Sunday the 1st November
We experienced wild weather with plenty of rain and wind this morning. We had breakfast and then cleaned up and had showers and we were off to Aldi to stock up with groceries and meat for the weeks ahead. There is no doubt they are much cheaper than the other two big supermarkets. The meat we bought was cryovaced it was that of course that sent the check out bill skyrocketing. I couldn't help myself I bought another two chocolate Santa Claus at 99 cents each much cheaper than buying a block of chocolate. Liz was to buy couple of bottles of wine and it annoyed us greatly that we couldn't purchase any vegetables due to the quarantine laws of Tasmania. The vegetable that I like Broccoli is only $1.99 cents a kilo and banana's $1.49 a kilo though the bonus was Crumpets for $1.19 a packet and Muffins for $1.99 a packet and the list goes on and on.
We then walked down to Woolworths and bought more meat and chicken that were on special and then back home.
We had to take all the vegetables left and take them inside for Jen and Andrea to share which left a bit of room in the fridge for the meat.
Andrea our granddaughter arrived and we had a good old chat catching up with what was occurring with her in Melbourne. Andrea tests Yogurt prior to release to the market place therefore after testing it leaves several cartons of Yogurt which is normally tossed out. Liz and Jen shared the Yogurt and most of what Liz received was for the great grandson to be carried by us on the ferry.
Today is family day and Rob's Mother and Father plus Sister and brother in law and children with Liz and I along with Andrea and Jens children and husband Rob all went out for a late lunch at the Terminus Hotel at North Fitzroy.
There was plenty of traffic about and we had trains and trams to contend with along the way. It was 2pm before we arrived and settled in and most had wine and I had a couple of schooners of beer with my meal. The two boys had a pizza each and we started off with finger food of calamari and baby octopus and lovely sauces to go with them and then the main meal and boy was it big. There was so much we could not eat desert and we all finished with a skinny latte and in my case a cappuccino.
By the time I had finished my meal I Just felt so full that I felt uncomfortable. All good things come to an end and we were to say farewell to Rob's parents and Sister and brother in law and we indicated we would see them again next year.
When we arrived home I wasted no time going for a poppy nap and didn't awake until 7pm still feeling full. Needless to say I did not eat anything for an evening meal. Andrea departed before I awoke though we will see her at Christmas when she comes home to Tasmania for a few days.
For the rest of the night we settled in to watch television and talk about all and sundry for the journey for this year you could say has been completed and the only thing left is to hop on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry back to our home state of Tasmania tomorrow.

Monday the 2nd of November
We awoke to terrible Melbourne weather this morning with wind and rain and it did not improve much during the day. We had breakfast inside with Jen, Rob, Oliver and Lucas and we spoke of their trip to Tasmania in January.
Even though we have spent the last couple of days with the family it would be fair to say that we look forward to them coming to Tasmania in January for a holiday and they indicated that would come visit us at our home.
Rob went off to work and we said our farewell and then Liz was to walk with Jen whilst she took the boys off to school. On there return we had a cup of tea and it was time to go and leave Jen to do her work which she is doing at home today.
We said our farewell and then we were on the road towards the Spirit of Tasmania at Port Melbourne. First we pulled into the service station and topped up with fuel and were surprised to see diesel had dropped to $1.17.9 a litre and then on our way again. We were about 6 kilometres out from Jen's place when we remembered that we had forgot to pick up the light for Robert which we bought for him when we first came over in May.

Then it was back through the traffic in the opposite direction and arrived back at where we started and Jen was waiting with the bag with the light in it. Then on our way again and into traffic and it was raining lightly that made me more aware and careful of the traffic around us.
We did not want to get into an accident, the GPS had reported an accident on the road we were taking and luckily we found the mess had been cleaned up when we arrived there.
We were to go in a different direction this time around and ended up going via the docklands area and we were to see the very colourful yellow tram going about its business and then the double decker bus with just a canopy over the heads of the passengers on the top deck. The traffic was heavier in this area especially with the trucks taking their cargo down to the port for shipment.
We arrived and had another cup of tea and then though it was just a light rain we went walkabout for we had seen the cruise ships alongside the wharf at Port Melbourne. On one side there were two ships from P&O Lines and on the other the NEW Spirit of Tasmania with another cruise ship moored behind it.
The poor old Spirit looked like a row boat against the cruise ships. Apparently they are here for the Melbourne Cup which is being run tomorrow. This is the most famous horse race in Australia and horses come from around the world in their quest to win this famous race.
As it was a bit drizzily we sat inside a cafe and had a cup a cappuccino and a piece of cake. We noted the words "THE NEW" painted on the side of the Spirit of Tasmania 1 though we thought the outside did not look any different to when we came over on the same ship in May.
We went to the supermarket and bought bread and the paper. We have decided against walking to the fish and chip shop for our evening meal and have decided to have sav's in bread in the motorhome prior to boarding the ship.
We read our books during the afternoon before moving onto the quarantine area prior to boarding the ship. I will describe the interior of the ship in tomorrow's section of the diary which will be the last for this journey in 2015.

Tuesday the 3rd of November
Entered the quarantine area last night and they were pretty thorough checking for prohibited products and goods. They paid special attention to the gas bottle cabinet ensuring all gas was turned off and properly secured. Then we were in line to go on board. We noted the wording of "THE NEW" painted above the name of the Ship. The three cruise ships had passengers and crew coming and going and it was causing a bit of bedlam to the loading of our ship. We were finally called on around 6.30pm and parked up and went up to our cabin. The size was still the same it appeared that only a couple of short curtains and colourful blind had been part of the refurbishment along with new carpet. We decided to go to the 10th deck and have a look at the other cruise ships they were Pacific Pearl and Pacific Jewel both belong to the P&O Line and the other was named the Carnival Spirit of which we are not aware of the owner. We purchased a drink each and settled down for the weather outside on the deck was a little cool with intermittent rain and wind.

We noted that both P&O Ships had very big screens both located near the funnel of each ship. As we were going astern to leave the Port of Melbourne we were to cross the bows of all ships which gave us a better view. As we were going down the Bay we could see the high rises of the City and the bi-centennial Ferris Wheel which is quite large and really stood out once darkness was descending.
Our trip down the bay allowed us to see the various towns along the way something we have not experienced in previous years due to going home some two months earlier. We had a few drinks of the 10 level then we came down to the 7th level and met up with John and Jill from Binalong Bay our home town. We had a good chat about all and sundry and then decided to go off to bed just as we were leaving the Bay and entering Bass Strait.
As always it was a bit rough going out through the heads and then the seas smoothed out and gave us a comfortable trip all the way to Tasmania. We read our books for awhile before going off to sleep.
We were woken by the ships call system at 5.30am telling us that we would berth at 6am and disembark at 6.30am. Off the ship hooked up Digger and we were on way on Tasmanian roads to see my sister before heading to Launceston to see our children and grand/great grand children. Then home in a few days where we will unload and start the cleanup plus change oil and filters and finalise the repair to the diesel fuel line. So all good things must come to an end and in hindsight though we did things differently to other years we had a most enjoyable time meeting new and old friends of the road.
Just a few statistics.
Kilometres travelled 7452
Litre's of diesel consumed 1221.34
Digger kilometres travelled 8881