around.
We started off by visiting Monash University, where Zoe is now studying and I was struck by how similar it is to the University of East Anglia where she got her degree in England.
Next stop was the beautiful Shrine of Remembrance. It is a very impressive structure in the middle of parkland with a museum in the basement and the building has been constructed so that on the 11th November at 11am the sun shines through a tiny skylight directly on to the memorial plaque in the centre of the room. The whole place is surrounded by art spaces sunk into the ground and trees planted to commemorate battles of the first and second world wars.
We then wandered through Treasury Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens, which are both beautiful and have plenty of plants in flower even though it is now the middle of winter. Fitzroy Gardens has a gorgeous conservatory full of tropical and semi tropical plants and is also home to Captain Cook's cottage. Zoe and Ian have had many discussions about this as Captain Cook never lived in Australia but, when we visited it we realised the cottage had been exported from England and reassembled in Fitzroy Gardens so we bought Ian a stubby holder from the souvenir shop to prove it did exist.
It is really easy to get around in Melbourne as the trams are straightforward and the city centre is built on a grid system so I didn't even get lost when I ventured in by myself on day two while Zoe was at work. She joined me at lunchtime and we took in Prahran Market which has loads of unusual food stalls including a mussel wagon and a home made Turkish delight stall where there were stacks of Turkish delight in every colour imaginable.
It was the Queen's Birthday weekend, Australians get the day off on the Monday as a public holiday and I just had to share this poster in one of the pub windows. Everywhere was quite jolly with an atmosphere only achieved when everyone knows they don't have to go to work on Monday. We took in St. Kilda, a really vibrant beachside suburb very near to Zoe and Shaun's home which is the home of Melbourne's Luna Park and where we walked along the pier and spotted fairy penguins hidden amongst the rocks. We walked along the banks of the Yarra river in the city past endless restaurants, cafes and bars wondering why we kept passing the occasional Batman or Transformer until we reached the convention centre and saw that Comic Con was being hosted there and we were surrounded by people dressed as comic characters.
With very sore feet from all that walking, we set off for the airport for our flight back to Newcastle airport as Zoe was coming back to spend a week in Lemon Tree Passage with us.

On our last day in Ballina we decided to cycle to a nearby (or so we thought) beach where dogs were allowed as Monty could not go on the beach at the site. We have always wondered just how far our electric bike batteries would go and we very nearly found out. We thought it was only down the road so popped Monty in his trailer and set off. We seemed to cycle for hours alongside the Richmond River passing the tiny little post office and not much else. When we finally arrived we realised we had cycled 18km in the baking sun and had to do the same to get back, when we finally limped back into the caravan site we didn't have a bar of battery life left on our displays between us!   
Next morning we packed up and drove south for around three and a half hours until we reached our next destination the beautiful Grassy Head Hideaway. We were staying here for a couple of nights as it is pretty much halfway home. It is a glorious place to stay, there are three villas set in gorgeous tropical gardens with a pool and balconies in the tree tops. The Hideaway is also in the middle of a great spot for day trips out. 
We started with Stuart's Point which is quite unusual in that the beach is reached by a long walk across a bridge over a waterway. It was a very pleasant little town with pretty parkland stretching the length of the waterfront and a caravan park. 
Next stop was South West Rocks which is a beautiful town, much bigger than Grassy Head or Stuart's Point and is made up of two bays, Trial Bay (named after a wrecked ship) and Horseshoe Bay. There are plenty of shops and cafes there and, at the time of our visit, a vintage caravan muster was taking place. The caravans were fantastic, lovingly restored and towed by cars of the same period driven by owners wearing clothes of a similar vintage to complete the look.
Nearby was Smoky Cape with its wonderful lighthouse which operates a small guest house. My sister Gill stayed there a number of years ago and says it was glorious to sit having breakfast watching dolphins frolicking around the rocks below.
The last stop before our journey home was Hat Head, as we drove there we passed field after field of cows each with their own group of attendant egrets. I have heard people raving about Hat Head but I was not so keen. Again a caravan site seemed to have control of all of the waterfront and had put lots of rules in place which I found a bit tedious. It is a very small town indeed and the general store was the usual mix of petrol station, grocery store, ironmongers, chemist, cafe and take away restaurant.
On the way home we took a quick detour via Taree to see the Big Oyster, it is now home to a car dealership but a pretty good Big Thing all the same.