In the last few years Belinda has become Australia's sweetheart through her role as Rebecca Nash, and that was most obvious when the good wishes of the nation helped her make it through her brush with breast cancer last year. Belinda is now completely healthy and looking forward to a bright future away from Summer Bay. But before she left we caught up with her one last time...

We started our conversation by asking Belinda how she felt about leaving the show. 'I don't know,' she confessed. 'Mixed. I'm very excited, because it's hard not to be excited. You don't have to worry about… there's the whole schedule business [filming of Home and Away runs on a changing schedule, so work hours vary greatly from day to day] and it's kind of freedom, I guess, to get out there and do what you want to do. I'm going to be travelling and all that sort of stuff, so I'm very excited about that. I'm sad, though, because I'm going to miss a lot of people, not so much the work, just the people. I can come and visit whenever I want, I suppose.'

Belinda's character, Rebecca, and husband Travis Nash (Nic Testoni) leave the show by taking teaching jobs on a Tall Ship that is sailing around the world. When we asked Belinda what she thought of this storyline, she wasn't totally wild about it, but said, 'The actual [shoot for the departure] was really nice, it was a really lovely day and we went off on the boat, and it felt really nice, like a really lovely departure. It's very pretty and the English market is going to love it. It's on [Sydney] Harbour and it's the city, very pretty, very nice.

'I didn't like the way that [it happened with] Justine [played by Bree Desborough] being sent off for manslaughter and then we still take off and there's no mention of "Oh God, we should stay"; lots of loose ends and not a lot of emotions. A bit of an anti-climax, really, when you've been around for so long and you're quite established characters, you just think they should have been a little bit more something! For both our characters, we just drift off into the sunset and we talk about it for long enough, and then that's it, we go and see ya later, wave goodbye and we're off.'

Well, Bec and Trav have had a lot of responsibility for a young married couple, looking after foster kids and Pippa's caravan park, so maybe taking off on a boat is just the sort of thing they need?

'We just turn around and have gone "we're over it"; it's all very selfish. Which is fine  they're a young married couple and fair enough, they can't be looking after everyone for the rest of their lives.'

Belinda has had a relatively long stint on the show, about three years. 'I think it's just long enough,' she says. 'You've kind of been there and done your bit, and absorbed as much as you can.'

'Oh yeah,' Belinda laughs, 'I didn't actually get the childbirth, but I got the motherhood.'

Spending three years playing the one character is quite a lot, so we asked Belinda if she thinks it will be hard for her to leave Rebecca behind.

'Yeah, I mean, Rebecca's pretty much me,' she says, 'the sort of character that she is  actually I can't say that, because she plays a 40ish sort of women, and I'm 25. There is a lot of you in it, of course, it's a very naturalistic type of acting; it's not so much character, as in, you're playing something that is totally removed from yourself. So I suppose there's a lot of you in it except for what the scriptwriters write for you  you put in your inflections and your input and whatever. I guess I'd like to leave behind that whole motherteacher sort of thing. I think I'm perceived as being a lot older than I actually am.

'So it would be nice just to do something to show that I'm just a normal 25 year old who's basically just packing up her life and taking off overseas and having a big adventure. You know, doing stupid things and getting into trouble and having fun… I haven't seen anything. I've been to London, like, five days at a time and that's it. I want to go to New York; just travel. I'm excited.'

'[It's] great, because I haven't been able to do this for a long time, so I'm just basically going to take each day as it comes and "seize the day", I suppose, see what happens... I think now I'm just really looking forward to not having to do anything at all, just being able to get up whenever I want and do whatever I want to do, and not have to fall into a routine.'

Sounds like a pretty good plan to us! Especially since Belinda's been working solidly at one thing or another for the last few years… it's definitely her time to let her hair down.

'It is absolutely, just letting go and going crazy and having fun. There's a whole career thing, I just figure I'm not going to strive for anything in particular and hopefully it will just fall into place… I'm sort of allowing myself the next few months, to Christmas, if I don't do anything… I want to do some songwriting, but if I don't do anything else as far as career or job, that's fine. I'm sort of just going to cruise and have a break and do whatever. Then next year I'll think about maybe getting a job.'

We're sure that with Belinda's phenomenal popularity lots of doors will open for her. And, of course, Belinda's many fans will want to know exactly what she might be planing for the future… more television? Maybe movies? Or something completely different?

'Well, I want to go back to work where I started, doing music, that's sort of the thing I think I'll do best. I don't know whether I should say do best, but that's where my passion lies, anyway. That's the thing I probably enjoy and get the most out of doing, so I figure, well, that's were I should direct all my attention. So basically that's what I plan on doing, just getting overseas with a songwriting friend of mine. He lives in Leeds, so were just going to do some songwriting for a while.'

Belinda has a well-known love of jazz music, in particular, so can we expect to see her crooning tunes in little jazz clubs?

'I'd love to. I want to try and do something that's a little bit different and my own material and get an album out and all that sort of stuff. I've sort of been writing for a while and I've got some demos and stuff like that, [which] I made a couple of years ago. I'm doing some songwriting with some people at the moment as well, some stuff with Phil Ceberano [brother of singer Kate Ceberano] and people like that. I've got a lot of really competent, very hip kind of people hanging around me who are helping me out, so hopefully I'll be able to get something together. But, yeah, an album would be the ultimate thing, I guess.'

It's not hard to imagine people drawing parallels with other soapie stars who have gone on to singing careers, like Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Home and Away's own Dannii Minogue… but they weren't known for writing their own material, at least, not at the start of their singing careers.

'Well, no, that's right,' Belinda agrees. 'I can't do it all on my own because I'm not competent enough with musical theory, I guess, but I can sort of co-write and want to have enough input that it's me and it's exactly what I want to be. Not me going to a record company and having some guy putting you in hot pants and pushing you out in front of a bunch of male topless dancers or whatever. That's just not you. I just want something that's completely me and I'm comfortable with and I'm proud of, that I'm not going to make excuses for all the time. Just have control and be happy with it, that's the whole thing I think.'

So it looks like the next place you'll find Belinda will be in the racks of your local record store! Or, just maybe, in a cinema…

'I'd love to do film,' she says. 'I've auditioned for a couple of things and am waiting to hear back about them. That's something I'd love to do. I know I'll probably concentrate more on music, but I would like to do some sort of film as well, so I'll still audition for acting. I wouldn't mind just doing bits and pieces here and there. The whole acting thing's just… I've always been flying by the seat of my pants with it, and I don't really know what I'm capable of doing. It will be as much a surprise to me as it will be to anyone else what I end up doing with it, because I just don't know. I may end up forging my career in that way, but who knows?'

Before she starts anything new, though, we can still see Belinda on-air on All Time Greatest Bloopers on Sundays at 7.00 p.m..

'The good thing is I'll be overseas but I'll still be on-air over here [on Bloopers, so it's not like I'm disappearing completely, I'll still be hovering.'

And we're very glad she is! It's great to have the opportunity to still see a little bit of Belinda each week, even if it's not as much as seeing her all the time on Home and Away. But it's also good that she's having a bit of a break, and maybe the pressure of fame won't be as big in the UK… or will it?

'It's actually probably more so over there. They're a bit insane over there, actually, there a little bit kind of crazy and Home and Away is just huge. I'm going to be doing Italy and France and all that as well, so…'

Phew! Doesn't sound like so much of a rest after all. And we're quite sure Belinda will get recognised over there… even if it's just by Aussie tourists!

Just before we left Belinda to say farewell to Summer Bay and depart for her wonderful future, we asked her if she had any last words for her fans…

'Oh my God, what can you say? The obvious is thank you for all the support, I mean, for myself in particular the last three years it's been a rollercoaster, it's just been crazy, and I've just had constant support; it's been absolutely brilliant and I don't think I've ever had anyone give me anything but positive support or words of praise. It's just been really lovely, and people have been really gracious!

There's certainly no one more deserving of support and words of praise than Belinda, who is one of the most popular cast members for a good reason  she's pretty lovely herself! She'll be very much missed by everyone involved with the show, but we look forward to seeing what she gets up to in the near future… we know that, whatever she does, she'll be fantastic!

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