We arrived in Taupo with Amy having a skydive booked. Aaaah! We didn't think it was going to go ahead, however, as it was very cloudy, and apparently it has to be really clear with perfect weather to be able to do it. Fortunately it had cleared by mid-afternoon and the bus came to pick us both up. We were briefed on the different heights of jump (Amy opted for the 'smaller' 12000ft) and the various photo ops. In the end we decided to get photos and a dvd, meaning another man with a camera on his head would have to skydive at the same time. After meeting the tandem master (the guy I would be strapped to) and getting changed, I got on the plane. A very small plane where I was sitting on the ... read more

We really liked Sydney and stayed 4 nights here as our final destination in Australia. In fact Amy liked it so much she rated it as her favourite place on the whole trip so far - so it was good timing that she had her 23rd birthday there. We stayed in 'Kings Cross', slightly to the east of the city, and supposedly the red light district of Sydney. But we only saw two or three 'suspicious characters' and on the whole it was a good location with a cheap hostel which gave us loads of free stuff - such as sweetie vouchers and free calls to the UK! On Amy's birthday we covered the main tourist things to see during the day, such as the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was quite surreal ... read more

We moved onto Queensland's biggest city Brisbane. It rained a lot of the time we were here so we limited our time outside! We stayed in an area called the 'west end' which was slightly hippy in nature with lots of outdoor cafes / bars etc. Brisbane itself was a nice place, but a typical city and most travellers seems to just stay a couple of days before moving on. We walked along the river a bit, checked out the shops and otherwise just relaxed in the hostel. After two nights in Brisbane it was still raining when we got to Surfers Paradise. And yes it is called that, bizarrely! The coastline seemed slightly American, with big high-rise buildings alongside the sandy beach, which was like nothing else we'd seen in Australia - usually the beaches ... read more

After 2/3 hours on the bus, we arrived at Mission Beach in boiling hot sunshine. It had rained on and off while we had been in Cairns (as it is the tropical wet season at the moment in the north of australia) but as nice as it was to be dry, the humidity was just as intense as Asia, with it being so close to the equator still. Our hostel was about 30 metres from the beach and luckily had air-conditioning. We spent the first day just walking and relaxing on the beach and were astounded how empty it was - we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Mission Beach itself was really small, literally just a village by the beach. This was nice as we felt like we were experiencing rural australia a ... read more

Hey all, So from Phuket we flew to Singapore; deciding that we didn't really have the time to go through Malaysia and that we weren't that bothered about it anyway! We stayed just outside the main city in an area that reminded us both a bit of China. Singapore was a little like Hong Kong. It was certainly more expensive than any other part of Asia! So much more developed though. Their 'underground' system was very clean and easy to use, much more than at home! And everything was in English, there were hardly even any translations. While there we visited Little India and Chinatown. They are both areas in Singapore which are literally like being in either India or China. In Little India for example, they have Indian products and magazines and shops and everything. ... read more