The 4.45am airport shuttle took me to Hobart Airport for my 6am flight back to Melbourne and I was surprised to bump into colleague Mark in the waiting lounge who i climbed Mount Fuji with. After a slight delay I was back in Melbourne at 7.30am and took a tram to the Royal Melbourne Zoo as I felt I should tick the ‘see kangaroos and koalas’ box on my imaginary checklist.

I didn’t visit this zoo six years ago as I did something similar in Sydney but this was quite a good one with the chances of getting up quite close to some animals without a huge fence or glass window in the way. The kangaroos were fairly free and the Emu’s were roaming around too making me feel a little paranoid as I posed for a photo or two in front of them.

         

After exchanging yet more money at a good exchange rate I bought plenty of tacky souvenirs for my students and headed back to Ruth’s to spend a final afternoon with her and baby Eifion which we did with a simple walk down to the cafe by the local beach and then I even experienced the excitement of changing a nappy for the first time but will it be the last time?!!

     

Australia was really the place that kickstarted the travel-bug in me all those years ago and had became forgotten in some ways but this little trip certainly made me remember what I had liked about the country and why I had gone ‘down under’ in the first place.