Hi Everyone, At the end of the last thrilling installment I was in the north of Thailand, taking a cookery course. You'll be very pleased to hear after four days and twenty different dishes I am now a professional chef. And just to prove it I bought an apron too. The intrepid Oz trio of Jordana, Jane and I finally reunited and headed off for more adventures in Laos. We decided to fly there are the only other alternative was a two day river boat along the Mekong. As I have a tendency to get travel sick while snorkelling, flying was [View Full Entry]

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Now, several recent narky emails have told me I'm being tardy in keeping you lovely people informed of my progress through SE Asia. I apologise unreservedly but things have been pretty crazy. Now I'll sit back, relax, keep swatting the mozzies that find me just so so tasty and tell you a little of my adventures: At the end of my last thrilling instalment, I was in Cairns, having bid farewell to my Dutch and veterinarian friends, trying not to drown while white water rafting. Let's just say I wasn't 100% successful in Laura Vs The Rapids but after a little [View Full Entry]

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More West Coast/ Northern Territory stats: First destination: Perth Final destination: Darwin Nights spent camping: 28 (90%) - pretty impressive, I think you'll agree Snakes spotted: 8 lives ones and assorted road kill versions No. of kangaroos killed: 1 (this figure is an estimate based on our best guess. Either that or a baby Kangaroo was going around with a serious headaches afterwards!) No. of kamikaze birds killed: thousands (they seemed to love flying directly at the windscreen) It's my last night in sunny Oz and as I bid a fond farewell to the nation, I thought i [View Full Entry]

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Some West Coast stats for your perusal Day 11 Latest destination: Exmouth Kilometres travelled so far: approx 3,100 Nights spent camping: 8 (72.7%) Snakes spotted: 5 (seriously, I'm close to having a fit!) %age of kangaroos viewed as roadkill: 87.5% As you know, I flew to Perth to meet up with Jordana and Jane, friends that I met in New Zealand. They are my buddies on our road trip up to Darwin for the next month. The first destination in our lovely silver Subaru, named Ernie, was the South West town of Margaret River. Jane (otherwise known as "GI Jane" for [View Full Entry]

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It was a mere eight days ago that I departed Middle Earth for the Land of Oz. I arrived in Sydney hoping to see surfers, sheilas and the entire cast of Home and Away but I think the rain scared them all away. We're not just talking a shower here. We're talking a tropical monsoon which seems to be typical of this summer. It is Sydney's worst summer for 20 years, in fact. Being British, I wasn't about to let a mere trifle like the rain put me off of exploring so I set out with my brolly to walk along [View Full Entry]

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From the damp squib which was Franz Joseph, we headed to Makarora, on the outskirts of Mount Aspiring National Park. Another good night which included karaoke, where I sang for the first time ever and made such a prat of myself I went up another two times! I must've been really bad because my fellow singers, Katinka and Becca, were actually quite good but we still managed the loudest the pity cheers of the night! Becca won a sky dive at Lake Wanaka where I also wanted to stay for a few days so we hopped off of the bus to [View Full Entry]

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...But I did it! That's right people, earlier this afternoon, in spite of being a cowardly custard who's so scared of heights I don't like flying, I managed to jump (well, shuffle) off of a ledge and I DID A CANYON SWING! At the moment I'm in Queenstown, home of the bungy and all sorts of adrenalin-pumped activites. I'm young-ish and knew that if there was ever a chance for me to really get out of my comfort zone and try to do something I wasn't sure I was capable of, now was the time. So I was thinking of having [View Full Entry]

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It's high time I posted an update letting you know what I've been up to on the South Island. It is beautiful and it's great on the bus when the driver points out the locations used in the Lord of the Rings films. It makes me feel much closer to Orlando Bloom... Anyway, where was I? The ferry journey over from Wellington to Picton could have been smoother and I felt a wee bit seasick (will def not be going on any cruises on the future). Glad to be on dry land, our first stop was a tiny village called Marahau [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, It's a cold and windy day in Wellington so a good time to update you on what I've been up to since I landed in Auckland. As usual, I had a less than pleasant flight when I got stuck in the middle of a Chilean rugby team. "Swing low sweet chariot" in Spanish is quite something... I asked if they'd like me to move to the end of the row ("pleaded" may be a better word!) but they insisted I was good where I was! When I first landed, it was really nice to be in a country where [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, This is the first of many travel blogs to keep you up to date with my adventures and mishaps around the globe! The (pretty obvious) first point to note is that I have already been travelling in South America for two months and I leave tomorrow for six weeks in New Zealand. Typical Laura, always on top of things! I´m going to set up journal entries for my South American travels in time but as I don´t have any photos at the moment due to a minor memory card error (specifically, treading on it!) you´ll get diary entries and [View Full Entry]

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