We're on the Oz Experience, woohoo!

I say WOOHOO, I was really apprehensive as I thought it would be more like Kiwi Ex, luckily its not, its just like Stray from NZ.

We had to get up really early the first day, urgh. We arrived at the office and got on our little bus. Our driver was the lovely Hoops, she's originally from the Sydney area, working for Oz for a couple months.

The people on the bus seemed nice, a real mixed bag, 18-50, german, brit, oz. The first daywas travelling to Thredbo, which is in the Snowy Mountains. Obviously being summer it's not very Snowy but in the Winter it is a top Ski resort. We stayed in a 4star resort, which was lush.

The next day was another long one. We got up had brekkie and Hoops dropped us at the chair lift to go up Mt Kosciuszko. We rode it to the top and then walked 6.5 km up to the very highest point. It was a bit of a slog with 90km/h winds, and very COLD! but really beautiful views at the top. That took about 2 hours. After that we were knackered and glad to hear we would be sitting for most of the rest opf the day to get to Lakes Entrance where we would be staying in the YHA and having dinner in a diner.

The road we took to get to Lakes Entrance is called Barry Way. A very cool, dirt track which takes you through the Mountains, through the bush. It was great fun, the road is single track and one side you have cliff and the other you have no cliff, as in sheer drop!

Unfortunately, half way along, write at the bottom about 1km form the border to Victoria we got a flat. HEEHEE, what great fun! Luckily Dave to the rescue. Turned out though, it was actually two tyres gone and we had no jack that worked. Hoops got a lift to the nearest phone as in the middle of no where there is no signal, and we continued in the bus (learner guide Bret drove) and came across a safe place to stop, where we could get out we anaged to stop a Volvo with a decnet Jack.

After a while they managed to get the spare off and jack the bus up so Dave could change the outer back right tyre so that we could continue a bit further. It was baking hot so we didn't really want to be standing around. We found Hoops at someones house a few km down the road, she'd managed to get hold of a mechanic who lived in Seldom Seen, a hamlet up the road and he was coming to help. Turned out the mechanic, 'Dave' was a picninc short of a picnic. He came flying round the corner towards us, when he had to slam on the breaks he nearly drifted of the track and off the cliff! He had brought a jack but obviously we didn't need it any more and he didn't have tyres so he'd wasted a journey. Turned out though that Crazy Dave from Seldom Seen was actually a talking point on Hoops' tours, she'd driven past his yard every trip and his yard is weird. He's got weird sculptures and loads of dead caravans and cars everywhere, lots of dogs. Apparently he lost his house and pet emu to the fires a few years back and hadn't been the same since.

As we got to his place, we could see what she meant. Proper chainsaw masacre stuff.
As we slowed to take pictures of the freak show, we saw that one of his dogs, tied up on some string, was fighting with a Kangeroo. The Kangeroo was really going for the dog, but then after a few seconds, we were horrified to see the roo had two broken legs that were trailing around and he was fighting to get the dog away. It was horrifying. Bret and Hoops jumped out to get the soog away and knew straight away that the roo needed to be put out of its misery. Hoops went o get crazy dave and it turned out he'd picked up the roo, it was on the side of the road and he was going to sort it out. We decided to give crazy Dave the benifit of the doubt that we wwas going to be fair to the roo, but a part of me thinks he may have been entertaining that dog.

So that out a slight downer on things. Up until the row it was great fun. We were of course running very late an our wonderful diner meal had to be a take away that was being kept warm at the hostel for us. Everyone was so tired after the walk and all the drama that we all went to bed!

The next day we walked along the beautiful beach, it was really beautiful. We had to be up really early, again, so Hoops could get the bus sorted. The sun was just coming up so it was nice and cool, it was a trek though, along a bush type track to Lakes entrance then back along the beach, that took hour and a half.

Hoops still couldn't get the tyres she needed so we had to continue on with one flat to another town to a bigger tyre shop. While she did that we got a comp'd a trip through a aboriginal cultural centre, which was really interesting. Pretty sad though. Aboriginals have a messed up past like the Mauri, whites mess everything up!

Hoops returned with the bus and THREE new tyres, as three had gone, inner back left had gone and we didn't even realise.

We then trucked on to Phillip Island where we saw lots of Penguins. That was coolio.

Now wer'e in Melbourne. Went to a few markets and Multicultural festival thingy thats happening at the mo. Off to Adelaide in the next few days, no Tasmania though, its way too expensive.
LOVE LOVE xx