In Melbourne I had some chillout time and explored the city. I went on a guided tour of the Rod Laver arena, home to the Australian Open. I also visited the Old Melbourne Gaol, where Ned Kelly was hanged. Leaving Melbourne was a normal early start. My driver, Hoops, whom i had in the Blue Mountains, had to the rus through the city for the last pick up. There were only five of us on this tour, which was good. Means you get to talk to people. There were two Swiss Geman chicks and two Dutch Grannies of 73 and something else. Very ineresting. We drove for a few hours to Wilson's Promontory, the most southerly poin of mainland Oz, but also somewhere that received considerable damage from the black saturday fires. As soon as we ... read more

Alice Springs airport consists of a short runway, two shacks, and thats it. Pretty cool. Especially after the big commericalism that i hated so much about the bloody east coast. All around there was desert, dusty, red, desert. I had one day to recover from two early morning bed times and two early morngin wake ups before having to get up at half four for my five am pick up, which was late. Not a good start. There were 13 of us on the bus, but only 9 were doing the six day tour, while the other 4 were doing a two day. We drove for a fair few hours before our first big stop. Kings Canyon. This is a fascinating canyon with almost alien and lunar rock formations carved from years of wind and rain ... read more

The east coast is a bit more disjointed than New Zealand. I can go days on end without doing much of note. Fraser Island, however, is one of the things to note. I signed up to do a 4X4 expedition on this spit of sand, just off the east coast of Oz. I would be out for three days and two nights camping and covering the best places the island. The day before we left we were put into a team, did the whole meet and greet thing and went to do our food shop. It was then i knew it would be a testing few days. Our food shop would have covered a large regiment for a year. I did point this out but they knew better. That night i got drunk with a few ... read more

We got up early and piled on the mini bus and fell asleep again until the evil smells of Rotorua filled our noses. we jumped off had an energy drink and then met our new driver. We were told he was called sexy rex because he was on the cover of a 1996 edition of Mens Health. This, my friends was a lie. He was not! He was however an ex rally driver. And boy did we know it! The next four days he threw us around in a minibus as if it was a subaru, supercharge, v8! We zipped through to Gisborne and arrive and hour and a half early...we did a quick food shop and headed to Tatpouri, where we were met with Tea and Coffee. We had a lazy day, i sat in ... read more

Back in Q'Town we hit the bars, lightl, for Claires 25th birthday. Happy Birthday Claire. We tried to go to be at 11 but i still found myself out partying until 3am having to be up at 7. We called it a night there and after a short stint in the play park we were in bed. The next morning I rose and showered and breakfasted before waking Rob up. One of our room mates hadn't returned yet, so must have got lucky, and the other one, a female, was sleeping naked. It disturbed me slightly...! We were outside and waiting for the bus at 8 and it rolled round the corner and our driver Pippa jumped out. Checking her list she informed us that we weren't on the bus, i showed her the printout that ... read more