SarahEastaff

Hey everyone, this will be our last blog and consequently our only blog from Fiji, I can't believe how quickly its all gone! Fiji is beautiful, the people are all smiles and interested in where you're from (of course, occasionally just trying to make a profit) and we are currently staying at the 'Beachhouse' which leads on to the beach and is somewhere between a jungle, Nadi and Suva. After flying in to Nadi we checked in to Drift In, a very cheap hostel with very mixed reviews, and after no answer to our request for our 'free' airport pick up, neither of us were feeling that comfortable with the arrangements. On arriving it was fine, but it didn't really feel like a hostel, there was no internet, even for the staff; only four guests whilst ... read more

- wandering around town, seeing a film, k road boutiques - day trip, waitomo caves rotorua flavio american - devonport Hello again! Well, here we are again, about to leave another country and its flown by! Over the last few days it hasn't stopped raining in Auckland which has been annoying at times, but we've (once again) definitely made the most of our time here. We've continuously wandered around the city and found unusual graffiti, even more unusual transvestites, so many boutiques and vintage stores (don't worry I have resisted temptation), every nationality of food you can imagine, and so many huge shopping centres! Its been a cool city to explore, we're staying just off the infamous K'road renowned for its colourful community - the transvestites, the young, the poor, the students, the immigrants - makes ... read more

Hello again everyone! My keen-eyed mother reminded me that I never wrote up on our last day in Queenstown and heading over to the North Island with sligthly sore thighs from horse riding! So I thought I'd just do a quick update on that before doing a separate blog on whats going on currently. We began our last day in Queenstown with another relatively early morning; bags packed and half the dorm shuffling around in the dark, trying to put on skiwear whilst saying goodbyes, we headed off outside of the Nomads hostel to be picked up for horse riding. From central Queenstown its about a 45 minute car journey to the valley we were riding in; you feel a sense of recognition as you bomb down the narrow roads and the guy driving explained why ... read more

S'up y'all! Hello guys, thanks for all the comments and everything - its so lovely to hear from all of you. We're currently chilling in our hostel, just sorting out some stuff over the internet but it definitely feels like we're heading towards the last push of our trip - well our bank balances are certainly feeling the expense of travelling! Auckland is really cool, its a proper big city (unlike Christchurch, the second biggest city in NZ which was more like Guildford than either of us would care to recall) and, once again, we're staying in the Chinatown area - I'm getting the feeling its where cheap hostels are situated and is generally good for students. This has meant we've been shopping in an Asian supermarket and our first trip there was, to say the ... read more

Hello y'all! Hope everything is good with all of you and the weather is wonderful and not raining as it was here. Both Ed and I are loving New Zealand, but we should probably work chronologically and take you back to our last evening and full day in Sydney (which now seems like a lifetime ago!). So we did go to the posh Indian I mentioned in the former blog and it did not dissapoint; first of all when we arrived the manager greeted us with two different tables reserved for us depending on our preference of either being seated in the cosy interior, or outside with the fantastic views of Darling Harbour; we chose outside and were greeted by a great view of beautiful boats, busy Sydney and a 'crackin' harbour' (Ed). The food was ... read more

Hey guys! Hope everything is good with all of you and you're having better weather then we are - thunder storms, long term rain and even fog out here down under! Both Ed and I are good but need to start packing as tomorrow we head off to even chillier New Zealand, so I'll try to keep this relatively short, but let me talk you through our last few days. On Sunday we followed a walking tour in our guide book (lonely planet is the best) and saw many tourist spots but also found some really cool places you wouldn't usually come across; one being the Rocks market which was amazing. Every time you turned a corner you expected it to end but, by the time we did finally reach the end of the stalls ... read more

Hello there all! Feels like we haven't written a blog in ages, but I guess that's just because we've been squeezing so much in. I should probably start at the beginning with our bus journey and our goodbyes in Melbourne - you know, work chronologically for a change. After writing the last blog a few friends from the hostel suggested we went down to St Kilda pier to see the penguins who come out at dusk. They actually live there! I know it sounds like a pretty minor point to our trip but can you imagine wandering down a pier on a relatively cold (for Australia's winter) day and finding penguins huddled underneath the surrounding rocks! It was so cute and you had to be really careful not to frighten them off with too big movements ... read more

Well, already we only have one week left down under - and its gone so quickly! Melbourne has been fantastic; its the kind of city you could keep exploring forever and always discover new, interesting places. The jaw dropping cake shops nearby on Acland street; the Eureka tower, the highest residential tower in the southern hemisphere; the central Federation Square with its modern cinema and Tim Burton exhibition; the free immigration musuem; the graffitied backstreets which are mantained by the government and feature some Banksy; winning litres of beer during Base bingo; going dancing with our dorm; finding the best soup stand ever - where they keep the soup in cauldrons and you feel as if its all pot luck (I didn't even mean to make that terrible pun) but really everything is fantastic, especially with ... read more

Hello everyone :) hope you're all doing well, we're having a blast in Melbourne - can't believe we're leaving so soon! Recently we've visited the Queen Victoria market which is full of everything and anything and some great food stalls (stocked up on a bit of fruit!); we also went to the natural bodies exhibition (can't remember the exact name) but it was basically all these humans and animals cut open to show you how the body works and how it changes at different stages; it was really interesting, a bit freaky at times, but you wouldn't believe how huge a whale's lung is! We've also done a fair bit of wandering around; visited a few vintage stores but generally clothes are expensive (as is everything) in Melbourne. Yet our home made cream cheese sandwiches are ... read more

Well, it feels as if we have loads to tell you but its been such a short amount of time! That rainforest trip we went on was really interesting; the guy running it seemed to know his stuff (latin names and all) and it was pretty cool to do something that wasn't based on water - plus that made it a bit cheaper! We learnt that this one plant, although I can't remember the name, which looked normal and almost like a household plant, was actually poisonous to touch. It affects your nervous system and apparently feels like needles and boiling water combined instantly; also if it stung more than 40% of your body it would kill you. Although, apparently the berries aren't poisonous and taste pretty good - yet we decided to leave that. And ... read more