My last week in Melbourne was busy as! I was very happy to be able to stay once again in my old house with Fiona, Mauricio, Angelo & Sabrina. I was made to feel at home there (apart from not having a doorkey of course); it's a pity I only met my three new South American friends in my last days in the country, but that's the way the cookie crumbled.

On Monday I caught up with my Dutch friend Simon who I met all those months ago in Sydney. He's back in Australia for a little while, and was visiting Melbourne for a few days between a meditation retreat in the Blue Mountains and a tour through Australia's Red Centre starting in Adelaide next week.

After a bite to eat in town, I took him out to Docklands and we walked around that area of town which was also new for me. It's weird: I've been living here how many months? And yet I never made it over to Docklands before today! It's all very brand spanking new and not quite finished. I get the same feeling I had when first visiting London's Docklands when I was at school: give it ten years, a few rough edges and some dogshit, and it will be much a more liveable area.

In the evening I caught up with my mate Ross in St Kilda. We went for dinner at the fabulous Vegan restaurant called Lentil As Anything, where there are no set prices, you just pay what you think is the appropriate amount for your dining experience. They work on the principle of karma - which in an affluent and trendy city like Melbourne is going to ensure profitability, I should think. The food was fantastic and the ambience most pleasing. Then we went for a few drinks along Acland Street.

On Tuesday I was again in St Kilda, this time for lunch with Simon. In the afternoon we headed over to the Botanical Gardens and lay chatting in the dappled shade of an enormous gum tree. The park was really quite empty considering how lovely the day was, but I suppose you won't get that many people midweek.

It was fascinating to hear about Simon's whole approach to life, now that he is thinking more along Zen Buddhist lines. He is clearly getting a lot from his meditative way of life. And given his background as a life coach with NLP training (neuro-linguistic programming is, as I understand it, a way of using specifically phrased questions to tease out the inner truth of what someone really feels about the topic at hand) it was fascinating to talk to him about where I'm at in my life's journey. Which all sounds a bit wishy-washy, but it's good stuff.

I spent the evening relaxing in my old house with my new housemates, and slowly packing my stuff up in readiness for leaving later in the week.

Wednesday & Thursday were a bit of an adventure: Simon & I hired a car and drove down the Great Ocean Road. What can I say? Breathtaking. Stunning scenery. And the weather was just perfect! We reached the Twelve Apostles (actually only eight rock pinnacles, but really lovely) just before sunset and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

This after a day of cruising along in our huge Holden Commodore - not bad seeing as we'd booked a shitty hatchback but they didn't have any in the carpark! - in blistering heat, stopping at random empty gorgeous beaches and soaking up the alternate atmospheres of sea-drenched rocky cliffs and eucalypt-scented forested hillsides.

We stayed in a motel in Port Campbell, a town which, considering its proximity to probably Victoria's most famous natural wonder, is remarkably unprepared for tourists. Most of the restaurants shut at nine o'clock, and the tourist information shuts at five! We were lucky to find accommodation at all, but in the end it was a lovely room with very friendly owners.

The drive back to Melbourne the next day was less scenic - we took the inland road - but still good fun. I worked on my Dutch, and now feel confident to curse and swear at the bloody flies that buzz around you everywhere in this godforsaken hole of a country in summer, and lots of other useful vocab.

We stopped for a bite to eat in Geelong, which is another place I've been meaning to visit all year just because it's there along from Melbourne on the Port Phillip Bay but never have. The woman who served us in the sandwich shop looked and sounded as if she'd just walked out of the movie Strictly Ballroom. It was amazing to think such stereotypical Aussie Sheilas are still out there!

Thursday afternoon and evening were dedicated (in my head at least) to leaving my old house in style. I bought beers and wines and my housemates & I got stuck in. In a very happy coincidence, Sabrina's friends working at Copacabana, the Brazilian restaurant in Smith Street, had brought round a bin liner full of bread rolls and about four kilos of prime roast meats. These we ate with gusto; you just can't beat Brazilian meat in my book. The night was long and lots of fun. I finally crawled into my sleeping bag at four a.m.

Friday was my last full day in Melbourne. I met with Emily & Tiffany for lunch at the Crown Casino complex. We went for dim sum in a very snazzy restaurant on the waterfront. We figured (correctly) that given the high proportion of ethnic Chinese that visit the casino, the Chinese food offered there would have to be of a high standard. We weren't disappointed!

In the afternoon I moved my luggage from my old house to Rainnie's house, where I was to stay the night because Rainnie, Claire & I were travelling together the next day. Then I picked up my ticket home from the travel agent - oh my God, it's really happening now! I can't deny it because I've actually got the piece of paper in my hand.

I took Simon to Claire's restaurant Shakahari for dinner. I knew he would appreciate the fine vegetarian cuisine, and I'd been wanting to go back there for some time now. After dinner we went for a walk through the Exhibition Centre grounds, where we were surrounded by possums going about their nocturnal business, and had a few drinks along Smith Street before catching a tram back towards the city. I bade Simon farewell, and then jumped out at the Melbourne Museum to make my way to Rainnie's.

So there you have it, ladies & gentlemen: a week full of excitement to end my nine months of excitement in that fabulous city called Melbourne.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were an exciting time for me, but also very relaxing. I was at the Meredith Music Festival, a rock festival in country Victoria about two hours out of Melbourne to the north-west. I went there with Emily, her ex Pete, and a bunch of their friends. We had a whale of a time!

The weather couldn't have been better - hot & sunny the whole time, unlike last year when they had massive flooding on the first night and had to spend the whole day in their cars - and on the whole the music was very good. Sleeping in a tent is not really my accommodation of choice, but I had borrowed a huge tent which really could have slept six people; I could stand up in it without bending my head.

The first night was reasonably relaxed. Not everyone comes for all three days, so it wasn't as hectic as the Saturday. I ran into my Finnish friend Nea, who I'd forgotten was coming, and spent some time with her, eating & talking. The best of the music in my view was a two-man band called The Mess Hall.

Saturday night was more intense. Here is a first-hand account of someone's first use of the party drug MDMA which I feel explains the mood and the behaviour of the majority of the people there that night:

"When I took the drug, at first there was no effect. I had mixed the powder into a soft drink and was taking small sips. Eventually, when I realised there were no adverse effects, I decided to take a bigger dose, straight off my friend's finger. It tasted awful! But I washed it down with some more squash.

"For a little while nothing happened. But then, quite quickly, a feeling of euphoria enveloped my mind. I was suddenly flying high, like a big head rush off strong alcohol. The only mildly irksome effect was a need to grind my teeth the whole time. Luckily, plenty of people had chewing gum handy.

"I noticed my body began to sway in time to the music, and then my foot started tapping. This motion made me feel good. In fact, when I tried to stop moving, it was as if the drug was telling me off and making me feel bad. When I started moving again, it was like I was being praised and I felt happy.

"Thinking about it, it was not really that I took the drug, it was more that the drug took me. I was just along for the ride. It felt strange to submit to the will of this drug which had possessed my body, but I decided not to fight it; that would, I thought, only lead me to feel very bad. It had been my decision to take the drug, so I felt it was only right to see where that decision took me.

"There was a period where I experienced some hallucinogenic effects. The flashing lights on the stage were burning themselves into my retinas, and when I closed my eyes the images took on various forms and began to swirl and dance in time to the music, just as I was. I recognised patterns that reminded me of the shiny rainbow wheels you see behind Buddha statues in South-East Asia, but I also saw little armies of stickmen grooving to the music.

"Later, when the initial effects of the drug were wearing off, I felt quite sane and sober, but I realised I just couldn't stop dancing. My teeth were still gnashing and my legs were still following the beat, even though the music wasn't that good any more. My dance moves were less crazy but I was still at it. It took a few more hours for me to be able to consider leaving the dance area and going to bed."

Luckily for the person who told me that story, MDMA is like Ecstasy but without the shit bit of feeling really messy the next few days. It must be quite expensive if it's that good, but I didn't enquire as to price or where you could get the stuff. It's not as if it's something I'd be looking to do!

Sunday, our last day at Meredith, was very quiet really. Most people were quite groggy from the previous night's revels, so I contented myself with taking down my tent and sitting in the hot sun with a bottle of water in my hand. That was after my pancake with strawberry sauce for breakfast, of course!

Tiffany came to pick me & Em up at lunchtime, and apart from a brief stop at a winery to buy some famous Meredith goat's cheese we headed straight back to Altona. Back at Em's house I made a beeline for the shower. Aaaaah!!! Running water! It really made me appreciate paying my taxes to think that urban living provides me with such luxuries.

I headed back to my old house that evening and spent the evening chatting with Fiona, Angelo, Mauricio & Sabrina.

As I came into Hobart, the weather was fine, so I decided to drive up Mount Wellington and see what the view over the city was like. I'm so glad I did it! Very worth it. The drive up the twisting winding road that scales the southern face of the mountain gave tantalising glimpses of the city that crouches between this big rock and a wet place.

My excitement levels just kept on rising, because I could see that dusk was gathering and I wasn't sure if I would make it up in time to see anything. That, plus the ever-changing weather conditions that make clothes requirements in Hobart so very unpredictable were taking a turn for the worse, with clouds gathering behind the summit and a very strong wind picking up.

So when I got to the top I thrust my car door open against the gale and ran out of the car towards the viewing platform. The first few drops of rain were already stinging my face and legs, but I managed to get some snaps of the tentacles of Hobart stretching along the edges of the coastline.

And I even had time before the rain came lashing briefly down to admire the underlying rock formations of Mount Wellington, which I can best describe as a huge conglomeration of pencils, bound together, snapped in half and shoved into the ground. Bizarrely hexagonal poles rock of sticking out everywhere, and whole cliff walls of the stuff!

After all that excitement (and all that driving) I was ready for a big feed. I headed to Mures, a quintessential Hobart dining experience for excellent reasonably-priced seafood on the seafront. Heaps of fish & chips later, I noticed they had a sushi bar there as well. I couldn't resist having one piece of salmon and one piece of tuna for dessert. So yum!!

Then I wandered along to Salamanca Place again for an after-dinner drinkie. I went to a pub called Knopwood's, where I sampled a delicious local pale ale called Moo Brew. It was up there with Fremantle's Little Creatures in my opinion! Sated and happy, I walked back to the hostel and got a fabulous night's sleep in an empty dorm.

My third and last day in Tasmania was not quite as hot and sunny as my second, but the weather was still fine. I stopped for breakfast on Salamanca Place at Café Retro, where I sat on the street and braved the occasional raindrop to watch the world go by while I feasted on French toast and bacon. Then I headed out on empty roads to the little town of Geeveston, where I turned off the main road and made my way to the forest canopy walkway at Tahune.

This is a wonderful steel bridge that leads through the tops of the local wet eucalypt forest trees, affording views over the Huon River and its signature pine trees. The unsealed road there was lots of fun in my hire car, and there were some mini walks to do on the way there, but the big one was best. And, just as I finished my walk and found myself in the cafeteria for a spot of lunch, the heavens opened and rain poured down. I couldn't have timed it better.

The forests of Tasmania also remind me of New Zealand, because although there are plenty of eucalypts they don't dominate, and the air is not heavy with their scent. Rather, it smells more like a pine forest at home. I love Tasmania's air!

At lunch, I had my first experience of Cascade Apple Juice. This juice is absolutely delicious: slightly carbonated, naturally sweet, with such an intense aroma of apples you feel like you've been trampled on by a rampaging orchard. In fact, I was so affected by it that I decided to stop at the Apple Museum just outside Geeveston on my way home. Here they show old machinery from the apple industry - more a fruit & preserves business than a cider one - and you can taste divine local produce.

After a brief coffee in Hobart, I headed out to the airport, returned my car and had my earliest ever check-in for a Jetstar flight: I was in the second-favourite group for boarding, rather than the "you got here late so you can bloody well wait" group! This meant I actually got a window seat for a change. The flight back to Melbourne was quick and easy, and soon I was back in the city.

My next port of call was Emily's inaugural art exhibition over in Richmond. This was a far more alcoholic affair than I had been anticipating; I ended up helping behind the bar, which meant that I was never more than 50 cm from a bottle of red wine. Hm.

Tiffany, Em's work colleague who I met at the races, gave me a lift back to my old house that evening for me to swap luggage pieces and then drove me to Em's house to stay the night. Because the next day we were heading to the Meredith Music Festival!