Australia, Dubai and Marco Polo….

Never again,

In a previous blog I wrote about my up and coming holiday in December to Australia, Dubai and then immediately followed by a work trip/ cruise on Cruise and Maritime’s Marco Polo. A great holiday was had but it was way too much, well for me anyway.

Click here to see a selection of my Australia pictures.

I flew with Emirates from Stansted and was very impressed with their service through-out and the activity packs and meals offered to the children.

My time in Australia was amazing, the idea was too visit my nan, I had not seen her since 1992.

As well as alot of quality family time spent there was lots of sight seeing.

1st thing was a trip to the amazing MCG where we had a surprise treat, Bon Jovi in Concert.

In Melbourne itself we only visited St Kilda but it was well worth it, beautiful seaside district with a harbour, Theme park, very cultural main street with amazing cake shops and a pretty decent Sunday market.

We spent a day at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat where we visited a town 150 years stuck in time. This was a Gold mining town and a big boom back in the day.

Whilst in Australia we booked a 1 night hotel stay on Philip Island for a 2 day visit, this is 2 hours south of Melbourne. This is a stunning place and famous for their 1 foot tall Penguins. As well as spending an evening watching them come out of the zoo after a day of fishing we also visited some amazing beaches, a Koala Conservation centre, a fantastic chocolate factory, an oldern day still in working order farm, an Antartic Centre and the amazing picturesque Nobbies Creek.

Saturday was a trip to Melbourne Zoo, kids are free at weekends 🙂

Then onto our main day out. a 3 hour drive along ‘The Great Ocean Road, a drive that took 9 hours. there can not be many roads in this world where every straight and every corner is a photo shoot, where every town you drive through you want to stop and walk around, it is truly a remarkable drive.

We got as far as the 12 Apostles, our aim for the day and got some stunning photos.

This brought a close to an amazing time in Australia and then it was off to Dubai.

Come back to see part 2, my time in Dubai and our stay at the Atlantis, The Palm.

Part 3 will be why I never do this type of trip again.