Kim does the South Pacific

Today is the last day of my 15 day contiki tour which covered both the north and the south islands of this stunning country. I've been so busy having fun that I haven't written in this online journal since oz which feels like forever ago. Nz has been unreal, have met so many great ppl and have had the best time on this tour led by ali our tour mgr and danny the bus driver. I am absolutely exhausted - this tour has been go go go with super early mornings and late nite partying each night, but hey that's contiki for you. Ali did say right off the bat that we will all need a holiday after our contiki trip as contikis aren't relaxing vacations, they're an experience. The tour started in christchurch which is ... read more

I arrived in Hobart - the capital of Tasmania - on Friday Nov 9 early afternoon. I spent the afternoon getting a feel for this small capital city. I walked all around through the Salamanca Market area (nice strip of craft/gift shops and restos), the Battery area (the oldest district in Hobart), passed by the harbour, visited the Tasmania National Museum / Art Gallery wherein I had a guided tour (for free!), browsed the shopping streets, and so on. I did about all there was to do in Hobart that I reasonable person would actually be interested in doing lol. My tour with 'Under Down Under' commenced the next morning bright and early. There were only 4 of us on day 1 of the tour - the following days there was a full mini bus (13 ... read more

I'm writing this journal entry from my friend Lisa's house located in the suburb of Sydney called Clovelly. This is my first nite NOT in Robin's place since I arrived in Sydney 1 week ago - last Sunday...I ended up staying at Robin's for 1 full week - it was so great! To be honest, I didn't do too much earlier in the week and mainly just lazed around the house enjoying all the space and the peace and quiet. I did manage to go to the movies twice, out for dinner, to a shopping center at Bondi Junction, to the Cronulla beach for an afternoon, and so on. I had a really relaxing week and thoroughly enjoyed the slower pace in comparison to the go-go-go sightseeing that I had been doing over the last month. ... read more

It's a beautiful day in Surfer's Paradise today and the sun is shining and there are ppl everywhere. This is going to be a quick one b/c I want to get back out there and enjoy it! Fraser island was grand! The group situation turned out just fine in the end... the Korean guys (there were 3 of them) didn't speak much english but they were very kind and helpful, i.e. did the dishes all the time, set up and put down the tents, all that great stuff!! Our group had 8 - 4 girls and 4 guys. We all got along and had some very adventurous times! Fraser is so stunning!!!! In our big 4WD we ventured all around the island on crazy tracks through the rainforest, right on the beach, you name it! We ... read more

I spent the better part of my last afternoon on Magnetic Island at the Koala Sanctuary as I had heard that this was a great opportunity to get to hold a koala (for a fairly pretty penny of course) and to get my photo taken with a cuddly koala among other native Australian animals - python, birds, lizards, baby croc, etc. If you actually want to see koalas in the wild while in Australia, your best bet is to hike along one of the many hiking paths on Magnetic Island - I however did not see any but I didn't do a great deal of hiking either. Magnetic Island was great - I'm very glad I stayed there for 3 nights. The hostel was right on the beach; public transport on the island was very convenient; ... read more