As we walked towards the station, a tiny pang of worry hit Laura - would she recognise her? But don’t be silly Laura, it’s Nora, and although perhaps a little taller and more tanned, the smile that greeted us was unmistakably Nora’s. We walked back through the shopping precinct, now no longer two, but three, and went into the supermarket. As we bought lots of picnic items, we chatted excitedly about everything and more.

The cunning plan for Nora’s visit was to take her to Philip Island (an island roughly 80km south of Melbourne) to see the penguins this evening and do something else tomorrow before she left us again. So, armed with bread, croissants, cheese, jam, drinks, grapes and biscuits we returned to the car and drove to the campsite. Nora was quite excited about our little car and our little tent and our little coolbox, and it was lovely to hear about all the fun she’d been having. We made loads of sandwiches (eating a few as we went along) and decided to head off nice and early for Philip Island. There was one cheap delight we had to share with Nora first though, and that was the 30 cent Macdonald's icecream. She was rather impressed and our taste buds were certainly satisfied, so we drove off along the freeway.

As we still had some time before sunset (and therefore also the penguins), we went to see if we could get into one of the wildlife sanctuaries first, as the koalas should be waking up now. Sadly both were closed, so we drove to the far end of the island to see the penguins. We had just enough time to drive up to Seal Rocks to see if it was worth visiting and be able to get back before sunset when these particular roads would be closed. However the sanctuary of Seal Rocks, from which you could look at the seal colony on the offshore rocks cost $15 each to get in. This was too much money and we hadn’t got so long, so we drove back to the "Penguin Parade" and parked the car.

According to the signs, hundreds of penguins would come up onto the beach here just after sunset. Also according to the signs, it was $10.50 to have the privilege of sitting and watching this natural event. It all seemed to be set in very un-natural surroundings, as we could just make out a huge row of stands and several high floodlights over the dunes. All in all, this seemed a magnificent rip-off, which we decided not to support, so we left again.

Eating our picnic in the car on the way back towards Melbourne we tried to decide what to do. The best idea seemed to be going to the cinema, and we had just happened to stumble across another huge cinema complex at an out-of-town mall close to Frankston, so this is where we went. Our bad luck seemed to be lingering with us as we had missed the start of the film we’d hoped to see. Instead, we chose "American Beauty", which Nora had seen but was happy to watch again. We have to admit that although it was not the worst film we’ve seen, we do not agree with all the critics and voters for the awards, it was "brilliant", "ingenious" or "moving".

Back at the campsite we played some cards and chatted some more before tucking Nora up as cosily as we could into our car, and cramming ourselves in between our things in the tent.

We went together round the first maze, taking it in turns to choose a direction and it took a good ten minutes or more before we’d found the other end. The second hedge maze, we tackled a t 30 second intervals from each other and it was Mark who found the exit first. After that, we took a leisurely stroll around the grounds, before ending up at the rose maze. We did this one more slowly, not because it was more difficult, but because we stopped to admire and sniff at each of the gorgeous types of rose that grew there. Heading back towards town from the maze, we had to decide what to do next, and then a fabulous idea struck us: midget golf. Nora had never played before, so we took her to one we had passed several times in the car, and a good choice it was too.

We could choose between two 18 hole courses, and chose the covered one in order to stay out of the hot sunshine. This one also looked more exciting as it had an upstairs and downstairs level. The course was unlike any we had ever seen before, and very different from the plasticy, metally crazy golf courses in Holland. Each hole had some sort of obstacle or difficulty, but they were disguised as natural obstacles such as you would find on a "real" golf course. Instead of the unnatural concrete, it was fake grass, and "slopes" became little hills, "dips" becoming ditches. In some places there was a tree trunk, a bend in the course or even an area of "rough", which had read sand in it. Perhaps the best bit (other than very realistic water features) was that some of the "greens" were connected. You would hit the ball down a hole on a green downstairs and it would shoot up a series of tubes and drop down onto a green upstairs. Here you would then complete the hole by putting it into the hole up there. We had a hilarious time running up and down staircases, fishing our ball out of the mini river and watching it shoot off around the building in the tubes. We finished off with an ice-cream and then set off to take Nora home. As it was only 20 minutes out of our way, we didn’t throw her back on a train, we simply dropped her off at her Aunt’s front door. Saying "goodbye, see you in a few months" seemed the perfect ending to our little twilight zone, and we drove back towards Frankston.

On the way there, our addiction to the cinema was creeping over us again, so we stopped by the same shopping centre to see when "Man on the Moon" was playing next. Sadly we had just missed a showing, so we drove back to Frankston to find some food. As we were deciding where to park, a man flagged us down and asked us to help him to jump-start his car. We agreed and pulled over, and Mark got out to see what he could do, while Laura waited for instructions and talked to the man’s little boy - apparently this had happened before. After lots of attempts however, we finally gave up, as his car didn’t react, so we wished them well and left them to call a tow truck. By now it was late and we were tired, so we had a quick burger before going home to sort out our belongings. Tomorrow we would go to Alexandra, 150km north east of Melbourne, where (with a little luck) there would be work for us.

We phoned the number in the TNT guide again (we had phoned Monday and found out that it was picking peaches and nectarines and packing them , for $11.50 an hour) and we were in luck. Adam, the big boss, drove down to meet us by the phone, telling us we could definitely work tomorrow (Thursday) and then again from Monday or Tuesday onwards. We agreed to come and have a go the next day to see what it was like, and left to find a good campsite.

From 14.00 until 17.00 we drove around the entire area, looking at all the holiday parks. Even the Big 4 park was totally run down and had no camp kitchen. Eventually, we ended up back at the first one, as it was at least the closest to work (and just as dilapidated as the rest). We booked nights and put up our tent. Upon further exploration the park was fine, it had two fridges and a stove, a laundry room, a TV and games "shed" and some lovely new toilet facilities. So we cooked, ate and went to sleep.

We went to stand at two adjacent side-branches of the main conveyor belt. It was our job to pack the nectarines that fell off the main belt onto our smaller one in boxes of 25. Peaches of a certain size and weight would be dropped from the main conveyor belt when they reached us. The only complication was that we had to remove the bruised or mutated peaches, and place the good ones red-side up. It seemed simple enough, and it was. The conveyor belt didn’t release too many too quickly and we were able to keep up with the flow of peaches. Each completed box, we had to place on a separate conveyor belt which whisked them away to where they were given lids and stacked up on pallets. Before us along the conveyor belt, large nectarines were being packed in boxes of 16, and after us, smaller ones were boxes of 28. All in all, there must have been 12 side branches with people working at them, and others were packing the boxes up, or making more empty ones ready.

Between busy times, we were able to chat with some of the other backpackers, including two friendly Dutch girls. They had already been working here for more than two weeks, saying that it was nice enough work to do. Apparently we would sometimes be working in the shed, and at other times we’d be out picking in the orchards. From what they said, it sounded as though we too, would have no trouble working for the two weeks we’d planned.

We were given a quarter of an hour "smoke" break in the morning, and half an hour to eat our lunch, by which time we were quite enjoying the work. When we returned to it after lunch however, it seemed that what we had been doing was only a warm-up. The peaches were pouring off the conveyor belt at twice the rate as before and we kept running out of boxes to fill. We would have to dash over and help others when we could, as their conveyor belts were nearly overflowing, before dashing back to stop ours from doing the same.

The time certainly flew by, and soon it was afternoon break. Shortly after that the boxes and seemingly also the peaches, had run out completely. And that was it, an early finish, we could all go home. Before we did though, big boss Adam gathered us together to tell us who would be working where tomorrow. To our surprise, we were included in tomorrow’s working day, and we would be out picking in the fields for the first time. A little tired, but certainly happy with the work, we returned to the holiday park and our tent. After a quick shower, we lazed around for a while before cooking dinner to eat in front of the TV. As there was definitely no work on Saturday or Sunday, we were still planning to go away for the weekend, so we prepared all of our things so that we could pack up our tent in the morning before work. Then, because we had to get up at 6.00am tomorrow, we went to sleep.

Things went from bad to worse as the rain got harder still and soon the ground was swamped and muddy. Meanwhile we huddled in the shelter, shivering in our already soaked clothes. All around, the sky was dark and the rain showed no sign of letting up. Adam decided to send us home for a few hours and meet again at a quarter to twelve, to see if we could go back out to the field.

So we drove back to the town in our wet, smelly things, and as we had no home to go back to, we went to the public toilets to clean ourselves up at little, with two hours to wait, we went to use the internet, where it was at least warm and dry. Before we knew it, it was time to meet up again, so we returned to the hotel and waited for Adam. The weather in the meantime had warmed up a little, and the sky was a little brighter although still completely clouded over.

When Adam turned up, he said conditions at the orchard had improved so we drove back to it again. We continued to pick from where we’d left off, and sure enough, the sun soon came out and the ground dried up. The only problem to be dealt with this afternoon, was wasps. In some of the trees, wasps nests were hiding carefully behind plums until someone was made only too aware of their presence. Mark was perhaps the most unlucky as he received two painful stings, one to the ear and one on the end of his nose.

We had been working for four hours and were getting a little hot and bothered, when Adam came over with a nice surprise: ice-lollies. We enjoyed them in the shade, before going back to work: only half a row left to pick. At around 17.15, we were done and we returned to the main building to wait for Adam. He wished us a good weekend and told us to call him on Sunday and he’d tell us where to be on Monday.

So finally it was the weekend, and we headed north east along the route we’d chosen the night before towards Wodonga. Twin town to Albury, Wodonga lies on the border with New South Wales, and between the two towns, there is a population of around 90,000 people. We checked into the luxurious Big 4 campsite we had also picked out the night before and put our tent up just as it was getting dark. There was no time for us to eat until now, so we drove back towards town and eventually found a Red Rooster restaurant which we decided to try for a change. Along the lines of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Red Rooster sold fast-food style chicken dishes. However, on top of "fried chicken" burgers, it sold roast chicken and chicken fillet meals too. We chose the chicken, cheese and bacon burger meal and sat down to wait. The meal was delicious, the chips were covered in "chicken salt" which gave them a flavour similar to roast chicken crisps. The burger was made with delicious bits of real chicken, obviously carved from one of their roasts and was combined with yummy cheese and bacon.

Very pleased to have discovered a tasty alternative to Burger King and Macdonald's, we drove back to the campsite. By now it was nearly ten o’clock so we showered and went to bed.

There was a great offer with "a movie and a meal" and for $11.95 each, we could have a Hungry Jacks meal and see the film. We drove off to find Hungry Jacks, bought the relevant Movie Meal deal and sat down to eat. After we’d finished, we sat and talked for nearly an hour about what kind of appartment we could buy and what we’d buy for in it. Before we’d even realised, it was five to seven and we returned to the cinema.

We sat in the front row as usual and enjoyed the frankly quite psychotic story. It was quite a long film, so by the time we were back at our tent it was quite late again, so we went to bed.

We dried off in the shade before going along to have that promised ice cream. Then it was time to go, and we drove the 200 or so kilometres back to Alexandra. Once back at the caravan park, we decided to see if there was a caravan free, as we’d heard from the Dutch girls that we received special rates as fruit pickers. We were very lucky, and so for $100 a week we moved into the last free caravan. Compared to our tent, it was pure luxury, with cupboards, a sink, an oven, cooker, toaster, kettle, fridge and a real bed. We unpacked everything from the car before phoning Adam.

Adam told us to come to work in the shed tomorrow, but after dinner (cooked in our caravan!), he came by to say we’d be picking instead. This, sadly, meant an even earlier start, so after we’d made our sandwiches, we went to bed.

We therefore spent a happy day, picking fruit together, playing word games and just generally chatting. At four o’clock when it was time to go home, we were tired but happy. Stopping briefly at the supermarket to pick up some food, we returned to our caravan. Having showered, we then cooked paprika chicken and pasta which we ate in front of Seinfeld and Friends. All too soon, it was time to go to bed, as we would be picking in the same place again tomorrow, which meant starting work at 7.30am.

we were joined by two new arrivals, backpackers from London who had been travelling for 6 months without working a day so far. They certainly weren’t used to the idea of work, let alone anything this demanding. They spent the entire day complaining about the "low" wages, (we thought we were very well paid), the boring nature of the work (made even more boring by their perpetual complaints), and how their poor little bodies couldn’t cope with the strain (they looked like they’d never stood for more than 3 minutes at a time, let alone walked or done sport).

We were so glad when the day was finally over, and we returned to the caravan for meatballs, potato croquets and baked beans. As we went to bed our fingers were crossed that the complaints would stop so we could enjoy the work once more.