Thought a change of scenery would be nice, so off I went to Port Douglas for two nights. Surprise, surprise, the rain followed me as well. I thought I was in for a rough time, so booked a day tour to see Cape Tribulation, and Daintree, at least if I was going to be wet and miserable I was going to get something out of it! Woke up this morning to blue skies and sunshine-yay! Had a fantastic day...starting out with a stop at Mossman gorge (river, rocks and a susp...

Had the best day here...started of with a ride on the worlds longest cable car-7.4km in all, over tropical forest. The views were amazing, you could see over Cairns to the reef-very pretty. There were a couple of stops along the way where you could get off to walk in the forest and look at Barron Gorge, where they have built a power station. At the end of the line is a very touristy but picturesque village of Kuranda. My priority there was the koala village. So ...

Managed to avoid bumping into the pope on my way out of Sydney...and arrive to a wet yet muggy Cairns! The hostel-Cairns City Backpackers- is pretty nice and am sharing with four other girls, three of whom have just come back ffom a great dive trip-things are looking up here already! The Cairns show (like the East of England Show) is on at the minute and its just down the road-got given a free ticket by one of the guys that works here. After my stint in port D...

A mini weeknd in the Hunter Valley, famous for its numerous wineries. We started off with a complimentary bottle from the hotel-looking good so far. In one afternoon we managed to make our way around quite a few, sampling some good wines; I've decided I'm a Merlot kind of girl when it comes to reds, and pinot gris and muscato when it comes to whites-feel a bit more grown up now I can distinguish between the different varieties. After a long day of drinking we s...

Finally made it to Sydney! After saying a fond farewell to the South Island I hopped onto the InterIslander ferry from Picton to Wellington on wednesday, then got the night bus from Wellington to Auckland, arriving on thursday am-very early. The flight was good and arrived mid afternoon. It was nice to see a friendly face, even though she later tried to kill me with her driving abilities! Sydney's very spread out, so am going to concentrate on the good bits. On...