Sydney to Melbourne to Sydney to New Zealand!!

I know!! It's been quite a while since I last posted! We'll I've only jus found time! We're non-stop at the moment. So heres the vaugue story so far (if you want the low down of every second of our travels please see chris's blog).... Ohh all of my pictures are now up if you would like to check them out. Im very excited about getting some awesome landscape shots here in New Zealand.

So I left you last when we were about to travel to Melbourne. We took a Greyhound bus overnight lasting around 12hrs (much longer than I thought) to the well recommended city! We arrived around 8am and checked into our hostel called Nomads Industry (by far the best hostel so far). really cool funky little bar downstairs and hot working showers!! We stayed in Melbourne for a week exploring the city (reminds me of Bristol quite alot, with all the river etc.) We spent most of our evenings in Uni bars which were awesome, just our thing I guess. Tons of people our age, no tourists about and cheap beer. A bar we found on the thursday night was called the 'Traders Bar', we found this jus by walking down some back alley it was reali quite cool. On the Wednesday it was Mikes Bday!! woop. It was reali funi, we bought Mikee party hats, drink umrellas, curly straws and Party blowers and went for lunch along brunswick street. In the evening we were determined to head out for a big night but it was a wednesday and ended up in some small Irish bar in the Centre. On the Friday we were lucky enough to be taken out by one of Chris' relatives to a Wildlife park which was fun and quite different as we had our own safari. (check out the pics of the baby hippo, its pretty cool). It was reali gd to be taken out by someone who lives there as gettin around is next to impossible without a car. On the saturday Ellen a friend of mikes who we were stayin with took us out to a cool little surf beach where we spent the day on the Surfboards, it was good fun. Later on that evening we met up with some friends who we met along the way and went to an AFL game. It was very exciting to watch as it was a very close scoring game! AFl is a strange sport, It is pretty much a cross between football and rugby. It doesnt seem too logical but they are crazy for it in Melbourne. It was good to watch tho, a really awesome atmosphere.

After a pretty busy week in Melbourne, we head back to Sydney for Stuarts birthday, arrived at about 8am off the bus again and went to breakfast with stu and his parents who shared their storis about their travels around Fiji!! We then all head off to the pub (about 11am now) where chris and I left to book our campervan for NZ. An hour later chris and I returned to a very drunk stu where we joined in and then head to the cinema to give the livers a rest. After the cinema we head back to the hostel to get some sleep that didnt really happen!) Not too long after Stu parents arrived with a cake and sparklers. We lit the sparklers ready to sing Happy Birthday when we suddenly realised that there were smoke detectors in the room. We quickly attempted to put them out but it was too late. The fire alarms to the whole hostel were going off. We evacuated the builing, and stus mum ran down to reception to explain. We got outside when two fire engines arrived and cleared the building!! It was soo funi. We were very lucky we didnt get charged for the call out!! We decided to stay clear of the hostel and head back to the pub til the evening and went to Sidebar to meet some of stus rugby mates from back home. It was a very amusing evening. The remaining 3days we decided to spend at Manly beach which was an aweosme little chilled out surfing town!! We spent a day at Bondi surfing and another at Manly!! On the last day we all hired boards and immi and rachael came down to visit us!! We were out in the surf for about 4hours all of us were getting up great and the surf was pretty gd. Although we were surfing quite close to each other. I unfortunately managed to injure myself when i fell offr my board and then chris fell off his board resulting in a surf board in the face causing an inch long gash within my left eyebrow. It wasnt painful but there was blood evverywhere, we walked to the nearest doctors who stiched it up for me (5 stitches!!) and took a break for the rest of the day!!

We are now in New Zealand and loving every minute of it, my stiches come out tomorrow woo, hopefuli It wont scar too much! We now have our own Spaceship (a type of campervan which we will be staying in for the next 3weeks!!) Its really good fun, were stayin around some of the worlds best scenery, check the pics, we slept on the beachfront last night was soo nice.

I must go now, but ill keep you all posted about our adventures in New Zealand!!

Alex

Sydney!!

Picture taken at Mojo Surf Camp, was such a wicked day!!



Hello from Sydney!!!

We have now finished the East Coast of Australia, travelled 4,000km and it has been an amasing 5 weeks!! Loved every minute. We arrived in Sydney late afternoon, checked into our hostel (cheapest yet in oz at $17 a night) and went out to 'The Gaff' Australia's Number 1 backpacker bar for an Afterparty with the Oz Experience bus. It was really good fun, stu met up with us and the 4 of us were once again back together which was really good fun!! Yesterday (our first whole day in sydney) we decided to head out to one of its many beaches, so we went to visit Coogie Beach, we took a very scenic walk along the coastline (for about and hr) to the famous Bondi Beach which was amasing and had a quick swim. Checked out the costs for surfboard hire for the following days to come. Last night we headed out into Kings Cross with Joe, Emma and Martin. It was martins last night away and was heading back home today :( so we all said our goodbye's and danced to night away. The DJ was amasing!!
Today (well in about 10mins) we plan to head off to the sydney opera house and the harbour bridge to get some photos (watch this space). Then Ed (who we met in Thailand) and I will be heading off to the ANZ Stadium (formerly Telstra Stadium) where Englang Won the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics were held!!

Chris and I are off on our bus to Melbourne which were really looking forward to. I will keep you updated from there.

Much Love

Alex.

Brisbane and the Gold Coast

Hey all!

It's been a while since I have posted as I have been soo busy!! Everything moves soo fast over here especially when you are non stop. This is literally one fo the first times ive been able to sit down and write this.

So we arrived in Brisbane on the 25th of March at an amasing hostel (my favourite so far) named Bunk, it had a TV room, Hot Tub, Bar, Swimming Pool and tons of people we have met along the way. It was a real good laugh. Janhavi joined us for a couple of days which was good fun and quite surreal to see her the other side of the world. Natalie also joined us for her easter break and has now travelled down to sydney with stu. We spent until the 30th visiting Southbank [public beach pool] and going out in Brisbane's Valley [brisbanes top nightlife location]. We then headed down to Surfers Paridise [which is apparently the benidorm of Australia] lots of high rise buildings and miles and miles of stunning beaches where we spent most of our time. We only stayed in Surfers for one night before we headed down to stay with Vicki and Jack [Verity's Cousin] in Burleigh/Miami. It was really good to be out of the hostels and into a home. Vicki and Jack were both very kind to us letting us stay for the time we did, we had a good laugh and really enjoyed ourselves. Within the week we stayed we managed to visit Burliegh Heads [stunning view all along the coast], go to Wet n' Wild [which was sooo much fun, we spent most of our time on a water ride called the Tornado, which threw you and 4 other people down a watery half pipe at high speeds, it was good fun!] and also in Burleigh I took a surf lesson which was amasing. The waves were brilliant and I managed to catch quite a few, on my first attempt to stand up I managed to do it which I thought was a great achievement. We were using big boards and they were really good conditions. I really hope to do more as we go down the coast. However my last day in Burleigh, I hired a board and spend most of my time on the beach with my head in the sand as the waves were very rough as there was a storm brewing.

We are now in Byron Bay, back with Mike, Joe and Emma. The weather here has been rubbish lately but we hear its better in Sydney (which is where we are heading tomorrow). Despite the rain we have managed to go out on bike rides up to the lighthouse which was the most easterly point in Australia and watch dolphins below in the sea which was really good to see.
I'm not sure if you have head back home about the Shark attack on a 16 year old boy in Ballina [15mins south, a couple of headlands away]. This happened yesterday so all the beaches were closed to surfers and swimmers which was quite scary. However we plucked up the courage to go surfing this morning which was good fun. Tipping down with rain but ah wel we were wet anyway.

So tomorrow we head to Surf Camp for one night then to Sydney where the 4 of us will be re-united again. :)

keep checking the photos! We've got tons up now!
Still loving every minute, hope your all enjoying the snow back home.

Alex.