Blogs from Oceania - page 7431

Alright so it's been awhile since we've been near a computer. We actually spent three more days in Byron, two days in Surfers Paradise and two days in Brisbane since the last time I wrote on this thing. Oh yeah and I just wanted to wish a happy belated birthday to Leah and Jen. I heard you guys had fun in Windsor and i missed out, although Towner, bullshit it's 34 degrees there but it is here. I don't even remember what I've talked about on this thing and what I haven't. So we'll start with the rest of Byron. We met a lot more really cool people, one girl from Texas, Katie, spent most of the rest of our days there with us which consisted of the beach and drinking from the goon at night. ... read more

Tues 10th Jan - Thurs 26th Jan I’ve arrived in Melbourne with great hopes and excitement! Not sure why though! Oh well, maybe it was time to cut the apron strings of Sydney and to see the rest of the country! I arrived at 7am…too early to check into my new hostel in St Kilda, so ended up having brekkie at a café and then wandering down to St Kilda beach to kill time! it’s ok but not as nice as the beaches in Sydney! and I was constantly being attacked by horrible flies - I think it’s their mission in life to pester the crap out of you! I’m finding myself getting really frustrated at them and telling them to bugger off…like they can understand me!! Obviously they don’t and keep pestering me! Aarrgghhh! Met ... read more

Well I didn’t exactly forget to update the travel blog but we’ve been pretty busy and internet cafés haven’t exactly been jumping out at us - unlike the local wild life. Speaking of which, one thing I did forgot was how annoying flies are - and judging by my families reaction after 15 years in Australia I guess it’s something you never get used to… So let me take you back to Oz as we are currently in India (where the computers are about the same speed as the cows in the street but a little less frequent). The last time I wrote I was heading down south of Perth towards Bunbury to surprise who looked after me many years ago. So I left the Old Fire Station in Freo and headed south, to say Brian, ... read more

Rainy rain rain! Yesterday was another washout. I don't want to blame Nelson itself, but the prospect of staying here and working for a few months no longer sounds exciting to me. Maybe it's the weather's fault, maybe I'm just too impatient and can't wait to get traveling again, but whatever the reason is I was really glad when Shaheen walked in yesterday morning and confessed that she was having doubts about staying here as well. So we decided to throw out our tentative plans (after all, they were only tentative) and see some more of the country before settling down for a semi-permanent job. We then spent most of Wednesday afternoon in the lounge with a big map of the South Island, a Lonely Planet, and notes with recommendations from all of our friends and ... read more

Useful tip: if arriving in major Australian city on Australia Day, do phone ahead for accommodation unless you enjoy playing out the "no room at the inn" nativity scene of course. We arrived at Perth airport at 5:40am on Australia Day, a national holiday where 400,000 people would be congregating in the evening for a fireworks display & we hadn't prebooked any accomadation. Actually, we found room at inn four, after deciding inn three was actually in the midst of a building site and, therefore, inaccessible and potentially noisy. Perth and surrounds were fantastic. The riverfront was buzzing the day we arrived-with stunt bikes jumping off ramps, aerobatic flybys, beach volleyball, and a stage with excellent Aussie bands- namely "The Avenues" and "The Panics". As darkness fell, there was an awesome firewor... read more