Gap Year 08 - Chris

New York

2008-06-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

So, we left San Francisco on Friday on the Delta flight, and weren't expecting much, but it was much bettert than we thought it would be! We got free drinks, and with the bagels I took from the Green Tortoise, it was even better! We landed in JFK, New York at about 9:15pm, and got to the terminal at about 10pm. The bags came out quite slowly, but we managed to get a taxi to the hostel quite quickly. It cost $60!!! But it was much safer than getting the Metro at that time of night. We checked in and then went and got some food from the local McDonalds, where the staff weren't particularly friendly! They seemed to treat the customers like it was their favour to serve them, and it took ages, but we got our food in the end so we were happy! We got to bed at about 1am, so it wasn't too late.

On Saturday, we woke up at about 8am, as we had lots of sightseeing to do. We got the Metro to the World Trade Centre Site and had a look around. I never realised how big it was, but most of it was fenced off to the public, which no one seemed to understand why. We found a small cafe where we had some brunch, and we had time to look around it, at some of the things from 9/11. There were a few photos and other bits that showed what it was like, which was really sad to see. From there, we went towards the end of the island, and looked out towards the Stautue of Liberty. It was about a mile away, so it was too small to see it in detail, but at least we could cross it off our 'To-do' lists! We then went to the Empire State Building, but didn't go up as there was amassive queue! We walked to Times Square from there and that was where I said goodbye to Alex, as he was going to visit a friend in Conneticut. I felt so alone and afraid... lol only joking! I spent a bit more time in Times Square and then went to Central Park, where I chilled out for a bit, and then walked down 5th Avenue to some shops. I spent ages looking at trainers, and couldn't decide on which ones to get, but I eventually chose some. I thought I'd wait for Alex, as he had always been there when I looked for trainers, and just to annoy him as well! I didn't do much in thevening, apart from watch some rubbish TV, but thanks to that evening, I learnt how ice cream is made...

I got up at about 12 the next day, as Alex wasn't there to wake me up. I went the main area of New York (Times Square) and spent most of the afternoon there until Alex came back at about 4pm. We did some shopping after that and went and had a look around Macy's. I didn't think it was anything special - it was just huge! Most of the clothes were too expensive for us anyway, so we didn't buy anything (apart from a coffee at one of the many Starbucks!) We found a cool area that had discounted shirts for a bargain - $300!!!!! No idea why anyone would ever spend that amount on a single shirt... After shopping, we went to the cinema and watched a film called Get Smart. I thought it would be another boring slapstick comedy, but it was one of the best films I'd seen all year! It finished at about 1am, which is when we went back to the hostel and went to bed.

On our last full day of the Gap Year :'( We spent the last morning at the loacl Subway, where we had our last $5 Footlong, and then went on the hunt for my trainers. We ended up in going to 181st street to get them!!!! I hope they were happy! We then spent the rest of the day around the 5th Avenue area, where we were given free strawberries (just because Wimbledon started!!) and then Alex spent about $300 on clothes for his sisters in Abercrombie & Fitch. We took out goods back to the hostel, and then went to Times Square for out last dinner. We went to TGI Friday's as it is one of the most American restaurants around! We then went back and packed our bags for the last time. I couldn't get to sleep at all that night, but in the end I had about 2 hours.

We woke up at 3.30am, and had showers and then walked to the Metro station. The showers turned out to be pointless, by the time we got to the Metro, we were drenched in sweat. We got the train to the airport, and said goodbye to America for the last time. As Alex's uncle works for BA, he managed to get us an upgrade to Club Class(!!!!!!!) so we went straight to the lounge, and made the most of the amenities. We ate loads of food, had as many different cups of coffee as the machine could pour, and helped ourselves to the free bar. We boarded at about 8am, and we astounded by how much room we had. We were given champagne for take-off and then we both chose the mixed grill for breakfast. Every course we had was washed down with some more wine/beer/champagne, and we also had the 'Club Kitchen', which was a bar area that we could help ourselves to food and drinks from - what a life!!! We watched a few films, and then landed at about 8pm. It was strange getting back to England and to the normal reality of life. It was really nice to see the 'rents' again, after such a long time, but being back made the whole trip seem like a distant memory.

The whole trip went to quickly, but obviously there were times when it slowed down. Looking back on it, I realised that there wasn't one bit that I really didn't enjoy, even if it wasn't fun at the time. I've learnt so much without realising it, and I think one of the main things is that I can now use a washing machine!! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone that has the chance, as there is such a variety outside of England that people never realise exists.
Bring on Gap Year #2!!!!

San Francisco

2008-06-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

We stayed in the Crowne Plaza for 2 nights overall, and I spent the first night watching loads of TV, and finally managed to get to sleep at about 2am. We were woken up at 6:30am, but an automated wake-up call, as we had to be down by the bus for 7:30am(!!) We drove towards San Francisco, which took about 40 minutes, but I slept for most of it. We were dropped off in China Town (as you'd expect!) and were left there for an hour to get breakfast. It wasn't too far away from the Green Tortoise Hostel, that Mike was staying in, so we walked there to meet him. We managed to get a free breakfast from there, and also booked ourselves in for the last 4 nights in San Fran, but as it was a weekend, it was too busy for us. We found another hostel about 20 minutes walk away that had room, so we booked 3 nights there, and went off to meet the bus. It took us some cool sight in the city, which included Lombard Street - the crookedest road in the world, The Palace of Arts, which has a monument remembering people killed in the 1906 earthquake, and then to the big attraction... The Golden Gate Bridge! First we drove over it, and then got out at the other end to have a look. Alex and I got about 500m onto it, before we had to get back on the bus, so we didn't really cross it, but we stood on it! After that, we drove for about an hour, and got to the Napa Valley, where all the over 21s got to try some wine, but left us 'kids' outside. We did that, and left Mike not knowing where we were! He thought we'd just gone for a city tour! We got back into town at about 3pm, and went and got a Subway for lunch and then met him back at the hostel. We managed to get ourselves out of the afternoon's boat trip (at an extra cost), so we went to Market Street to have a look at the shops, and got back on the bus for 8pm. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off at a place called Treasure Island, which gave us some really good chances to take some photos of San Francisco. We got back to the hotel at around 9pm, and I went and bought a burrito from the 7 Eleven. We watched loads of TV that night, like Family Guy, South Park, America's Funniest Home Videos and The Simpsons. I could have stayed there for years! We left the tour that night (a day early), and were confronted by the same thing as on the previous tour: they come round and force tips out of you! They tell you that its $6 a day, and you have to pay! The first guide got arsey about us paying $30 instead of $36! Its a stupid way to do it, as it says that they're voluntary! Oh well, the second guide deserved it more than the 1st one.

We got up at about 11am on Friday, after a much needed lie in, and only just managed to check-out in time, after showering, and watching some last minute TV. We spent the next hour on the free internet, as the hostel we were going to didn't have a computer. We got the BART (the train system) into the city centre, and checked in to our new hostel. It wasn't exactly the best we'd seen, but at least we had a bed for the night. We met Mike there, and then we went out to the cinema to enjoy his last night. He had always wanted to see Iron Man, so we watched that to make him happier. It was a good film, and much better than I thought it would be, as its yet another superhero film. We left the cinema at about 10pm, and then went on a massive walk to Fisherman's Wharf, remembering all of the things that we'd done over the past 4 months. We finished it off with a couple of slices of pizza (how could it be any better!?), and then went to bed at about 2am.

On Saturday, we got up at about 10am, and went to a sports bar to watch the football. It took us ages to find one, but the one we found was really good, so we got some lunch there, and spent the most of lunch time there. We went back to the hostel (via Macy's) for about 2pm, so Mike could catch his plane at 5pm. One thing I've noticed about San Francisco, is that there are so many homeless people around. Its really annoying, as they all pester you for money, and its especially bad where are hostel was! We dropped Mike off at the station and then walked down to Fisherman's Wharf so we could book our Alcatraz tour. On the way, we found a big street party, that made me miss being able to drink so much! But I think its only like that because I can't!!! We got to the Wharf at about 4pm, and found Wharf 33 for the tour. We originally wanted to go on Sunday, but the only space available was for 1:45pm on Monday. We spent the $24.50 on it and then went back to the hostel. One other thing that annoys me about America, is that they never add tax on to prices in the shops until just before you pay. So if something says 99cents, it would be just over a dollar after tax! It would be so much easier to do it before! When we got back, we went to bed (it was about 9pm by that time!) as we were really tired, and couldn't be bothered to do anything else.

On Sunday, Alex got up really early and left me with a text, saying that he was at the Virgin Megastore (again!!), so I went and met him there at about 11am. We looked around a bit more, and then went to some of the big shops on the other side of the city. They weren't too far away, but I at least expected some good things in the shops! I really needed to buy new trainers, but all of the ones in the shops were rubbish, so it was a wasted trip. We went back to the city centre at about 3pm, and went to the cinema to watch The Incredible Hulk, which was pretty good, but just another superhero movie! We stopped off for some food on the way back, and then spent the rest of the night in the hostel.

We got up at about 8am on Monday, and checked out as early as we could, so we could make the most of our time at the Green Tortoise Hostel. We walked all the way there, which was harder than it sounds, as San Fran has a lot of steep and pointless hills! We got there just in time to have some free breakfast, so we had a couple of bagels and then spent the rest of the morning playing pool, table football, and watching the Germany game. We got given a couple of beers by someone from Nutfield as well (George Green if you know him!) Which was a bit of a surprise, as I didn't even know he was travelling We left the hostel at about 1pm, and headed down to the wharf. It felt so much better to be in a hostel that had life! The other one was full of middle-aged depressed people that have strange ideas about everything in the world! We got to the wharf, and had our typical touristy, green-screen photo taken (you know, the one that makes it look as though your standing in front of Alcatraz, on a really sunny day, with no one around?) We got on the ferry that took us over, and then we were let loose on Alcatraz!!! We were allowed to wander around, looking inside the cells, and they had a really good audio tour, that gives you loads of info. on the island and it's history. It was so cold on the island, as the wind sweeps through the bay, and blows all of the warm weather away. The rest of San Fran is similar, which is annoying, as it means I've had to wear a hoodie again! After the tour, we walked back to the hostel, had showers, and then got our free dinner, so it was the first day I had spent nothing! We spent the rest of the evening talking to people and playing pool in the Ball Room, and we got to bed at around midnight.

We got up in time for breakfast on Tuesday, and piled up the plates with bagels and fruit. We watched the first half of the Italy-France game, and then we went out to meet one of my friends from home - Sam(antha) Reeve. She was on holiday for a couple of weeks, and was staying with a relative in San Fran. We met up for lunch, and went to the Hard Rock Cafe on Wharf 39, which was cool as we hadn't actually been to one in all of our time in America! We spent about an hour there, and then looked around the rest of the wharf, which was quite interesting, but full of boring boutiques and other restaurants, then we went into the town. I managed to go to the Fossil shop, where I had my watch fitted and I found out what all of the buttons did (the manual didn't make it clear!) and then Sam had to go. Alex and I went to Virgin Megastore again for a bit, and then went to the hostel to play some pool again. We spent the evening doing pretty much that, apart from going out to get some food halfway through.

We woke up at about half 9 on Wednesday, and went to get some free bagels for breakfast, but Alex almost missed them, as his bank had blocked his card (the Fraud people), so he was on the phone trying to sort it out. We stayed in playing table football until just after 11, which is when we left to go to the Virgin Megastore, so we could see the Fratellis (a Scottish band) perform. We got there way too early, as they had only just started setting up! We left the shop, got a smoothie, and then had a look in the nearby Footlocker, which doesn't have any shoes I like. We made it back to the store for about 12:30, and waited. They came out just after 1pm, and played 5 songs, before starting to sign the CD's. They were really good live, and it was even better that they played in front of about 80 people! Alex and I got our CD's signed, and asked if we could see them later that evening at their gig, but sadly he said the guest list was full, so he couldn't put us on it!!! They seem like really cool people, but they weren't there for too long, which wasn't so good, but at least we met them and got our CD's signed! After that, we walked to another shop, about 30 minutes away, as Alex wanted to buy a bigger back to accommodate all of the things he's going to buy in New York! We got back to the hostel just before 5pm, and helped cook our free dinner (you get to go first if you help), which was tortillas, guacamole, salsa, rice, refried beans etc (the rest of the Mexican stuff). It turned out to be really nice, and we had a few helpings before playing even more pool. We managed to get someone to buy us some beer as well, so we spent the even playing cards and pool, and got to bed just after midnight.

On Thursday (19th), we did our usual, and got up around 9am, went for breakfast and played pool. The first Quarter Final of Euro 2008 was on as well, so we watched that and had a few more games of pool. It was finally really hot outside, so at around 2pm we went to Market Street to get a smoothie each. It was by far the best weather we'd had in SF, so we stayed out until about 4pm, which is when we realised we needed to get back. We went out in the evening to Susan & Kevin's (family friends) house for dinner, which was really good. We watched the sunset from their balcony (overlooking Alcatraz & the Golden Gate Bridge) with a beer, and then had roast beef. It was such a cool evening, and we left at about 9:30pm to get back to the hostel. It was nice to see another side to San Fran, as all we had really seen so far was the Chinese part of it!

LA to Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon to Yosemite

2008-06-12T00:21:00.000-07:00

Well, last Saturday, we checked out of the Vibe Hotel in Hollywood, and Alex and I went to hospital to get my foot looked at, as it was painful. It took about 4 hours for them to tell me nothing was wrong, and it cost me at least $100 for the x-rays and the ER fees (plus the doctor's fees, which will be sent home!), so it turned out to be an expensive day! We made it back to the hostel, where we left our bags (and Mike!!) for about 6pm, and then we rushed off to Hollywood/Highland to meet Steph, a girl that I met in Costa Rica. It was strange seeing her again, as the last time I'd seen her was in our hotel in Costa! But we all went and got some dinner at a place called Mel's Diner, and all was forgotten. It was a typical American diner, with jukeboxes all over the place, and the general theme of it being stuck in the 60's. We stayed there for about an hour, and then she gave us a lift to our hostel, and we said our goodbyes. It was really good to see her again, and was kind of her to take us out for a meal, but we all wish we could have seen her for longer! She found it funny (as many of you probably will!), that we thought Hollywood Bowl was an actual bowling alley, as opposed to the concert venue! When we got to the hostel, Alex & I had to go almost straight away, as we needed to check into our hotel that was included in our bus tour. We got on the bus, and it took about 2 hours to make it to Rosemead (which Steph said was one of the worst suburbs of LA!) and checked in by about 11:30pm. The first thoughts of it were that it was very nice - anywhere that we got a double bed each was amazing!

We got up at about 6:30am on Sunday morning, and went down to get our free breakfast - this is when we noticed that things weren't as we thought they would be. All of the people in the room were Chinese!!!!! We started to get a bit worried, and our thoughts were confirmed when all of them boarded the same bus as us. So, we had actually booked ourselves onto an Asian tour, and we had no idea when we saw it online! It wasn't too bad, but I was pretty annoyed during the first leg of the journey to the factory outlets. I bought some jeans from Old Navy, but nothing other than them. Alex, however, bought a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, which was nice, but out of my price range! We got back on the road again, and we could already feel the temperature increasing as we went along. We stopped off for some lunch in the middle of nowhere, and got to Vegas at around 3pm. We drove past all of the big hotels, and found ours was in Downtown, and was surprisingly nice! It had a big casino on the ground floor, and our room was on the 4th floor (of 19!). We watched a bit of TV, and went for a wander around Freemont Street, and then went to reception to go on an organised Hotel tour. Our first stop was Rio, where we watched a free show in the Casino, and then went to the Monte Carlo, where we watched a show about Atlantis (the myth). They had a really cool shopping mall, that had blue sky painted on the ceiling, which gave it feel that it was daylight. It was quite impressive, but I suppose it was Vegas! The next stop was the Bellagio, where we watched the water fountain display, and had a look around inside, before finishing it off with the Venetian. It had the same sort of ceiling as the Monte Carlo, but it was themed to be like Venice, so it had the boats giving people tours on man-made canals. We got back to the hostel at around 10:30pm, and got ready for our early start.

We got a wake-up call at 5am(!!!!), but we ignored it for half an hour, and then decided to get up. We got on the bus at 6am, and made our way to the Grand Canyon. I slept for a lot of the journey, but was awake to see the Hoover Dam, and to witness us crossing into Arizona (with a border check!). We stopped off for some brunch, which is where Alex & I bought a Subway Footlong for both breakfast and lunch. We stopped off a few miles from the Grand Canyon, where most of the bus watched an Imax film about it, but we wanted to save money, so we sat outside for a while. We got the the Canyon at about 1pm, and spent an hour taking photos, and it was stunning! It was so big, it was hard to imagine a river changing the shape of the landscape, but the proof was there! We got back on the bus, and started our long journey back to Vegas. We got back at about 6:30pm, and we went back for much needed showers. We went out onto Freemont Street at about 8pm, and we met up with Louise (the girl from home that I saw in Cairns) and also, one of my best friends sisters, who had won a holiday on the radio! It was cool seeing them, but it was strange seeing them in the middle of Las Vegas!!! We tried to tempt them with a $10 buffet at one of the hotels, but they had already made up their mind about going to Hooters. So we went to the buffet alone, and ate so much! We had numerous plates of food, which were washed down with a big bowl of chocoltae ice cream (!). We made it back to the hotel for about 10pm, after a short walk was made longer by the fact that it was painful for us to move too quickly! We watched some TV, and then went to bed.

On Tuesday, we got up at 8am (what a lie in!) and got some breakfast from the nearby 7 Eleven. We got on the bus at 9am, and went to the main strip to take some photos of the hotels. We saw the MGM Grand, New York New York, the Luxor and a few more. We left Vegas at about 10am, and started the long journey back to LA, but about 10 minutes out of the city, the driver pulled over, and went outside to fix something. We spent over an hour there, and it wasn't too nice in the heat! (when we got breakfast, it was already 35C!!). We stopped off at a factory outlet, where I bought a new watch, and by that time, it was 101F (a bit over 38C), which is the hottest weather I've ever been in. We watched Die Hard 4.0 for the rest of the journey and got to LA at about 6pm. We checked in to yet another hotel, and went to find somewhere to eat. We found a typical fast food restaurant called In-N-Out Burger, which does the huge burgers, with bucket sized drinks, so we got them and felt pretty full afterwards! We went to bed at about 1am, after watching numerous episodes of Family Guy and South Park!

On Thursday, we started the second part of our tour, and got on another bus full of Chinese people. On this bus, they weren't asking us why we'd decided to go on an Asian tour, and some were actually talking to us! We found another Subway, and bought a Footlong for breakfast and lunch, and got on our way again. We stopped off for lunch in the middle of nowhere. It was a small town that seemed to sell things for cars, and Mexican food. We got into Yosemite National Park at around 3pm, and took lots of photos. We saw El Capitain, and a really big waterfall, which is where we went on a small walk to the base of it. Sadly we didn't see any bears, but we did see loads of.... Squirrels! What a taste from home! We left the park at about 6pm, and drove towards San Francisco, stopping along the way to get some food from a town with a population of about 3,000, but about 10 different fast food restaurants! We went to a different place called Del Taco, which is another chain to add to our ever growing list of fast food restaurants! We got to the outskirts of San Fran. at about 10pm tonight, and checked into a rather posh hotel, which is where we'll be staying for the nst 2 nights! Look out for the next post soon!

LA to Santa Barbara back to LA

2008-06-06T01:46:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday, we got up early and checked out, as we were going to Santa Barbara for a night. We met up with Chessy & Becky (friends we met in Aus) and went and got some lunch with them. We found a nice cafe, where we had a smoothie each and then said our goodbyes. The bus to Santa Barbara took about 2 hours, so it was still daylight when we got there. We found one of our choices of accommodation, but it was fully booked, so we went to our backup place. Luckily it had 1 room left, but it was really expensive. It turned out to be a chalet type house, with only one bed that was a double! Alex and Mike decided that they'd share it, so I slept on the floor with the duvet. We went out for some dinner at about 7pm, and found a bar called Sharkeez, which was another Mexican! We got free help-yourself nachos, so we pigged out on them and went back for showers, but they weren't very successful, as there was no hot water! The reason we went to Santa Barbara was to go and see a band called the RX Bandits, so we went to the bar that they were playing at and went in - it was sooo small! They really over sold the tickets, so we found it hard to move. It was the first time I'd heard them properly, and I found them really good, even though Mike said it wasn't their best gig! We found a shop that had free refil drinks for $2 after the band, so we spent about half an hour drinking loads of Coke! We got back at about 1am, and went to bed straight away. I was surprised that we fell asleep so quickly, as there was a big group of Irish people outside who had been drinking for at least 5 hours!

We got up just after 9am on Thursday, and went to get our free breakfast and check out. The place we were staying at was a 15 minute walk away from the reception, so we only just made it for 10am, but we had lots of free toast to make up for it. We then went to the pier and chilled out there, so I could call home (it was my Bro's Birthday!). We saw a couple of seals off the end of the pier as well, which took us back to the times in New Zealand, but the weather was a bit hotter in California! We only just made it to the Greyhound station, as we were too busy in the shops, but we got on the bus, and made it back to Hollywood for 3pm. We checked in to our usual hostel (The Vibe) and went to find Chessy & Becky. We didn't have any plans for the evening, so we wandered around for a while and then went to the cinema to see "What Happens In Vegas". It was a typical trashy American film about a couple that argue a lot, but end up getting together. It was quite funny, but it was made even better by the fact that we watched it in Mann's Chinese Theatre. We got out at about midnight, and said our goodbyes to the girls, and went back to the hostel.

We got up today at about 10:30am, got our free breakfast, and then Alex and I went on our LA Sightseeing tour. It was a really good day, which took us Santa Monica, various celebrities houses, Rodeo Drive (the road with all the expensive shops), Sunset Strip (where various famous people own clubs), Hollywood Blvd and then the Hollywood Sign. It was a good day, but we'd seen a lot of the things before, so we wished we did it earlier on in the week. We saw loads of nices houses and cars though, especially in Rodeo Drive. The whole of LA is full of them! The other day I saw an Audi R8, a Bugatti Veyron(!!!), various Ferrari's and Lambo's (for all the people that care!) We got back at about 6pm, and watched a couple of episodes of Family Guy, before Mike came back - he'd been skating at Venice Beach for most of the day, which sounded really good, and well worth a visit. We went out for dinner tonight as well, to a restaurant called Sizzler - all I can say, is that we ate SO MUCH! It cost $15 for a main meal, help-yourself salad bar, free drink refills and dessert! We all came out groaning, and made a visit to the supermarket, which made us all feel sick! Since then, we've watched 'Knocked Up', and we're currently watching Gladiator! Tomorrow, Alex & I start our tour, which begins with a night in an LA hotel, and then onto Las Vegas!!! I'll let you know how it all goes, when I next reach a computer!

LA to Tijuana back to LA

2008-06-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

We got up at about 9am on Saturday, and had our free breakfast, and then got the Metro to Downtown LA, so we could catch the bus down to Mexico. It took about 3 hours to get to San Ysidro, where we had to get off the bus, and go over the border. We expected our bags to be scanned and our Passports checked, but all we did was walk through a big turnstile gate, and we were in Mexico! We were bombarded by thousands of taxi drivers, stall holders and shop owners, trying to usher us in their directions, but we ignored them all, and walked to Downtown Tijuana from there. It took about 10 minutes, and we found a nice hotel, which was only $20 each, but we still checked out our originally planned hostel. However, the one we hoped to stay in was closed, so we had to go to the posher, nicer hotel on the main road (sigh!). We checked in and went out straight away, so we could get some lunch. We found a nice bar called El Torito, which had Corona's for $1.50! We had a massive lunch, and a few drinks (my first was a Margarita, and my second was a Corona!) and then played pool on their free table. There was a man there with a bottle of tequila and a whistle, who kept on coming round and pouring it in our mouths. He said it was free, but your always obliged to give him a tip. We got back to the hostel at around 8pm, and had showers and then went out. We went back to El Torito again, and spent most of the night there paying pool, going on their mechanical bul, and also playing table football. It got to about midnight, and we wanted a change of scenery, so we went to a bar called Animale, but they ripped us off big time, by giving us 'free' shots, and making us pay stupid prices. We left soon after that and went back to El Torito so we could end the night there. We went back to the hostel at about 2am, but stopped off along the way for a early morning Burrito, and then went to bed.

We got up at about 11:30am on Sunday, and checked out just in time for the 12 o'clock check-out. We went out into the town hoping to buy some souvenirs, but all of the shops sell the same rubbishy things that would never be ay use in the real world! So in the end we bought a shot glass each, and then went to our usual bar for some lunch. The tequila man came round again, but we politely refused, as we were happy with our Corona's! We played a few more games of pool, and decided it was time to go to the border. It was as I had expected the first side to be - loads of security, bag scanners, passport control etc. but we got through in time for us bus, and were sad to leave Mexico. It was so cheap, but I think we spent just as much money on tips, so it wasn't so cheap after all! Everyone says its nothing like the real Mexico, which has given us another reason to go back! The way of life there is so different to America, and it was a lot like Thailand. Whenever you walk past a shop, the owners shout at you, telling you what offers they have, and its all a massive rivalry. It was really fun to experience that again, as its not realy like that in Redhill! We got on our bus back to LA, which seemed to take a lot less time, but we were back in Downtown by 6pm, and we went for a walk around the streets. We hadn't walked very far, before we saw a film crew, who were filming something called "Hotel for Dogs'. It sounds awful, but it was cool to see them filming it. We left Alex outside a theatre, as he wanted tickets to see 'Flight of the Cochords' live. He actually got in, but Mike and I didn't find that out until we got a lot later in the evening. We went back to Hollywood, and went to the cinema to see Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull with a random Irish girl that we met at our hostel. It was an alright film, but it had aliens in, so it was even harder to believe! We got back at about 1am, and found Alex on the computer.

We got up at about 9am, but quite reluctantly. We got our free breakfast, and then got on the bus to Universal Studios! It cost $63 for a transfer and the entrance, which is much cheaper than the $100 some people pay for Disney. We walked up to the gates and there were so many TV cameras about, and quite a few helicopters flying around, which was because of the fire that burned some of the sets down. We got in and went on quite a few of the rides before lunch, which included The Mummy (a roller coaster), Terminator 2 - 3D, Shrek 4D, The Simpsons and Jurassic Park. Some of the rides were really similar to the ones in Florida, but not too much that it spoiled it. We had a really good day, and left at about 6.30pm. We got back to the hostel at just before 7pm, which is when went to the 7/11 to get some food. We got back and wasted the evening, until Mike went in for the Open Mike night. It went really well, but not too many people entered it. We went back out at about 10pm, and got some food from a Mexican Cafe, further down Hollywood Boulevard. We got back and spent the rest of the evening on the internet, but the computers here are rubbish, so it was a failed attempt!

We got up at about 11am this morning, as we needed the sleep, but we had to sacrifice our free breakfast for it. We tried to sort out our new tour, but spent ages doing it, so we missed to booking time. We were supposed to go on the Green Tortoise up to San Francisco, via Las Vegas and Yosemite, but they had to cancel the Yosemite part due to lack of guests, so we didn't want to waste our time with it. We should be getting a full refund though, which will cover the new trip we have found. After doing that, we went to the supermarket, Subway (and bought a footlong for $5!!!), and then Alex & I got our hair cut. I did call home as well, but only because Halifax suspended my online account, so I needed to ask for some emergency money, but I will pay it back!! This evening we walked along Hollywood Blvd, and saw The Pussycat Dolls filming their new video! It involved them climbing scaffolding, which was funny to watch. I walked right past one of them, before we knew what it was they were filming for. We thought it was another scene from the Dog Hotel film!! We walked about halfway towards the Trougodour (a music venue), but chose to get the bus instead. We went there to see Newton Faulkner - a musician from Reigate, who is really talented. I thought the gig was one of the best I'd ever been to! He really got the crowd going, and seemed as though he enjoyed it. After that, we got some food from yet another fast food chain, and then made it back to the hostel.

Fiji to America

2008-05-31T01:22:00.000-07:00

We left Fiji on the 10:00pm flight on Thursday, 29th May, and arrived in LA, at 1:00pm on the 29th May - strange or what?! The flight was good, but I fell asleep for a lot of it, so it seemed a lot quicker. We landed just before 1pm actually, but it took 2 hours to get through customs!! We got a taxi to Santa Monica after that, and went to inquire about our much desired 'All you can eat' buffet. To our dismay, the only one near us was a fish restaurant, so we gave up on the idea. We went to explore the area, and took a walk on the beach, which is about 300 metres wide! And then went to 3rd Street for a bite to eat. We went to a place called Fatburger, which does the 'Triple King Burger Challenge' for only $8, so Alex and I tried it. It is a 3 burger meal, that has 24oz of beef, with salad as well If you finish it, you get a certificate, a t-shirt and your photo on the wall! Both of us found it easy, so we got our photos taken, and then we left. We got back to the hostel at about 8pm, but not before we checked out Macy's. It wasn't anything special, but everyone I know has been to the one in New York, so maybe its just that one is amazing. We watched a couple of films in the evening; the first one was called Teeth, which has the worst storyline ever, and I would never recommend it to ANYONE!!! Its too disgusting to describe as well, so its up to you to search for it in Google! The second one was 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore, which was really interesting, but it was on too late to enjoy it properly.

We got up at about 8:30am Today, and went down for the free breakfast, which had cereal, bagels, eggs, orange juice, fruit... the list goes on. I can only say that I wasn't hungry until a lot later on in the day!! We checked out by 11am, and got the bus into Hollywood. We managed to find our hostel, but only a about 5pm! We bumped into a friend from the plane (Olivia) and she came along with us. The hostel is on Hollywood Boulevard, but I never realised how long it was! It took us ages to walk to it, but we made it in the end. We passed the Kodak Theatre, the Avenue of Stars, and a few other tourist sights. We also managed to get in on a free BBQ at another hostel, so we made full us of it. We only got a lift there though, so we had to walk back from about 5 miles away (which is far in America!!). We stopped off in the Virgin Mega store though, and found loads of bargains, but we sadly didn't buy anything. We got back to the hostel at about 12:30am, and I am about to go to bed. I really like LA so far, but we've hardly seen any of it. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the one and only Tijuana in Mexico!! I'll let you know how it goes when we get back.

Fiji - The Second Half!

2008-05-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

After spending the afternoon in Rakiraki, we got the boat back with Filo, who was in town shopping. It meant we got it for free, as she was with us, so we saved $15! We got back, and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling by the sea, reading etc. We splashed out for dinner in the evening, and we all had pizza, apart from Stu, who ordered a tiny burger. We started to chatting to the other guests staying at McDonald's (our place), and we found out about one of the best dive sites in the world. Its at the south of the main island, and it involves going down to about 25m and watching the sharks get fed! Its not just reef sharks either! Some include bull sharks and tiger sharks! We intended to change all of our plans for it but it all depended on the availability. We spent the rest of the evening drinking a couple of beers, and we even managed to get a crab to smoke! It all started with Stu catching a crab, and we wanted to see how powerful its claws were, so we put a leaf in one, and then Phillip (one half of the other guests!) put his cigarette in the other claw! We got a few photos, and then let it go, but it took the cigarette when it ran off!

On Sunday, we got early and said goodbye to Stu, who was leaving. It was strange to think that the next time we'll see him, will be in England, in just under a months time! Shortly after that, Pola (the correct spelling this time) ame and picked up Alex and Mike, and they found they were actually going diving again! I couldn't be bothered by that time, so I was left all on my own in the room, so I caught up on some reading, went for a snorkel and waited for them to come back. They got back about 1pm, which was when we called the Shark Dive company. To our annoyance, they were fully booked until Thursday, so we couldn't do it, but at least it gives us the chance to come back! In the afternoon, we collected a few coconuts, as we wanted to try baking them. We tried baked coconut with sweet chilli sauce when we went to Volivoli (the Fiji Bus hostel) and we loved it, so with the amount of free coconuts around, we thought it would be stupid not to try it! We spent most of the afternoon taking all of the different layers off, until we were left with strips of the coconut. We put them in the oven for about an hour, and the strips came out a nice golden brown colour. We smothered them in sweet chili, and took them for everyone else to try. They were quite nice, but not as good as at Volivoli. We did 2 coconuts worth, but there seemed to be so much more. We ate loads, and were still left with a lot, so we had to chuck the rest. We had a beer with Phillip & Elka and then went for an early night.

On Monday, we checked out nice and early, said our goodbyes, and got our boat transfer over to Volivoli! There was a lot more life there, and it was only 10:30am, so we knew we were in the right place! We checked into our room, which we were sharing with a guy called John, who was a DiveMaster, so we all talked about diving most of the time! Just before lunch, we went for a kayak, which turned out to be huge! We joked about going to the island on the other side of the bay, but in the end, we actually did! It took just over an hour for both journies, but we felt that we achieved something after doing it! We cooked some noodles to get our energy back, and then went to play a game of volleyball. We were joined by all of the dive staff at about 3pm, and we had a really long game, that took about 2 hours! We were all really tired by that time, but the Fiji Bus had just arrived so we knew we had to be ready for some partying! I had my first hot shower since Nadi that evening, as Nananu-I-Ra doesn't have hot water, so I made the most of it, and then went to join the games. They lasted until about 10:30pm, and then we went to the bach for a bonfire. It was a really clear evening, so all the stars were visible, which was cool. I also started talking to someone that had just finished doing Physical Geography at Sheffield, so it was good to get an opinion on it! We went to bed at about midnight (which was late for us!)

On Tuesday, we got up at about 8am, as we were planning on going diving. We went down to the dive shop, loaded up the boat and got on our way. There were 13 people on the small dive boat, so it was a squeeze, but we made it to the first site. We dropped off 3 snorkellers, and then let the intro. divers go down. Pola said we would have to go last, as they didn't have enough equipment for us to go down with the main group, which we didn't mind about at all. We sat on the deck, talking to the people that had just come up or were about to go down, but the time went on. Pola came up at about 11:30am, and said we had to go back, as the Fiji Bus was leaving at 12, and there were people on the boat that needed to be on it! We were annoyed, but as we hadn't paid anything it wasn't so bad. He said he was going to give it to us for only $30 a dive as well, which is why we wanted to go in the first place, but the boat journey had been good all the same. We made a massive lunch when we got back, which consisted of 8 packs of noodles and a few slices of toast, so after that, we couldn't really move very far! We waited about an hour, and then went to the beach. Mike and I rented out kayaks, and went for an explore towards the main part of the island. It was quite rough, but it made it easier when we went back to the hostel! We got back to shore, and started playing another game of volleyball. The staff soon joined in, and we had a laugh, but they all went home at about 4pm, so we were left on our own. We stayed by the sea until the sunset, which was the best I have ever seen! And then we went up for showers. We thought, as it was our last night, we might as well buy our food from the bar, so we spent more money on the Backpackers special, of burger and chips! Steve, the owner also gave us a free beer, as we helped him move a crate of beer each earlier on in the day, so we were really happy. We played a few games of cards with John, and then went to bed at about 10pm.

We got up at about 8am again Today, and said goodbye to John and the rest of the dive team, as they were going out a bit earlier. We wanted to buy a dive T-shirt each, but they had just sold out, so we were a bit annoyed, but they did say they'd send them to our homes, and all we'd have to do is pay when we receive them! We ordered a taxi for 9:15, so we could catch the bus at 10am, but like all taxis, it was late, and turned up at 9:35. We made it just in time, and got on the bus back to Nadi, which arrived shorlty after 1pm. We went straight to Nando's for lucnh, and then came to use the Internet!

We're all happy to be going to America, but Fiji is an amazing country and is full of amazing people. I know I'll definitely come back, and I'm definitely going back to the places we've already been to. We've been so lucky with the places we've stayed at, as the staff have all been so welcoming. But for now, bring on the US!

Fiji

2008-05-18T19:53:00.001-07:00

We were all really sad to leave NZ, as I think its my favourite country so far. Everyone was so friendly, and the landscape really is amazing. I know I'm definitely going to go back, as I still need to do the North Island! There are also so many more things left to do in the Southern Island as well. I think you need to spend much more than 3 weeks there, but it is hard when your living out of a glorified car!

We left the airport, and got our free transfer to the hostel. We chose to stay 1 night at Nomdads Skylodge, as it was close to everything. We checked in, and found we were only paying about 4/5 pounds for a night! We then went for a much needed swim in the pool, which was sooo cold! Stu managed to bang his head on the bottom of the pool, while trying to do a handstand, so now he has a big graze on the middle of his forehead! We got some curry for dinner, and then played a few games of poker, before going to bed at about 1am.

We got up at about 11am, and decided to stay 1 more day, as we hadn't had a chance to organise anything. We're planning on going to one of the smaller islands for the majority of the time, but we have no idea where to go! We got the bus into the town (Nadi), and from the moment we got on the bus, people were talking to us. Its hard to tell whether they're being friendly, or just trying to get money out of you, so to be safe, we're going to act as though everyones trying to con us! We had some lunch at Nando's (very Fijian, I think not!) and then took a look around the town. After the internet, we went back to hostel, and watched the rain come down for most of the evening, and we played a few games of pool and cards, and then went to bed relatively early.

On Tuesday, we got up at about 9am, and walked to the bakery in some of the heaviest rain I've ever been in! We then checked out, and got picked up in a minubus that took us to Lautoka (the next big town). We were a bit apprehensive about getting in it, especially after our bags fell out of it about 10 metres down the road! We waited in Lautoka, to find out bus was cancelled due to flooding, so we negotiated a price with our original driver to take us all the way to Rakiraki (the town closest to the island we were going to!). We drove for about 2 hours, and finally made it to the wharf, where the boat was ready to pick us up. We got in it, and chugged along to the island of Nananu-I-Ra. It was tiny! We were met by one of the workers, who took us to our dorm (better than the usual dorm, as it had a kitchen and was en-suite! We spent most of the afternoon in our room, as it was still raining outside, but we went for dinner at the restaurant at about 6pm. I ordered a burger and a BLT, but the others all went for the fish. We met another couple staying there, who were realy nice (Tim & Alison, or Pineapple, as he liked to call her!). We played a few games of poker, and then went to bed at about 10pm, which is when the power goes off everyday.

On Wednesday, Alex & Mike started their PADI Open Water Dive Course, while Stu and I played a bit of rugby, went snorkelling, and did other realxing in the most welcomed sun! We tried to distract them as much as we could. It seemed to work, as they joined us in the canoes later on in the afternoon! We cooked our own dinner than night, which was spaghetti and sauce, and then we went to the restaurant, to experience a local 'Kava Ceremony'. It was really fun, as you all join in, and drink lots of Kava, which is a drink made from the crushed root of the Kava plant and water. We had 13 bowls each, and it gives you the same feeling as eating a lot of Strepsils! We did it with Tim, Pineapple and a German family, so we had a lot of fun.

We got up at about 11am on Thursday, and still felt tired (must have been the Kava!). It was just Stu and I, as Alex and Mike had gone off to watch a DVD at the dive shop. We went snorkelling on the other side on the island, and saw loads of fish, and I almost stepped on a big pufferfish, but it moved just before I put my foot down (luckily!). We then had some lunch, and and were joined by Alex and Mike later on in the day, which is when we managed to crack open a couple of coconuts, and have the milk and flesh - how tropical! They didn't go out in the water, as they didn't read far enough in the book (lol!), but it meant they could do more the next day. We spent most of the evening with Tim, Pinapple, Filo and Lewa (two workers at the resort) and stayed up really late (until about 10:30pm!!!!!!) and then went to bed.

I got up with Alex and Mike at about 8am, and went and said goodbye to Tim & Pineapple. We saw a mongoose as well, and made a bet with Filo, who said she would give us 10 bags of Kava, if we could catch one! The first attempt went badly, but we vowed to catch one later on in the day! I went to say goodbye to Alex and Mike, who were going on their first dive, and got roped in on going on the boat with them! We went to a nearby beach, and I watched them go in, and went for a snorkel around them. I saw so much! There were loads of different fish swimming around, and I saw so many clown fish around the anemones. They came out after about 20 minutes, and we were given a coconut each, which was opened by Paule (pronounced Paula), the dive instructor, and we chatted about the cool underwater feeling. They went back in about 45 minutes later, and I went for another snorkel, which had some of the best coral I've ever seen! We then waited for the boat, and I went back to the resort to see Stu, as thought I had just gone to say goodbye to Tim ang Pineapple! We had some lunch, and then read our books a bit (Cell by Stephen King). Mike and Alex met us about 2 hours later, after having lunch, and we both went with them as they did their first Open Water Dive. We went out about 2-3 miles, and watched them roll off the boat. The water was really still, and they were down for about 30 minutes, but they both enjoyed it a lot! We then went to the mainland to visit another hostel, which was where the Fiji Experience bus stops. We played a couple of games of volleyball, before the bus turned up, which was where the fun began! We had some food, and the realised there were a couple of people that we knew! We'd met them in Christchurch, so we caught up with them and then played some games, which invovled the losing team (Mike & Alex's) dancing on the table, to the Spicegirls, while swapping clothes! It was all good fun, but we had to get our boat back to our island, so we missed the big bonfire.

We got up at about 8am today and Mike, Alex and I went diving! We did two dives, and saw loads of fish, including pufferfish, a moray eel, angelfish, clownfish and even a turtle! It was a really good dive, and an even better one for Mike and Alex to do! We got back to the island at about 11:30, and got a boat to the mainland, so we could get to some civilisation! We got some money out, and we're about to get some lunch at a local cafe.

Sadly, its Stu's last day with us, as he's going to the Yasawas with other friends, so the next time we'll see him is in England, in a months time!

We're going to the mainland on Monday, to stay at the Fiji Exp. resort, and then moving to Nadi on Wednesday, so we make it in time for our flight on Thursday. Expect the next post from Nadi!

Queenstown - The Catlins - Dunedin - Christchurch

2008-05-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to leave Quenstown on Sunday, but as usual, our plans changed. Stu wanted to meet some friends from school, but we couldn't get hold of them, even though we tried for most of the day. Mike stayed in bed for the whole day, as he had a really bad cough/cold, but luckily, Alex and I seemed to have missed out on it. We were about to get in the car and leave, but we thought we'd go and check in Fergburger one last time, and guess what? We saw them! Sitting down, eating burgers & chips were Derek, Steve, Sam and Lawrence (friends from school). So that changed our plans completely! We went to the supermarket, bought some beers, and took them back to our usual spot. We made a small fire by the lake, and joked about all of the things that had happened to us over the past 3 months. I know one thing for sure - I definitely want to visit Bolivia on my next world trip!! We got to bed at around 12, and hoped that we wouldn't get woken up by Dave again!

We got up at about 10am on Monday, and cooked some eggs, and then said goodbye to the others. They were going to do the Nevis, so had to be up relatively early. We joked around, saying how scary it was, but they were all looking forward to it (well, they said they were!). We got on the road just before 12, and drove all the way down to Invercargill. Some of the scenery was, yet again, stunning. We stopped off at Lake Wakatipu and took some photos, before going all the way. We got there at about 3pm, and went and got the usual for lunch - Subway! By that time, we realised that we needed to have showers, so we looked around town for a swimming pool (none of the towns ever seem to have one!) and thankfully, there was one! We went there for the rest of the afternoon and had a much needed shower, and then went to the supermarket. Our plan was to drive down to the edge of the Catlins, and park up for the night, which was surprisingly easy. We parked on the edge and then went to bed.

On Tuesday, we got and went and explored Curio Bay, which is where there is the fossilised forest just off the coast. The tide was out at the time, so we managed to walk around all of the tree stumps and some of the fossilised logs - really strange! We spent about 20 minutes there, and then went to Porpoise Bay and actually saw a couple of Hectors Dolphins, which are the world's rarest! They were cruising around the bay, and we spoke to a local who said there were 8 earlier on in the morning! But we were still happy with the 2! From there, we drove to Mclean's falls, where we did the 40 minute walk (we do try and do some exercise!) and then took a few photos by the falls. After there, we drove to Nugget Point, and had some lunch. We went there to see seals and sea lions, but we sadly didn't see any. However, we did see about 7 or 8 yellow eyed penguins! They have a special hide near the beach, which is where you can watch them coming out of the sea and up to their nests! It felt like we were watching a nature programme it was so good! They are the world's rarest penguins as well, so seeing them the same day as the dolphins made it even better! We left the Catlins at about 4pm, and drove up to Dunedin, where we met Stu's cousin. He works at the uni there, and he said we could stay in his drive! We cooked some food in his kitchen, and all had a beer together before we went to bed. It was so nice to have somewhere to cook properly, and also to have a shower!

On Wednesday, we tried to get up early, but yet again, we failed. When we finally got up (about 12pm) we cooked some breakfast, and had showers, and then went out. We drove to the surf beach, where Alex and Mike hired boards. Stu and I couldn't be bothered, as it didn't look to appealing, and it looked soooo cold! We left them and went to the shops to by some things, and then went on the internet. We got back to them at about 5pm, and they said it was really good. I was a bit annoyed that I didn't take up the chance to go surfing, but they looked freezing when they came out, so I was a bit happier. After they dried off, we started the big drive up to Christchurch. It took about 5 hours, but we did stop off for some pizza along the way. We made it to the outskirts by about 11:30, which is when we parked up for the night.

We got up really early on Thursday, as it was Alex's Birthday. He chose to go paintballing, so we got to the site, and were surprised by what it was. It looked like someone's house with a few barrels around it, but we couldn't wait to get started. We were kitted up, and then the man showed us the areas. He let us run around for a couple of hours, shooting each other! The rules were practically non-existant, which is completely different to England! But we had loads of fun all the same. We drove into the town centre for about 3pm, and decided to drop our Spaceship back a day early. We spent ages clearing all of the rubbish out, and were surprised to see how much stuff we'd accumlated over the 3 weeks! We checked it back in, and luckily didn't have to pay any money for damages, fines etc. We then checked into the hostel (Base) and started the evening's activities! We went for a curry to celebrate Alex's birthday, and then went for a few drinks at our hostel. We were all really shocked to see a girl from our school there (Lottie) as well, as we didn't even know she had gone travelling!! We left her for a couple of hours, which was when we went to play pool, and came back to find her really drunk (lol!). We got to bed at about 1am, and it felt so good to have a real bed!

We got up on Friday at about 11am, and went and played pool for a couple of hours, as it was a lot cheaper then. We also upgraded our room to the Penthouse room, which was only $4 extra, and we got given a PS2, a TV with Sky, our own private kitchen and... wait for it... clean towels!! It seem stupid not to do! We then spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, and we bought a few beers from the shop, so we could enjoy a cheaper evening. We got to bed at about 1am again, (all with very painful thumbs!) and went straight to sleep.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day doing all of our much needed laundry, and also playing on the Play Station. We did manage to do something in the evening though - we went to the last rugby match of the season. It was the Crusaiders vs the Highlanders, and it was expected to be a whitewash by the Crusaiders, but the Highlanders actually beat them 26-14!! So it was a really good match. We were also surprised to see that some of the NZ national players were playing as well (Dan Carter!). The match finished just after 9pm, which is when we went back to the hostel for some goodbye drinks, and then finished off in a bar called the Rockpool. It was a bar that played Drum & Bass, and had loads of pool tables! We got back at about 2am, which was just in time for the F.A Cup final! I only watched the first half, and then went to bed, but Mike stayed up, and said it was a boring match, so I was pleased I took advantage of the best bed one last time!

I got up at about 8am on Sunday, as I needed to do loads of things on the computer. I wrote this blog, as saved it, but for some reason it logged me into Alex's account, so it didn't save any of it! I wasted over an hour on it!! Oh well, this chapter should be even better!
We went to McCafe for one last time, and got on the shuttle to the airport. We checked in really quickly and got through customs easily. Apart from me, who was 'randomly' selected to have an explosives test. I got the inside of my bag swabbed, and all the clothes I was wearing as well. Luckily I didn't have any on me at that time!! Another thing I was surprised about, was the fact that Stu was allowed to take his penknife on in his hand luggage!!!!!! He had it in his pocket before the screening, so he though he'd have to throw it away, but the secruity guard said it might be alright. He had it scanned, and that was it! Its hard to believe that they let people on planes with knives!! The flight was really good - we watched The Bucket List, and made the most of the complimetary drinks (especially Stu!) and we landed at about 5pm.

Here is the link to something very cool, which is to do with the Bungy jump we did!! Check it out!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/gapyear2008/NewZealandWanakaToQueenstownChrisPhotos/photo#5201457894209157138

Queenstown

2008-05-09T00:38:00.000-07:00

After using the internet last, we met up with Kathleen & Lauren again, and managed to sneak into their hostel for showers! We were happy about this, as we'd needed one for ages! We then stayed with them for the rest of the evening, and went to the Altitude bar, followed by the World Bar, which serves cocktails out of teapots! We stayed there until about 2am, and played a few games of pool, and Alex was lucky enough to win a free Nevis Bungy Jump!! (the 134 metre one, that usually costs $220!!). After that, we went to try an infamous Fergburger. Its a place that sells really big burgers, and everyone raves about them. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't bother, but everyone else got one, and they looked really nice. We went to the car when they'd finished eating, and found a layby, about 5km out of the town centre. Alex and I were upstairs, so we put it up, and went straight to sleep.

On Thursday, we didn't have a long sleep, as we were woken up by Dave from the council at 8:30, telling us we were in a "no camping" area, and that he'd fine us $400 if we didn't leave straight away. We chose the best option, and parked up in town, and fell asleep there. We got up at about 11am, and had some breakfast, and then went into the centre to look around. We bumped into Chloe & Nicki (more Oz friends) who were in Fergburger, and they told us to try out the indoor Crazy Golf, as it was really good. We didn't have anything else planned, so we walked up to the centre and went in. It was definitely the best place I'd ever played crazy golf at, and we got a free lolly on completing the course, and also a free drink!! How could it be any better???? We also bumped into some people that we'd met in Magnetic Island as well! I'm never surprised to see people now, as we've bumped into so many random people! We went to the supermarket after the round of crazy golf, and bought some extra cheap sausages for dinner. We then cooked sausage korma in a carpark, and then went to the Altitude bar for a few drinks. Stu had talked to his cousin, and found out that one of his friends worked for AJ Hackett (the bungy company), and he said that they could rig a competition for us to wion to free Nevis jumps!! So we got there for 9.30, and waited for the competition, but found out we were too late to enter! We were gutted, but they gave us loads of free drink vouchers though. From there, it was onto the World Bar again, where we played pool and said goodbye to all of the Oz bus friends. They were all leaving to go up north, so we had a mini party, and then bid them farewell. We left the bar at about 1am, and found a safe spot to camp, but it was about 20 miles out of town!

On Friday, we went to the Kawarau Bridge (the first commercial bungy site in the world) where Stu and Alex did a tandem jump. Stu managed to get it for free, as his cousin is friends with one of the workers, so he was happy, and as Alex saved $220 on his free Nevis jump, he thought he may as well! Mike and I took loads of photos, and watched them fall 43m to the water below. After they did it, we booked our Nevis for the following day, and I started to get nervous! We went back to Queenstown, and thought that we'd better save some money, so we went to the gardens, and started to play a round of Frisbee Golf! Its like golf, but, as the name suggests, with a Frisbee! It was a lot harder than we first thought, and only got halfway through the 18 hole course, before we admitted defeat, and went to Starbucks for a coffee. As we walked towards Starbucks, we saw Arron & Amy (the Magnetic Island couple), so we told them about the day's events, and that was when I realised they're from Crawley - I'd known them for quite a while, and I only found it out then!?! They went off to have a curry while we had our coffee, and then to add to the money spending spree, I went and bought a 'Big Al' for dinner. It was the biggest burger I'd ever had! It had 2 burgers, 2 eggs, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, beetroot and more! All I can say is that I was really full after eating it! We went to Altitude after eating, and used our free drinks vouchers, and were surprised we could have drinks like JD! So we had 4 each (Mike was driving, so he couldn't have any), and went to the World Bar. We did what we usually did, and had a few games of pool, and then went back to our previous nights spot to sleep.

We got up on Saturday, and we were all really nervous. We had some breakfast, and then made it into town for about 1:45pm, and to the AJ Hackett shop. We checked in and were weighed, and then waited for the bus to take us to the jump site. Arron & Amy were there, and also a girl called Lauren, who Alex and I met on the Whitsundays! We caught up, and all talked about how nervous we were feeling, until the bus came. It was a 45 minute ride to the site, and no one really talked much, especially Stu, who was especially scared. We had to take the AJ Hackett bus there, as its on private land, and when we arrived, they harnessed us up, and we got the ride to the gondola. I was the first person to jump out of us 4, which made it much scarier. I had my ankle straps put on, and bounced to the edge - it seemed soooo high!!!! I made sure I looked over before I jumped, and the operator did the countdown. On 1, I jumped forward, and the first thought I had was "why the **** am I doing this!?!?!?!" The freefall lasted for 8.5 seconds (it felt like 2 or 3!) and I continued to bounce after the big fall. There's a starp that was on my leg, that I had to pull, so my feet could be released (to stop you hanging up-side down for too long), but mine had got tangled, so I had the joy of being taken back up to the gondola while hanging up-side down! When I got back to the top, everyone was looking to see how I'd found it, and I immediately broke into a smile, and said it was the best thing I'd done!!! It was soooo good - the feeling of the freefall seemed so much better than the skydive, but its hard to believe, as that was also really good! Alex went after me, followed by Mike and Stu, who both looked like they were going to be sick before doing it, but came back up with huge smiles! Its such a strange thing to do - to throw yourself out of something, just to bounce around at the bottom for a while, but I will never forget that first feeling of adrenaline! We watched the rest of the group go, including Amy, who was last, and who also took the longest to jump, and then we went back to shop, where we watched our videos. We got the bus back to the shop, and went for yet another coffee (I think I'm even more addicted than I was before I came away!!!), and got some food, before we thought about leaving to go south. But by that time, none of us could be bothered, so we went back to our usual spot, and watched a film, after one of the best days so far!

After about 12 hours of sleep, we got up at 12pm and had some breakfast, and then went down to the water's edge to try out some fishing. Stu had been given a small kit by Natalie, so we used some sweetcorn and waited... and waited, but nothing happened. We decided that it was because the water was so clear, the fish could see us and were scared, so we gave up. We then drove to town for (yet another) coffee and then came here. I think we'll be leaving Queenstown tonight, as we need to make it back to Christchurch for Alex's Birthday (Thursday) and we still have quite a bit to see! If anyone is wandering where all of my photos are, I'm going to upload them all when we make it back to a real hostel (!), which will be on Friday/Saturday.

Oh, and here's the link of the Bungy we did:

http://www.bungy.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/29

Its quite high!

Franz Josef to Queenstown

2008-05-06T17:24:00.000-07:00

So, after the glacier walk, we cooked some dinner, as the door had been fixed!!! And then went to Top 10 Holiday Park again, so we could all have showers, and to fill up our water. After doing that, we went to one of the hostels in the town, to say goodbye to Lauren & Kathleen (friends from the Oz Bus). From there, it was on to Wanaka! Stu and I slept in the back, while Mike and Alex drove. It was quite a long journey, but we managed to get there by about 1am.

Stu and I were woken up at about 10am, by Alex and Mike, who had decided to drive while we slept (instead of trying to force us out of bed!). We drove for about 20 minutes before reaching the outskirts of the town, and saw somewhere that loads of people had told us to go to - Puzzling World!! We stopped off there, cooked some breakfast, and then went in. There were 4 rooms with different illusions in: the first had loads of different holograms in, the second had strange paintings (the ones with faces hidden in then), the third was a slanted room (the floor was sloped at an angle, so where everything seemed flat, it was also slanted, which made it look like water could go uphill etc) and the last had an Ames room. This was where one side of the room was much bigger than the other, which made one person look huge, and the other really small. Its the same thing they used in the Lord of the Rings to make normal sized people look really big/small. Then we went in the maze outside, which took about an hour. After doing that, we had some lunch and went into the town centre to do some shopping, and to have a look around It was another stunning area - Lake Wanaka glistened in the sunlight, and even more snow-capped mountains filled the horizon. We went to the internet for about an hour, so Alex could upload some photos, and then went and met Kathleen and Lauren at a cafe. We had a couple of beers and had a good laugh, before we got back in the campervan, and drove to our sleeping spot, overlooking Lake Hawea. We cooked some dinner, and had an early night.

We woke up early yesterday (Tuesday) as we were going SKYDIVING!!!!! I was pretty nervous, but a good breakfast made me feel better. We woke up to another harsh frost, but I was nice and warm, so I didn't really mind. We drove to the airfield for about 10am, and called ahead to make sure the weather was good enough (but we knew it would be - clear blue sky all around!). We checked in and paid the $480 for the 15,000ft jump. They gave us our suits and asked us to fill out a declaration (saying that if we died, we couldn't sue!) I was then introduced to my instructor (Geoff) who interviewed me for the camera. We walked out to the waiting plane and boarded! It was as simple as that! All we did was watch a 5 minute video, that explained what we had to do!!! The plane took off with Mike and I (Alex was in the one after us) and it started to climb. Geoff pointed out all of the sights - Lake Wanaka and Hawea, the Southern Alps etc. They looked unbelieveable in the morning sunlight! We circled higher and higher for about 10 minutes, before 2 other passengers jumped out at 9,000ft. They just seemed to tumble out of the door, and they were gone! We climbed for a bit longer, and then it was our turn. The door opened, and I felt the cold air hit me (the temperature falls 2C for every 1000 feet, and the ground temperature can't have been much higher than 5!) Mike slid towards the open door, while his instructor did the final checks. He then put his head back, grabbed onto his straps, and they were gone. We edged towards the door as soon as they had disappeared. I sat my legs outside, and felt the air seem to burn my face. Geoff pulled my head back, and I tucked my legs under, and he pushed off. The first feeling was the one that you get on drop rides, but that was only while we did the first tumble. We levelled out, and continued to fall. It really was amazing. I tried to look around, but by that point I was crying because the wind was so strong, even though I had goggles on! The freefall lasted about 60 seconds, before the chute was pulled. When we had settled out, I looked around and could see for miles! The mountains seemed to surround us, as the sun glistened on the waters of Lake Wanaka. He congratulated me as we descended and then turned into land. Mike was already down, and w ecouldn't shut up about what we had just experienced. I thanked Geoff again, and then watched Alex go up in the plane. They had big TVs that showed the DVDs, so we all had a laugh about our expressions as we fell. Alex came down about 20 minutes later, and had the same look on his face. I think Stu was annoyed he couldn't do it with us, but I suppose he has already done one! We got back in the van, and drove to town for some lunch.
We went to a cafe for a much needed coffee, and then went to the park to play a bit of Frisbee. There was a skate park next to the park, and we were all really surprised to see Adam and Christian (people we'd met in Airlie Beach and Brisbane) skating around! We caught up with them and had a bit of a kick about with the rugby ball, before they went for a beer (!). We played Frisbee for a bit longer and were joined by some Canadians, who were awesome at it!!! We felt so rubbish when we played them, but it was all good fun. After that we went back to the shops, and then back to the park for a bigger game of rugby. It lasted about an hour, and everyone was really tired after it. We did some washing, and went to meet Adam and Christian at a nearby campsite. They had a campfire going, so we stayed and cooked some food, but then thought we'd better move onto Queenstown! We drove for about an hour, and parked up in layby and fell to sleep.

This morning we cooked some breakfast, before we drove into the town centre and had a look around. Its a really nice town, with mountains surrounding it, and a big lake in the middle. We're hoping to book a Bungy Jump here, so look out for the next post!

Christchurch - Kaikoura - Nelson - Westport - Franz Josef Glacier

2008-04-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we left the hostel, and waited for our taxi to turn up, but our luck with taxis showed again, as it didn't arrive. We hailed another taxi and negotiated the same sort of price, so we didn't mind too much. We got to the airport, and were shown the area we were allowed to sleep in, and we settled down to a night of bad sleep. I did manage to fall asleep eventually, but it seemed like no time before we were up and checking in. We handed over our bags, and went through to the departure lounge. We spent the last of our Aussie Dollars, and used the free internet. We boarded the plane at about 8am, and took off at about half 8 (sort of on time). They played some Catherine Zeta Jones film, which I watched part of, but couldn't be bothered with most of it. We landed at about 13:30 local time, after seeing some spectacular scenery when we flew over the Southern Alps. We got on the bus to the center of town, and were surprised to see that Christchurch was so small. It was based around a small square with a big church in the middle, but other than that, there wasn't much. We checked into the hostel and went for a look around the town. We found a huge supermarket, and were pleased to see that food was cheaper than in Australia, so we could splash out and not regret it later on. We got back to the hostel and made some soup (which we had just bought) and then bumped into a couple of friends from the Oz Experience (Chessy & Becky). They left Oz way before us to do the Kiwi Experience, but it was too expensive for us! We watched a film in the evening and then went to bed at about 12.

We got up relatively early on Saturday, and went to the Spaceships office to pick up our car, but it wasn't ready by the time we got there, so we went to McDonalds and got ourselves a McCafe for breakfast. We had hired a Toyota People Carrier to take us around the whole of NZ! It has a box on the top for 2 people to sleep, and enough room in the van for another two people. We checked it out, and then went off in it to the supermarket to stock up on supplies for the next 3 weeks. We bought loads of pasta, bread, milk and cereal (the most important things, of course) and loaded it in. It was a tight fit, but there's lots of storage space under the bed, so all was OK. We started driving, and decided to get to a place called Hanmer Springs, which had thermal pools. It was too dark to go to them by the time we got there, but we found a layby in the mountains, which is where we cooked sausage & mash, and then tried to get some sleep. It was so cold though! Luckily we'd played a game of poker to see who was going on the top. Alex and Mike were unfortunate enough to lose, so they had the worse of it. There seemed to be a strong breeze that blew through the valley, which made it so cold.

We woke up at about 9am on Sunday, and had some cereal, before going back into Hanmer to go in the thermal pools. We paid $12, but it was good to get somewhere warm, and with a shower! We spent about 2 hours in the different temperature pools, but then realised we had to get on the road to get to our next destination - Kaikoura! We had some lunch by the side of the road, and then got back on the road. We got into the town just before sunset, and experienced an amazing drive. The scenery was stunning; we drove along a coastal road, with the sea lapping the shore, and then suddenly it changed into rolling hills, and snow capped mountains! It was crazy! We found a nice spot by the sea to park up, and then went into the town for a few games of pool, and a beer. It was another realaxing evening, but it was really good to have, as it chilled us out so much. That night, it was mine and Stu's turn to go up in the top box, so we prepared ourselves for a freezing night, but it was fine actually.

We woke up with the sun beating on the canvas on Monday, and I was so hot! It was really nice to have the sound of the sea by our van as well - it took me back to Fraser Island! We went into the town and went on the internet for a bit, and tried to make Stu do his Student Finance, but it didn't really work! We got on the road and stopped off at Ohau Point, which is a small seal colony on the coast. We spent about 20 minutes watching them play by the sea, and then did the walk up to the waterfall, which is where we saw 5 baby seals playing in the pools. It was astonishing! We went down to the waters edge and one of the seals came over to us, but that was when we thought we were getting too close. We backed off and went to the main waterfall, which is where Mike went for a swim, but I'd felt warmer water come out of a fridge! So I decided against it! We walked back to the car after that, and drove to the town of Blenheim. We drove through the town, and got some more supplies from the supermarket. We drove to the edge of the Lagoon area, and cooked dinner (chicken stir-fry) and watched a film.

We got up at the more normal time of 10am on Tuesday, and drove Alex to the hospital so he could get his stitches out. We went to a local campsite and did some washing, had showers and filled up our water bottle, and then went to pick Alex up. The nurse did a good job, and didn't even charge him, so all was good! We went back to the lagoon, and did the walk to the ship wreck (SS Waverly), which took us over some wonderful landscapes, and also got us lost, so we had to trek over a couple of rivers and past a sewage works, but we made it back! We the got into the car and drove towards the town of Nelson. I fell asleep in the back for most of it, but when we arrived, it was raining really heavily, so we decided to get pizza instead of cook! We then found a good place to park on the outskirts of town, and got an early night. We tried watching Lord of the Rings, but gave up halfway through, as we were so tired, but had to play a game of poker to see who was going on top! I nominated myself to go up, as I didn't mind, and was joined by Alex a bit later.

We got up on Wednesday at around 10am again, and had some breakfast, and then played a game of Frisbee and then went into town. We went on the internet and had a wander around the shops, but didn't buy anything. Mike and I watched the rest of The Lord of The Rings (LOTR), and then drove out of town to try and find a surf beach. All of the beaches seemed pretty dead, so we parked up at a place called Pepin Island and had a kick-about with a rugby ball. We watched the sunset and made some dinner before driving back into town to meet some people from the Oz Bus (different people this time!). We had a beer, and played a few games of pool, before we headed North, towards Abel Tasman. We stopped off halfway there, and went to bed at about 1am, after watching Flight of the Conchords (NZ comedy).

We got up on Thursday at about 11am, and drove further into the National Park, to a place called Marahau. We had some lunch, and kick-about with the rugby ball, then we drove to an area where they filmed LOTR. We weren't sure if we got to the exact spot, but I definitely recognised parts of it. It was called Chetwood Forest if it rings any bells, but some of the views from there were stunning! We left there at about 5pm, and cooked some dinner (steak, mash and veg.) in someone's front drive, before driving to Westport. We stopped off so I could call my Dad and wish him Happy Birthday, but other than that, it was plain sailing all the way. Mike drove the whole way, which took about 3 hours. We parked up in a small country lane, and went to sleep almost straight away.

We woke up at about 12pm on Friday, and went into the town to find a doctor for Mike (his back was hurting him)but not before getting the car stuck in some mud, and then spending about 10 minutes trying to free it! We dropped him off at the hospital when we had finally got the car unstuck and we went to the supermarket for some more supplies. We ended up buying breakfast and lunch (croissant, scone and pizza) and went back to get Mike. He had only spent a short time in the Dr's, but we had spent so long shopping, he was left standing around for a while! We went to a coffee shop for some of the afternoon, and then started the long drive towards the glaciers (Fox and Franz-Josef). We drove for about 4 hours, but reached Franz Josef just after 9pm. By this time, we had experienced some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! The coast was amazing, and there were the Southern Alps right next to the sea, with snow capped peaks. We cooked some eggs for dinner, and then noticed there was a problem with the door - it didn't open!!!!!! We tried everything, but we couldn't do anything. This was all we needed, as we could only cook if the door was open! We knew we could survive on sandwiches, but for how long??? We found a quiet lane to park and then we started to watch a film. It wasn't long into the film when a car screeched to a halt outside our van, and a man started ranting at us. It was gone 12am on a Saturday morning, and he seemed really drunk. He was shouting at us for parking on the road (we were in a layby!) and he demanded that we moved. In the end we did, and we found a much nicer place! Stu and I were upstairs, and it was sooo cold! Below freezing, easily! We had 2 duvets and our sleeping bags, so we were fine.

We got up at about 10am, and went to Fox Glacier (the town) and did the walk to the actual Glacier. It only took about 10 minutes for us to see it, and when we did, it was amazing! There are only a few words you can use to describe such a large mass of ice moving down the mountain, as it is so unbelievable! It moves between 1 and 5 metres a day (which is quite a lot), and is around 13km long. We could get about 80m away from the terminal (the end), so we got loads of really good photos. We filled up with petrol, and went back to the town of Franz Josef, where we called the AA, and enquired about glacier walks. The AA only sent someone from the nearest garage, so they didn't have any luck with the door, but we did book our glacier walk ($140 for the full day). We went back to the car and had some sandwiches, and then went to a nearby bar holiday camp (Top 10) so we could have free showers, and also fill up our water.We then went to a bar and had some cheap food and a beer, and then drove to our usual spot between the glacial towns. Stu and I had the downstairs, which was actually colder than the upstairs, but there was quite a harsh frost!

We woke up at 7am today (Sunday) and drove to Franz Josef for 8:15am, so we could do the glacier walk. Stu didn't come, as he didn't have enough money, but Alex, Mike and I got kitted out with jackets, trousers, gloves, hats, boots, and crampons (spikes that are attached to the boots) and got on the bus that took us to the glacier. We started off the tour by walking to the glacier terminal, which took over 45 minutes, as we had to climb ladders, and walk over rough parts of the ground. We were then split into 3 different groups, depending on our ability. We chose the best group, which was for the fittest (we liked to think we were the best!) and we started to climb. It was much harder than I thought it would be, but also much warmer than I expected. We all soon took off our jackets and jumpers (we were told to wear 5 layers!). We continued up the ice, and it soon started to turn really blue, and the rocks on the ice disappeared. Our guide had a big axe that he used to carve steps in for us. We saw one of the other groups ahead of us, and when we reached them, we stopped off for lunch. I was pretty tired at that point, but some food helped a lot. We had a 15 minute break, and then watched the other group descend into a crevasse that wasn't very wide. We followed, and almost got stuck, but we managed to squeeze through. We went up a bit further, and found a small cave area, that started with a really narrow crevasse. Two of the guides spent about 15 minutes hacking away at the ice, so we could go through. It was a lot narrower than I thought. We weren't allowed to take any bags with us, and we all understood why! It was about 1 foot wide in most places, and towards the end, even narrower! The last part was particularly hard, as we had to duck under a ridge, and up through an opening. It was also below freezing at that point! Most of us managed it (we were given the option of going down that one) and we went to our highest point on the glacier. The views were stunning (again!)! We spent ages taking photos, and then it was time to descend. It was a lot harder, as parts were starting melt, and going down hill is always harder. We made it to the bottom at about 4pm, and were all so tired. All I wanted to do was go to bed, but we still had another 45 minute trek back to the waiting coach. We made it back at just before 5pm, and handed back all of our things. We were so glad that we had the chance to do it, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone considering it!
At the moment, we're waiting for Stu to come back with the van, as it was supposed to get fixed today (hopefully!). Well, wish us luck!

Sydney to Melbourne to Sydney

2008-04-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after using the Internet, Mike and I went for a walk to the Harbour from our hostel, but it was a lot further than we first expected. It took about 40 minutes, but we made it in the end. We took a few photos of the Bridge, and then wandered over to the Opera House, which looked really cool. I never realised that it was actually made up of 3 different building - I thought it was one, but it still looked good. I tried to take some good photos, but the sun was directly behind the bridge, which made most of my photos too bright. We headed back to the hostel at about 4pm, and Mike literally bumped into some of his friends from Primary School!! They walked past us on the street, and he was stunned. I think they all were, as its a big city, and its just a few miles away from home! We had a chat, and then made it back to the hostel, in time for the cheap dinner at The Gaff. As it was a Sunday, we were given roast chicken, which was nothing special, but it was only $5 with a drink. After dinner, we went to visit Martin (the one from further up the coast) to say goodbye to him, as he was leaving us. He was staying at a hostel called Wake Up! so we stayed there for about an hour, and then we left to go and watch the Liverpool match at a bar nearby. By that time (about 10.30pm) it was just myself, Mike and Martin left, so we had a pint and enjoyed Liverpool thrash Blackburn! We got back at about 12.30 and went to bed after that.

On Monday, we'd decided to get up early and go surfing at Manly Beach, but like most days, we ended up getting up quite late, but we still managed to get there! The ferry took about 20 minutes to get there, of which we spent most of it undercover, as it was raining really heavily. We arrived at about lunchtime, so we went to Hungry Jacks (Australian version of Burger King) and then we went to the beach. The waves were enormous!!!!! The big ones broke quite far out, but then they rose up closer to the shore to break again. We went to a surf shop where Alex and Mike rented boards (I couldn't be bothered, as I wanted to look after my stuff, and save money!) and then went to the sea. They managed to catch a few waves, but they were battered about a lot more. The waves at the beach were ridiculous; they must have been 10-15 feet high, and were definitely the biggest I'd ever seen. When they finished surfing, I went to body surf some, but even in the swimming zone, the current was too strong to do much. Te waves broke quite far out, but the surf pushes you back towards the shore, so its a constant struggle to get out. I got battered about quite a lot, but had a good time. Plus the sea was so cold, I didn't stay in for very long! We got back on the ferry at about 4pm, and went back towards the city. The rain had cleared up by that time, so the view as we went towards the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge was stunning. I made sure I took loads of photos! We then met up with Joe and Emma, who were at a rooftop bar near the harbour. They'd hoped to see the Opera House in the sunset, but the biggest cruise ship I'd ever seen was blocking their view, so they were quite annoyed!! We stayed there for a bit, but then got the bus back to the hostel to collect our bags, ready to get the Greyhound to Melbourne! We got on the bus at about 8pm, and started to watch Braveheart, but the driver turned it off about 2 minutes before the end (the best part!) as we'd arrived in Canberra. By this time I'd finished my water, so we went to a hotel and got the receptionist to fill up our bottles. Now I can at least say I've been to the Capital City of Australia! We got back on the coach, and then I fell asleep for the rest of the journey.

I woke up on Tuesday just as the sun was rising, and it looked beautiful. We were driving through a forested area, but the next time I opened my eyes, we had arrived at the Southern Cross Train Station. We got out bags off the bus and then went to find somewhere to sleep, as we were both so tired. We were approached by a man from a local travel agency who said he could take us to Nomads (our original hostel idea for free, as it was on the way to his office) We were a bit sceptical, but when more people came over to him, we weren't as apprehensive. In the end, he actually took us to the doorstep for free! We checked into a room, and I wen to sleep straight away. I woke up at about 12, and then Alex & I went to explore. We went down the main street and made it to the riverside, before we got our usual Subway for lunch. We wandered to the Southbank, and down an underpass, which we thought would take us across the road, but it actually took us into an art gallery!?! We walked around for a bit, but it was pretty boring, so we left. We headed back to the hostel, and on the wa we stopped for the normal supplies (muesli!!!) and made it back in time for the included meal. We paid $7 to upgrade, and get a bigger portion and a pint, so we were full. They had a quiz later on in the evening, but sadly we came about 4th with a team made from people in our room, so we didn't win anything. We went to bed not long after that, as we were still so tired.

On Wednesday, it was Mike's Birthday, so we went to the train station to meet him (he was staying with a friend on the outskirts of the city). Alex and I had bought him some things earlier on in the day (party hats, party blowers etc, and 1kg of Nutella!) We walked to Brunswick Street, which was supposed to have a good atmosphere, to get some lunch. We found a cafe that did pizzas and a glass of wine for $9, so we couldn't resist. Mike managed to persuade the manager to let us have beer instead of wine, as it was his birthday! Loads of people walked past and congratulated him, which was surprising, as that would never happen in England!! We then headed back towards the town, and stopped off at some shops along the way. We walked around the city for a bit, before going back to the hostel for our free meal. Mike managed to get a free one as well, eventhough he wasn't staying there!!! Well, it was his birthday I suppose. We got changed and prepared for a night out, but were slightly disappointed, as there were barely any bars open. We managed to find an Irish bar, near the waterfront, but it was so expensive, we only stayed for one pint, before calling it a night.

On Thursday, Alex and I had breakfast and then went to the train station to meet Mike. We had planned on going surfing, but the day seemed to go so quickly, we let that idea go. We met Mike at about 2.30, and then went to the GameOn exhibition by the river. It had the whole history of gaming, starting with the first computer games invented (pong) all the way to the best games of today. It was really good as we could actually play the games, so we ended on staying there until about 6pm! We walked back to the hostel and made it back for the $7 deal, but it took ages! We had a few drinks, and stayed there a bit longer, as they had a game called ''Toss the Barman'', where you choose your drinks, and the barman tosses a coin, and if its head, you don't pay, but if its tails, you do. It seems quite strange, as they'd surely lose money, but I didn't care, as I got a couple of free beers! We went out into the town at about 10pm, and went to try and find a bar called the Cherry Bar. We walked around for ages, but couldn't find it, until we found the road it was on. We alked up and down, and then found out that it had been shut down, which was annoying. We found another bar though, called the Traders Bar, which had cheap drinks, and on every day of the week apart from Thursdays, it works like a stock market - the more popular drinks go up in price, and the least popular ones go down. We stayed there for a while until Mike had to get his train back to the house he was staying in.

On Friday, Alex and I had organised to go out with Anthea (one of my distant relatives), so we got up at about 9am and went and had breakfast. She picked us up at about 10, and took us to the Werribee Open Range Zoo, which is basically a safari park (a lot like Windsor). She paid for us to get in, which we were both very grateful for. We were allocated a time to go on the safari, so we had a coffee to pass the time. They had 3 walks around the park as well, so after our coffees, we went on the Australian themed one. Most of the animals in it were hiding, but we did see emus and a few other birds around the tracks. After the walk it was about time to get on the bus, so we went to the station and waited for it. It arrived and we got on, and started the tour. It took us through a number of animal areas, which had animals such as zebras, giraffes, rhinos and camels. They were all really cool to see, and even better to see in an environment thats close to their natural one. The tour lasted about 45 minutes, so after it we went and got some lunch. The weather had improved over the morning as well, so by that point, the sun was shining and it was relatively warm. After my chicken and chips, we went and did the other two paths around the park. The first one was the biggest, and had lions and hippos on, and the other one was just aimed at showing people how to save water (Victoria is in the middle of a drought at the moment, so water conservation is very important). We left the zoo at about 4pm and went back to the hostel for some dinner. The bar was a lot busier, as it was a Friday, so we went out into the city as soon as we could. We went to Brunswick Street again, and found a student bar that had a cheesy 90's music night, so we stayed there for a few drinks, but then decided to go back to bed, as we were both really tired.

On Saturday, I was woken up by Alex at about 9.30, saying that Mike wanted us to get the train to where he was staying, so we could go out from there. So we had a quick breakfast and went down to Flinders Street Station to catch the train. We bought a ticket (it cost $10, but is similar to a travel card, so we could get the train, bus or tram for the same price) and ran to get on the train. We didn't realise how far away Mike was staying, but it took us just over an hour to get to Belgrave, but we gave him a call, and he arrived with Ellen (his friend) within about 10 minutes. We started driving, and made our way towards a place called Phillip Island, which has really good surfing. We stopped on the way to get some lunch (KFC!) and then continued our journey. As we drove along the highway, I realised how stupid some of the names in Australia were! For example - Puffing Billy and Nar Nar Goon!! I know some of them have Aboriginal names, but these are just a joke! We got to Phillip Island at about 2pm, and went to a beach called Smith Beach, which is a good surf beach. We rented surf boards, and were about to go in, when Ellen told us that a leg was washed up on a beach in the area the week before, which was nasty to hear about. She said it was a shark attack, but there was no evidence for it, but still...! We spent about an hour and a half in the water, and it was so cold! Now I know why we were given wet suits to wear! We caught loads of waves, but then had to leave at about 4pm, so we could get back. We drove back, and were dropped off at the station at about 5:30pm, and got on a train to Melbourne city center. We planned on watching an AFL match at the famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), but the train took so long, we missed the first 20 minutes, but made it for the rest of the match. I can honestly say that it is the most intense match I've ever seen, of any sport! The amount of points scored, and in a stadium so big (capacity of just below 100,000), the atmosphere could not have been any better! We wanted Collingwood to win, but sadly they lost in the last 10 minutes, as the Kangaroos came back, but none of us really cared that much - we were just glad to have seen it! We left the stadium and went back to the hostel before going out in the evening. It was another one of those nights that didn't really turn out to be very good, but I was so tired from the whole days events!

On Sunday we got up at about 9pm, as we had to check out by 10am. We had some breakfast, and then went to explore the market that was located about 200m behind our hostel. We'd been meaning to have a look round it before, but we never got round to doing it. It was quite good, but in general, it was just another market, with fruit & veg, clothes, art... We spent the morning there, and got some fruit for lunch there (we are being healthy!!!) before going to use the internet. The place that we usually go to was closed for some reason, so we decided to go to a small suburb of Melbourne, called St. Kilda. We got a travel card (which was only $2.90, as it was a Sunday :S) and jumped on the tram to St. Kilda. We got there at around 2pm, and had a wander along the seafront. It was a typical seaside resort, with the ice cream stalls, mini theme park, a beach and a pier. The weather was really good as well, and it was the hottest day in Melbourne for quite a while (26C). We walked along the pier, and took quite a few photos, before we spotted a skywriter in the sky. I've never seen one before, so it was quite cool, but it was only advertising a real estate company, so nothing exciting. We then went to the internet cafe to sort out some photos and the main part of the visit - to find out the address of the Neighbours road! We left St. Kilda at about half 3, but realised it was probably too late to get to Vermont South (the area the road was in). We got on the slowest tram in Australia (unofficial, but obvious record) and made out way towards the street. We realised that after the 20 minutes it took for us to get through the city center, we had no chance. But, we stayed on and got halfway before we admitted defeat. We went back into the city (which as Sod's Law states, it took half the time!) and mourned the loss (lol). We weren't too bothered, as it would have been good to see the road, but it gives us another reason to come back to Australia!!!! We went back to the hostel and started to cook our food, and then even got a free meal, as the chef let us have one for some strange reason, so we were both well fed. We left the hostel with our bags, and got to the train station on time, ready for the bus back to Sydney. We go on and found that there were 2 spare seats next to us, so I vowed that I would sit in them if they were free. The bus filled up, and they were the only two seats that were empty! So I think Alex and I were the only people to get a good nights sleep on the bus!

We arrived in Sydney on Monday, and were met by driving rain, so we knew we were definitely back! We gave Stu a birthday call (his 19th) and met him at the hostel he was staying at. He was there with his parents, who had promised to take him out for breakfast, so we all left and got a massive fry-up each, and told each other about our stories from other parts of the world. It was strange to see Stu's parents in a cafe in the middle of Sydney, but as I've been travelling for a while, seeing people in weird places doesn't really shock me! We all left and met up with Joe & Emma at our hostel, before we went our separate ways. Alex & I went to try and sort out what we're doing in New Zealand (I'll tell you when we have it confirmed!), and Stu, Joe & Emma went to the pub a few birthday pints. They met up with Sunil and Priya there as well, so it was like being back with the old gang! We were gone for about an hour, but when we got back, Stu wasn't exactly sober! He fell off his stool 2 times, while we were there and then he bought us a jug of beer, which we had quickly, and then we went to the cinema to watch a film. We saw Superhero Movie, which was another superhero spoof film. It was really funny, but only 80 minutes long, which let it down quite a bit, but I think Stu needed to time to sober up! We went back to the hostel for a bit, and tried to have asleep, but Tom and Theresa (Stuart's parents) came in with a cake. Theresa also bought some sparklers, which we started to light, before I realised there was a smoke alarm directly above her! We tried to open the window which was stuck, and Stu burnt his hand when trying to put them out with his fingers, but in the end, the inevitable happened - the alarm started. It wasn't too loud to start with, but we then heard throughout the hostel, which was when we started to panic. In Australia, the Fire Brigade charge for hoax calls, and all of the hostels are directly linked to the hostels. We went down the fire stairs, while Theresa tried to explain it to the people on reception. We got outside and were met by one fire engine, and then another!!! About 10 firemen walked into the building, and found Theresa standing in the room, who explained exactly what had happened. They said that she wouldn't be charged that time, so we were very lucky. There was a sign next to the detector, which explained that there would be a fine of at least $250 or a jail term!! The luck of the Irish prevailed! We laughed it off in the room, and ate the cake, before we went out to Scruffy Murphy's for another few pints. Tom bought them for us, so we saved a bit of money, but they didn't really help Stu out. We went back to the hostel and played a few drinking games with the infamous goon, and then went to one of the local clubs. By this point, I don't think many of us could see straight, which made the evening even better! Stu was so drunk by that point, but luckily his parents had already left for Coffs Harbour. He did some really funny things during the night as well, which I sadly missed the best one - he told Alex he was really hot, so he took off his top. The barman told him to put it back on, so he stuck both of his middle fingers up at him!! The barman went to get a bouncer, so Stu disappeared onto the dance floor to cause more trouble. He also tried to start fights with as many people he could! Nothing happened with any of them, but only because people were there to break it up! I have no idea what time we left the club, but I had a bowl of muesli when we got back, before stumbling to bed.

We woke up in the morning, and I was greeted with a pounding headache, but I must say I deserved it! Stu was still drunk when we checked out, and he was so funny to watch throughout the morning. We went to Subway for breakfast, which was the best one I've ever had, and said goodbye to Sunil & Priya, who were moving back to their relatives in the Sydney suburbs. Stu's hangover started around lunchtime, so he suffered for most of the day, and the journey on the boat to Manly Beach didn't really help him!!! We checked into the hostel, and Alex & I let Stu sleep for most of the afternoon, while we went for a walk along the seafront to try and find the cheapest surf shops. We got back to the hostel, and made some soup, before watching a couple of episodes of the Simpsons and Family Guy. We didn't do anything in the evening apart from watch TV and feel sorry for ourselves, but we were all happy to do that!

Yesterday, I woke up at 5am to watch the Liverpool - Chelsea match, and was happy to support the leading side until the 94th minute, (and own goal from Liverpool), which made me annoyed. I went back to bed, and got up properly at about 11am. We went into the city center to meet Joe & Emma for a farewell lunch, as they were getting the bus to Melbourne later on in the day. We went to Scruffy Murphy's and got the Beer & Steak deal, which was relatively cheap, and then met up with Immi and Rachel (friends from school). It was weird to see them in Sydney, as the last time I had seen them was in Redhill before Christmas!! They got on the train with us towards Bondi (as I still hadn't been there!), but got off on the stop before, so they could go to their accommodation. We went to the beach, and found the cheapest surf shop, and went straight in! It was only $20 for 2 hours board and wet suit hire, so we couldn't complain! The waves were so hard to surf though - they came from every direction and the current was so strong. We had a laugh though, until Stu hit himself on his head with his board! We stayed in for about an hour until that happened before we called it a day and took the boards back. We got on the bus towards the City as we were so tired. It took almost an hour as the traffic was so bad, but we got there at about 7pm. We got a phone call from Mike to say he'd be there in about half an hour, so we waited for him, so we could all get the ferry together. We got the ferry back to Manly, and he checked into the hostel, and then we made dinner - soup and pasta! It was nothing special, but we were so close to the end, we couldn't be bothered to do anything extravagant. We went to bed quite early again, as the day had tired us out, and to save money as well!

We got up at about half 9 today, as we needed to checkout, and then went to get some breakfast. Stu got a phone call from Immi, who was in Manly at the time, so we told them where we were, so they met up with us and had some food. Alex, Mike, Stu and Immi rented surfboards for the day, but I wanted to save some money, so Rachel and I watched them catch the waves, while we sat on the beach. The weather was really nice, and probably the best we'd had in Sydney for the whole time we've been here, but it didn't last long - it started raining when Immi and Rachel had to go. I was bored on my own, so rented my own board as it looked like so much fun! I caught so many waves, and it was the best time I've been surfing. We finished the surfing at about 3pm, and went back to have showers. We bumped into a friend that we'd met in Cairns, so we all went for a coffee. We got back to the hostel at about 6pm, and since then we've watched South Park, Family Guy and The Simpsons!

Tonight we're off to the airport, so we don't have to get a ridiculously early taxi, but it does mean we have to sleep there, which won't be too pleasant.

I've had such a good time in Australia, and I know I'm going to come back, but it does get expensive if you don't work, so that could be an option for when I come back (and any people planning a big trip here!) but now all i say is: Bring on New Zealand!

Byron Bay - Surf Camp - Sydney

2008-04-12T00:31:00.000-07:00

After the internet, we went to the beach to play a bit of Frisbee, then I went for a swim in the sea. The waves were really big, so I got wiped-out a few times, but had a good time. We went back to the hostel, and on the way, we booked our Greyhound bus to Melbourne, and also our accommodation in Sydney - for $17 a night! We had quick showers and went to Cheeky Monkeys for dinner. We still had a voucher to use (one that we given when we booked our Fraser/Whitsunday tours), so we ordered a free entree and the $5 steak. Mike got his free meal - a small bowl of pasta, then I saw mine; it was a huge curry, and I had an even bigger plate of steak and chips! I was pretty full after eating it all! They showed the Liverpool - Arsenal match as well (the one where Liverpool thrashed Arsenal 4-2!!!) We chilled in the bar for a bit, and managed to get a few more jugs of cheap beer, before going to the bottle shop for some beers. We went back to our room and met a random Italian friend of Joe & Emma's, who they met on Fraser Island, and we all had a good laugh. We went back to Cheeky Monkeys and did some table dancing, before heading back to bed at about 2am.

We had to get up at about 7am, as we were getting the bus down to Surf Camp to try out some more surfing. We all got on the bus, and tried to get to sleep, but we stopped off at the 'Most Famous Surf Beach in the World'- called Lenox Head, which has huge surf, which you can surf about 500m on! It starts breaking at the headland, and you can surf all the way to the beach - that would be sooo good!! We got back on the bus, and went to the town of Ballina for some breakfast. I didn't have anything, as I had a tonne of Muesli and some toast, but Alex and Mike got burgers (lol). After this stop, it was plain sailing down to Spot X - Mojo Surf Camp (it was actually in a place called Arrawarra, but Spot X sounds better). We got to know our bus driver on the way down as well, and his Oz nickname was 'Frat', but his real name was Derek (haha!). He played some cool music, and stopped off at a bottle shop, so we could stock up with supplies for the evening. We got to Arrawarra, at about 1pm, and checked in straight away. We were given a quick guided tour of the camp (it had caravans, rather than tents) and then we went straight down to the sea for our surf lesson. The boards we were using were really foamy, so they floated more easily than the real ones, but they're good to practice on. We were shown how to get from the prone position on the board, to standing up really quickly. It all seemed really easy, but it was a lot harder our at sea. The small waves were easy to catch (the surf was easy to get moving on), but the bigger waves (the ones much further out) were a different story. I thought I'd give them a go, but most of the time, I got ploughed into the bottom of it, and those were the times I actually made it past the breaking waves! Towards the end, I started getting cocky, so I didn't catch as many, but one thing that put me off, was the fact that I saw a fin rise up out of the water about 50m away from us. It looked like a dolphin, but I didn't want to assume it. It turned out I was right, as I mentioned it to Frat, and he said that if the fin rose up out of the water, and then went back down (which it did) then its a dolphin. Sharks apparently on go straight through the water, without any height difference. We all stood up a few times, and the instructors were pleased with us, so we were all happy. We had showers after the lesson, and went and waited for the famous BBQ. It was better than expected. There were burgers, prawns (eugh!), lamb, steak, soup, salads and loads more. I ate as much as I could, and then chatted to some of the other people on the Oz bus. We had a game of pool as well (Alex & I vs Mike & Frat). Obviously the better people prevailed, and won (that was me!). It was a good game, as we had 6 balls left, and they had 2 (...??) and we cleared the table really quickly. We were only allowed to stay in the eating area until 9.30pm, which is when we went down to the beach for a party. We were about to cross the bridge over a small river, when we noticed it wasn't so small anymore! It was about 10 times as big, and a lot deeper, plus the end of the bridge was about 2-3m too short!!! We had to paddle through, but we all made it! It was really cold, so I'd put on a hoody and jeans (yes! In Australia!), so the jeans got wet on the bottom. We partied the night away, and it brought back memories of the Full Moon Party, but a lot smaller scale! We went back through the river at about 1am, and went to bed straight away.

We were woken up a leisurely 6am (ouch!) and we all tried packing our bags, but it was so early it was almost impossible! We went to breakfast, and loaded our plates & bowls with as many different cereals as possible, and then toast with eggs! It was really good, but I was still full from the night before, so I couldn't manage a massive amount. We then got on the bus not long after we'd finished, and then set off on the long journey. It was supposed to take about 10 hours, so we all took pillows and sleeping bags, so we could catch up on some much needed sleep. We didn't do much on the way, until we stopped for lunch, at... wait for it... Bulahdelah! I love some of the names they have here! We then went on our way, and we played a Battle of the Sexes quiz, which the guys sadly lost, so our forfeit was for Frat to choose us a target, and then for us to say Ëxcuse me, I was hoping you could congratulate me, as I've just saved up enough money for a sex change", and then we had to walk off. We had to wait for that though, as we were going to do it at the Gaff (bar) in the evening, at our end of Oz party. We went through some really amazing scenery just before Sydney; we drove over the Hawkesbury River and we actually went through the area that they filmed the amazing series of 'Skippy'! We had apparently made up so much time, that Frat went a different way into the city, just so we could go over the Harbour Bridge. It really was awesome! We saw the Opera House, and loads of other sights from our bus, and then we went and dropped off some of the bus before it was our turn. We got off near the Town Hall, and had no idea where were going, but as we were about to cross, I saw Stu! He was on the same side as us, and he didn't seem as surprised as us to see each other. He then said something about meeting us at the Aquarium, but we just thought it was where he was dropped off. Anyway, he came to our hostel with us, and we caught up on what we'd done over the previous week. He then went back to his Aunt's house, and we got ready to go out to our Oz party. Our hostel was holding a free cheese & wine evening, but only for people dressed in togas. So Alex and I got our bed sheets and wrapped ourselves in them, and went to get some free cheese and wine. They had huge bags of 'goon', and pint glasses (!!!), so we had some wine and then walked to The Gaff, to meet up with some of the other bus people. We ordered our free meal (chicken schnitzel & chips) and then got some drinks. Frat turned up about an hour late, but he got us some drinks so we were happy. Alex also got some strange texts from Stu, asking whether we were with some friends we hadn't seen for ages. Anyway, he turned up not long after 9pm, and we got him a free meal, then we all realised what had happened with the weird texts. He had actually got Alex's phone number mixed up with a guy called Sunil, so when we saw him after we got off the bus, it was a total fluke! Thats why we were surprised and he wasn't - he expected to see us, but we had no idea. This also meant that he had left Sunil standing outside the Aquarium for hours on end! He laughed it off, and I made him store names with the numbers, so he'd never make the same mistake again. We had a few more drinks, and Frat's boss bought us all a shot called a Flatliner, which is made up from tequila, absinthe and the best part - Tabasco sauce. Lets just say we all burnt our mouths, and we had about 2 pints of water after each of our shots! It was soo hot!!! We partied a bit more, until one of the girls on the bus reminded Frat that we still had to do our forfeit. I was made to go first, and guess who he chose: the biggest, hairiest man in the room. I thought I was going to be knocked out, but he actually laughed and shook my hand (lol). Alex had to say it to one of the workers in the bar, but she ignored him, and Mike said it to the DJ, who said over the michrophone "congratulations to Michelle". We all had a laugh, and were surprised they all went so well. The rest of the night went quickly, and we got back to our hostel at about 2am. Oh, and I thought I'd mention this - Stu also slapped me in the face, after he missed a 'High Five' (he'd had a beer, so his co-ordination was all over the place!!)

We had planned to meet Stu at 9.30am, so we could all go to Bondi, but it changed to 10.30, then 11, and then Stu was late, so we eventually met him just after 11am, but then wanted to go to the free BBQ our hostel was holding on Coogee Beach. We managed to smuggle Stu into it, so he could get another free meal, but Alex and Mike missed the bus, as they wanted to find out about a band playing that evening. Stu and I got there, and had to wait about an hour for the food to be ready, but when it was, it was really good! The beach was nice as well, but the waves were small compared to Bondi (apparently). We then got on a bus to Bondi Junction, so we could go to the beach from there, but when we got there, we couldn't be bothered to do anything, so we went back to the hostel. Alex and Mike were supposed to meeting us on Coogee, but they never showed up, but when I was looking through Alex's photos, he had a few of Coogee, and we could actually see ourselves on one of his photos!! They'd assumed that we had already gone on the coastal walk to Bondi, but we were actually sitting on Coogee beach at that time, so we missed each other! We got back to the hostel, and went to The Gaff for another free meal, and then met up with people from our hostel, as the bar was offering us all 2 free drinks, so we thought we might as well take up their offer! They also had a burger eating competition, which was 1kg of pure meat, bread and salad! It was huge! A huge guy from another hostel did it in about 15 minutes, but he was the size of a house! We then went to meet Joe, Emma, Martin, Lauren, Hayley and Jamie at a bar on the other side of the city. It cost $20 to get in, but the music was so good! They had a few DJ's, and they started off with chilled out trance, but it went on to be a lot faster and more upbeat. We left there at about 4am, and went back to our hostel. It was a good night, but we were all shattered!

Today we're planning on going to see the sights (Opera House, Harbour Bridge etc.) so hopefully it will be cultural!

Byron Bay

2008-04-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

We got up relatively early on Monday, and went to the beach, as Alex wanted to try out surfing again. The waves seemed really big, so we both went in, but they turned out to be much bigger than first expected, so I got out after about 20 minutes of body surfing. Alex stayed in there for another hour, trying to catch the waves, but they were all dumping waves, so they were hard to catch properly. We then went to the local kebab shop to get our lunch, which was really good, but nothing compared to the greasy English ones! We went back to the house and packed up our things, and went to the shops to buy Jack & Vicky some presents. We bought them some alcohol and other little bits to say thank you, but they deserved much more! We then got in the car and drove down to Byron Bay. It rained quite a bit along the way, but when we arrived, it had stopped. We checked in to the Holiday Village and then went out for a curry at one of the local restaurants. Jack & Vicky had been here before, so they knew where to go for the best food, but it was quite expensive (for our budget anyway!) We then said our goodbyes and we went to the hostel to find Mike, Joe, Emma, Charlie and the others. They were dotted around the hostel, so we went and said 'hi' to them all before settling down in Charlie's room. We stayed there for a while, and then went to a bar, which was a bit further along the main road. I couldn't be bothered to drink, so Mike, Alex and I went back to the hostel and watched The Bourne Ultimatum (film), before going to bed.

I woke up just after 9am to some devastating news; a 16 year old boy had been killed by a shark, about 15 miles away from us. It made me realise how much of a threat sharks actually are when swimming/surfing in the sea. We were going to rent out surfboards for the day, but our beach had been shut, and the hostel wouldn't give them to us anyway. We heard lots of different rumours about what had happened, and what kind of shark it was, but its most likely to be a Bull Shark. A fisherman said that he had seen a few of them circling his boat shortly before the attack. Here's the link from the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7336293.stm

The horrible thing about it is, that he wasn't actually in the sea; but in the river estuary, and only 50m out.
Anyway, after finding out about it, we rented out bikes from our hostel, and rode up to the Lighthouse on Cape Byron, and went to the most Easterly point of Australia (excluding islands) and looked out to sea. I think we were all looking for sharks, but we didn't see any. We did however see a few dolphins swimming around the breaking waves, and among the surfers that had braved it out. The weather was still awful; it rained on and off for the whole morning, and as we cycled back, it started up again. We got back to the hostel just before lunch, so we went to Woolworths to buy some food. We didn't really do much in the afternoon, apart from go to the beach to play Ultimate Frisbee, but it started to rain really heavily about 30 minutes after we got there, so we had to give up with that idea. We got back to the hostel and all had showers, before going to Cheeky Monkeys (the local bar) for a cheap meal. I had fish & chips (a big portion) for only $5, so I was happy! We stayed there for most of the evening, and we played in a few games to get free jugs of beer. Alex won one, as he was the second person to throw a ball through a hole (sounds easier than it was!!). The person organising it kept on asking for random amounts of money, in certain coins, and the first person to give it to him would get a jug of beer! Mike managed to be the first person to give him $4 in dollar coins, so we got another jug. We went back to the hostel at about 11pm, and we ended up staying there, as we were all tired from the day's activities.

We woke up a bit later today (before 10am though!) and we hired surfboards from the hostel, and went straight out to the beach. The beach was open today, and we didn't feel as bad going in it today (yesterday we felt we wouldn't go in as a mark of respect) The waves were really big (there was a big storm out to sea and it was raining heavily), so we got in and started getting pounded. The rip was really strong, so it was quite a struggle getting out to the big waves. Mike managed to surf a few, but Alex and I failed miserably. I did manage to stand up on one, but I fell over straight after. It was still raining heavily at this time, and Mike said he thought he saw a shadow in the surf, but it turned out to be a rock. It was probably the worst time to go in, as after heavy rain, the sharks are usually more active. We stayed in the sea for over an hour, and then went back to the hostel to have showers. We then met up with Joe & Emma after the showers and went out in the town to come here!

Tomorrow we're going to Surf Camp for our included surf lesson, and then its on to Sydney on Friday!

Surfer's Paradise

2008-04-02T05:18:00.000-07:00

So here we are in Surfers Paradise, and its exactly how I expected it - long, golden beaches, tall buildings, good night life, good surf - what more could you want??

We left Brisbane to come down here on Sunday, and had a short Oz bus ride, which would have been shorter, had we not stopped off at a Zorbing centre for about an hour and a half! I've always wanted to do it, but $25 for about a 10 second ride, it didn't really seem worth it, so we sat on the grass and had our lunch. We got to Surfers Paradise at about 4pm, and went to check into a hostel that was recommended to us by one of Mike's friends (who also met us at the bus station - he's called Charlie Williams - James, you'll remember him!). We checked in and paid $30 (!!!!), so we thought it would be worth it, but it was nothing special.. We then decided to go and check out the beach, which was only a 5 minute walk away. We got there just as the sun was setting, which made the views of the whole area amazing! I took a few photos (which will be added soon). We sat on the beach while Mike and Charlie went for a swim, but not long after the, the lifeguards advised everyone to stop, as they were going home. We went back to the hostel, and were too tired to cook, so Stu, Nat, Alex and I went out for a meal. We all wanted steak, so we found a good Irish bar that did steaks. However, as I didn't have my ID, I had to go back and get it, so I told Stu what I wanted, so he could order for me (T-Bone). Alex and I went back to the hostel, and made it back to the bar about 20 minutes later. The food hadn't arrived by that time, so I got myself a Guinness and sat down with the others. About 10 minutes later Nat and Stu got their food, followed by ours, but they had given us Rump Steaks instead (and no side of chips) so we complained, and the waitress said the kitchen was closed, so we had to make do with what we had. We asked to speak to the manager, and she came over and said she would give us the two rump steaks for free!! (saving $20 each!) The food was really good quality, so we were all happy with the amount we'd saved! We got back to the hostel to find Charlie, Mike and Anna (Charlie's friend) playing cards, so we joined them, and went to bed at about 11:30pm.

We woke up at about 9am, as we had to check out, so we packed and went and sat by the pool. We ate the fruit cake we'd been given from Fraser Island for breakfast as well, while Mike messed about in the pool. We then went to the beach and went for a swim. The waves were huge! We caught a few, and then went to play Frisbee. It was really hot, so I gave up after a while, but Alex and Nat went in the sea (where there were no yellow & red flags!) After about 2-3 minutes, the lifeguards starting calling out to them on the loud speakers, but they couldn't hear, so they had to send out a lifeguard on a surfboard! They were pretty embarrassed, but it was funny to watch. However, as the lifeguard was rescuing them, the other one drove towards him and said he had to go and assist the other lifeguards further along the beach, due to a cardiac arrest, which was kind of scary. We'd also heard that over the Easter Weekend, 3 people drowned while swimming, just at Surfers Paradise, so it shows how dangerous it is in that area. Joe and Emma came down just before lunch, but we'd already gone for yet another steak! It wasn't as good as the previous day's, but we did have to pay for it! We went back to the hostel for a shower, and then went to meet Jack & Vicky (Verity's cousins). They picked us up, and took us to near where they lived (Burleigh Heads) and we all had a beer. They seemed like really nice people, and were glad we could stay with them for a few days. We got to their hose and were really happy to have a proper shower, and also a cooked meal (you guessed it - steak! But in a sandwich this time) We spent the evening watching TV - South Park! And went to bed at about 11pm.

We woke up at about 10am on Tuesday (well, I did; Alex got at about 8am!) and then went for an explore of the surrounding area (Miami). We thought we were going towards the sea, but we actually went completely the wrong way, so we gave up on the idea of bikes, and got the bus up to Surfers. We met Joe & Emma there, and also said goodbye Stu & Nat, who were leaving to go to Byron Bay. We saw them off, and then went to the beach for a swim. We went back to Joe and Emma's place for a beer, and then decided that we'd go to Wet'N'Wild the next day, and we even managed to persuade Emma! We got back to Jack & Vicky's at about 7pm, and we had Lamb Chops fr dinner, which were really good. We watched TV again for the rest of the evening and went to bed quite early again.

We had to wake up really early on Wednesday, as we needed to get the bus to Wet'N'Wild. We had some breakfast, and then got the bus. It took ages, as it was rush hour, and it seemed that 1 person wanted to get off at every stop along the way. But we finally got there, and met Joe & Emma at about 10am, and we went on the first slide. It was a big raft ride, which was a good one to start on. We then went towards the bigger rides! There was one called the Tornado, which was a big funnel shape, that was on its side, and the raft slides from side to side, until you lose speed, which is when you slide down to the pool. The funnel parts fine, but the drop down to it is so steep - it felt like we were going to fall out! The next big slide was called Mach 5, and it was made up of 3 different slides, the outer two are not as steep, but the middle one goes straight down! It was soooo steep, but it was over so quickly, you don't really have time to think about it. All of the other slides were the basic water parks ones - tunnel slides, open slides, racing slides etc. We left the park at about 4pm, and planned to go to Joe & Emma's for a few drinks, but by the time we made it to Surfers, we had all fallen asleep, so we weren't feeling up to it. We got back to the house, and we had planned to go out for a meal, but we thought that a takeaway would be a better idea, so we ordered pizza, and watched Goldeneye all together.

I think these evenings doing nothing are helping our budgets so much!!

On Thursday, it was much harder to wake up, but I managed to do it by 11am - even though Alex had been up since 8am!!!!! We got out of the house by about 12:30 and went towards the beach. We walked along it, towards Burleigh Heads, and got some lunch on the way. The waves were really big, but most of the beach was unpatrolled, so I didn't want to risk it. We made it to the headland, and started to walk up to the National Park. Its not very big, but some of the wildlife in there is amazing! We took the rainforest path, which was about 2km long. We didn't see much - just a few wild turkeys and a big iguana. We got over the headland and made it down to the creek on the other side. It looked really calm, so I ran straight in, but the undercurrent was quite strong, as the tide was coming in. I don't think I'd have stayed in there if the tide was going out, but as it was dragging me towards land, it wasn't too bad. We stayed there for an hour or so, and just as we were about to leave, we spotted a sea eagle flying close to the water, and it landed about 30 metres away from us! It kept on getting bombarded by seagulls, but all it wanted to do was have a wash in the sea. We left not long after that, and as we were walking along the beach towards Miami, Jack called Alex and asked if we wanted to go for a beer - when would we ever decline a beer!?!?! We had a couple and were joined by Vicky, and then we went back to the house. We had Chili Con Carne for dinner, which was really nice, and then we went out to the local shopping mall (Pacific Fair) for a look around. They don't seem to have high streets in Australia, they just have big malls. Oh and also, the supermarkets never sell alcohol, they only have liquor stores, some on which are drive through!!! Apparently the mall is where all of the under 18s go, as its the best place to hang out. We stayed there until the shops closed (at 9 o'clock) and then drove to the lookout, which was about 30 minutes out of town. We drove up the hill, and when we got to the top it was astounding. The view was one of the best I've ever seen! From the left to the right all we could see was lights. We could see all the way up and down the Gold Coast for miles, and directly in front of us was Q1 (the world's tallest residential building) and the other sky scrapers in Surfers Paradise. We took some photo's and then went back to Miami. We went to bed almost straight away, as it had already gone 11pm (I never go to bed this early!)

On Friday, I woke up to hear Alex on the phone to someone (turned out to be Verity) and this was at about 9:30am. I then went back to sleep, and woke up just after 10am, to hear the same thing again. I got up then, and uploaded some photo's, had some breakfast, watched TV, and this took me up to about 12:30, and Alex was still on the phone!!!!!! We eventually managed to get out and we went to Surfers to say goodbye to Mike, who had just come back from Toowoomba, and for some reason, the bus driver gave me $49 change when I gave him $50 for two tickets that were supposed to cost $11!! We met up with Mike, and then went to the beach, but as it was quite windy, the surf was much bigger, and the waves were much stronger. We went in, but didn't stay for long, as the rip-current was so strong. It was a constant battle against the water, and I can safely say that I've never been in such a rough sea! We went back in a few times, but made sure we stayed inside the flags, and at about 3.30pm, we went to the bus station with Mike to say goodbye to him. He went off justt after 4pm, which is when Alex and I went back to Miami. When we got home, we chose a Thai curry for dinner, and watched some TV while having a few beers. I chose Pad Thai, which is one of the more popular ones that we had in Thailand. We then went out in the evening to a bar about 10 minutes walk away from the houue, called Shark Bar. It had live music on, so we stayed there for the whole evening, and Alex and I got thrashed at pool by Jack & Vicky! Jack had had a fe, so he was quite drunk, but no one else really was. We got back at about 1am, and then went to bed soon after.

One thing that I've recently learned, is that you should never pick up any spiral shells that are on the beach, as you will probably die! I never realisedthis, but there are things called cone snails (or cone shells), and when disturebed (if you pick them up) they shoot out a barb, that has poison in, and it will most probably kill you. Its just another thing in Australia that is deadly!!!

We woke up really early on Saturday morning, as Alex had booked a surf lesson on the local beach. We had a fry up, and then drove to Burleigh to take Alex to his lesson. The sun was shining, so we went and sat on the beach, while Alex surfed. He managed to get up a few times, but I was too tired from the night before to watch it all. He finished it after 2 hours, and then we went and got milkshakes from the surf club. It had just started to rain, so we were lucky to be undercover. We then went to a shop that had photos of the local area, which were really interesting to see - the had photos ranging from the beach and surfers, to sunrises and animals. It was really cool, but they were so expensive, so I dind't bother buying any. We got back to the house at about 1pm, and did nothing for the whole afternoon, apart from watch Family Guy, South Park and the Simpsons, and go to KFC for lunch. When the evening came, however, we went out for a meal to a local restarant in Broadbeach, which did Italian food. Alex and I paid for everyones, as they ahd already done so much for us. We went to a couple of bars in Broadbeach before getting in a taxi ito Surfers, and went to a club called The Bedroom. It had a few beds dotted around the place, and the rest of it was themed to be like a bedroom. It was quite cool, but nothing special. Alex said if we were there for another night, we should have gone in pyjamas! We stayed there until about 1am, and then went to another bar called Melbas. It is the biggest club in the area, so its just like a glorified Liquid, bb it was still good. By this time, we were starting to get really tired, so ALex and I were about to get a taxi home, when we saw the bus was waiting at the stop, and it went to Miami. So we jumped on and went back home. Jack stayed at Melbas, and came back at about 4am.

I got up at just before midday on Sunday, and felt a bit rough, but I coped. We watched some TV, before Alex and I went to Pacific Fair (the shopping mall) for a bit of shopping. I got some lunch at Subway (Alex went to Hungry Jack's) and then went to look around the shpos. It is a massive shopping mall, but we spent most of our time in one of the big department stores; wandering around pointlesly. In the end, I bought a shirt and a T-shirt all for $25, so I was happy, and Alex bought 2 12 year old T-shirts, as he manages to fit into them (:S). We got the bus back into Miami, and decided to check out Miami Beach (we'd always been going to Burleigh Beach), which is where we stayed for about 20 minutes. The weather was a lot worse today, as it rained quite a bit, but we were usually undercover when the wosrt of it was around. We then went back to the house and chatted with Jack & Vicky before having an amazing roast. It was roast lamb, and it made me realise how much I've missed the Sunday Roasts!!! We had an alcohol free evening, and then we watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was slow to get into, but I thought it was still a good fill. Its a bit messed up, but its well made. It finished at about 11pm, whihc is when everyone went to bed. Alex fell asleep at about 9.30, so he missed most of the film!

Tomorrow we're going down to Byron Bay, so expect the next update from there!

Rainbow Beach & Brisbane!

2008-03-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

Alex and I woke up bang on 7am, just because we wanted to get our free pancakes (which we both got 4!) and afterwards we went back to bed, but couldn't get back to sleep again. We got up properly at about 10am, and wandered around the hostel for a while, but we all wanted to go and visit Carlo Sand Blow, so we hired 3 free body-boards from the hostel and went on the long trek up the hill. We made it to the Sand Blow at about 2pm and had a wander around it, and then decided to start some body boarding! Martin and I went up to the highest point and tried to slide down, but our boards were too grippy. We found another steeper hill on the other side, but we couldn't manage to slide far at all (Alex tried to go on his front, but just winded himself as he landed!!). After about an hour, we made our way back down into the town, and went back to the hostel - lucky for us, as it had just started to rain really heavily!). During the afternoon/evening, we did nothing, again, but we did get the $5 BBQ for dinner, which was alright (cheap for $5). In the end, we played a few games of cards, and then went to bed.

We got up at about 6.30am as we all needed to pack, and then we went and got our free pancakes (I got 5!). We then went next door, as that was where the Oz Bus was going to pick us up from. We waited, and waited, until it finally came - apparently it had been waiting on the other side of the road (across the green), but none of us had seen it! We were all annoyed again, as it was another tiny bus, but we were just happy it turned up. We set off towards Noosa, and realised that Mike was going to be on the bus, and when we finally got there, we saw that loads of the other original group were there (Sunil, Priya, Michéle...). We also managed to have a quick look around Noosa, and were glad that we didn't choose to spend much time there, as it was really expensive, but the beach looked like one of the best! We got back onto the bus, and carried on going along the highway until we stopped at a petrol station with a big fruit stall, so we stocked up fruit and talked about the days we'd been apart. They all clarified what we'd thought about Noosa - that it was expensive, but had a really good beach. We got to Brisbane at about 1.30pm and checked into our hostel (Bunk) and then met up with Francesca, Becky and Stu and went to explore the town. We didn't get very far, as we were all pretty tired, but we did find a cheap cafe that was selling it's produce off at knockdown prices, as it was close to close. I got a chicken schnitzel (breaded chicken) and a chicken, mushroom and rice pot all for $5! We ate them outside and then went back to the hostel for a swim, then a relax in the hot tub (at a hostel!!!) After the swim, we went out to buy some "goon" and then started to have a few drinks around the hostel (in the park for instance) We stayed in the park (it was more of a glorified road island) for a while, and then went back to the club at our hostel. It wasn't very good, but we were all there, so it made it better.

We woke up quite late (about midday) as it was the first day for ages that we didn't have to wake up before 9am, and I had got a text in the morning, saying that JOE & EMMA were coming!! Yet again! I bet your all bored of reading about them! They had left Rainbow Beach, and were on their way down to Brissy and they were meant to arrive in the evening. Anyway, throughout the night, we had gained another person - Natalie Jones (Stuart's Girlfriend) and she was going to stay with us for a couple of weeks. We went looking for her, but she was 'apparently' asleep, as she was 'too tired' after the flight - lol. We went out and about into the town and went to the lagoon on the South Bank (it looked close on the map, but turned out to be about 40 minutes walk away!) We eventually made it there, but it was really busy (it was a hot day) so we left after about an hour (just in time to get food at our cheap cafe!). We met Sunil, Clare and Priya on the way back (some of who had hangovers!) and tried to organise what we were going to do in the evening. We got back at about 5.30pm and went up to see Nat & Stu (who were awake at that time). She gave us all a Creme Egg as we didn't get any for Easter :( but she seemed pretty ill and tired, because of the flight (the turbulence sounded quite bad). We then went downstairs and met up with Joe, Emma, Chris, Adam and the rest. As Stu had rented out the deluxe room, it meant we had somewhere to drink our own alcohol (the hostel was strict about having your own alcohol, as it was licensed). We played a few drinking games, and chatted for a while, and then we played "the Box Game" - you start with a box on the floor, and you have to pick it up with your mouth, and every time you do, you rip as much cardboard off as you want, which eventually leaves you with a tiny square. We did this for a while, until we were all bored, then decided to go out. We went to a student club, which was on the other side of the city. It was alright, but they only played R&B, which isn't my type of music. We got back to the hostel at about 4am, and then went straight to bed.

We got up late again on Thursday, and went to meet Janhavi (a friend from home) from the train station; she'd flown from Townsville down to Brisbane to see us and Nat. We showed her round the hostel, and then the close parts of Brisbane, before we went back to the hostel and went for a swim. We invented a game called "Hydro-Fun" (basically water volleyball) and played that for a while, and then went to the supermarket (Woolworths) to get some supplies. Sunil had said that he was going to cook a curry for us, and he'd chosen the Thursday to do it. We waited for what seemed like ages, but it eventually came (he was cooking for 13 of us!) and it was soo good. After the curry, we were all too full to do much, but we still went out into the town for a bit.

We got up relatively early (before 12pm!) and said goodbye to Martin, Sunil, Priya, Clare, Fracesca & Becky, as they were leaving on the Oz Bus to go to Surfer's Paradise. We then went on a walk towards the lagoon, but Alex and I got side tracked on the way there, as we'd heard about a rugby match that was on that evening. So we walked to the stadium (seemed like miles out of town) and found the ticket office, but it was shut, and it didn't open until 5pm. So we waited for a couple of hours, and finally got hold of 6 tickets. It was one of the biggest rugby matches this season (Brisbane Broncos vs. North Queensland Cowboys) and apparently it was close to selling out. The tickets only cost $19 for students, so we definitely got a fair deal. We went back to the hostel as quick as we could, and made it back just in time for the free BBQ. We ate our food really quickly and went and got the free bus to the stadium. We made it to our seats about 10 minutes before the game started (just in time for the cheerleaders!) and we were all amazed by the stadium - it was huge!! The were just over 50,000 people there, and the noise was deafening! The game started and it seemed like an even match, but after about 20 minutes, the Cowboys were getting thrashed! The final score turned out to be 36-2 to the Broncos, and on the way home in the taxi, the driver said they were undefeated this season!

We woke up on Saturday at about 10am, as Janhavi was checking out, and then we went to the market that was located in Chinatown. The girls spent ages there, but the rest of us went back to the hostel, and went in the pool and hot tub again. When the girls eventually came back, we went out into the town to go to our favourite cafe, but it was closed for some reason, so we went to the next best place -Subway, and we all got Subs (special sandwiches). We then took Janhavi back to the train station, and said goodbye to her. It was really cool that she came to visit us, but her trip went so quickly! We got back to the hostel, and played another game of Hydro-Fun, and then got ready for the evening's events. Alex and I made our dinner, which consisted of rice, pasta, a pie, 2 sausage rolls and other small bits. We had been taking all of the good food out of the 'Free Food Shelf', so we could have a big meal, but it was bigger than we first thought. We didn't manage to eat all of it, but we gave a good effort. We then went to join the rest of the group in Joe and Emma's room. We finished off most of our goon, and then went to some of the other bars around The Valley. We stayed out until about 3am, and then went back to our rooms to pack, as we were leaving in the morning.

We got up at about 9am, and packed the rest of our clothes and went to check-out. Alex and I were on time, but Stu, Mike and Nat were about half an hour late! We went and got some food from Woolworths and wasted the morning away. We then got the free minibus to our pickup point and got on the Oz Bus. It was a lot busier than we'd have hoped, but there were a few free seats, so we just sat in them.
Brisbane was a really pretty city, and one of the best I've been in, so I wasn't too happy about leaving, but we were going down to Surfer's Paradise, which was supposed to be even more relaxed!!!

New Photos now up!

2008-03-24T01:37:00.000-07:00

Alex and I have spent almost the whole day (and lots of money) to bring you all of our photos. Here's the link so go check 'em out!

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/gapyear2008/

Fraser Island

2008-03-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Well, what can I say? Apart from Happy Easter, and that I spent it on the biggest sand island in the world, and went for a swim in one of the best lakes in the world. I can safely say that i'm not jealous that I missed the snow... sort of.

We missed the briefing on Thursday, but it didn't really matter, as they went through it all in Friday morning with us anyway. We got up at about 7am, went and got free pancakes for breakfast and then started to pack the 4x4. We were already given the food by Dingo's (our hostel) so it saved the chore of trying to decide on what to buy in the supermarket. We had to massive ice boxes (for beer and stuff!) and loads of food strapped to the top of the 4x4 (a Toyota Land Cruiser) and we were ready to go! They were quite strict on where we were allowed to go, and what we were allowed to do, but we stopped listening by the time they came onto the rules. We set off at about 9:00am and got to Inskip Point, in time for our ferry to Fraser Island. It only took about 10minutes to get across (as opposed to 40 if we went from Hervey Bay). We were all tired by this point, so the conversation was kept to a minimum, but when were driving along 75 Mile Beach, and had nothing behind or in front of us apart from sand and sea, we didn't need to find anything to do apart from soak up the surroundings! We went straight to the north of the island, and stopped off at a camp site for some lunch. This is when we started talking to each other properly. In our group we had an Irish couple, 2 Dutch guys and 4 Swedish girls. They were all cool, but the Irish couple seemed to take charge quite quickly, so they organised how much we ate, what we did and where we went, so that was annoying. We packed up everything again (we had to take everything, as the wardens are really strict about rubbish, due to the wild dingoes and generally keeping the National Park clean and tidy) We drove up to the Champagne Pools, which were the furthest we could go in our 4x4's and this is where we saw our first Fraser dingo. It was around some tourists that were letting it eat their food (idiots!). We walked over the hill to the pools, and went down to them. They were just big rock pools, but they were quite deep in places. We went for a swim in the for about 45 minutes, but the tide was coming in, so we were getting battered around by the waves a bit. We left there at about 3pm and went down to our campsite for the night. We set up our tents and then cooked our dinner (it was about 7pm by the time we'd sorted it all out! We had steak and potatoes, so the food was good! (not the ususal pasta!) We then sat around drinking "goon" (wine in a box) and wandered around the camp site, talking to some of the Aussies.

We woke up at about 7:30am and had scrambled eggs and sand on toast for breakfast, and then packed our tents away. We weren't supposed to drive along the beach until after 11am (because of the high tide) but we did it anyway! We went to Eli Creek, which was about 10 minutes drive away and went for a paddle in the water. It was so cold, but it wasn't deep enough for us to swim, so Alex and I went in the sea to try a bit of body boarding. It went quite well, but we didn't have long because we had to go to our next place. We got to Rainbow Gorge and went along the path to it. I was getting bored with the walk, but when I saw the Gorge, I was stunned. It was amazing! There were so many colours of sand, I could understand why it had its name! We went to the highest dune, and had to run down it, but then we went back to the 4x4, as we spent too much time there! On the walk back, I was looking down on the ground, and spotted a python under a log! I got a few photos of it, but most of them were blurry. We told the rest of the group and they were annoyed that they raced ahead and missed it! We then went to Lake Wabby, and the board said it was only 2km away, so we started the walk, but it seemed so much further! It took us about 40 minutes, but when we arrived I thought that it was worth the wait! It was a green lake, surrounded by high sand dunes, with a small beach on the opposite side. So we went for a swim to the other side and then had races down the dunes (how childish!) We then went back to the beach (took another 30 mins at least!) and went to find somewhere to camp for the night. It was close to one of the main settlements (called Eurong) and close to a place called Lake McKenzie, which we were going to go to in the morning. We set up our tents and started cooking the chicken & rice stir-fry, before cracking open the goon again. It started raining not long after finishing the food, so we had an early night.

We woke up at about 8am and made some breakfast. As I ate my bread, I looked up and saw a dingo staring at me from about 10 metres away. Martin got into the 4x4, but being the safety conscious person I am, I got my camera and started taking some photos! It went not long after it realised there was no food for it. Luckily the girls were in their tent at this point, as otherwise they would have been so scared! I think it was the dingo I saw the previous night (I kept it quiet from everyone, as I didn't want to scare anyone!) We packed away our tents and then went to Lake McKenzie. It was about 20km inland, so on the bumpy roads, it took us about 45 minutes to get there! It was stunning! It looked better than Lake Wabby, but it was much more tourist orientated, so that seemed to spoil it somewhat. We swam for a while, and just as I was about to get my camera out of my bag, I noticed a lizard on my t-shirt! It was only about 10 inches long, but it was really cool to see! We then left Lake McKenzie and went to finish off our food for lunch. It comprised of bread, cornflakes and jam, but it was nice all the same. We got back to the barge at about 1:45pm and left the island. I think we were all glad to leave the sand behind, but I knew I'd miss the scenery and the wildlife! We went back to the 4x4 shop and they checked the vehicle over for damage, before we were allowed back to the hostel.
I had a really long shower and emptied out my bag just to get rid of the sand, but I know it will be back!!!! In the evening, Alex and I went to the beach with a beer, before crashing out at about 10pm.
I absolutely loved Fraser Island, and I recommend it to anyone in the area, regardless of money!!!!

The Whitsundays to Rainbow Beach

2008-03-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

So, in the evening of the Friday (the day before we went on our trip), we met up with Joe and Emma again, and found out that they were staying in our room, which was cool. We sat together (along with Pria, Sunil, Michele and a few others) and sneakily had a few drinks, as its against the hostel's rules to drink your own alcohol. We went to our bar (called Beaches, as we were staying at Beaches hostel!) and had a couple more drinks, before going to Morocco's and then Muma Africa's for another round of free drinks. We stayed out until about 1am (I think!) and then went back. We all had a joke about Emma's bunk, as she'd covered all of the sides in her laundry. Then she covered mine, so Joe came up with the idea of "funking our bunks" and we did it to Alex's (who wasn't back by this time). Pretty funny, but we realised it was silly when we woke up in the morning!

We got up at about 12 and were having breakfast/lunch when I saw Stu and Mike walk past the window of the kitchen. We got them round into the kitchen and had a chat about the past few days (it felt like it had been ages since we'd last seen them) and found out that their trip had been really good, but the weather had been bad to them. We all walked to the marina (Me, Alex, Martin, Joe, Emma, Mike and Stu) and they saw us off on our boat ride. The boat was huge! We seemed to have chosen a good trip, and the people we were with were all nice (well, they seemed like it!) We sailed across the ocean for about 2 hours, and then dropped the anchor in a quiet bay of one of the Whitsundays. We chilled there for a bit, and just as I was talking to Ryan (member of staff), he spotted a hammerhead shark about 5-10 metres off the boat!! It was just below the surface, and then let it's dorsal fin break the surface, and then went back down! Only a few people saw it, and he says it was the first time he'd ever seen one! Pretty cool! We went down for dinner not long after that, and were all treated to a massive meal (it was good not to have pasta for once!) We had chicken, bread, mash potato and other bits & bobs. We chatted to some of the other people, and then went back up on deck to start the evening's drinking!!! We realised that some of the people (Ben, Harriet and Claire) were all at BASE on Magnetic Island, so we knew them a bit. We played a few drinking games (I had a box of cheap wine) so the evening went quite quickly! I think I went to bed at about 12, but I have no idea!!! The beds we were in were sooo small! I had to share a double (it was a bit bigger than a normal single) with Alex, while Martin had the bunk below.

We were woken up at 7am, and we all felt a little hungover. We had a huge breakfast - toast, muesli, fruit, tea & coffee, so we all ate loads! We set sail not longer after we'd finished and made our way to Whitsunday Island, so we could see the famous Whitehaven Beach. We went to the viewing point at first, so we could look down over the sea, and then we went down to the beach. My first impression of it was as if it was snow! It was soooo white, and there was so much of it. We were given stinger suits to stop the Box Jellyfish killing us, so we decided to brave it into the sea. It was quite rough, but it was really refreshing to get into the sea (the last time was in Koh Phangan!) We stayed on the beach for a couple of hours, before we had to go back to the boat. As we were walking over the walkway, we spotted a Goanna (a really big lizard) which was about 3-4 feet long. We got onto the boat and had lunch almost straight away. It was just pasta salad etc, but we were happy to have another meal made for us. We went to another bay in the afternoon and went for a snorkel (in our stinger suits again!), and I was amazed! The coral was stunning; i've never seen so much life under water, and the fish all seemed to be "friendly"!!! I didn't see many big fish, but I saw a Clown Fish, so I was happy in the end. We got back onboard about an hour later and had cookies, crisps, tea & coffee (luckily we got there first, so we had most of the food!) We then chilled on deck and waited for the divers to come back on. We then went to our final bay of the day, and dropped anchor, as the sun set in the distance (bet your all jealous!). We had spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, and then we started the evening's drinking again (I honestly didn't!) I decided to go for a shower and I prepared myself for the worst, but amazingly, it was one of the best showers I've had out here! I went up on deck about half an hour later, and found everyone playing a game where you have to bend down, pick up a cardboard box with your mouth, and you can't let your hands or knees touch the ground. Well, anyway, it ends up in the losers getting hit round the ass with a cricket bat! As this game went on, the captain put the side light on, and we saw a couple of dolphins swimming round our boat, catching squid that were in the area!!! They stayed for a few hours, and when I went back on deck later in the evening, I saw a sea snake swimup from the depths! One of the members of staff tried to catch it, but it swam too far away from him. He came back over to me and told me it was one of the deadliest snakes in the world!!! We went to bed about 11 after playing a few card games, and left a few drunk people on deck (we were all so tired!)

We got up at 7am again and had the same breakfast, and then went straight out for a snorkel. We got into the sea at about 8am, and spent an hour in the bay. This site was much better than the previous day's site, but my snorkel kept on leaking, so it ruined it for me. However, I did see a huge Mauri Wrasse (about 3feet!) and loads of other small fish. We got back on board and had lunch straight away (?!?) and then set sail for Airlie Beach. We arrived back at about 12pm and went back to Beaches (our hostel) and met up with Joe and Emma (AGAIN!!). We wandered around the town, while explaining our trip in fine detail, and went to get some food. Alex and I had decided that we were bored of pasta, so we bought steak and eggs so we could make an omlette (!!) It didn't turn out well, but it tasted nice anyway. As it was St. Patrick's day, 90% of the tourists were already bladdered! We stayed out in the town until the early hours, and were all pleased to get back into bed.

We woke up quite late and went to the lagoon to find Martin, Emma & Joe all suffering from the night before (lol). Alex and I went to the Laundrette as well (wow!) and did some washing, but mine was still dirty, so I had to do it again. We spent the day chilling in the lagoon; playing frisbee and just messing around. We were all really hungry, so we went to the shop and bought some BBQ food, as they have BBQs dotted around the lagoon. We had steak, burgers, sausages and corn, so we were all really full. We went to bed really early, as we had to be up at 6am, so we said our goodbyes to Joe and Emma (they'll follow us soon...)

We got up and went to the bus stop a bit early, and were all horrified to see a small minubus again (the journey was 11 hours!!) It was pretty quiet, and we stopped off at a few places along the way, but made it to the cattle ranch at about 6pm. On the way, we managed to see kangaroos, emus, and also, a dingo eating a bustard's chicks (Australia's largest flying bird)! And the bustardd was there as well, but if it went closer to the dingo, it too, would have been killed. The driver had never seen a dingo on mainland either (they're usually confined to Fraser Island) The ranch was amazing!!! Its called Kroombit, and is actually a live goat ranch, but they have a small area for the Oz experience people. We got taught how to crack a whip, and also had a go on the mechanical bull! (I only managed about 10 seconds, but was better than quite a few people) We had dinner, which comprised of a meat that we didn't know what it was and pumpkin soup :S but it was really good anyway. We went to bed at about 10:30pm (its sooo early!!)

We got up at 6am, and had breakfast, and then went for a walk up the nearest hill. It was amazing, but I think there was one thing on every sane person's mind at 7am (BED!) We stayed up the top of the hill for a while and all had a go at playing the Digeridoo. Just as we were leaving, the driver spotted a dried up carpet snake, so we all took a few photos (to follow). We got down to the main part of the ranch, and then went up to the rodeo area. We all had to get into groups of 3, and then drag a goat to the special area, get it on the floor, and then "brand" it (not really, but just pretending) We managed to do it in 24 seconds (Alex, Martin and I), but sadly came second, so we didn't get a prize. We left the ranch at about 10:30am, and as we were leaving we spotted a pair of witch-tailed eagles (Australia's largest eagle) and then went on our way again. We stopped loads of times, but I was asleep most of the way, so I didn't really realise it. We arrived in Rainbow Beach at about 7pm, and checked into Dingo's. Its quite nice but the staff seem likes arses!

Tomorrow we're going on the 4x4 tour of Fraser Island for 3 days, so don't expect an update soon!

Mission Beach to Townsville and Magnetic Island and the to Airlie Beach

2008-03-13T01:23:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we checked out on time (almost!) and finished off the remainder of our Muesli and Nutella, then sat around waiting for the bus to come. We had a chat with some other people and then when the Oz Bus finally turned up, we got on it. It was already quite full, but the back row was empty so we filled up from there. The journey down to Townsville was painless, but lasted about 4-5 hours, so we were all bored. We went through a town called Tully, which is the wettest place in the whole of Australia! It has something like 6-7 metres of rain a year, and sometimes even more! Some of the scenery as we got further south was really nice - the rainforest turned steadily drier and there were wide open fields. We spent most of the time on the long straight roads, that never seem to end, but when it did, we'd arrived in Townsville! We still weren't sure if we were going to stay in Townsville or not, but when the driver said it was a sh*thole, I think that made up our minds! We had a few minutes before our ferry to get some food from the supermarket, and then we got on. It was a big catarmaran and was pretty fast and it was good to see the city getting further away, and the tropical island getting closer. It seemed so much hotter when we got to Magnetic Island (and it was about 6pm!), but we'd only really experienced rain. We got the local bus the main backpacker's hostel (called BASE) and were suprised to see how good it was. It had a big pool, and a large open bar area, with a cafe and loads of huts, which followed the coast. Alex and I did the special deal, but Stu and Mike decided to book only 1 night, so they could change their mind later in the day, if they wanted. We got given our keys and we went to our rooms. I was with Alex, and a few other Oz people, so we all knew each other (sort of). We met up with Stu and Mike and went to cook our tea - beans & bacon on toast! It turned out quite well and was really tasty, but we did use about half a kg of bacon! We finished all of our washing up and then went to the bar for a few drinks. It was Happy Hour when we got there so we got a couple of jugs of Tooheys (the main beer they drink out here) and got to know the people in our rooms even more. They're all quality people, so we spent the rest of the night with them. We also saw the Irish couple that were on the same night walk as us in Cape Tribulation, so we had a chat with them. There was such an annoying man trying to organise games as well, but he didn't really know when the best time to do it was, so they didn't turn out to be too successful! The bar shut at 12, so we all stayed there for a bit longer, then we went to bed.

We were woken up at about 09:30 by Stu and Mike who had decided to head down to Airlie Beach earlier than us, so we made our last breakfast together (Stu didn't want to wait, so he spent $14 on a fry-up from the cafe!!) and then said our goodbyes :'( They almost missed the bus, but luckily it was a bit late, so they made it, just. Alex and I spent the rest of the day doing nothing, apart from walking to the shop and the post office. The lady in the PO told us about the Forts Walk, which was a 4km walk, on which you had the chance to see koalas and other wildlife. We thought we night as well, so we went there at about 17:00 and started the walk. It was amazing! We couldn't believe we were still in Australia, as it had changed so much. We spent about an hour walking up to the forts (they were used in WW2 by the Aussies who were defending the area from the Japanese) and then about half an hour walking down. We didn't manage to see any koalas, but we saw a few parakeets and other birds, so we weren't too disappointed. We waited for the bus at the bus stop, but the driver obviously didn't see us, so he drove straight past! It was another hour for the next bus, so we made sure we stood in the road to flag it down. It saw us, just in time and we got on. We got back to the hostel about 20 minutes later and we made our tea as soon as we had time. It consisted of pasta shells in a carbonara sauce, which was nice, but we're getting bored of pasta!!!! I had a long shower and then went out to meet up with Martin, Clare, Alex, Pria & Sunil, and the others (loads more!) The annoying man from the night before was doing his best to organise stupid games, but yet again, he failed! He managed to get a few people in to play musical chairs (if you lose, and want to stay in the game, you have to take off one item of clothing) He was really biased and let a girl win, so she got a free drink from the bar. Oh and we found out the night before, that you save a massive 50 cents on beer in happy hour!!! It doesn't really seem worth having it! We all went to bed after a stop off at the kitchen for some midnight toast, which went down well! I woke up at about 11am and went for some breakfast and then a shower. As I came out, I saw Alex talking to... JOE & EMMA!!! We seem to see them everywhere! They had been staying at the Koala Sanctuary Hostel, but wanted to move closer to the action, so they came to BASE! And they knew they had to see us again! We chilled out (well, not really - it was about 32 degrees!) by the pool and then went to the shop for some lunch. I bought half a watermelon for about 1 pound, so I was happy. Everything is really expensive in Oz. We were shopping the other day, and all the things that are cheap in England, are double the price! Like cans of soup - $2-3 here, which is about £1.30! Loads of other things are like that as well, so they tend to eat up the budget. When we got back from the shops, I realised I was quite burnt, and on the places that see the sun the most! My face, legs and arms had been hit the most, so I started covering myself in aftersun. We spent the rest of the day doing nothing, until it was time for dinner. We wanted to have something different, so we had rice and carbonara sauce. There was sooo much of it, so we didn't go hungry. In the evening there was a quiz on in the bar, so we got a couple of teams together. I was with Joe, Emma, Becky and Franchesca and we did well. We came 2nd after the 1st round, and then stayed in that position until the end. The last round was where 4 members of the team had to make a line using their clothes, and whoever made the longest one won. We came 2nd in that as well, and meant we all stripped down to our boxers, but it secured us 2nd place. We won a free breakfast each, so we were all happy. We went to bed not long after that and woke up at about 9am.

I had a quick shower and then went to claim my prize. We were allowed the Mega Breakfast ($16!!) and it was huge! It took ages to eat it, but when we finally did, we knew we wouldn't have to eat anything for the rest of the day. We got the bus to the ferry port and then made our way back to Townsville. The Oz bus wasn't there when we arrived, but turned up about 10 minutes after. It was good to get on a big coach for once! There were 11 of us on a bus that could fit about 30-40 people! We made our way south and went through a town called Bowen, which was in the middle of nowhere, and then finally got to Airlie Beach. It seems that their idea of a city is nothing like ours - Airlie Beach is a small town along the seafront, but they say it is one of the main "cities"! Weird! We checked into our hostel, which is called Beaches, and it looked really nice. There were big dorm rooms, with en-suite and a fridge, but it was quite expensive. We went for a wander around the "city" and went to Peter Pans (a travel booking office) to look at Whitsunday trips. We came out about 30 minutes later, after spending $500 on a 2day/2night boat trip and a 3day/2night 4x4 safari on Fraser Island. They threw in a couple of extra nights as well, so it seemed like a good deal. On our way back to the hostel, we bumped into Robbie (a guy we met in Mission Beach) and he said that Mike and Stu had left on a boat trip that day, but he didn't know when they'd be back (great!) We had some dinner and then went out for a few drinks. We were given a couple of drinks vouchers with our bookings, so we used them and it turned out to be a cheap night.

We got up at about 11am again, but it took us about an hour to actually get out and do something. We checked into the boat office and paid the final price and then went for a wander around the marina. There were some massive yachts there! We went back to the hostel, and saw... JOE AND EMMA! again! This is becoming a drag just writing about how many times we've seen them! They're in our room as well, but we're checking out tomorrow, so we won't see them for long. We booked the boat tour for tomorrow, and get 2 nights onboard, which should be good.

Look out for the next update when we get back! Should be on Monday or Tuesday!

Cairns,the Rainforest and Mission Beach

2008-03-08T03:05:00.000-08:00

I've got lots to say, but not much time (due to the expensive Internet).

On Tuesday evening, after spending ages in the Internet cafe, we went back to the hostel and then went out to the local club, called "The Wool Shed". This place offered all people staying at Caravella's a free meal, so of course we made the most of it! I had Spag Bol. but we could have upgraded to a steak if we paid a bit more. After the food we went upstairs and had a few drinks. It picked up a bit, but we met a couple called Joe & Emma, who have been stalking us since Koh Phangan!! We saw them on the night boat, then in Kuala Lumpur, then on the plane from Singapore to Cairns!! Pretty scary! We went back to the hostel and cracked open the Jim Beam and played a couple of drinking games then went back to the Wool Shed. It was much more lively when we got there, so we stayed until about 2am then went back to sleep.

We woke up at about 12 (you guessed it - just Alex and I!) and went out for a wander. We went to the big supermarket (called Woolworths!) and stocked up on supplies (mainly Muesli and milk). When we made it back to the hostel Stu and Mike had woken up, so we all decided to go on the internet for a bit. The other 2 went out the side exit so we lost them before we even made it to the cafe! But luckily Alex and I got the cheaper price for the internet. We got back to the hostel at about 7pm (time goes really quickly out here!) and then went straight out to the Wool Shed for our free meal, but I'd already decided to upgrade for $7 to the rump steak and chips (bargain!). It was really good and even better as it was so cheap. We stayed at the Wool Shed and had a chat with a Canadian girl and a Spanish guy, who had been to NZ and Fiji, so they told us all of the good places to go to, which was helpful. We only stayed in the bar, as it was a Wet T-shirt comp, which turned out to be really good!

We made it back to the Kebab place for about 1am, but we met someone we'd seen the day before, so naturally invited them back for drinks. I think we made it to sleep at about 4am, eventhough we had a 7:25am bus journey!

We woke up after what seemed like 10 minutes sleep and packed up our stuff, to get ready for the rainforest. We checked out and were met by a man called Peter, who was our guide for the day. We went to the tour office, and for some reason they charged me $30 too little, so I was happy! We started out on the road to Cape Tribulation, but Peter had doubts about it, because of the vast amount of rain they'd had - i've never seen so much water! The rivers were 2-3 metres above the normal amount, and loads of rivers had burst their banks, but we eventually made it to Mossman Gorge (our 1st stop). Peter said it was usual for people to swim in it, but it would have been suicide to do it! I made a video of it, which i'll post at a later date! We went for a walk around there, before going to a wildlife sanctuary, which had a few big crocs, kangaroos and cassowaries (search it in Google!) It was quite a tame zoo, but it was good all the same. We left there at about 11:30 and there were still heavy rain showers in the area, which gave us more of a doubt about making it up to Cape Trib. We eventually made it to the Daintree (the protected rainforest area) and went on a boardwalk through the rainforest. Just before that though, we saw a Boyd's Forest Dragon, which is one the lizards that runs on it's back legs when scared. Peter spotted it in the road and made it run away, so Alex got some good photos. The boardwalk was really good - we saw fruit bats, archer fish, golden orb spiders, kookaburras and loads more! We got to our accommodation at about 2pm and were glad to be there after the flooded roads. We had to drive through water that was about a foot deep (through a river!) and we also went on the Daintree Ferry, which takes you from one side to the other. PK's was where we were staying and it was quite nice, but we wanted to sleep mainly, so we had about 4 hours there and then. We woke up at about 6pm and got some food, but it was quite expensive, so that put us off a bit. We'd also heard about night walks in the rainforest, which we were all keen to do, so we booked onto it for 19:30. We were picked up a bit late, but the tour guides were real jokers, so it made up for it. They kept on pretending we were going for tours to the sea, then to our hotels...

We made it to their office in the middle of nowhere and were all given torches. They took us out for about 2 hours and we saw more than I expected - loads of frogs, crickets, dragons (Boyd's) and other random bugs. The main man also kept of pranking people by putting fireflies on people's heads and poking them with sticks! We got back at about 10pm and went to bed not long after that (after a couple of games of poker though).

We woke up early and checked out for 09:30, but they said we could stay in our room because of the wait between then and the bus (picking us up at 2pm) Mike, Alex and I went for a walk to the sea, but were joined by Stu not long after. The whole area was flooded and the tide was soooo high! The sea was so rough it was dangerous, but even more so because of the crocs and box jellyfish. We went for another boardwalk after that and saw the same sort of things again including cockatoos, but it ended up in Mike and Alex being in ankle deep water! We were picked up not long after the walk and were taken to an expensive ice cream shop, but it was made out of fruits from the area, so we were all obliged to buy some. It was over priced though, and not too tasty, but we learned from our mistakes! After that we went to the croc river cruise, which was really good! We had a small rain shower while on the boat, but other than that it was sunny. We managed to see a big female croc, and also a small baby (separate places on the river) and also a tree snake and a python! Oh and loads of fruit bats, but they were a bit boring after seeing so many. After the river cruise we went to Port Douglas, which we all wanted to go to. However, we sort of got dropped off at a bar, so... we ended up drinking Guinness in Australia (we seem to be trying it in every continent we've been in!) The bus driver encouraged us, so we had to oblige! We played Connect 4, before realising the chips could be used in poker, so we played a few games after the Connect 4 tournament. We went back to Cairns, and arrived at about 7pm. We checked back into our original room and then got ready to go out, but it took a while. We finally made it out for our free meal by about 9pm, and we had steak again (who could resist the cheap price!?!) and then stayed for a drink. We had all wanted to go to the casino, so we thought that we may as well make the most of the time in Cairns, so we went! It was better than expectec - it was full of gamblers spending so much money, but also winning loads as well. The lights and sounds were crazy! We spent $10 each (apart from me, as I didn't want to lose!) and Stu was the only winner, but he made and extra $20, so he was really happy. We got back to the hostel at about 2am and then went straight to sleep.
I woke up at 6am, but kept pushing the snooze button, but knew I had to be up soon. I got up just after AJ came out of the shower, and we all set off to the Oz Experience office; all tired and sad to be leaving Cairns. We had a few minutes to spare, but the bus was late, so it wasn't too bad. Oh, and we also spotted Leah, who was the winner of the Wet T-Shirt comp. a couple of nights earlier! Was funny to see her with her top on! We made it to the out of town office and sorted out the last bits of paper work and we were on our way! (or so we thought...) We ended up stopping on the way for a walk, and were shown all of the things we'd already seen on the other walks, but was interesting all the same. We went to a place called Devil's Pool, which has claimed about 20 lives in the past few years, and we were told the Aboriginal story to do with the deaths (the reason they say people have died there) We also saw a Stinging Tree, which is particularly nasty - they have thousands of needles which get stuck in you if you brush against it, and they also have toxins in. They stay in you for about 6 months (eve longer) and always cause you pain if you touch them at all, with anything! We'd heard rumours about them, but this was the first time we'd seen them. We got back on the bus and made it to Innesfail and got a Subway for Brunch, and then some supplies from the supermarket. It was getting really annoying, as all we wanted to do was sleep, but we kept on stopping!!! And the driver had the most annoying voice! We then went to a Croc. farm, but we'd already seen most of the things inside, so we just played poker for a while. There was croc just outside in the lake as well, and it was wild! We got to Mission Beach at about 1pm, and checked into our room straight away. They always seem to give us such nice rooms, for so cheap!?! We had a sleep, then went to the supermarket nearby. We got some more supplies, then decided to cook dinner. Mike and I had just made it to the kitchen, and guess who we saw?!? Joe and Emma! AGAIN!! We had a cook-off with them, but we blatently won. We had rice and chicken,. which turned out to be really good, then went out to the "club" in town/village; it was rubbish. There were about 10 people there and it was dead. We just came straight home and then played poker and went to bed.
Today was nice not to have to get up early, but we still made it to the shop by 12pm (apart from Stu!) We got some fruit and AJ got some mince for dinner, then walked back along the beach. It was really nice, but there are too many problems with Jellyfish to even think about going in. We watched a few parachuters come down onto the beach then went back for a swim. We played on the pole across the pool then all realised we were too burnt to carry on! After that we had a few drinks, ate soooo much food (Stu and Alex used 1kg og spaghetti for 4 people, so we had a bit too much!) We then played a couple of card games (involving the loser drinking) and then went to the pub next door. It was good there, as there was a man from Melbourne playing. He played some well know songs, so it was good to sing along.

We're checking out tomorrow and heading down to Townsville, so I don't know when the next update will come.

Chris

Welcome to Oz!

2008-03-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

We've finally made it to Cairns, Australia, and we are all really happy to be here (not that Asia was boring or anything, just that we wanted something more similar to life at home).

We got to the airport a bit late last night (at about 20:45 - the flight was at 22:20, but the gate opened at 21:20!) We made it anyway, and sadly we weren't given loads of compensation to miss the flight; we were told that we were flying on "Jet Star", which is a partner of Qantas (don't know why!!!) It wasn't anything like Qantas at all. We were expecting a 747 with TV's in each seat, a big choice of films, loads of free stuff, but it wasn't to be. It was a much smaller plane (A320) and there were no TV's :( Then we looked at the menu and it said we'd have to pay for food and drink, but luckily it wasn't for international flights. Oh and another thing, it was going via Darwin in North Australia!! It was nice of them to let us know before!
The flight was alright - it was just like the Aussie version of MyTravel or First Choice (short haul). Shame we didn't get the plane we expected! We had to get out at Darwin for about 45 mins while they cleaned the plane and let us have a break (it took about 4hours to get there). Alex and I went for a look in the Duty Free and found a good deal on Jim Beam. We managed to buy two 1.125 litre bottles (2.25 litres) for 25 pounds! We thought it would last us the first night, when we'd get more lol.
We got back on the plane and I went back to sleep again and only woke up when we'd started our descent. The first view of Cairns that we got was a sea of mud (literally!) They've had really heavy rain for the past few days and its washed all of the sediment down into the sea. It was cool to sea, but it made it look a bit like home, with all of the clouds etc.
We got out of the plane and had our passports checked alond with our boarding passes, then we walked to the baggage reclaim point, where there was a sniffer dog checking all of us. We then got to the baggage hall, where another dog was sniffing us. After that one we could finally get our bags, but then we had to put all of our things through an x-ray machine, and we all got bombarded with questions about where we've been, whether we have any wood, plants or fresh food. It was good they were being throrough about it, but they seemed to be taking the p***. It took ages for us to eventually get out, then I bumped into one of my brother's primary school friends! Its such a small world! We had as chat and I found out she was doing a similar thing to us, so we'll probably see her again, along the way. We waited for a taxi that never turned up, so Alex called the hostel, and they told us to get one and they'd reimburse us!! It turns out it was only about 10 minutes down the road, but at least they acknowledged their guests.
We paid about 9 pounds each and then went to our room. It was another dorm, but only for 4 people, so there was no one else in it. All of the staff were so friendly! They gave us loads of advice on things to do in the area and also gave us meal vouchers for a Pub in the area.
This afternoon, Alex and I left the usual people in bed and we went for a an explore. Cairns is really a beautiful city, but would be even better in the sun. Its not very big at all, and you can walk to most places in the area. Tonight we're meant to be going for an explore around the bars (after our Jim Beam!!)

Chris

P.S I've put some more photos up as well, but more will be coming! (the photo uploading almost made us miss the plane!!!)

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/gapyear2008

Singapore, again

2008-03-03T02:32:00.000-08:00

Last night after using the internet for a while, we went to Orchard (the main road in Singapore) and decided to have a special oriental evening: we went to the cinema to watch "Jumper" , which was such a waste of time. It had no story line and was pretty boring, but other than that it was great. Afterwards we went and got some food from the food court near to our hostel. This was actually oriental; we had a mixture of curry and thai food, which was all really good and cheap as well. Then, as Liverpool were playing, all of us wanted to watch the match against Bolton! We went down to Boat Quay and managed to get a few glimpses into the bar windows, but they were all really expensive. Then we saw a riverside restaurant (you know, the type with plastic chairs and table cloths) with a big screen, and a jug of beer for only $16. We sat down and watched the rest of the game and had a couple of jugs. It was a good night to relax, but to soak up the atmosphere as well, in such an alive area. We went back to our hostel at about 23:30 and got in just after 00:00. Its quite annoying being in big dorms, as most of the people were already asleep, so we "tried" to make as little noise as possible.

We woke up (well, Alex and I woke up) in time for a shower before the stupidly early check-out time of 10:00, but Stu and Mike only had time to pack and then leave. But the lady on reception said they could have showers for a $ each. We went to the food court again for breakfast/lunch and then decided that the zoo was our best bet for today. We got on the MRT and arrived at the zoo (after a long bus journey as well) at about 13:00, and went in for a fun packed day. It was really good actually. It had loads of cool animals (not just the type you see at Chessington World of Adventures) including: lions, white tigers, rhinos, leopards, cheetas, jaguars, pygmy hippod etc. We spent most of the day there until we realised we have to be at the airport at about 19:30! I think we're all hoping they'll ask us to go on the next day's flight, so we get compensation and loads of other stuff, but I guess we'll find out a bit later!

By for now, and i'll tell you the next news when we're in sunny Cairns!!!

Singapore

2008-03-02T00:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we're now in Singapore and have been for just over a day, and to be honest, its a lot like London, but a bit hotter, and heavier rain.
Its still really good though, but expensive. It seems like the numbers of things in shops are the same as in Malaysia, which makes them about the same price as things in England :(
Luckily we're only staying here for a couple of nights.

On Friday we went to the station to waste some more time, and managed to get something to eat there. It was horrible. We went for the Fish and Chips, obviously expecting something similar to England, but you guessed it, it wasn't. Alex was safe and went for a spicy noodle thing, which he seemed to like. Anyway, we got on the train at about 8:45 (leaving at 9:15) and went straight to our beds. It was really cool! There were loads of beds along the whole of our carriage, all with lights, windows and curtains (we're missing the basics from home!) We waited for the train to move before deciding what to do; we sat down chatting for a bit, but then decided it was best to get some sleep. We all went to our beds, and just as I was drifting off, the man behind me started playing some rubbishy Bollywood film on his laptop, at the loudest possible volume!?!?!? And then an Asian man started shouting at someone on his phone, but I did eventually get to sleep. I woke up a few times in the night, but other than thoses times, it was a pretty good nights sleep. We were supposed to get into the station at about 08:15, but the announcer said we all had to get off at about 06:55. We all wondered what it was, but then figured out that it must be customs. We were all getting worried by this point, thinking that some of us would have had drugs planted in our bags as we slept, but we all made it through easily. We got back on the train for about another half hour and then arrived into the main station.

We got out into the "fresh" Singapore air, and this city again, felt like Hong Kong. It was a grey day with a cloudy sky, which made us feel really "happy". I think we were all happy that we were going to Australia so soon. We changed up our last notes from Malaysia and Thailand and then went to look for a taxi. A man came up to us, asking if we'd booked anywhere to stay, so we said no. He gave us a big list of hostels (most of which we'd heard of before) and he tried calling some, but they were booked. Anyway, we got in his taxi and then went to Little India, as this is the most hostely area. We went to about 2 or 3 different hostels, but they were all full. We chose to get out anyway, as one hostel said the may have room after they know who was going to check out (it was still before 10am). We had some food for breakfast (a bowl of curry sauce and 3 bits of nan bread - really good!) and then went back to the hostel, but the owner said it was full. We went to an internet cafe after that and Alex found a good hostel a couple of miles away. We jumped in a taxi and luckily it had room. It was called The Sky Orchid I think, but the staff were friendly. The only bad thing was, was that we could only stay there 1 night. It wasn't too bad, as last night's sleep was the most important. Anyway, we dumped our bags and then went into the city centre by MRT (like the MRT in Hong Kong). We got off near the Raffles Hotel, and as Alex wanted to go in so much, we went into the Long Bar and ordered 2 Singapore Slings (at 10 pounds each!!!) I thought I was being clever when I ordered a bottle of water, but that cost just over 5 pounds. So we tried to eat as many peanuts as we could, and I think we succeeded! We left there feeling slightly ripped off, but it was "the top thing to do in Singapore", apparently.
We then went for a wander around the rest of the area, but by this time we were all really tired. We went into a mall to find some toilets, but ended up going through the department store, and seeing all of the cool gadgets they have over here. We saw a TV that was 103 inches! It was huge! Then one of the workers let us have a go in all of the massaging chairs (I think we slightly took the piss, as we stayed there for almost an hour, but it was fun nonetheless.

We then went to the 7-Eleven and had some food, and then decided we would go to the cinema, but there was nothing good on. We then spent the next hour thinking of things to do, none of which turned into anything. We got back to the hostel at about 8, and Stu and I fell straight asleep. Mike and Alex went clubbing and got back at about 3am, but Stuart and I slept for the whole night. It sounds as thought they had a good time, but they spent quite a bit.
Today, we managed to find somewhere else to stay, but we have wasted the day, really, as we've done nothing productive.

BRING ON AUSTRALIA!!!

Stu's Birthday Video

2008-02-29T02:17:00.000-08:00

HAHA here is the video. I've got loads more from other places, but this is the best and funniest by far!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ4j61yK40E

Kuala Lumpur

2008-02-29T01:19:00.000-08:00

Well, we've only been here about 36 hours, and we're already about to leave. We're going down to Singapore on the night train (it takes about 10 hours, but we have beds). We should get there just after 08:00, then we'll need to find a hostel.

Anyway, yesterday, we did go out around town, and we obviously saw the Petronas Towers (tallest twin towers in the world!) but it was too late to go up them. After wandering around there for a while we went to the tourist info centre, as we needed to find out how to get down to Singapore in one go. They suggested the train and a bus, but the bus was more expensive (just with seats?!) We wanted to try and get it booked during the night as it would save on accommodation, so we went to the main train station (about 6 stops on the monorail) and managed to book it for just 40 ringgits! (which is about 6.5 quid!) We wandered around the train sation for a bit, but then realised we were wasting our time, as there was nothing to do there at all! We came back to the hostel and all spent about 1-2 hours on the PC and then went out. We actually made it out at about 11pm, and just managed to make it to TGI Friday's by half past (last orders). We were all going to have the smallest meal, but as usual we all went for the 3 courses for about 6 pounds. Ohh and we also pretended it was Stu's birthday, so they sang him an embarrassing song and gave him balloons and chocolate cake! I'll post the video up on YouTube when I have time. We ate so much and got back to the hostel at about 1am. I got up at just after 8 (same with Alex) as we wanted to go to the Petronas Towers (you have to get your tickets early, as it gets fully booked really quickly) Ours were given out for 11:30, so we went for a walk around the park and then came back to the hostel. Stu and Mike were still in bed at this point (as usual!). We went back out a bit late, and we went the wrong way, so we missed out time slot, but they let us in for the next one, which was good of them. We had to go throught the same security checks as they have in an airport, and then got in a lift to the 41st floor (only halfway, as tourists aren't allowed to the top, but still at 150 metres) and got out onto the Skybridge. We spent about 10 minutes there before we were asked to go back down. It was really cool, but the view was quite restricted. We then went to the KL Tower, where we thought we'd meet Mike and Stu, but as we were too late, they'd already gone. We went up the top (to about 270 metres) so we could see a lot more. This time we had to pay, but it was only about 3 pounds (and we got a free pencil - woohoo...) We stayed up there for about half an hour and then went to get some typical Malaysian food - KFC!!! it was better than in England and about a tenth of the price, so we win both ways!
Now we're just waiting to go to the train station, as we have about 2 hours to kill!
I'm a bit aprehensive about Singapore, as we were looking at some of the laws earlier, and you get the death sentence for drug dealing (people could easily plant drugs on us while we sleep), a big fine for littering, selling chewing gum (I have eaten a whole pack today!) and not flushing a public toilet (wierd!)
You will all find out if we made it by my next installment of this blog.

Oh, and sorry for any earlier confusion, when I mentioned the Shroom Bar, but none of us have taken any.

Chris

Some Photos from Thailand

2008-02-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

Its hard to upload photos onto Picaso, so I thought i'd put a few up here.

Kohsan Road, Bangkok, Thailand
Golden Mountain Buddha, Bangkok
Haad Son, Koh Phangan, Thailand
Half Moon Party, Ban Tai, Koh Phangan
Haad Son Beach Resort (Our Room!)

Haad Salad, Koh Phangan

Stu with his T-shirt underwear

A guy with a fire stick thing

The Villa!!!!

Sunset from Thong Yang beach
Us on the way to Thong Sala on our last day

Our last night in Koh Phangan and the journey to Kuala Lumpur

2008-02-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

On our last night in Koh Phangan we went to Haad Rin beach for old times sake, but we didn't have anything to drink (well, I didn't). We just sat on the beach (which was a state from the night before) We watched a couple of the Thai guys do fire poi, then decided to head to the other beach in Haad Rin, but as the tide was too far in, we couldn't actually get to it!!! We got a taxi back to our place and played a few games of poker, before going to bed.

We got up at bout 12 and had another big breakfast, which consisted of French Toast and Muesli (again!) The owner of the Bungalow said he didn't mind what time we checked out, as our room was not in use for another couple of days, so we didn't bother packing much up. We went with Tom, Jane and Polly to Thong Sala as they were heading off to Koh Tao to do some diving and to relax more (?!?) We wondered around the town for a bit then realised that we had to fix the bed! (a few nights before, I think 5 people were on it, and the side beam went "snap". It didn't look very good afterwards, as there were quite a few bits of wood dangling down!!) We managed to find some Gaffer tape and made a good job of it, but we hope the next set of guests don't break it too soon! We finished the bed, and then went for one last swim in the sea, before getting some more food to eat at the Blue Lotus (our new Absolute Restaurant!) I ate soooo much, but I knew we wouldn't get the chance to have much on the boat and bus later on in the day. We got back to the bungalow at about 7pm and had our last showers (which weren't too hot, as there was a power cut!) I handed in the key to the owner's wife/chef/cleaner... and then we went to wait for our taxi - What could be simpler?????

I thought I wouldn't have much to write about one simple bus journey, but...

Well, we were supposed to get a taxi transfer included in out ticket price, but as we experienced earlier on in the day with Tom, Jane and Polly, they were not very reliable. We waited, and waited, and waited until about 9pm (it was supposed to arrive at 8pm!!) so we thought we might as well get our own one, and stop off at the travel agent to have a go at the lady, but the amazing people from our bungalow offered us a lift to the port, as they were heading up that way! (this made us feel even more guilty about the bed!?!) He said it was no problem to take us so we thought we might as well make the most of it. Things were made worse, by the fact that he didn't want any money off us! Anyway, we said goodbye to him and got our tickets for the boat (a big sleeper boat) We all had bed numbers that were around 110, but after a couple of checks around the boat, we found there were only 90 beds (1st problem). We tried to ask someone, but they kept on ushering us away or telling us to go to see someone else. We finally gave in and sat down by the door, and prepared for a 6 hour trip (we thought it would be a 1-2 hour crossing...???) We fell asleep pretty quickly and woke up just in time for docking at Surat Thani in Thailand. We found a man telling us that our minibus was waiting so we just went over to it, to find it was full. Another cam within a couple of minutes, so we got into it. It took us to the travel agent's office, and the moody lady told us that the bus wasn't for another hour and a hlaf (it was at 6am and it was 4.30am) We sat in the office, wasting away the time until 6am finally came. We got into the pickup truck(!!) and were worried it would be taking us all the way to Kuala Lumpur, but 2 minutes down the road we stopped off at another travel agents and were told the real bus would arrive in about 10-15 minutes (good... we thought) While we were waiting, we were told to go into the office and show our passports. They then tried to con us, saying that we need 300RM (Malaysian Ringgits) to enter Malaysia and they gave us a crappy exchange rate (3RM to the pound, instead of 6!!!) Luckily I already had them, so she seemed pretty p*ssed off with me lol. But she told some random Thai guy to take Alex, Mike and Stu to a cash machine. On the way they realised she was trying to con us and refused to withdraw any money. They told her they didn't need any money and she just laughed and said we'd need to get a taxi into the town. We finally got onto a bus (a minibus!!) and asked the driver if it was going all the way to KL, which he said "yes". He then drove us to a rough part of the town, and we sat there between a shanty part of the area. I honestly thought we would be ambushed by his friends. But actually he was just waiting for his wife (I think) We carried along the main road, until after about 10 minutes we picked up two Norwegian girls, who were really nice, but seemed to have the same sort of problems as us. Then we thought we were on our way! - NO. We stopped off at a university and picked up 5 muslim girls, and I was forced to move seats by the driver, so they could sit together! Anyway, we put the problems aside and we got on our way. We made it all the way down to Haad/Hat Yai, when one of the girls had to get a train. I was forced out of the minibus to let her out, but then I got back in; to the crampt, over airconditioned bus. Oh and also he had a massive subwoofer in the back, which was pretty much full, and he was playing some rubbishy Thai rock! I had to turn my iPod up full, and I could still hear it!!!!! We drove around the streets of Hat Yai until we got to another travel agents, and we were ushered out of the bus and told to wait for another one! This was turning out to be a shambles! We exchanged words of anger with some other tourists, who had been treated in a similar way, and then finally got on another bus!!! The passengers on this one were all heading in the same sort of direction (Butterworth/Penang/KL/Singapore), so we thought we had finally made it! We crossed over the boarder, which had a really tight security area, so we had to keep on jumping out of the bus to get passports stamped, then checked, then we had to get our bags screened, but I suppose its better to be safe than sorry. It already felt so much hotter at the boarder than we had ever felt in Thailand, but we were much closer to the equator.
Anyway, back to the story. We continued along the motorways of Malaysia for another 4 hours and got to Butterworth at about 4.30pm local time. This was the biggest shock. Ready...????
Our driver had said we'd missed our bus by 20mins! WTF!? He then got into the minibus and drove off to take the people to Penang! There were 7 of us, left standing outside a dingy travel office, where we were told we could leave our bags. We took them up on their offer, as it was soo hot. The next bus wasn't until 10pm! We all conteplated on what to do, and decided food was best. The Norwegian lady, and the English couple went to a restaurant nearby (over the dual carriage way!) and we went to change our Thai Baht to Ringgints. We found the Norwegian lady sitting in the restaurant with a Malaysian lady, and they invited us to join them. It turns out that the Thai lady was the owner of the restaurant and she was really sympathetic. She gave us some chicken and rice, and then offered us the use of her bed and shower!! We didn't want to intrude too much, so we went to the 7 Eleven to get some water and snacks (for the bus, if it ever came!) After this we went back to the restaurant and asked if we could use her shower (its really, really hot!) We were led to a small room with a matress on the floor and shown the bathroom. I tried to use the shower, but ended up spraying water all over the place (there was one main control tap, that I turned on, but there were about 5 other taps it controlled. They all started spraying our water!) I gave up after wetting my hair (and the floor) and just went for a lie down in the room. Stu and Mike fell asleep, but Alex and I just sat there. The time passed quite quickly, and at 8pm we were about to leave, when a Makaysian boy came in. We thought he was going to ask us to leave, but actually his Mum (the restaurant owner) had asked him to go and take us out for dinner! We got in his car and talked to him about Butterworth and KL (he went to college there) He took us to the beach area and bought us all chicken and rice (again) and he paid for the whole thing! He even got us a bit plate of chicken satays to share as well! This certainly made up for the shambles of the bus journey. He gave us a lift to the bus station/travel agents where there were 3 big, air conditioned coaches waiting!! (Wooooo!) We said goodbye and thanked him again, and he went home. Its so cool that people are like that in such a bad area of town (Butterworth is apparently full of offices, so no tourists ever go there). We got our bus tickets, and found we had the 4 seats on the back row, which was even better! The only problem with this bus, was that the staff were really unhelpful. The bags didn't all fit in, so they pulled them alll out and told us to pack it for them!! By this time it had been 25 hours since we'd left our bungalow, so we didn't want to argue. I fell asleep for most of the journey (the seats reclined really far; almost like bed!), and woke up when we got into Kuala Lumpur. We got off the coach, to find ourselves in a place that was very much like Hong Kong (not what we really wanted!) Alex had been given a few names of hostels that his friends had given him, so he went to an internet cafe to find out where they were. This left Stu and I on the side of the road with loads of bags, and lots of strange people, offering us cheap taxis and cheap hotels. But by now we were used to declining any offers from people like that. After about 15 minutes, AJ and Mike came back and had addresses for 2 hostels. We jumped into a taxi and got dropped off at the first one. We rung the doorbell, but were told that it was too full, so we tried the next one. However, this was harder to find. The owner of the 1st place said it was "just around the corner", so we decided to walk. We made a few wrong turnings, but asked a few locals, who directed us to the hostel (Trekker Lodge)
We made it in and were shown to a small dorm with 2 other people in. I think we fell alseep almost straight away, and it seemed like no time before Alex had woken me up to go and get some breakfast (included in the price!) It turned out to be toast and jam, but it was still really good. Stu and Mike went to bed after that, and they're still there, but Alex and I came to use the internet (also included in the price!) We're probablt going to see the Petronas Towers this afternoon, but we'll leave tomorrow to go up them, as they shut the doors at about 11am!

I thought it was a lot like Hong Kong, which wasn't a really enjoyable city, but everyone here is really friendly, so hopefully it willl be much better!

Koh Samui and the FMP

2008-02-25T03:03:00.000-08:00

So, we're now back on Koh Phangan, and its the afternoon after the FMP. So here it goes...
On Saturday night we went to the hotel in Koh Samui to meet Paul. It was relly nice! The reception staff bowed at us and took us to the room the wedding reception was in. We stood outside chatting to a couple of people we met in Hong Kong for a few minutes, until they said we should go in and get a drink (free bar!!). We wandered around the linedancers and just ordered our drink, when the bride came over and said "before you get your drinks, this is not a public party!" This shocked us a bit, as we thought we'd be welcome, but evidently not! We told her that we knew Paul, and she had no idea who he was, but she went away anyway. About 2 minutes later, a lady came over and said "Oh, I didn't see you at the wedding. Who do you know???" This was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth! In the end Paul came in (after hiding outside to get out of the linedancing!!!) but only after another 2 people asked who we were. The rest of the evening went well and we left the hotel for the villa at about half 1.
We got there and had a few drinks, only to find it wasn't the one we were staying in! But it was very posh all the same! We got a taxi to Paul's place at about 3am and were stunned! It was a massive villa, with a huge pool and a garden that went straight onto the beach. We had quite a few beers and then all went for a swim in the pool and then the sea. I've no idea what time we went to sleep, but the beds were sooo soft. We woke up at about 12pm and Paul said we could have breakfast. We walked down to the pool area and the table was laden in food. There was a chef behind us who cooked us all bacon and eggs as well. This was certainly living! We ate loads and then went out to go to the waterfall nearby, and ended up doing some elephant trekking, whichis something i've always wanted to do. It was really bumpy, but we felt more sorry for the elephants being chained to the trees when not in use. Mike also made friends with a monkey he called Leonard!! We went for a walk up to the waterfall after the trekking, and then saw there was another path that took you up to the top of it, so we thought we might as well. I think we all regretted it as soon as we were halfway up, as it was so steep and slippery, we all thought we'd die! We made it to the top after about 45 minutes and stood up there for a while until we realised it was 3.30 and the BBQ started at 4!! We tried to race down (as quickly as we could) and got caught in a downpour, which soaked us all, but it was kind of refreshing. We got a taxi back to the villa and I had the best shower i've ever had! We asked the maids to dry our clothes, but they actually washed them for us, which was even better! We had a few more beers, until the speedboat arrived on the beach. It was raining when we got in, but as soon as we set off it seemed to stop. We had a few more beers on the boat journey (which took about and hour) We laned on the other side of Haad Rin (it has 2 beaches and we got off on the sunset beach rather than the sunrise) We bought Paul a bucket to say thank you (not the normal size bucket, but one that had a litre of whiskey in!!) He seemed greatful, but then poured about 3 pots of rave paint on me, but it made me look cool in the UV lights! When we got on the beach, I was shocked at how many people were actually there! There must have been at least 15,000 along the main part, then another few thousand in the town. The whole atmosphere was the thing that made it so special. There was really loud music everywhere and loads of ravers just drinking the night away. We went to the bar on the side of the hill for a few drinks then went down to the Drop In (it took us about an hour to make it 500meters as it was so packed!) The rest of the night was a blur, apart from when two people from the group had their bags stolen. Luckily only cigarettes and some clothes were in them, but the person that did it was very quick.

I can't really remeber the time I got home, but I woke up at about 2pm and had a big bowl of muesli and some toast which was such a good "morning after" meal.
We're leaving Koh Phangan tomorrow to go to Malaysia, so I won't be able to update this until Wednesday or Thursday (but I doubt a 20 hour bus journey will have that many things for me to talk about!)

Chilling in Heaven!

2008-02-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

This place is amazing! I've lost track of what day it is, so if this seems a bit muddled, don't blame me!
On Thursday after the internet we walked along the beach, but got held up when we met Polly, so we all just sat on a rock chatting, while watching the sunset - really romantic! In the evening we down to Haad Rin again. It was just as crazy as the night before. We went up to the bars at the end of the beach (the ones that sell Shroom Shakes) and sat there for a while, just soaking up the atmosphere of the thousand ravers below us. Alex kept of falling asleep, so we thought we'd go and have a rave as well. The music seemed to change him!! He was going mad! We stayed in the freestyle trancey/techno area which is so much better than at the Drop In Bar (its basically Liquid music, but on the beach) We stayed there until about 4/5 again and then went back to our accommodation. We left Tom on the beach, as he seemed to disappear lol.

On Friday we got up late again and then wandered along the beach to the Blue Lotus Bungalows and had lunch again (well it was more like our breakfast/lunch thing, oh its not Brunch if thats what your thinking!) We went around asking loads of people about the FMP, and everyone said it had definately been moved to Sunday, which is not a problem for us, but there were loads of people that are now going to miss it! Its because of the election I think. And there were also rumours that there was going to be no alcohol on the beach (not a problem for me as I don't drink...ahem) After lunchy thing, we went to the internet cafe again (we seem to live in them!) and also booked our ticket to get down to Kuala Lumpur. We were just about to get a taxi back, when we all suddenly realised we were starving, and that there was a BBQ buffet just across the road. We had to try it! But it turned out to be a bit different. It was one of the places that you have to cook your own food on the pan in the middle of the table (food poisoning country!). We all made sure our chicken was cooked to a crisp before we ate it, but it was a laugh! It was so cheap as well! Only 99 baht each (so about 1.50 quid!) We got a taxi back to our place to find Tom wondering where we were (we said we'd be about an hour, but it turned out to be about 5!!) Oh before we went back we went to the 7 11 (the biggest chain store) to by some drinks, but they weren't selling any!!! NOOOOOOOO!!! But a smaller shop sold us some, so we were happy. I think a litre of whiskey was 2 pounds lol. We played some drinking games and then went to the beach. It was bad. No music and no bars were open. But luckily they had the stalls selling the whiskey buckets!! After a few of them we played some more games, which comprised of Alex singing to some random people, and Stu sticking a straw down someone's builder's bum!! They all laughed it off, so it was good. Then the big event of the evening happened: 2 Aussies started shouting for help, so we thought we would. Then we all got surrounded by about 8 Thai guys with "knives" (I think one had a pen, but that was it) They were saying that the Aussies owed them 1000 baht for breaking a chair, and we just got caught up in it. They seemed to realise it, but we didn't want anything to happen to anyone. We managed to calm them all down, while more Thai men sourrouned us. It ended in the Aussies agreeing to pay them later on Today. It was pretty cool, as they were really threatening towards us, until I stood up in one of their faces - he just took a big step back and told me to not do anything (I think he was scared about my size lol)
We also met Sam Peers on the beach as well, which was a bit surreal!

We woke up today at about 12 again, but didn't go out until 4, which is when we were going to use the internet. We got a taxi to Ban Tai and were sitting in the cafe, just emailing etc until we realised we had to get a boat to Koh Samui to meet Paul again. We knew about it earlier in the day, but we wanted to know the times of the ferries. We asked the lady and she said the last one was at 17:30 (and the time was 16:45!!!!) We aren't meeting Paul until 10pm, but it meant we had to go then! We ran out of the cafe and raced back to our place to get a change of clothes and then went to the Pier. It was such a rush but we managed to get there in time for the last one.

Now we're going to a really posh hotel to meet up with him and his friends (it was his mates wedding and we're going to have a few drinks) then we're going to his villa (which has an onsite chef and butler service!!!) to stay over, then have a BBQ and then go to the FMP on a private boat!!!!! WOW!!! I'll update this after the FMP, but don't expect much from me, as it lasts for 24hours and there will be loads of alcohol!!

The move from Haad Son to Thong Yang

2008-02-20T23:36:00.000-08:00

On Monday evening we went to our usual place for dinner (the Absolute Restaurant) with each of our bills coming in at about 3 pounds lol and that was with a beer and two courses!!!!
After that, Alex, Mike and myself went to watch some Thai boxing in the main town of Thong Sala, and it was amazing!! There were 8 fights in total and I think 3 of them were K.O's! There was also a fight between 10 year olds! It all seems a bit strange to let people kick you in the face!
On Tuesday we had to get up a bit earlier, as we needed to check out by half 11. We went to our favourite place again for lunch and had a couple of games of pool, which they gave to us for free as we were such loyal customers! This end of the island is really nice if you want to relax in the sun all day and do nothing (which is what we did for the 1st week!) but down at Haad Rin, the night life is so much better, so thats why we wanted a change. We got a taxi down to our accommodation (which isn't the best i've been in) but we want to spend as little time as possible in it! We had dinner at our bungalow restaurant, which consisted of one lady in the kitchen who couldn't speak a word of English. They hardly had anything on the menu, but after about 45 minutes we'd all had our food. In the evening we went to the Jungle Experience which we thought would be like the Half Moon, but it turned out to be much smaller, so therefore not as good. I think we all fell asleep by about 3am, so we just got a taxi back not long afterwards.
Yesterday we stayed in bed for quite a while again (some people had hangovers, so they had to "recover") We went down to a restaurant on the beach that had internet, which was painfully slow, and it couldn't even access Hotmail, but the food was really good. We wandered back along the beach to our bungalow, stopping lots of times along the way to take some photos, so it took us about an hour! We then got ready to go out and headed off into Haad Son. We were meant to walk through the town looking for a place to eat, but the first place we saw had Family Guy on the TV, so that kind of persuaded us to go there. After another meal consisting of mainly rice and noodles, we went on to the beach, which was already alive with music and people. It was crazy! There were a few thousand people drinking the buckets and dancing all over the place, just a few metres away from the sea - the ultimate party place! And it wasn't even the Full Moon Night!! We got back to our place at about 5am and then went straight to sleep.
We all woke up at about 12 and got some food from the amazingly quick place (I just got toast to be safe!) and then Alex and I came to the internet cafe! We're all a bit worried as there is a rumour going around saying that the FMP has been changed to the 24th instead of the 22nd (tomorrow) I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

Koh Phangan

2008-02-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

On Saturday we went down to Haad Rin, which is the beach that holds the famous Full Moon Party. We had a wonder around the town, and saw that some shops were selling the buckets for on 120 baht! It looks like the FMP will be a cheap night. On the way back we stopped off at a hostel, which said they had room for us over the FM period, so we booked 5 nights there. I didn't actually go in, so we're relying on Alex and Tom! We got back about 9 and then went for a meal, but unfortunaltely it wasn't at our favourite place, as it was shut :( so we just went to one nearby, which was still as cheap. We watched the Liverpool match as well, which I won't talk about anymore...
On Sunday we did nothing in the morning, but in the afternoon, Alex and I walked to the beach next to ours, which is called Haad Salad, to go snorkelling. It was amazing!! There's a reef about 100m out, and we saw loads of fish. I saw a puffer fish, a few angelfish, parrotfish and other ones. It was such a cool snorkel spot. We had some lunch/dinner there and then had a chat with some of the locals, who played us some music on their wierd instruments, and then we played football with them. We walked back to out bay, and got grabbed by a lady at her restaurant, so we had another meal, which was good, but a bit more expensive. After that we went to our private beach and just sat there while Tom and Mike went for a swim. We went back to the room and fel asleep almost straight away, meanwhile, Stu made some underpants out of a T-shirt because he's run out of clean ones!!!!!!!
Today Tom, Mike and Alex went for a workout on the beach, which made Tom puke in front of some Irish girls we met last night!! HAHAHA!

Bangkok to Koh Phangan

2008-02-15T07:20:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update of what we've done over the past few days:
We went out to a club on Tuesday, but you have to be over 20 for the clubs in Thailand, so we got rejected, apart from Stu and Mike who decided to jump over the fence to get in! Luckily they didn't get caught, because they'd probably have been shot! On Wednesday, we packed up and got some washing done, as its so cheap! I've eaten so much in Thailand as well! As everything is so cheap compared to everywhere else i've ever been to. We had our last meal in the hostel and said goodbye to people (especially Jenny, the receptionist, who we still don't know if he/she is male or female!) We got the bus down to Chumphon which took about 9 hours, but we all slept on it, which made it go quicker. We then got on the ferry which took us to Koh Phangan, via Koh Tao, which looked amazing! We were bombarded as soon as we got off the ferry by tour reps, all trying to get us to stay at their hotels. We finally chose a hotel, which was only 6-7 pounds a night! When we arrived there it was like paradise! There was a long private beach, just for us, and all of the staff we so friendly. We dumped our stuff in the room and then went for a swim in the sea, which wasn't too warm, but it seemed better because of the atmosphere. We all thought that we were going to be charged stupid amounts for the hotel, as its such a nice place, but no extra charges yet! We went to bed for a couple of hours after the swim and woke up at about 6 then we al went to explore the beach next to ours. In the evening we went to the Half Moon Party in prearation for the Full Moon Party next week, and it was mad! So many people in a secluded wood, all raving! We left there at about 7am and went back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Today we just slept and ate more food, which is always the best! I bought a snorkel yesterday, so I got to use that for the first time. Anyway, i've got to go now, as there are some foreign people next to me that want to use the computer!
Chris

Slideshow!

2008-02-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

Hong Kong - Chris' Photos

Here is the link to my slideshow/album from Hong Kong.

Just some Photos from Hong Kong

2008-02-11T23:55:00.000-08:00

Thought i'd upload some of my photos. There aren't going to be many, as it takes ages, but i'll give you and idea of what it was like!

The top one is of Mike,Stu and Alex with a Guinness at Heathrow,

The 2nd is at Wanchai Market,

The 3rd is of the IFC 2 Building

The 4th is of Paul, Mike andAlex

The 5th is of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon

Chinese New Year and to Bangkok

2008-02-09T23:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I did say there would be a fireworks display, and there was one - the biggest one ever!!!! It lasted about 20 minutes, and they were launched from 4 barges in the harbour, so basically Brockham x 4!

On Friday we actually managed to get up relatively early (10am) and we went up to the Peak to have a look at the view of Hong Kong. The main way to get up in by the tram, which is apparently the steepest tram in the world (about 45 degrees!) Anyway, we made our way up there and spent a while looking at Hong Kong, but it was too hazy to see all of the detail. We got some lunch up there (Burger King) and it cost about 3 pounds! And guess how much it cost to "Go Large"?? $2!! which is about 17 pence! We stayed up there after that and just played on a random EA Games area, which had loads of X-Boxes, PS3s etc. We walked down from the top, as the queue was massive to get back down on the tram. It was pretty good actually, as we managed to find a cool path that took us through the mafia country. We were going to go back to the hostel before the fireworks, but it was already packed on the Avenue of Stars (the best place to watch the fireworks from) so we just tried to go straight there. When we got there, it was cordoned off by police (they always like to stop people getting to the best viewing areas!?!) but Stu managed to lie to one of the policemen, by saying that our parents were in there and we were supposed to be meeting up with them lol. We sat around waiting for the fireworks for about 2 hours, but it was worth it!!! See photos and videos for details!

On Saturday, Alex and Mike split up from me and Stu, as they wanted to go to an island called Lantau really early on in the day. We got up at about 1pm and went to an island called Lamma, which was such a contrast to all of the skyscrapers and people. It was a small island with a good touristy town and quite a few walking paths. The weather was amazing as well! We just went for a wander around the island, before getting the ferry back to Central, and then got the MTR back to Mongkok. As the rugby was on, we thought we had to go out and watch it in a typical Hong Kong bar - The Dublin Jack (Irish Bar!!) We met up with Paul there as well and started the drinking. This was at about 11pm, and we were supposed to be at the aiport at 6am! We had a number of pints before moving onto another couple of bars, and then to Fenwicks for some final drinking. Stu got ao drunk (I think to numb the pain of losing to France in the rugby) We didn't get back to the hostel until about 04:30 and we still had to pack. I got to sleep at about 05:00, and got up at 05:45. We finished off out Frosties (which I ate out of a glass again!) and then got a taxi to the airport. We managed to get to the check-in at just before 7, so we had plenty of time. However, we got to the lady, who told us that the flight was too full (oh yeh) and that they were looking for people to volunteer to go on a later Thai Airways flight. We thought we might as well, as she said we'd get $500 HK dollars and loads of other free stuff (breakfast voucher, free upgrade on our next Cathay Pacific flight...) We had breakfast and went back to Betina Kong (the lady lol) and she said that there were enough seats for us anyway (damn!)

The flight was pretty good; had our second breakfast and watched a few TV progs (its was only just over 2hrs, so no time for any film) We arrived in Bangkok all tried, and guess who was at the airport? Tom Ford!! He'd come down from the North to meet us. He took us to a nice hostel called Thai Cozy, which is in the centre of the party area and was cheap. For the rest of the day we just had a wonder round the markets (which sold all the usual - tasers, throwing stars, bongs...) In the evening Tom took us out for a few rounds of the infamous buckets, which are basically pure whiskey! Alex had a bit too much whiskey to say the least, and he managed to see his food again. The same happened with Mike as well, which means the night was a good one!

On Monday we got up at about 11 and had our free fry up which was a nice treat.We then went to the Golden Mountain, which is a big temple in the centre of Bangkok. It had loads of gold statues of Buddha and a massive gold thing on top lol. Pretty interesting to see. We walked back to our road, stopping off to buy noodles and melon from some of the sellers in the street, oh and a fresh smoothie from a bar. We went out again in the evening, but much later, as we only managed to make it to about 23:30 before falling alseep the night before. We went to a rooftop bar and had a bottle of whiskey between 5 of us, so all was good! We got back into the hostel at about 04:00 and went straight to bed. I had to get up early today just for the free breakfast, so now i'm tired and I know i'm going to pay for it later!!!! We're not doing much else today, just chilling around the hostel and Kaosan road, but will definately go out tonight.
Bye for now!

Hong Kong

2008-02-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

So, we've been here in Hong Kong for 4 days, and its not really what I expected. We're staying in Kowloon on Man Fuk Road (haha!) and its so busy. We landed at about 08:05 on Monday 4th Feb and came through customs pretty quickly. Then it all daunted on me - we were in Hong Kong and our gap year had started, and we had no clue what to do to get to the hostel. We managed to find a customer service desk and asked the lady who told us to go to the certain platform and just change once, which wasn't too bad. We got to the hostel at about 10:00 and realised that we weren't allowed to check in until 14:00, but they let us anyway.
We went out to explore Kowloon, and the market areas, which were interesting to say the least. Some of the smells coming from the stands and shops are overpowering! We walked about 2 miles down to the harbourside, which was kind of a mistake, due to our severe jet lag - we regretted it on the way back! We got back to the hostel, and just collapsed with exhaustion and all of us fell asleep. We got up at around 22:00 and went out, expecting it to be dead (it was a Monday night!) but it was far from it. So many people were wandering the streets going into all the restaurants and shops.
On Tuesday (5th February) we went to explore Hong Kong island, which was so cool! We went to a place called Wanchai and walked round all the markets (not Redhill style, but with live animals being killed there and then for you!). We managed to use the tram system which they have, so that took us to and from Wanchai and Central (the central part of HK) We had no idea where to go so we asked a local, and they suggested the Escalator. Its the longest one in the world, so we gave that a go. Its not really what it made out to be. I thought it would be one continuous one, but its actually made up of loads of different ones, but still a good experience anyway. We stopped off at a bar on the way down and had a Guinness, which was much desired. We then had a wonder around the CBD area of HK, where there are the massive skyscrapers, including the IFC 2, which is maaasssiiivvve!!!
Yesterday (6th Feb) we got up quite late and just went to Hong Kong to meet up with Paul (someone that used to live in the same road as me at home). He took us to Lan Kwai Fong and to a bar called Dublin Jack's, which obviously sold Guinness, so we were obliged in drinking a couple of pints there! The same happened at another bar, then we headed for a Moroccan restaurant just a few minutes away from Lan Kwai Fong. We had loads of food (and more drinks!) and then went to a bar/club called Fenwicks. This place was such a contrast to all of the English bars! They had a live band that played classic rock, then a DJ played D&B during the breaks they had. After a few more beers, Paul left and we were alone again. It was a blur getting into the taxi, because of how tired I was (ahem). We all fell alseep straight away, and didn't get up until 16:00! What a waste of a day? It was worth it. We got some food from the local supermarket and took it back to the room to eat. Stu bought eggs for some reason, but we had no way to cook them, but we also had a kettle... Get where i'm going? They were pretty good actually. After the egg sandwhiches we went down to the main road that the parade was going to be on, to find thousands and thousands of people already there. We just wondered around aimlessly until we thought we had found a good spot. After standing there for about 20 mins, we asked a policeman if the parade actually came by, and he said no! Here we were standing on a road that was about 50metres away from the parade roads. WTF!? In the end we just found an entrance to the MTR, which took us right next to the main road, so we just stayed there. It wasn't the best spot, but we could still see all of the floats. We've just been out for a meal and I had some weird chicken and mushroom thing, which wasn't really that special, but only cost 3quid.
Anyway, its 00:30 now and we're about to go wandering the streets again. Tomorrow (actually today) there is going to be the massive fireworks display, so keep looking out for photos and more posts!

Chris

2008-01-27T13:48:00.000-08:00

So, only a week to go, and i've still got quite a lot to do. Got stuff to buy people to see etc. I still don't know if i'll have it all done in time, but I hope I will. This photo is just one that was taken before the ball last year, and shows all the guys going.

New Blog

2008-01-22T03:08:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I thought i'd make a blog just for me. This is just going to be used so I can update you all about what i'm doing while i'm away.