Sad to leave Queenstown after an awesome time, we got in our newly aquired Mazda Familia. We hit the road early(ish) Sunday morning on a 4 hour drive to Milford Sound; a national park south of Queenstown with incredibly beautiful lakes, mountains and rainforest areas. The drive down was very impressive with stunning views around every corner. After soaking up the views, we headed back North to Te Anau for the night. Here we had a wander, and a beer at the local, before bed. Monday morning was another early start for the drive to Wanaka. We arrived in the afternoon and had lunch by the crystal clear Lake Wanaka surrounded by snow topped mountains with bright blue skies. Having had enough of the natural beauty and in need of another adrenalin rush we decided to ... read more

The Australian leg of the trip was wrapped up by 2 nights at 'The Beach Hostel', Cairns. These 3 nights basically consisted of lying at the pool by day (it was a good chance to soak up the last sun that we would see for a while), and partying by night. We met our German counterparts here who were staying at the same hostel and we were thrown into a dorm with 3 young Swedes. It suited us well. The first night was spent out at the Rhino bar due to the 'free meal' we all fell for. One thing that sticks out from the night (among others) was Mark's expensive taxi ride home because he had forgotten the name of the hostel; his poor taxi driver was forced to drive all around the town's many ... read more

We left Byron Bay and made the short journey down the road to the village of Nimbin, a former hippy settlement where weed has basically been legalised. A quick look around the 'museum', a coffee, and a trip to the local pub were the highlights, where chatting to the locals was an interesting if suddate experience. In an attempt to escape the bad weather, we headed north to Noosa in Queensland, on the Sunshine coast, a town famed for its surfing and National park. Unfortunatley the bad weather appeared to follow us north, as we were greeted by a tropical storm - one of the low points of the trip so far as we were expecting things to brighten up. Rather than mope about and feel sorry ourselves, the next day we visited the Australia Zoo, ... read more

Another night bus ride was followed by an afternoon in Bangkok where we visited the big reclining Buddha in Wat Po and had another Thai massage. On the 15th we arrived in cold, wet Sydney and had a stroll around the harbour area. We then were later reunited with Dave. We headed to the "lively" Kings Cross area for a big night on the town for Dave's birthday but were greeted by a ghost town. Apparently, the Aussies don't go out during the week, and even less so in the Winter. We accidentally found ourselves in a gay bar during our search for a lively place to drink but we managed to salvage the night by going for a slap up meal at a posh Indian restaurant before heading to the local backpacker hot spot. On ... read more