After leaving the warm sunny weather of Sydney, I took a quick plane over the Tasman and luckily it was a clear day and saw the amazing mountain ranges of the South Isalnd of New Zealand before landing and the weather change was quite a shock to me. It felt as if I was back in Ireland and immediately had to dig out my jumpers from the bottom of my bag that I had to all but forget about for the previous 3 months. To add to that, after walking around Christchurch and finally finding accomodation after 99% of the [View Full Entry]

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3 months can go really fast when your having fun and in hindsight I could not believe i did not want to come back to this amazing country called Australia! I guess after start to remove the blinkers the true colours come shining through and glisten on a grand background of gum trees as the scorching sun dissappears over the horizon. Smelling the fresh ecalyptus and hearing the kookaburra waking you early in the morning and making you realise you are only able to hear that noise here in Australia. Of course how can you forget the original Australian icon [View Full Entry]

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I was starting to get a taste for hiking so after coming back to Sydney and meeting with my good Swedish friend Eva, we headed off west 2 hours by train into the Blue mountains to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and into wonderful natural surroundings. The Three Sisters are an aboriginal folk legend and are mountainous peaks standing next to each other at a height of almost a kilometre. Taking the stairs down is not for the faint hearted as it can get very steep at times but once at the bottom of the [View Full Entry]

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After spending a few days in Nimbin i had a crazy idea that i could hike all the way back to Byron Bay. Armed with a novelty map and a few days rashions i headed off solo into the mountains in the hope that i will find the ocean. I was so wrong! It didnt seem that long a way perhaps only about 50 km however i didnt expect that the majority of it would be uphill and steep aswell. After meeting a crazy man who told me the whole track had been closed off and that there were evil [View Full Entry]

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After heading north to Byron Bay I found the place too touristy for my liking. Yeh its good if your about 19 and just enjoy boozing all night every night but i was looking for more natural surroundings so i headed to Nimbin which is about 70 km north of Byron. Nimbin is the only town in the whole of Australia where it is actually ok to smoke marijuana in public cafes and streets however not in the pub! It is actually still illegal to buy and smoke but due to the festival of aquarius in 1973 ever since the [View Full Entry]

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After enjoying the sunshine of the wild west of Perth. I hae moved on to the south east of the country to the city of Melbourne. At first i was a bit skeptical of the place but must admit it is the cultural mecca of the country. All cultures live here like alot of the rest of the country however they really seem to mix really well here with all the excellent festivals and parades that go on here. The weather was really good for the enitre week and managed to get out and about to the city, st kilda [View Full Entry]

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If you get a chance to head over to Western Australia you must visit Rottnest Island. ( Meaning Rats nest as coined by the Dutch When the discovered the island) Its only 18 km from Perth and is a small enough to walk around in a day but can keep you entertained for at least a few. The ferry left from Fremantle and is only $53AUD return which isnt too bad. Once on the island you can hire bikes or just walk around as you please. It definetly boasts some of the most amazing white beaches ive ever seen and [View Full Entry]

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Fremantle has got to be the cultural centrepoint of the whole of Perth. It has excellent cafes and classic pubs and is still the major port harbour for Perth. Its great just to have a walk around visiting all the excellent markets and seing the old Fremantle prison where all the convicts were housed. The port itself always has a large number of would be fishermen that always seem to have their buckets empty yet you cant help wanting to sit there aswell in hope of catching that elusive red snapper that just never seems to bite. In the end [View Full Entry]

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Well im in perth and considering i lived here for 5 years coming back wasnt really travelling. But i did decide to go north to see the Pinnacles. Initially believing they were very close to Lancelin they were actually about 150 kms north and ended up sleeping in the car overnight but it was definitely worth it! I dunno, a layman would say they are just a bunch of tall limestone rocks in a desert but not many places exist like this and so the unique beauty was definetly there. Another astonishing aspect of this side of the world is [View Full Entry]

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