I'm sat on the Greyhound bus just now heading down the coast from Airlie Beach to Rainbow Beach (14 hour journey!) and decided to pass the time by catching up with my blogging. Although the movie the driver's started playing is 'Legally Blonde' so I'm half tempted to watch that! Soooo, after Fiji the next part of the trip was Sydney, for Mardi Gras 2010. It was Andrew's last week and we'd just got back from Fiji so the first few days were spent relaxing. Siobhan and Blair arrived from Melbourne and Heron Island so it was nice catching up with everyone, although for Andrew and I, our main aim for the week was to learn our dance routine for the Mardi Gras parade on the Saturday. With much trepidation (and a shot of Vodka on ... read more

After a brilliant trip up the West Coast the plan was to stay in Perth to relax. The best thing about our timing was that our arrival was on Australia Day (a celebration of the day the English arrived in Australia) and Perth was touting the evening's fireworks as the best in the whole of Australia. They started at 8pm, no problem we thought as we landed at 3:30pm. I wanted to get a new camera and we needed booze too. By the time we'd dropped our stuff at the hostel, everywhere had closed apart from a tiny camera shop who were rolling down their shutter at 4:55pm. Ten minutes later with a big mission accomplished smile on my face I left the camera shop, only finding out the next day that I'd been totally ripped ... read more

Just had the best three days in the Red Centre. The scenery is amazing and the trip was hard work, but so enjoyable! My friend Andrew finally flew in from Hong Kong after a two day delay (due to the snow at home in London, couldn't be further from the weather here!) Me and Siobhan packed up our apartment we departed Melbourne for Alice Springs, a small town in the middle of Australia. The aboriginal locals sit out and about everywhere in any shady area. There's a stark contrast between the aboriginals and the tourists. I think homelessness must be a big problem and the community as a whole probably has bigger problems, but the people hanging around everywhere with dirty clothes and smelling of body odour did make me feel a little uneasy. I wouldn't ... read more

Just woke up and decided to write a bit seeing as I actually got out of Melbourne for a day yesterday. Me and Jess (a friend I met in Byron Bay) took a tour down the Great Ocean Road. It was brilliant, really scenic. It's amazing how long the drive is and how long we actually took to do it. The tour started at 7:30am and ended at 9:30pm! We started off at the famous Bells Beach which is where the surf brand 'Ripcurl' was made. This part of the coast is where all the surf competitions are held, which was pretty cool to see, although the waves were intense! Then we hit the Great Ocean Road, not before a photo opportunity in front of the memorial at the start, although whole road is actually a ... read more

Finally arrived Melbourne after a slightly longer than anticipated stopover in Brisbane. We were staying in the Base Central Hostel which was such a fun place to be. We made so many friends that by the time we left, it was like having the leaving party we'd had in England all over again! The reason we stayed was to get a job, but the job I got was short-lived! Telesales - trying to make appointments for government tax incentives. It was the most mundane soul destroying job ever, but the money was pretty good and the people in the office were mainly travellers. We were allowed to come in wearing shorts, tshirts and flip flops! I would do between 200-300 calls in each five hour shift, to which most people would be “not interested”, some would ... read more