By 2am on the 13th March I arrived in LAX airport. The woman at immigration scared the hell out me. She was just so condescending and kept calling me 'Young lady'! She couldn't have been more than 2 years older than me! I was already feeling down about being away from New Zealand, but that woman really put a sour taste in my mouth. After that everything went from bad to WORSE! I waited at baggage claim for over a hour until the conveyor belt was empty; and yes, you guessed it, no backpack. I had to fill in some forms [View Full Entry]

---

---

Saying bye to some of the 'Stray' group was really difficult. I really didn't think I would get that attached, but it's so intense traveling, eating, sleeping with the same people 24 hours a day for 2 weeks. Ah well...the show must go on and we still had the majority of the same people for the Southern Loop of NZ and Mambo was still our driver! First stop on from Queenstown was Milford Sound. It was one hell of a long drive to get there and everyone was feeling drained, but it was just incredible once we got out there. We [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just 3 days so far in the south island and we're having a blast. The bluebridge ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton went off without a hitch. I took some heavy duty travel sickness pills which turned me half zombie for the entire crossing. We pretty much had a new b us load of people; just 7 of the originals left including the driver, but despite the intial shyness, everyone is now getting along great. Out first overnight stop in the south was Abel Tasmin, true beauty personified! We arrived and chose our accomodation (tents or dorms) and settled in quickly [View Full Entry]

---

---

Thank God my ear infection cleared up and I was able to get back to traveling. As soon as I knew it was physically possible, I hopped onto the Stray bus (9th Feb) feeling a little nervous about having to get to know a whole bus full of strangers. Within an hour we were all having a laugh and pissing about so I was quickly put at ease. There's a really good mix of people on our bus; lots of different nationalities and ages. We even have a family with 3 kids. They've been globe trotting now for 6 months and [View Full Entry]

---

---

So...I arrived in Cairns on the 31st January with a couple of must see destinations in my mind, Cape Tribulation and of course The Great Barrier Reef. As soon as we touched down at the airport it was pissing it down so not a good start at all. It didn't stop raining for the first 2 days and people's snorkel and dive tours out on to the reef were getting cancelled left right and centre. I was rained in to the hostel the first couple of days and spent the time chilling out with the girls in my dorm and catching [View Full Entry]

---

---

Wow...so much is happened I don't know where to begin. I only left Melbourne 3 days ago and caught a flight to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) via Sydney. I spent just over 2 weeks in Melbourne and as in my last entry that included a road trip on the Great Ocean Road. After that, I kept my feet firmly planted in and around the city. This included a trip to Port Arlington (the mussel capital of Victoria) with my friend Karen. Mussels were eaten on a beautiful hot sunny day and fun was had by all involved. We had planned to drive [View Full Entry]

---

---

I've been shite at keeping my blog up to date I know, but there's a good reason. I've just been having too much of a good time I haven't had a spare minute to sit down at a computer. After my last entry I headed out to the crab races at Scubar in Sydney with my hostel room mates (Claire, Petra & Marlous) and had one of the most hilarious nights out ever. I just happened to be travelling with crab bibs in my backpack (a challenge set by my brother and Lee) so it was obviously fate that the crab [View Full Entry]

---

---

The past few days in Sydney have been jammed packed. I was feeling ridiculously homesick the last time I wrote and didn't want to let it get me down so made a conscious effort to keep myself busy. My friend Jenna lives out here so took some time off work to show me around. The first day we visited Palm Beach aka Summer Bay where Home & Away is filmed. It's not usually the sort of thing I would think of doing, but I was up for anything which would involve getting out of the city for a while. When we [View Full Entry]

---

---

It has been a weird past couple of days. The last time I posted I said I was going to love it here, but I'm having serious second thoughts. It seems like the only way you can have a good time in Sydney is by spending lots of money drinking, eating, shopping etc...which for travelers is obviously a problem. It's a great place to meet people and don't get me wrong, I have met some really cool people, but it's starting to get on my nerves that this doesn't really feel like I'm traveling. I haven't really seen anything so far [View Full Entry]

---

---

After an extremely tearful 'farewell for now' to my family in The Philippines it took some time to force myself back into the traveler's state of mind. I arrived into Sydney International airport yesterday morning feeling ridiculously drained after a turbulent flight, but after checking in to my hostel near Central station I was ready and raring to go. Fast forward again after a 5 hour walk around the city in 37 degree heat I was soon brought back down to Earth. On my 'mini-trek' I have already explored Darling Harbour, the wildlife park, Australian history museum, Sydney Harbour and the [View Full Entry]

---

---