Today we travelled to Melbourne. Couldn't be easier. Up at 7am, pack, leave at 8am, arrive in airport at 8.30am, check-in, no passports/queueing, fly at 11am, arrive at 12.20pm bang on time. In Australia they turn these planes around in thirty minutes. A flight to Melbourne leaves Sydney every half hour at peak times. Our plane was half empty, so I stretched out and spent the time reading.

The airport was full of business travellers who looked like they did this daily. Although busy, it wasn't rushed - this is something Australian that we don't seem to achieve in England. We're going to stay with Iain's Aunt Ros. She's kindly offered us three days accommodation and food, in return for which we give her two bags of laundry, a list of places we want to go, and the spare bed.

[Ros' poisonous plant]

Ros met us off the plane, and we drove into Melbourne. By lunchtime we were sitting in the Botanical Gardens, where Ros works as a botanist. Thus we learnt a lot of interesting background to Australia's flora and fauna, both indigenous and imported, about which Ros is an expert.

[Squillions of bats in Melbourne's Botanical Gardens]

We saw more fruit bats, who have arrived unexpectedly some years back on migration, and stayed as they like the trees. Unfortunately the trees don't like them, and the bats are killing many large oaks. We had a picnic lunch, in winter, a month after the Winter Solstice. Feels like a crisp, clear October day, which is my favourite time of year (hence our wedding date). Beautiful blue skies and crackling leaves underfoot (from imported species; Australian ones largely shed bark instead).

[The Immigration Museum]

We went via tram (another city with an efficient transportation system and less traffic than the UK) to the Immigration Museum. This wonderful place houses stories of people's emigration to Australia; background, reasons, experiences, and future. Fascinating to learn more about the history of the populating of Australia. There's also a mock-up boat showing what it was like to travel at different times. Iain's mother first came to the UK by boat, which took weeks. I feel humbled by our 24-hour flight.

[View from the Rialto tower]

[View from the Rialto tower]

The Rialto tower was next, to give a panoramic view of the city. Higher than the one in Sydney, but less showy, it's a giant office block. Melbourne is sprawling, green, and varied. Fewer skyscrapers than Sydney, with the Yarra River running through the city. Melbourne and Sydney are apparently rivals, Sydney having overtaken Melbourne in terms of population fairly recently. While Sydney's backdrop is more spectacular, the guidebooks we have run Melbourne down unfairly in my view. It has some great architecture, and parklands; fewer sights but a lifestyle feel to it.

We drove back to Ros's, an hour south of Melbourne, in the rush hour - again, not as frantic or frustrated as the UK. We ate, unpacked, and slept. Great to be with someone we know, and not have to think about where we're going all the time; something I think we'll miss in a few weeks.