The resolution to be more tolerant lasted less than 10 hours. Older German roomie decided to stamp her demands on me to shut the door one too many times and I snapped at her. She had asked me for a lift this morning to go to Doubtful Sound but she lucked out at this point. Also, as I'd find out later in the day, the irritated feelings were mutual, as she went and moved rooms for the second of her night's stay. While I'm on the subject of lifts, NZ is full of hitchhikers. Everyone does it - you drive along the road and there's a queue of folk, all wanting to scrounge a lift. It's like match.com for travellers - you can drive along, pick the best or most interesting looking soul, and you've got ... read more

After yesterday's crazy jetboat experience, my back appears to be no worse for wear, which is fortunate. However the day didn't start well in other ways. The irritating German roommates decided to get up and recommence backpack rearranging at ungodly o'clock, and carried on for the next 3 hours, unpacking, repacking, changing clothes, and going in and out of the dorm. Now, usually calm, mild mannered me (what do you mean, you don't recognise those qualities in me?!?!), would not normally have caused a fuss, but I did, huffing and puffing my way down the stairs, like a child post-tantrum. However, the dark cloud lifted when I realised that today I was cutting loose - free from the shackles of the usual NZ backpacker transport of choice, the bus - and picking up my bargain of ... read more

The 31st of January wasn't the best day ever. I woke up feeling decidedly dodgy, for no good reason. The weather was hot and sunny, it's not like I'm in a horrible town, and it's not like there was nothing to do. Yet I woke up barely able to lift my chin off the ground. Not because yesterday's massage had crippled me - far from it, I feel far more able to move around than I have done for weeks, yippee - but just because I was feeling rubbish. Grim. I decided to wallow in self pity at the hostel, and type up all the blogs that I'd written in Word and forgotten to upload to Travelblog. Reading them back today, you can tell I wasn't feeling right - I appear to be overly emotional and ... read more

There's no denying it - my back is still properly sore post-horse riding incident drama. It kind of mended itself for a while but the pain is back with a vengeance. No bungy jumping, skydiving or jetboat riding for me while in Queenstown, it appears. And given this is the home of the thrillseeker, it's fair to say I'm a little bit gutted. I'm going to have to find more sedate pastimes to get me through... The day started way too early with my roomies waking up at ungodly o'clock. My top bunk, flush next to the dorm's entrance, was subjected to the lights from the corridor, the unlocking and locking of the door and the comings and goings of roomies heading off on day adventures. As a result, I went back to sleep at about ... read more

It turns out that they don't turn the air conditioning off in Melbourne airport overnight. I'd kind of hoped that they would - just so that it would warm up a little bit to help me snooze. Instead, the iron seats which became my bed for the night made sleeping feel like I was staying in that hotel in Iceland (I think) which is entirely made of ice. Just without the reindeer skins to keep you warm. I wasn't alone in my quest to save a night's accommodation by crashing at the airport. In fact there must've been half a dozen more people camped out in the immediate vicinity to my ice-chairs. One lucky soul was equipped with a sleeping bag to keep warm - all I had to keep out the chill was a beach ... read more

After a rather splendid night's sleep (ie no roomies to annoy the living daylights out of me), I was up and ready to hit the road in the Vauxhall. Today I'm driving the full length of the Great Ocean Road, from just outside Port Fairy through to Torquay, south of Melbourne, and then onto the airport for a night's camping prior to my flight to New Zealand in the morning. It's a shorter drive today, but from memory, the road is that stunning that it was one of the highlights of the trip in 2008, so I'm very much looking forward to it. I took a quick gander at Port Fairy, but didn't hang around long. It's a very quaint, oldy worldy kind of town, with many an historic building and all set against the backdrop ... read more

This morning it was a sad farewell to the Sparkes and Adelaide. The last 5 days have literally flown by and I feel like I'm leaving just as I arrived. Paul and Jules have been nothing short of amazing, not least because they don't appear to have had a minute's peace from visitors since they arrived, yet they seem to take it all in their stride and made me feel like I was the first person from home they'd seen in years. That takes some doing, I can tell you. Amazing. I decided to throw the present I'd bought for them on the solid floor moments before handing it over, which made for a hold your breath moment as they opened the box holding the glass candle. There's gratitude right there for you. Luckily it survived ... read more

Happy Australia Day to you all! Today's a public holiday here in Oz, and a controversial one at that, seeing as it celebrates the landing of Captain Cook onto Australian land and taking it from the Aboriginal people. The indiginous people have had a few things to say on the matter (not least a few protests to be had, which led to the Welsh Wizardess, PM Julia Gillard being unceremoniously dumped into a waiting car, minus one very expensive shoe, to escape the backlash of said protesters). All other Australians can think of nothing better than to thrown an inflatable thong (no, not what you're thinking - thong is Aussie for flip flop. Takes some getting used to when people say 'my thongs have given me blisters' etc...) into the ocean to claim a world record, ... read more

My back's decided to play up today so instead of going to watch day 2 of the cricket, I decided upon water therapy. To the beach... I really didn't need an excuse to go to the beach at Glenelg. It's absolutely stunning. Just a couple of apartment blocks and a hotel, a water park and some lovely beach front shops and restaurants. The even better news is that today, there's hardly a soul around. I could have my pick of the sand to pitch my towel. Perfect! Once on the beach itself, I went hunting for shells for Jacob - I saw some Paua shells washed up on the beach on Sunday but sadly, was out of luck today. Hopefully he'll be pleased with the ones I found all the same - don't want a 6 ... read more

If I heard that phrase once today, I must've heard it a thousand times... every time someone hit 50 runs or multiples thereof, 50 partnerships and again, multiples thereof, Ricky Ponting reaching 13,000 test runs over the course of his career etc. The Commonwealth Bank are sponsoring today and don't you know it when they drum that same phrase down your ear every 5 minutes! If you hadn't guessed, today I've headed off to the Oval to watch the test match between the Aussies and India. The series is already over but on a baking hot day here in Adelaide, what better thing is there to do than sit in the sunshine watching cricket? The ground here in Adelaide is beautiful - a very traditional cricket ground, with open sections of grass for you to lie ... read more