Parksy

After a long subway sandwich fuelled, windiest ever ferry from the south island to the north, we jumped on our new Big Green bus and embarked on an hour or so long journey to Wellington. Wellington that day was possibly the windiest place I had ever been too and Rachel, Toby, Charlotte, Hazel and I had the stupid idea of going to watch Wellington play in the rugby, bad decision, game and stadium was ok, but was so cold and so windy, how they kicked conversions I will never know! Still had my stitches in and on the antibiotics so couldn’t go out drinking that night, the super 7 became 6 as they went out partying and I sulked on the internet, the next day Rach accompanied me to the hospital (forgot to mention that when ... read more

Bula, Bula, Bula, Fijians are possibly the friendliest people I have ever met (with one exception, will ellaborate later) you cannot walk anywhere without someone saying Bula (Hello), we arrived around 7pm and jumped in a taxi to an area of Nadi called New Town beach, checked into a big 20 person dorm and went to sample some Fijian beers at a little beach side restaraunt next to our hostel, wasnt long before we were roped into a Kava, which is a traditional fijian drink made from grounded tree roots that is meant to have special powers, amazing if them special powers are to make your tongue and face go numb, he embarressed us by singing we have Kava virgins, we downed the brown muddy water from a coconut shell and recieved our life time membership ... read more

Not too much to report on this week really having already spent a good amount of time in Sydney and seen the majority of sites, after 3 weeks back slumming it in hostels was lovely to get back to my double bed at Pete and Di's, didn´t do much the first few days I was back, just sat around and relaxed and caught up with Pete, Di, Jen and Joel, did go out with Jen and her work crew and then were joined by Joel and his mates and had a great night and that weekend Pete and Di took Dave and I to Taronga Zoo, we got really lucky with an absoloutley gorgeous day and had a great time wandering around gawping at strange animals. Dave and I managed to land a few days work ... read more

Typically the day I left Sydney the weather was scorching hot and my walk to the bus stop was a hot one, wasn’t the happiest knowing I was flying to Melbourne which is always much colder than Sydney, bus to the airport and the 1.5 hour flight went without any hiccups and I landed at Avalon airport on the outskirts of the City of Melbourne, got myself on another bus and then got on one of the cool trams that run around Melbourne and checked myself into a big hostel called Urban Central. To be honest my first week or so in Melbourne were pretty much a non event, I came down with Flu and pretty much just felt awful and slept for about 3 days straight, as most people will agree its horrible being sick ... read more

After a 10 hour overnight bus we arrived in Sydney about 6am, we all woke up just in time to cross the world famous harbour bridge and take in the view of the Opera House and then were dumped off at the bus stop, now it had been a bit chilly in Surfers, pretty damn cold in Byron but stepping off at Sydney was bloody freezing, we instantly put hoods up and did them up as tight as possible and it didn’t help that boys being boys, we hadn’t booked anywhere and everywhere was saying check in wasn’t until 2pm and even then they couldn’t even guarantee a room if we came back at that time, bugger why didn’t we phone in advance! so stumbling around the city in the freezing cold, the 3 of us ... read more

After Brisbane, Adam and I left Dave behind to finish his last 3 days of work and jumped on the hour and a bit bus down to Surfers Paradise. We checked into the Surf n Sun hostel where our friend from back home Leah had worked for a few months and had come highly recommended. It was noticeably a bit chillier than Brisbane, still not that cold, but it was a big decision on whether or not to wear a hoody or just go nuts and wear a t-shirt when heading into town in the day. The hostel was really cool, was only small and had a really friendly atmosphere, the rooms each had a TV that was hooked up to the communal room, meaning it showed whatever DVD was being played in there and they ... read more