Our final week was spent in Byron Bay and Noosa Heads. By this point we were really running low on our budget for Oz so we didn't do an awful lot. We arrived in Byron Bay at around eight o'clock in the morning after catching the night bus from Sydney. The journey wasn't too bad, slept for most of it but kept waking up with a numb bum!! Woke up at one point and we must have been travelling through the country as it was pitch black. The stars looked amazing, I have never seen them looking so big and bright! After checking in at our hostel we headed out to get some breakfast as we weren't able to get into our room until about half eleven. I had one of the best bacon and egg ... read more

So...we arrived in Kings Cross and it started to rain. The first thing that we noticed was that yet again we had ended up in the Red Light District - a comman occurance now for Han and I! We made it to our hostel, not before passing "The British Lolly Shop". After spending about half an hour just being amazed by this shop that sold all the things we had been talking about and craving in Thailand, I left with a pack of flamin' hot monster munch and some minstrels. Lovely! The hostel we were staying at, was run by two sister's who were really nice, and had just been voted the 2nd best hostel in Australia. There was nothing too fancy about it and it was fairly old but clean and friendly. Han and I ... read more

We met a family in Thailand who were from Australia and we got chatting to a couple of them who were called Robyn and Lyn. Lyn was from Canberra and she kindly offered to put us up for a couple of nights. So whilst in Melbourne we gave her a ring and asked if was still ok to stay with her. We got the Greyhound bus from Melbourne and arrived in Canberra in the early evening - an hour late might I add! Lyn was there waiting for us and drove us back to her house. She had her niece Kyla staying with her who had just returned from living in London for a year teaching. So we got chatting and it turns out that she had been teaching at Minet Primary in Hayes and then ... read more

After a well deserved day of rest (if I do say so myself) we were off on our cooking trip. Got picked up from our hotel and driven to the local market - picking a few other people up on the way. It was explained to us all the different ingredients we would be using for our cooking which was pretty interesting, although I must have lost concentration after about five minutes! We chose the different types of food we wanted to make and then went off to the cookery school. We made six different courses and got to eat them ALL! It was really nice, but after the third meal I was feeling pretty stuffed although funnily enough my appetite funnily reappeared when it was dessert time! I chose to make Mango with Sweet Sticky ... read more

After saying our goodbyes to Anni and co at the Baan To guesthouse we were picked up to go to the pier at about half nine to catch the ferry at ten. Was a really hot day so we set up camp on the top deck and ended up getting pretty burnt, didn't realise at the time though as there was a constant breeze from where we were going along on the boat. Phi Phi has no cars or mopeds so we were met by somebody from our hotel who took us to where we were staying. We seemed to be quite out of the way of everything and passed a rather smelly sewage place which had been nicknamed "Poo Gardens" so that was a great start. Got to the bottom of the hill which our ... read more

Hello everyone...thought its about time I updated you all again as a week has passed already!! So we eventually made it on the boat trip and surprise surprise, it started to rain!! Hannah and I decided to take cover in the captains hold and sat there miserable (the fact that we were tired and hungover didn't help too much either!!) We got to the first stop which was Coral bay for the first snorkel, needless to say neither of us got in the water. Hannah actually asked if we could be taken back whilst the others were snorkeling....obviously the answer to that question was laughter which I'm guessing meant "no". On to the next stop which was Shark Bay (great!) where you can expect to say black tip sharks...apparently they are harmless but I was having ... read more