Fraser Island/Whitsunday Islands/Cairns

This is the end of Australia.

It has literally just sink in. After getting back from my last tour of a hectic 3 weeks I suppose tomorrow really is the time I leave Australia. Everyone always asks you when you're close to leaving whether or not you're 'ready' to go home and I still don't know the answer. Of course I miss everyone at home and of course I want to see more of the World and so the answer has to be somewhere in between I suppose. Either way, I'm 100% confident that this won't be the last time I travel and so maybe that's why it hasn't seemed to hit me yet.

Anyway... Why focus on the negative (the end of the trip), and focus on the positives. The last week, or however long it's been I truly have no idea, has been full of tours, starting with Fraser Island.

I won't lie to you, before the tour I had no idea what was happening due to the blur that the trips been but I'd spoken to a few people and knew that 4x4's and camping were involved with a few lakes in between. Despite that being my response since the event to fellow travelers who have asked me the same question - it is so much more than that somehow.

Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the World and our 3 day/2 night tour saw us self drive through the sandy beaches and bumps to several crystal clear lakes, 96% silicon sand, waterfalls, creeks, lookouts and springs, featuring the odd dingo, stingray and shark (maybe).

This all included 7am wake-up calls and a fair bit of driving which, admittedly, I was lucky to do considering you had to have held your licence for a year and I've been driving for 13 months now.

The trip itself was just incredibly well done. Not alone do you have time to see all the sights but due to the fact you are thrust in a car with 7 other people, no tour-guide's in the car, forced to cook for each other and share the snacks etc it just made for a tight family-style environment, made even better by the fact that I was the only guy which meant I never did any of the cooking - touch.

I was, again, very lucky in that the people in my car were a pretty awesome group to be fair, and featured its fair share of Europe. I think the final tally was 2 English, 3 Finnish, 1 Danish and 2 Irish  - probably the only ever group not to have a majority of either English and German people. My theory is that 90% of all travelers are from either Germany or England and that's not even an exaggeration.

After an amazing 3 days which ended in a pub quiz back on the main land (which once again, I didn't win.) we had actually a semi-relaxing couple of days which mainly included a 17 all-round coach journey up the coast and yes, this does count as relaxing in my book.

This culminated in another tour - the 3 day/2 night tour of the Whitsunday Islands... It was absolute luxury. The weather finally decided that it was going to get rid of all the clouds and be simply beautiful - ideal conditions for a boat.

To sum up the trip simply - we snorkeled 5 times over the 3 days and went to arguably the best beach in the world. In between we chilled out, drunk some goon and sunbathed on a boat - this is what Australia is all about. I genuinely don't think I need to explain this trip anymore... It was as simple as that with awesome food and some amazing marine life featuring spending half an hour snorkeling with a turtle.

It's also pretty impossible to put into words just how stunning Whitehaven beach is, I'd recommend Googling it to save me the embarrassment of failing to do it justice - simply amazing.

After another awesome 3 days and meeting more amazing people it was time to part ways with Tayla and make my last coach trip up the coast solo. Time boundaries were starting to come into play even more than usual and so this meant that I ended up getting back from the boat at midday, chilling until 8pm to get my overnight bus that arrived in Cairns (my last stop) at 6am - before skuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef at 7am.

Even though I ended up falling asleep on the boat a couple of times there was nothing that could stop me from enjoying such a fantastic experience. This day, surprise surprise, was another long day and included spending about 9 hours out on the reef itself and included another couple of snorkeling trips and a glass boat tour so despite my lack of sleep I still took the most of my opportunities and it's definitely another thing ticked off my bucket list and is the second of seven natural wonders of the World that I intend to see.

This brings me to today and yet another fantastic tour, this time to the rain forest region about an hour east of Cairns. It was yet another 7am wake-up call (I'd like to point out that I haven't woken up before 8 for at least a week and a half now so pity me???) that included stunning waterfalls with natural slip-slides, as well as being the home of the famous herbal essence adverts several years ago now which, of course, prompted an attempted hair flick from yours truly. Other stops included stunning rivers, lovely rainforest walks, volcanic-created creators, and huge lakes.

This trip was, not for the first time, made even better by a fantastic tour guide (probably my favourite in Australia - shoutout Jim) and meeting even more great people. It was a tour that I wasn't expecting huge things of but it really put the cherry on top of a fantastic trip and I couldn't be more thankful.

Even writing about how much I've done in the last x amount of days is making me ridiculously tired and I now look forward to a lay-in tomorrow!!!! Although this does mean checking-out of my hostel at 10am - bad times. I then have a few hours to kill which will give me time to actually explore Cairns a bit before flying over to Brisbane in the evening which has the luxury of being my home for the night (the airport that is) and then catching a 6am flight to Auckland where I will start my 2 week holiday - I cannot wait.

I hate saying goodbye's, more out of awkwardness than anything, but it has to be done unfortunately so I would like to say goodbye to the following...

1. My last remaining hoody (my fault - left on a boat)
2. My GoPro (my fault - took into water with the wrong case on - was absolutely gutted, sorry guys!)
3. My laptop charger (Gunna put this one down to travelling taking its toll - not my fault - yes!)

Not long to go now guys - I guess I'll see most of you all June time.

Sydney/Byron Bay/Surfers Paradise/Brisbane/Noosa

I didn't think it rained in Australia?

As you can probably assume from the title of this post, the past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic to say the least. Since I last wrote two weeks ago I've been in five cities/towns, two flash floods, had two surf lessons, seen over 20 dolphins, and walked 500 miles(maybe), and I'd walk 500 more.

I apologise for two things: 1) not writing in so long. As you can tell already its all been rather hectic and so in the very few periods I've had to sit down and write has always coincided with a lack of WiFi (which seems to be pretty common up the east coast for some reason - it's like they actually want people to talk to each other?) and 2) the length of this blog.

I suppose the best place to start is the beginning. It was a long long time ago and we'd just touched down in Sydney at the very inconvenient time of 8am. After yet another 4am wake-up call (the third in the space of two weeks) and a pretty bumpy flight meaning no sleep it was a fight to stay awake and take in Sydney - not that I'm complaining.

Being the pro-active type it took 5 minutes of checking in at the hostel before I'd decided to head to the standard tourist destination of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house, two things that, despite being the thing to do in Sydney, didn't excite me all that much, after all once you've seen it in a photo it's not too much different in person right? Now I don't pretend to be knowledgeable in the slightest when it comes to architecture but I think it's safe to say that you don't appreciate the quality of the Opera house until you're there first hand. Maybe its because I wasn't expecting much but either way I was in awe in both of the famous landmarks and it was certainly a great way to start the week in Sydney.

I then found myself on a free walking tour once again which was essentially wondering around the city for four hours and getting my bearings which was largely beneficial after a few hours of walking around the suburb of Newtown which features my favourite tree in the world - genuinely.

The day after this saw a 2 hour train journey (which costs $2.50 because it was a Sunday) to the Blue Mountains. To travellers they are a must do and they have nowhere near the international recognition they deserve as they are simply stunning. It's tough to put into words how stunning the views were so I'm not going to even try - it was just awesome.

It was around this time that the rain started to fall, and I mean seriously fall. After confidently strolling out into the apocalyptic rain (whilst telling everyone how much I love the rain), and being wetter than I found myself after the shower that morning, I was at the Sydney Cricket Ground. It has arguably the most history surrounding it than any other ground and was one of the more interesting tours I've been on whilst also including a trip into the neighbouring football/rugby stadium which was basically brand new and featured the two largest 'big screens' in the Southern Hemisphere behind both goals. Unfortunately there was no game on while we were there although in reality any game that would have been held there would have been cancelled because of the rain anyway - it was that bad.

After my first attempt of braving the rain I retired and found myself playing far too many card games (and maybe drinking far too much) and meeting some really great people who were in the same situation as ourselves. We did find a few indoor activities around the city though, my favourite of which being called SkyZone. It is essentially trampolines everywhere. I'm talking on the walls, on the floor and everywhere in-between and it was great to roll back the years and act like a child - not for the first time believe it or not.

With two days left the rain finally cleared up after three solid days of downfall so we could finally do all of the outdoor activities that Sydney has to offer. The Thursday saw a day trip to Manley beach and the Friday was the day we finally went to the famous Bondi Beach. Unfortunately the beach itself had been pretty wrecked by the storms and so had entered rescue mode, featuring lots of diggers, but it didn't stop the scenery from being stunning and the walk to Coogee beach is probably the best coastal walk I've ever been on so all was good.

In conclusion Sydney was great. Not great as Melbourne but I feel like it's hard to say this with complete certainty when I spent two and a half months in one place and a week in the other. I've had this conversation with far too many people and have argued my point into the early hours of many mornings and have finally come to the conclusion that everyone falls in love with the city that they spend more time in. Sydney is probably better for tourists and Melbourne is better to live in - at least that's the compromise that I tend to come too and I can deal with that.

Coaches are now the main form of transport and due to tight deadlines, I have three weeks to get from Sydney to Cairns via a lot of places - hence the tight schedule.

The trip up the East Coast started in Byron Bay, the set of the Inbetweeners 2 and generally just an incredibly hippy place. The three days that we spent in Byron consisted of two surf lessons and a day of kayaking with dolphins and turtles. Unfortunately I didn't get out and see the town as much as I would have liked due to the physical toll that all of the activities take - however I don't think I was missing out that much. There was just about time to hire some bikes (which had no brakes) and do another coastal walk, culminating in a lighthouse that overlooked the whole of the town and more.

Surfers Paradise, where believe it or not the surf was awful (apparently), was the next destination. Surfers is essentially a holiday destination and was labled as a mini Miami because of what seems like out of proportion sky scrapers that just seem to pop up out of nowhere by the sea. All of the sky scrapers seemed to be residential or tourist based, along with the ridiculous amount of bars/restaurants and it was just in general a really weird place.

We thought we'd take the tourist option here and spent another day at the beach where it was ridiculously windy and caused far too much pain than going to the beach should endure before spending a day at the obligatory water park and Movie World located around the corner. I appear to forget that I'm 18 years of age sometimes.

We then spent a night in Brisbane. Having heard generally negative reviews about the place before hand from both travellers and locals alike we went into the place with low expectations. This, combined with the start of yet another storm which eventually saw a further two days of flash floods meant that I should of had a horrible time. However it ended up being the complete opposite. I found it really similar to Melbourne in both its lay-out and its culture and whilst there may have been a lack of tourist activities I found it a really beautiful little city. I also managed to find myself at the cricket stadium to take the tally up to 5 for the trip.

It was around this time that the flood water really started to take their toll. What was meant to be a two hour journey from Brisbane to Noosa eventually turned out to be a ten hour trip due to both traffic and closed roads. After spending 2 hours getting out of the city in ridiculous traffic along roads that may well have flooded most cars (we saw at least 3 submerged cars along the way) we finally ground to a halt with the news that we couldn't go forward because the road was flooded and we couldn't turn back because the road was about to flood. We had to wait it out. It was a shame considering we were on such a tight schedule but we didn't miss anything particular - it just meant that we had less time to explore.

This brings me to my current destination - Noosa. Noosa is another town which is based around its beach and river but it really is a lovely place for a bit of downtime. After yet another stunning walk through a national park and along the coast we had a riverboat tour to the Everglades lake - one of two fully reflective lakes in the world apparently, although I'm not sure I quite buy that stat. It was however a beautiful trip, filled with a lovely barbecue, and even though the return leg of canoeing was cancelled due to those pesky floods, it was still a lovely day out.

Sitting down and writing these things really does put into perspective how much I've been doing. With both time and money starting to run low I'm really trying to do as much as I can. I know it looks like I've been to every beach under the sun but it seems like that's what the East coast is about - it really is a stark contrast after being in major cities for so long.

Anyway, 1640 words later and I will let everyone get back to their days, until next time....

Tasmania

Fun fact: 21% of Tasmania's land mass is made up of national parks.

A day later than planed, a really early morning and after a cancelled flight we found ourselves (Ian, Tayla and myself) in Tasmania. Launceston to be precise, Tasmania's second town that took us 3 days to learn how to say [Lawn-ses-ton/Lawny if you're lazy like us] and was where we picked up our small little Hyundai i20.

We started off with an exploration day which involved a drive to Contaract Gorge, a trip to a Vineyard and a beach. It didn't take long for the inner child to come out of us and after 10 hours or so of being in Tasmania we had already booked a quad bike session for the next day.

Neither Ian or I had ever actually driven these things before and watching Ian get the thing on two wheels next to a lake going about 50 kph was a personal highlight - even if he pretended he didn't realise he'd even done it.

We then decided to head towards the East Coast via a 90 metre waterfall which, although we fully intended to go there, seem to come out of nowhere. Even if it was just a single plume of water it was still a great sight, although the 11km of dirt road to get both to it and out of the site wasn't as much fun.

Via Pyengana we then saw Russell Falls (A small little waterfall - one of many!) on the way to St Helen's on the East coast which was home to Binalong Bay - I'll resist the urge to say it had binalong Day up to that point... Reluctantly.

Binalong Bay is home to a 'bay of fire' that features up the coastline - named for the orange colour that can be seen on and around the rocks and despite it being cold, overcast and windy I still managed to spend an hour and a half climbing the rocks and watching the waves roll in (philosophical I know) and this included getting sprayed a couple of times by the violent sea... Worth it.

We then travelled South along the East Coast to Freycinet National Park, home primarily to Wineglass Bay which, much to my frustration, doesn't look like a Wineglass and no one was able to tell us where the name even came from. The views where nice all the same though so my frustrations didn't last too long.

The following day before we made the drive down to Hobart to swap our tiny car for a big camper we fancied a couple of short walks, still in Freycinet and we happened to come across some friends I spent a fair bit of time with in Melbourne - I knew they were campervaning Tasmania but the odd's are still pretty impressive.

It didn't take us long to realise once we got the camper van that Ian's first experience of driving something that big and with a dodgy handbrake shouldn't be in a pretty major city. Let's just say that hill starts weren't fun.

We decided to head to what was essentially the most southern point of the island to explore some not-so-hot thermal springs (c'mon does 28 degrees count as a hot spring??) and some pretty impressive caves which were shown to us with a cave-fanatic tour guide who didn't hesitate to tell us how much he cleaned the place - interesting. In all seriousness they were quite cool actually.

We then treated ourselves to a National Park weekend, starting off in Mount Field where we saw probably my personal highlight of the trip - Russell Falls. It was essentially a four-tier waterfall that looked absolutely stunning. The weather in Tasmania decided to be really cold at the start of our National Park weekend and whilst we intended to go for a decent sized walk a brisk 15 minute walk soon told us that it was too cold so we headed back to the car!

The second National Park we went to was arguably Tasmania's most famous - Cradle Mountain and despite it only being about 150km from Mt Field, it took over 4 hours to get to because of the windy roads which can't have had more than 5 cars on it. It was worth the drive though (I assume - I didn't actually drive) as the walks and scenery was incredibly varied and scenic. The first 2 and a half hour trek took us through a small forest, a couple of waterfalls, a lake and several rocky 'trails' which were just fallen rocks that you had to clamber across which was right up Ian and I's street. The second 2 and a half hour walk saw us climb to the very top and pretty much the very bottom of a pretty huge gorge through a track that hadn't been maintained for a fair old while. It was fun.

After a nights stay in Devonport we drove from the North-West of the island to the South-East which made very little sense but we fancied a bit of history for a change. Port Arthur was the home of of the main prison which contributed heavily to the convict heritage that Tasmania has and so a pretty fascinating walk around the rebuilt grounds was had, making us feel very mature.

All that time then allowed us was a day and a half in hilly Hobart and we decided that because we'd been to a National heritage site the day before we could be kids for the day. This meant we played minigolf (the best minigolf course I've ever played on the be fair), went to the Cadbury's chocolate factory, went bowling and spent the night playing arcade games and playing pool in a pub. I loved every minute.

We decided to be our normal adult selves on leaving day and were very cultural going to the very exotic sounding MONA art gallery. In reality MONA stands for the Museum of Old and New Art which disappointed me a bit, but I moved on. The best bit about the gallery in my eyes is probably a bit PC for this blog and is available on request... It involves a toilet and mirrors though so be careful.

The intended plan was to get on a 4 o'clock plane, get to Melbourne for 6 and get to the Frank Turner gig for 8:30pm. Unfortunately after boarding and unboarding thanks to 'breaking problems' we didn't leave Hobart until 10:30pm that night and it's safe to say that we missed Frank Turner - gutted isn't the word.

After saying my goodbye's to the Melbournians yesterday I now find myself in Sydney with Tayla. A 4:15am wake-up call means that at 3:30pm I am struggling to keep my mind and body awake and it looks like I'm fighting a losing battle. The plan is to stay in Sydney for a week or so before starting the West coast journey that should last me a month or so, ending up in Cairns.

I'll keep in touch when I can - I hope that you're all enjoying the sun that you have stolen from Australia. I had to see the Sydney Opera house in the rain today and I blame you all.

Lot's of love x

It's been a busy week

It's mad how you lose track of time when you're travelling. Apparently the last time I blogged was 8 days ago and every time I write one of these things I struggle to remember anything I did within the last week.

With Tuesday and Thursday being the cricket semi-finals I found myself at my usual spot by the river in the CBD to watch two games that I couldn't call in the slightest. Unfortunately both days were English-type weather at its finest so I've had to buy another hoody because the other one was getting too much use.

The first semi-final, New Zealand Vs South Africa, was one of the best games of cricket I've ever seen with no exaggeration. It's pretty unbelievable that after watching a game for 8 hours you still cannot tell who's going to win. The former finally managed to bring it home and with Australia winning their game against India pretty easily in the end it meant that I'd get to watch the two home nations play at one of the best stadiums in the World - I kinda like this whole travelling thing yanno.

In between all the cricket was a trip to the moonlight cinema in the Botanic Gardens. It's a really well run event which see's an inflatable screen blown up and a projector every night during March and showing a variety of films. Kate will be jealous to hear that Mean Girls was the film of choice - a personal favourite of mine and being one of the many chick flicks that I embarrassingly love. It was a really great atmosphere even if I was ridiculously cold and I still loved the film despite having seen it dozens of times (again without exaggeration).

Friday saw a few drinks at a friends apartment as they had only moved in a few days prior. As its mainly family members who read this I shan't go into much detail.

Saturday saw a friend from back home (It hurts to call Dartford 'back home' but in context I suppose it's close enough) touch down in Australia. This meant that I used the walking tour that I went on over 2 months ago and showed her all the sights around the city along with 1 or 2 facts that have stuck with me - I rate my abilities as a tour guide I won't lie. It was nice seeing all the sights again and it amazes me that I haven't got bored of seeing all the sights and I'm still as in love with Melbourne as I was when I first got here.

I also see my free tour as giving me good karma. It turned out that my friend is staying with family friends in the city and so we headed there and it was an unbelievably nice building with views of Albert Park (where the Grand Prix was) and the sea. As if the lovely apartment wasn't enough, it then turned out that the roof had a jacuzzi with a phenomenal view of the city and it's sights. We got a cheap bottle of champagne/fizzy wine and had a barbecue while the sun sets - one of my favourite nights in Australia yet.

Sunday was the World Cup final, something I can tick off my bucket list and I will guarantee that it will not be my last. The anticipation and atmosphere was spectacular - even if I did have Stan moaning the whole time about how he wasn't included in the attendance figure which was a World record for a One day game in Australia (93,000). The happiness of the Australian fans and players was so special and I'm so glad I was part of it all. With the rugby World Cup in England this year, the European football championships in France next year and the Cricket World Cup in England in 2019 I think it's safe to say that I'm going to have to start saving.

Monday was a long and hard day which all came good in the end. After buying tickets to see Ed Sheeran (a music artist) a couple of weeks ago, I messed up with my address details due to moving in and out of hostels etc and so to cut a long story short: the tickets didn't arrive. After begging the ticket office etc and ringing the company there was nothing that could be done. Eventually we got a refund and so, not being deterred, we hung around the Rod Laver Arena for 2 and a half hours trying to find some going spare. 10 minute's before it was all due to start we ended up getting tickets that were much cheaper than what we had paid originally (I'm going to try and claim that this is my good karma again) and I think the whole scenario made me enjoy the gig even more than I would have originally. Ed Sheeran really is great live - I'd strongly recommend it.

This brings us back to the present. Today saw a sharp improvement in the weather so of course I went running back to the beach while I still can.

Unfortunately my time in Melbourne is starting to run out and I think it's safe to say that it is the best city that I've visited in my life so far. Its the perfect size for me and as I've said before there is always something to do. The thought of living here has seriously crossed my mind - but it's something that would require far more thought than I've already put in. Tasmania is the next stop and so the next couple of days will probably spent trying to sort plans out and get myself back into the mindset of travelling.

It's nice to have so much to write about again after a slight lull over the last couple of weeks - well done if you've managed to finish this without falling asleep!

Happy Easter!

Beaches and Cricket

It's been a while so I thought I'd update you all on how chilled out I've been recently.

After another (and eventually last) week of work I didn't find too much time to socialise or do anything of particular interest apart from a pub quiz and a few beers here and there etc. However I did have the pleasure of having Mr Karl Kennedy from Neighbours (real name unknown/forgotten to me) perform with his band in my hostel bar which is always going to be a good story to tell.

The next major event was the Grand Prix in Melbourne which has create much envy from a lot of people and an event that was a really great spectacle to be apart of. Despite the cars being ridiculously fast and having to endure what felt like minor whiplash at the end of 52 laps it was a really great day out. Of course, Lewis Hamilton winning was a huge bonus but having a car break down in front of me on the warm-up lap was a particular highlight of mine. The only problem I found was after 20-odd laps or so when everyone started pitting it was impossible to tell who was in what position and who had/hadn't pitted etc - even with big screens and live commentary it only fell into place for me with 10 laps to go, by which time Hamilton was at least 3 seconds clear of second and 30 seconds clear of 3rd. Would strongly recommend anyone to try and get to one of these though, especially a street circuit - I personally would love to go to Monaco one day.

After letting my boss know that I wanted to spend time travelling again instead of working, I found that I had time to spend again, who'd have thought it?!

 The week consisted of lot's of sun essentially. I think the people of Australia genuinely believe that 25 degree's is cold and so everyone seems to have the attitude that every day of sun is going to be it's last and this has translated to the travellers - obviously.

A day at Brighton beach (a 10 minute tram away, not a flight back to England) was as laid back and relaxed as you can expect with great views of the city from a distance and walking past a wedding spot in which we saw 3 ceremonies taking place.

The rest of the week saw the celebration of St Patrick's day, something that I, or any other of the English guys, had never celebrated before but it seems like every Australian and their friend were out somehow - even if it was a Tuesday night, amongst another beach trip and somehow more cricket.

The cricket is a bit more acceptable now as it's the business end of the tournament, so with 4 quarter-finals came 4 days of sitting in the sun and watching it. This included my 4th and penultimate trip to the MCG to see India destroy Bangladesh, the team that knocked England out so their loss didn't sadden me in the slightest. The Semi-finals are on Tuesday and Thursday before the final on Sunday and with the best 4 teams still in it, it's anyone's tournament which is exciting, but means I can only spend 3 more days watching cricket - bad times.

With the end of the World Cup fastly approaching it's that time again where I'm having to look into moving on and it looks like the next stop is Tasmania. While no plans are concrete, by the next time I've submitted a blog I might have a special guest for you - stay tuned.

Working Week

It's been another quiet one.

Apparently it's been getting hot back home, and being on the other side of the world means that the opposite is happening here. Don't get me wrong I'm still able to go out in shorts and a t-shirt, so I'm not complaining by any means.

As I say it's been another quiet one this week, mainly down to trying to adapt my body clock to allow me to wake up at 7:30 everyday without feeling like death. Work is tough and I'm struggling to keep motivation all day when I'm out in the middle of nowhere but the people are awesome which makes it worth it.

I'm starting to know how the Proclaimers must have felt after walking 500 miles after this week - my poor legs don't even know what it's like to sit down any more after walking around all day everyday, but it gives me chance to walk off all of the McDonald's I suppose so it's not all bad.

The people though really do make it worth it. Thursday night was team night and consisted of a night of beer and dumplings (paid for by the boss, lovely) and Friday pub night turned into a reasonably heavy session in the town of Melbourne and so this week does have some positives and hasn't stopped me loving Melbourne by any means.

Despite plans to hire bikes and go to China Town on Saturday we had all been out the night before and after realising that Harry Potter was on the TV that night we decided to have a much needed quiet one.

After a ridiculous amount of ridicule from the guys about my unhealthy diet I agreed (it didn't take much persuasion) to let them cook me a meal which meant that my night consisted of a steak, jacket potato, cheese and baked beans followed by a stupid amount of snacks and sweets in front of Monsters Inc and Harry Potter - I am 18 believe it or not.... and I loved it.

Sunday was Future Music Festival - one of my best days in Oz so far. Despite spending 2 hours on dodgy WiFi trying to find a ticket I finally managed to get online and sort it out and a day of (responsible) drinking and music commenced in the 25 degree heat. Amidst the odd foam party and food we saw the likes of Example, Aviici and Sigma (I expect none of you to know what I'm talking about here!).

This brings me to Labour day - yet another national holiday - meaning I get a day off to watch England play a must win game in the World Cup later... We'll see...

Living In Melbourne

Something's always on in Melbourne.

I really haven't done enough things of interest to justify writing a blog post but I thought I'd let the 5 or so people who actually read this thing know that I'm still alive etc.

It's not something you notice until you look back on it, but Melbourne always has something going on.

I've been here for a month now and during that time there's been 'fesitvals' galore. First of all there was the tennis, then there was St Kilda festival, then the week after that was White Night. White Night was weird, it was essentially a cultural festival I suppose and all over the CBD were light works, films, art, buskers, musicians you name it. There was even a woman who, for 24 hours, had a ridiculous amount of hay and was threading it round here to make some sort of birds nest... I really didn't get it. The events ran from 7am till 7pm and got more confusing and weird as the night went on to say the least. Apparently this is only the 3rd year it's been on and was ridiculously busy with around 150,000 people in the city apparently.

This week there's currently a food and wine week going on, before one of the biggest festivals in the World is here next Sunday during it's tour of Australia (Future music festival) and the week after that the Grand Prix is here.

I do love Melbourne and the fact that there's always something to do at the weekend week in week out. I've never seen myself as a city person but if I was ever rich enough I would love to live in Melbourne one day.

Anyway, White Night is essentially the only thing of any interest I've done this week!

Apart from another couple of decent trips to the MCG to see Bangladesh V Sri Lanka and India V South Africa (don't worry I'm not going back until the quarter-finals in three weeks now) and watching ridiculous amounts of the World Cup on the big screen by the river, my weeks been occupied with getting a job.

I've basically decided that I've seen the majority of the sights in Melbourne and so I've become less of a traveller and more of a resident. I've also decided that New Zealand is a must see from the amount of people who have recommended it to me and that by committing myself to this hostel for another month because of the World Cup final I need more money.

Well... need is an exaggeration for sure, it would probably be do-able without a job but it's a great way to meet people and it's something to do as well. 

Don't judge me too much, but its door to door selling... This basically means that by the end of my time in Melbourne I'll be hated by about 80% of the population from knocking on their doors all the time but money's money... Even if its commission only!

I start tomorrow so who knows, this time next week I might have hated it so much that I am no longer working... We'll see.

For now though, tara. 

Road Trip

It's been a while...

It's been a busy week and a half or so with limited WiFi opportunities so this is the first time I've had the resources to actually write one of these - I can barely remember what's happened.

Okay, so I last signed off after the St Kilda Festival - jheez that seems like ages ago. Since then I've done far too much to go into everything in detail so I will be doing some skimming, apologies.

The week after that was generally pretty chilled and laid back. For the first time since I'd been in Melbourne the weather was starting to show its true colours after a week full of sun. With the standard 'four seasons in a day' kind of weather really starting to live up to it's name. On the whole though, minus the odd thunderstorm and overcast day it was the standard 30ish heat so no complaints.

After spending 4 hours in a classroom obtaining my Responsible Service of Alcohol License, which was tedious to say the least when you have a ridiculously basic 20 question multiple choice paper to complete to gain the licence itself - especially as I could have answered all the questions before taking the course anyway. But its out the way now and means that if I want to work somewhere that serves alcohol, it's now a bit easier. (It's compulsory to have an RSA licence to work in bars/restaurants in Australia)

Then followed a couple of exploration days with some guys from the hostel who had spent too much time at the beach to actually see the city so I took the role of tour guide and saw a few bits that I hadn't seen myself so there's always a bright side.

Then followed a cricket based few days (shock!) which started with a free warm-up game at the MCG for Australia V United Arab Emirates which was probably a bit of foreshadowing for the England game in hindsight with Australia thrashing the UAE. This was followed by another free event at the Sidney Myer Music Bowel which was reasonably impressive in itself. The World Cup Opening Ceremony itself wasn't as great as it could have been but was an event I can say I've now been too.

Friday saw my Welsh friend Kelly go home and surprise her family in Swansea so we thought we'd treat ourselves to the tallest building in Melbourne before she left which was an experience similar to the Shard. She was also ridiculously scared of heights which made the experience a little funnier as well. They also had 'The Edge' - a 3 metre glass box that extends out of the building, I wasn't too much of a fan but again, I can say I've done it. Friday also saw my first ever trip to a casino, I absolutely loved it but there's no need to go into much detail about that...

Then the World Cup started in a non-spectacular fashion from an English point of view with us getting thrashed by Australia in front of 90,000 Aussie's at the MCG but it was still a great experience and atmosphere and a great day out.

Wow, not as much skimming as I expected to do there... Well done if you've managed to read this far I haven't even started the road trip yet...

Sunday saw the start of the road trip. Becca and Emily had already left on Thursday to do the famous Great Ocean Road (Definitely Google it - its worth it) and because of the England game I arranged to meet them at the other end via train as they then worked their way back along it (I don't think that makes sense - I'm tired, sorry!). Andy would love this place, it's full of stacks and arches and various coastal landforms that saw my Geography A-level come out in force and follow in my uncles footsteps of explaining every kind of landform and how they occur etc.

The following day saw us catch the ferry over the (river? Sea? Not too sure, maybe a bay??) and a short drive to Phillip Island which was amazing. More coastal landforms were seen and explained and pictured, followed by a koala conservation which was ridiculously cute, then followed by a trip to a chocolate factory - no words are needed here, it's a bloody chocolate factory.

That evening was perhaps THE greatest thing I have ever seen. Every day at sunset on Phillip Island over 600 (apparently over 1000 in Winter) of the World's smallest penguins come back from the sea after a day's hunting and waddle up the beach to their nests for the night. If anybody can name anything better than 600 penguins struggling to get up a hill for a couple of hours you win, it was awesome and I genuinely can't think of a better way to spend an evening. Unfortunately camera's aren't allowed because they hurt they penguins eyes so this one will just have to stay in my head unfortunately (or Google).

Tuesday saw a fair bit of driving after playing with the kangaroo's at a nearby conservation park and we headed to some hot springs for some relaxation. Who'd have thought that 3 hours sitting in 40 degree pools would make you so much more tired than before you went it??

Tuesday was followed by a nice day at Melbourne Zoo with the girl's friend Becky and the last day of the car was an hour's drive to a kids dream. A maze, mini golf, frisbee golf and games all in one place it would be stupid not to go.

DONE!

Sorry for rambling on so much, again, well done if you made it this far. I'll make sure to not leave blog entries this far apart in the future and will try and get back into the routine of 1 a week again.

As usual all pictures will be up on Facebook and I hope you are all well.

Until next time

Melbourne

I bloody love Melbourne.

With a 5am flight from Perth I decided to use the airport as my bedroom for the night, which meant spending my time getting lost and finding myself in all three of the airport's terminals thanks to a mixture of getting lost and closure's etc. I managed to find the time to skype and relax for a bit though so it's not all bad, also meant that the whole 4 hours were spent sleeping in the classic aeroplane positions which were ridiculously uncomfortable even with the three seats that I had to myself.

The first three days here were straight up exploring and being a massive tourist, seeing the botanic garden's which were awesome and a really nice day of doing nothing with a book which is a nice way to settle in.

Melbourne is perfect for me, in that all of the sports stadiums are within a stone's through of each other - almost literally. 5 minutes away from my hostel is the tennis (which has spent all week being dismantled after last weeks Australian open) with the massive Rod Laver arena. 2 minutes on from that is the 100,000 seater Melbourne Cricket Ground which I have obviously had a tour of already. The MCG is also home to the sports museum where I managed to spend over 3 and a half hours somehow - it's essentially my idea of heaven in there. Another couple of minutes away is Melbourne City's football ground which looks more like the Eden Project than a football stadium, but I'm a fan of it somehow.

I don't know what's wrong with me but I've also had a walking tour since I've been here. As in I had the option to get a bus but I decided to walk... Weird. I really enjoyed it to be fair though, despite it being a solid 4 hours, it was interesting and had the right amount of info which is definitely what I look for in a tour in a weird way.

That evening was spent getting to know my room mates and led to a beach day the following the day. I burned. A lot. A hint of advice to anyone heading to a beach in the 35 degree heat... sun cream. I'll say no more on the matter out of embarrassment. Also had a jelly fish swim pretty close to my leg which I might claim as a near death experience??? (Kind of)

Saturday was cricket once again and managed to get introduced to all the players and fans (40 odd people somehow) there, including an England U19's international playing for Nottinghamshire and Paul Franks who has an England cap to his name which was pretty surreal - especially when they gave me a lift home. Was also told that Alex Hales and James Taylor have both spent seasons playing over there as well. They out 8 sides out every weekend so it looks like I'm gunna have a run out for them on the last couple of days of their seasons which could be interesting...

That evening the Melbourne derby was being played (Melbourne Victory Vs Melbourne City) so I obviously couldn't say no to going there. Atmosphere was impressive and the attendance was 40,000+ and with Victory winning 3-0 the pyro came out which was all good fun.

Finally was the St Kilda festival which was unbelievable. St Kilda is a coastal town and holds a yearly festival for 5 days right on the sea front. I'd never heard of any of the acts but the headliner was a DJ called Hot Tub Time Machine, which was unbelievably good. He essentially went back in time to 1954 and played the best song of each year up till 2015 and I can honestly say it was one of the best hours of my life. I strongly recommend youtubing him or seeing if you can, I loved it.

Anyway, enough rambling for this week. All picture's are now on Facebook. I hope all is well + happy birthday to half of my family for this week!

Lot's of love X

Au Revoir Perth

This week I visited an Island named after Penguins - there is genuinely no way whatsoever that this could end badly.

Penguin Island was by far the highlight of the trip so far. Located off the town of Rockingham, 45 minutes south of Perth, Penguin Island is home to Sea Lions, Dolphins, Birds, Lizards, and of course, Penguins - the smallest kind of penguin in the world I might add.

After having to wake up at 7 (ouch), I was picked up along with 13 others and taken to the picturesque Rockingham, weather was perfect at 38 degrees and there were barely any waves whatsoever which is always good when you're kayaking. After a quick meet and greet we paired up in the 2 man kayaks and went dolphin spotting. Apparently this is usually pretty difficult but we got lucky and met a mother and child after a couple of minutes, so I decided to get my money's worth out of my GoPro...

After another kilometre of kayaking (they use kilometres here and its confusing) we headed past another small island that housed tens of sea lions. We were told that usually they are pretty curious and tend to cause a bit of a splash but today they fancied lying in the sun and played dead - still cute though and we got pretty close so not a problem. I did try and get pictures but I was a bit too shaky and it came out crap.

Penguin Island itself was pretty stunning and ridiculously interesting - shout out to Alfie from Guernsey, our tour guide who knew everything and was a decent laugh - and gave you panoramic views for miles (miles not kilometres). After a really interesting tour and a few tourist pictures (hence the failed attempt of me trying to kiss the rock that looks like a dog) we had a penguin talk from the keepers on the island and watched them get fed - again, standard tourist. 

In the afternoon we had some free time and so I took the opportunity to go snorkelling for the first time in my life... Loved it. After the initial 10 minutes of struggling to understand how you can even breathe underwater without dying it was relatively easy and really enjoyable, will definitely be doing it again soon.

 After a fantastic day out and about I went back to my standard exploring and cricket for the rest of the week. After watching England narrowly beat India on Friday I got the luxury of watching us getting demolished by Australia 2 days later, lovely. Both games where interesting due to the fact I was essentially the sole English fan at both games, surrounded by 5,000 and 10,000 opposition fans respectively. Got given a lot of hefty looks, especially at the Australia game which created a decent atmosphere and a decent day out.

I leave you with two pictures, the first a firework shot from Australia day on Monday because everyone loves some fireworks. The second was the sunset of the city skyline on my last day in Perth on my way back home - stunning.

I am about to upload 100 odd photo's from Perth onto Facebook as I clear memory on my phone etc for the sights that I will soon see in Melbourne.

Hope you're all well! X

Happy Australia day!

I've finally managed to find somewhere with enough WiFi to let me sit down and write one of these things!

In reality I've had a pretty chilled week, with the a fair chunk of my time being spent watching films and reading so definitely no complaints from me. I have managed to mix it up a bit though with a few trips to the beach and to the river etc - such a tough life!

On Tuesday I managed to get to the WACA in time for the tour so I've already topped Monday. The tour guide was an ex-international umpire and so really knew his stuff - I have to say that it was one of the best tours I've been on to be fair to him and he was a really nice guy. After taking us round the stands and to the scoreboard etc we were allowed in the players changing rooms and umpire's box which I found all really interesting (can't imagine many of you guys would have found it interesting but I loved it!). We were then taken on to the pitch itself which I couldn't quite believe considering Andy's Bryant and Powney are still coming to terms with the fact that people are allowed to walk on Meopham Green's outfield - let alone an international standard pitch! All in all a really good day out and I couldn't quite believe it when I left the tour and saw that England were thrashing India in the cricket - touch.

The rest of the day was spent in the pub watching the England game, again - such a tough life!

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was mainly relaxation. On Wednesday I hit Cottesloe beach and spent all day relaxing in the 33 degree heat (the tan is starting to come along nicely) and Thursday I went down and relaxed by Swan River for the day with a book - Gone Girl (8/10 - strongly recommend although I haven't finished it yet, probably would have been a 9/10 if someone hadn't given me spoilers!)

Wednesday night also saw the first live sport action of the holiday. I made the 2 minute walk to the ridiculously shaped Perth Arena and watched my first ever game of competitive Basketball - it was weird. I've never attended a game like Basketball which actively encouraged the crowd to go against the opposition. Music was played throughout (whether the game itself was being played or not) and there were ridiculous amounts of cheerleaders and entertainers. It was a really good night out and I strongly recommend going to one if you ever have the opportunity.

Friday to Sunday was heavily cricket orientated, I wouldn't have it any other way. Friday was a bar day where I woke up early just to watch the England/Australia game. Wished I hadn't by the end of the day after losing a fair bit of money and by watching us throw a game away which we should have won ridiculously easily after the first 35 overs.

Saturday I got the ridiculously cheap train ($2 for a half hour journey) to Claremont to watch a game of local cricket. The Western Suburbs were playing a team with a stupid name that sounded something like Kangaroo. After speaking to a couple of guys down there I found out that they play over two weekends, so one team bowls for 80 overs on one Saturday and then the other team comes back the week after to try and chase it down. I genuinely couldn't believe that these people were willing to field for 80 overs every other week in this heat, I got burnt enough just being on the sidelines.

This brings me to yesterday, the day I moved hostels. Whilst the old one might be nicer with its facilities and have a comfier bed, the new one appeals to me much more. The 30 somethings in the old hostel have been replaced with people in their early 20's here and comes equipped with a couple of table tennis tables, a pool table and a projector - much more my scene to say the least.

I also managed to watch my first ever Big Bash game yesterday which was amazing. Everything from the atmosphere to the cricket was great, especially with the Scorchers being the underdogs and then winning with an Englishman leading the way. I also got to see Kevin Pietersen bat which is always nice and means I'll have to make a trip to a bar on Wednesday to watch the final - damn.

The next few days I'm planning on playing it by ear. It's meant to get pretty hot (even hotter than it already is) and so I imagine a few trips to the beach are going to have to happen. As I mentioned today is Australia day, I'm not actually sure what the celebration is actually in aid of but I have a feeling its to mark the day it was founded as opposed to it's independence. They've done a fair bit of advertising for it though and there's meant to be some decent fireworks down by the river tonight which I shall check out.

Finally, they played this video yesterday at the cricket and I loved it so thought you should see it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMdbVHPmCW0

The Journey

Australia is hot #fact

After a 12 hour journey to Singapore, followed by a 10 hour layover and another 5 hour flight with just an hours sleep, I arrived at my hostel at 2am to find it was closed - just my luck, luckily for me there was a police station opposite that pointed me in the direction of a 24/7 hostel about half an hour away. I got into bed at 3 and didn't stir until I was awoken at 11 by a member of staff that told me that my check-out was at 11... It was 10:55. They were all fine about my lateness and after a pretty hectic first 10 hours or so in Australia, I arrived at my actual hostel by 11:30 sweating buckets in the 35 degree heat and a decent sized backpack. By 11:45 I was out for the count until about 4pm that day.

The journey itself was full of decent films and I finally managed to watch 22 Jump Street so all was not bad. Suits series 4 was also part of the selection which was an absolute touch! As an 18 year-old the first thing I did when I hit Singapore airport at 9am was use the free WiFi - obviously and after the standard Facebook and Twitter checks I thought I'd Google what I could do in the airport to pass the time - the answer was everything. Ranging from sitting on sofa's watching Premier League highlights to swimming pools/spa's it really had everything, including English plug sockets and ridiculous amounts of fountains, pools and flowers. I couldn't have had a better airport to kill 10 hours in to be honest.

Another piece of luck was that they offered a free sightseeing tour if your layover is over 5 and a half hours. The first thing you notice when you get out of the air-conditioned airport is the humidity, the hoody and bobble hat came off within seconds in the 30 degree heat and unlike in Australia the heat just seems to stick to you - not nice. A cute old Asian woman gave a decent enough tour for an hour and a half with the main focus on the hotel with a boat on top - can't remember its name I was too tired and we also got about 20 minutes to walk about to enjoy the sights which was a nice way of breaking up the journey. Unfortunately as we travelled back to the airport I couldn't help but nod off. I felt awful for this poor tour guide and had to apologise sincerely at the end, which she duly accepted and told me how often this happens.

I found out that when you wake up at 4pm on a Saturday there isn't really much you can do with the rest of your day. After a few hours I thought I'd treat myself to some dinner and wandered into the town centre which, after running into a hen do, I found myself on a square surrounded by hundreds of people. There was a big screen showing funny cat video's and so I assumed that it was just a kind of warm up act before the main event - it took me 5 minutes to realise that the cats were the main event. I later googled it and it turns out that I have genuinely attended a cat festival along with hundreds of other people - the mind boggles.

By the time I got back people were starting to head to bed but luckily an Irishman had films on his phone and plugged it into the TV so I managed to watch American Sniper (6/10, not all its hyped up to be) as well as the football on my laptop. Won £70 on a £1 accumulator which was a result. This + jet lag meant that I didn't get to sleep till 6am and have been working on 4 hours sleep which should, eventually, allow me to get into a routine and maybe even start functioning properly, who knows?!

Yesterday was the first day I was actually a tourist - it only took me three days! I managed to walk up to King's Garden and Botanic Gardens which was huge. I was there for about 4 hours can't imagine I saw more than half of it. Its marginally higher than the rest of the city so showed some great views and lots of nice walkways etc. Its primary use is to remember soldiers who fought in WW2 and also features a few lakes and the like to appreciate women's role in society. Believe it or not I actually found it quite interesting and found that it was the ideal way to spend the day when jet-lagged.

Today was meant to be a day of exploration and a tour of one of the countries biggest and best stadiums, the WACA, however I took a wrong turning and found myself lost in the middle of Perth. I somehow managed to find myself in North, South, East and West Perth today - how I managed this is a mystery to me but it let me see more of the city that I expected so I can't complain. My trip also lead me to a really nice sports bar/bookies so Stan kept me company for a few hours while I watched the cricket (for those who don't know, Stan is an intrepid explorer/a toy tiger who has been to a large part of Asia and the majority of South America with my Aunt and Uncle and a fair bit of North America with my Brother so has seen more of the World than anyone I know) and chilled for the first time in a place that wasn't my hostel.

The next week or two is quite sport orientated - mainly cricket. Tomorrow I will actually have my tour at the WACA (hopefully) and will do a bit more exploring before some basketball later on in the week, followed by football in the early part of next week, followed by a couple of games of cricket to watch as well. Fingers crossed the Perth Scorchers win their last game and get a home semi-final in the Big Bash as that looks like a great day out.

It's been great to keep in touch with some of you and I hope that the incoming snow doesn't effect you all to much! Xo