Well we're now back in good old England after having an absolutely amazing time away! Can't quite believe that we're home as we're still getting used to it but it's good seeing everyone again! Anyways, this is how we spent our last few days of our trip! Hong Kong!! After a very weird night in Sydney (it was strange being back where we started in Oz), we then had our mega day of travelling which we managed alright and enjoyed the perks of duty free shopping at all the airports we went to during our long waits!! 29 June We [View Full Entry]

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The time has come to bid farewell to Oz! We've got a mega two days of flying ahead of us, tonight we go to Sydney for the night then tomorrow it's Sydney to Auckland, 8 hours in the airport, then Auckland to Hong Kong!! Before we leave though, here's what we've been up to over the past few days.... 20 June We left Magnetic Island, got the ferry over to Townsville where we picked up the Oz bus, which took us to Mission Beach, a couple of hours up the road. The journey was pretty uneventful and when we arrived in [View Full Entry]

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Magnetic Island - where the sun shines 320 days of the year. Right. We've been here 6 days and had 1 day of sunshine. 14 June After getting the ferry and the bus to our hostel, we then checked out the area and found that there really isn't much to do if the sun doesn't shine! It basically is a beach paradise - when we told people about Nick doing a 4 day scuba course people asked 'What are you going to do while he's diving' and i happily replied 'Lounge around all day in the sun'. Well that would [View Full Entry]

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Once in Airlie Beach we had arrived at the gateway to the Whitsundays where we were going to do a sailing trip for 3 days - a huge highlight of our trip and something we were very very excited to start! 10 June Basically, we woke up to blue skies and a very very hot day and we were pretty dam chuffed considering we had had such rubbish weather in Fraser Island! We had to be down at the meeting point for our sailing trip at 12pm and so we spent the morning having a delicious breakfast (muesli bowl with [View Full Entry]

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8 June After leaving Hervey Bay we made our way over the great dividing range, the second longest mountain range in the world running up the entire east coast of Australia, to Kroombit - our taste of inland Australian bush (and NO snakes were seen!!) We arrived at Lochenbar Cattle Station in the early afternoon and were treated to a meaty lunch before I went on a walk around the area and then joined Nick where he went and did clay pigeon shooting with a 12 gauge double barrelled shotgun (he got 3 targets out of 5 in his first [View Full Entry]

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Well our time in Oz finally got under way, starting with a four by four self drive expedition on Fraser Island, a world heritage listed sand island.... 2 June After a morning in Noosa we got our bus to Rainbow Beach, stopping on the way in Tin Can Bay to look at the squiggle gum trees! When we arrived we were told the aboriginal stories about the area and also got a chance to use the digeridoo, which Nick especially enjoyed trying out!! We then went for a walk along the beach - an actual designated road where there is [View Full Entry]

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We started our journey up the east coast on thursday 24 May and are now in Noosa - a beach town with good surfing! 24 May We had an early start on the Oz Experience bus, and after a long journey we arrived at Arrawarra Beach, our surf camp destination! Because it's winter over here, we couldnt go surfing when we arrived as it was soon going to become dark so we stopped off at a surf museum in COffs Harbour on the way. It was pretty cool stopping there as we learnt a bit more about surfing and got to [View Full Entry]

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We're at the end of our time in Sydney after spending 8 days here - it's been like a holiday within a holiday as it has been our longest time in one place and has been great! (Sorry about the long entry but it is a week's update!!) 17 May We began the day by going to the Oz Experience office (who we are travelling up the east coast with) and booked everything for the rest of Oz! We then wandered down into the city stopping off in Chinatown and at Paddy's Market where we discovered a Nando's restaurant although [View Full Entry]

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We spent our last evening in Christchurch at the airport so that we didn't have to fork out for another night's accommodation just to sleep for two hours because our flight was so early that we had to check in at 4am! The night was long and cold - seriously, the lounge was so cold in there but we were not the only backpackers trying to get a cheap nights accommodation, in fact two people got out their sleeping bags and pillows and huddled down to a night on the floor there! Nick managed to get some sleep but woke up [View Full Entry]

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We're at the end of our time in NZ and so thought it would be a good time to completely update you on what we've been up to since we last added an entry in the North Island. We're soon going off to the airport to spend the night there before boarding a plane to Sydney and can't wait!! 29th April We white water rafting down the Rangitata river - it was really good fun. we got to surf a rapid, swim rapids as well as jump off a cliff into the icy water. there was lots of team efforts and [View Full Entry]

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