Tuesday 1st March
We did not have to leave the hotel straight away as the flight was not until late in the afternoon. We took the morning to look around the gardens. We would have stayed outside longer but it was very hot and humid so we escaped indoors to the old part of the house, which is open to the public. This part of the building is slowly being refurbished and being put back to how it was when a family lived there. It was strange to see something so 'English' in this part of the world.
We set off for Melbourne looking for a petrol station close to the airport to fill the car up. We had arranged to leave the car back at the airport, which extended the holiday by an extra day. We then checked the baggage for weight and found that we had not bought too much so we would be allowed onto the plane!
When we had checked in we were brought back to the idea of research by Jenny taking part in some research for their tourist board, on what we had been doing in Australia. It was a surprisingly long survey and it took up most of the time between checking in and getting onto the plane.
As we were going west we were chasing the dark which gradually caught up with us as we crossed the Indian Ocean. We were able to look out and see the Red Centre of Australia. There seemed to be large areas which from our height looked like giant salt flats.
As we crossed the Indian Ocean there were thunder storms below. There was also some turbulence. What was un-nerving was to see the wing flexing and moving around as we went along. When we landed in Singapore we smoothly went through customs and immigration. Then it was a taxi ride to the hotel. It was getting late in the day so we quickly went to bed.
