http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Emma-n-Ant/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Emma n Ant en-us Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:48:06 +0000 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:48:06 +0000 So this is it...our final hours of our trip. The reality it setting in when we just packed our bags for the last time...weird. Even though i am an expert packer now. But we are really excited to go home back to good old Britain..and when your away for this long you even start to miss the place honestlyWe were discussing what we are looking forward to the most and its the littlest things...i can http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-200612.html Hello...hope everyone is ok...bet our parents have written on the calender how many days it is until we are back...counting downSo we jumped on an overnight train from Bangkok all the way down to Southern Gulf of Thailand and to Koh Tao this quiet little island only 21km squared...total chill out week. we spent 6 nights in our own beach hut and spent the whole time lying on the beaches enjoyi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-197643.html So we arrived in Bangkok...after we left Auckland and had a 3 n a half hour flight to Sydney which was delayed for an hour on the tarmac...we had to run straight thru the terminal at Sydney to catch our connection flight to Bangkok Then after over 9hours and 4 films later we landedIt was midnight when we jumped into a very bright pink taxi to take us to the notorious Khao San Road...aka backpa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-195317.html We set foot on the North Island in shock that we only had one week left in New Zealand...and would be home in less than a month shock shock horror horror So spent an extremly windy night in the nation's capital city Wellington and explored it the next day... it is likened to a smaller version on San Fransisco on a much smaller scale cos all the houses are perched on the hillside overlooking th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/blog-192904.html Hello Sorry there hasn't been a blog for a while but trying to find an internet connection in New Zealand is easier said than doneSo we arrived in Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand...nice little city but far quieter than Australia...the accents in New Zealand take a few days to get used to... they tend to exaggerate their words so there has been a lot of confusion along our wayT http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/blog-192896.html I honestly can't believe it has gone so fast... I mean it does feel as though i've been away from home for a while but not 5 months So we have been in Oz 146 days 21 weeks or nearly 5 months...and since we arrived as inexperienced backpackers on the 4th March 2007 we have had so many incredible experiences in this HUGE country For instance...we had never heard of 2 beers living on 2min n http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-183265.html So 7 of us hired a gorgeous Kia Carnival 8 seater car and were armed with a map a week and a plan... Our original idea was to try and go around the coast and the most southern poiunts of Australia... but just like at home there has been an enormous amount of flooding here in south New South Wales and the main highway was closed. So plan 2 was to head inland over 1200km to Sydney. We picked up o http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Kings-Cross/blog-179034.html Helloo Hope everyone is OK. In Melbourne and we have officially climatized to the hot Aussie weather because when it gets below 15degrees we have the massive winter coats gloves and scarf on i actually looked at the weather here compared to home and it was still colder at home...so we are happy. sorry Anyway apart from the weather the city itself is really nice we are staying in a cann http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/City-Centre/blog-174060.html So we finished our very short time in Adelaide and were off again on yet another Groovy Grape Tour with our lovely tour guide Jazz this time it was only 3 days long and took us 1100km to Melbourne via the very famous and incredibely beautiful Great Ocean Road... We got picked up at 7am on the first day...Scoffing our Sausage n egg McMuffins got on the bus with the Isrealies and Sabrina from t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Great-Ocean-Road/blog-172433.html ...So we are in South Australia... on our tour one of the first things we saw was a car just off the road...in a tree it was mad the car had swerved to miss a kangaroo at 100kmph and ended up in a tree We saw some more massive egales this time they were really close cos they were eating a dead kangaroo on the side of the road. Just before we arrived at Coober Pedy we stopped at the Longest Man http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/South-Australia/Coober-Pedy/blog-170630.html Hello We made it to ADELAIDE and we have free internet here so its all good We just finished our 6 day tour from Alice Springs which is almost 2000km over 19hours driving We went with a company called Groovy Grape and it was amazing. The group of 21 of us all got on really well and it was a real international mix so we got to learn loads about different countries aswell....we had English http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Uluru/blog-170491.html So the morning we jumped on the ship we were up packed tent down etc and at the dock for 730am We caught a boat called Compass to the outer reef about 2.5hours from Cairns. Then jumped on the transfer boat to The Reef Encounter which looked really nice from the Compass boat... then climbed on and walked into the saloon area...we were gob smacked ...thought we were on the wrong boat cos it was http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Great-Barrier-Reef/blog-167213.html So after Mission Beach we caught our last bus up the East Coast to Cairns... it was raining when we arrived and we haven't seen the sun for longer than an hour for nearly a week Cairns is small for a city but full of tourist tour operators and links to go on tours to the reef Kuranda and tours upto Cape Tribulation which is in the heart of the tropical rainforest. we stayed in a place called http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/Inn-The-Tropics/blog-164753.html So Mission Beach is famous for a few things.. we knew we had to do...Walk along the gorgeous beach visit the tropical Dunk Island Jump out of a plane at 14000ft and White Water Raft on the Tully River. Soooo thats what we did.. we didn't want to tell anyone at home until we had sent the pictures and DVDs home to give the parents a shock lol. Even though the Hostel at Mission was basic it wa http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Mission-Beach/blog-162230.html We got off the bus at Townsville and were immediately hit by the heat it was boiling but we had to walk for about 20mins to the ferry terminal aswell...with ALL our bags. That almost killed us. So we got the ferry over to the famous Magnetic Island...named because Captin Cook's compas went crazy when he went past the island...he thought it had Magnetic powers...the locals just think he probably http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Magnetic-Island/blog-162223.html Hello we are trying to keep up to date with the blogs...unsuccessfully Just before we got on the bus at Hervey Bay we had a pasta and hand fed the left overs to the resident wild possum at the hostel... soo cute We managed the 12 hour bus journey to Northern Queensland and Arlie Beach Backpacker Central... the bus journey went really quickly and We arrived early in Arlielol The saturday http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-157848.html We arrived in Hervey Bay and were chuffed when we were all put in the same room. We met up with Nick from Sydney aswell. That night we drank far too much goon then went to the Night Club next door where the drinks were far too cheap to turn down and had a great time...we also heard there were over 100 Bull Sharks spotted that night only 5 metres off the beach The next day feeling slightly wors http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Hervey-Bay/Fraser-Island/blog-154930.html We were only in Rainbow beach for 2 nights . ... we checked into Dindo's backpackers late when the bus arrived....it was really good cos we met up with Louise Charlotte and Megan there and we hadn't seen them for a while. We also met Megan's Boyfriend Chris who was class and loved playing pool and football and messing around just as much as Ant does Chris was only out to visit Megan for 2 wee http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Rainbow-Beach/blog-154926.html Hello everyone sorry its been a while but we have been so busy over the last couple of weeks so its been hard to get to a computer. I have to appologise in advance that these blogs will be brief as the internet is expensive here AND i've just spent the last half an hour typing all about Brisbane then the computer bloody crashed and im having to type all this again ARGH Anyway...as you http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-154925.html GrsquoDayhellipHows it goinrsquo ...The most asked question in Australia Especially Byron Bay Byron was about 3hours north of Coffs Harbour and another stop up the East coast for us. However it wasnrsquot quite as we expected. First of all this was our first time camping and trying out our new tenthellipwhich is not very big but is perfect for carrying around and does the 2 of us fi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Byron-Bay/blog-150131.html