We landed at 11pm on Thursday 4th july, so just got the bus then walked straight to our hostel and into bed. In the morning I'd set my alarm to wake us up in time to have the free breakfast then go on the free three hour walking tour of the city. Unfortunately my phone hadn't adjusted to Australia time so we were up two hours early! We made the most of the extra hours and went for a wonder around the Crown - which is the biggest casino in the Southern Hemisphere and saw the eureka sky deck building. We then went to the information centre where our walking tour departed. Our tour guide was called Tarco, he was really good and had lots of interesting stories about Australia as a whole as well as Melbourne city. The first place he took us was federation square, an area developed because previously melbourne didn't have a city centre. This is now the centre, situated right next to flinders street station (a famous station and a stunning building). Next we went down to the river, where he pointed out the sport stadiums and told us why the river was important when the Europeans first discovered melbourne. On the rest of the tour we saw lots of famous buildings including the library, the exhibition centre, the old jail, her majesty's theatre and the parliament building. Harry ate Chinese for lunch and I had an amazing Mexican flat taco! After lunch we walked over to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to find out when the next game was on and to have a look around. While over there we looked around the Rod Laver tennis centre- where they play the Australian open. Tom met us there then we walked back to the centre with him, he showed us the Melbourne central shopping centre so we bought food to make dinner then went back to eat. After quickly eating Harry's friend Ant joined us, we went to the hostel bar for a few drinks and played pool, I went to bed and the boys went to the casino for an hour. In the morning we had breakfast then moved to the hostel we had for that night. It was important we sorted a campervan this morning, so that's what we spent the morning doing! We then hopped on the free bus around the city, we first got off at the shrine of remembrance, looked around and took lots of photos, particularly good ones of the city centre from the top of the building. We had lunch on the way to the Queen Victoria Market. The market looked exactly the same as markets at home, we spent a while wondering up and down the stalls, we each bought a bracelet. Next we got the free tram back to the hostel, bought miKEY's for the trams and checked into the hostel. After checking in we hopped on the next bus to St Kilda, when we got there it was raining so we dove into a cafe to have hot chocolates until it went dark. As it got dark we walked down the pier to look for the penguins. Unfortunately the best place to view them was blocked off due to construction so we could only hear them! We got the tram back, had dinner, got ready then met Ant and Tom to watch the lions third test match. We found an English pub called Charles Dickens and watched an exciting game. The lions won 41-16 which meant we won the whole tour! It was a great match to watch in Australia, even though we weren't in the city it was being played (Sydney). We went to another couple of bars then home. Up early and checked out of the hostel we grabbed a quick breakfast then spent the morning looking around the two free museums - the moving motion theatre museum and the art museum! The moving motion one was really good with lots of games to play and performances to watch. There was an interesting display in the art museum of the indigenous Australians- aboriginals. We then walked back to the MCG as we needed to buy tickets for the Aussie rules match that afternoon. We got our tickets and had really good seats near the front. It took us a while to work out how the game was played as it seemed as though pretty much anything goes!! It was a combination of rugby, netball, basketball and football. It was played in the cricket shaped oval and had loads of players on the pitch. The game lasted 2 hours and was hilarious to watch! After it finished we picked up a few food supplies and had a wrap from the very highly recommended 'schnitz' - which was delicious! Then we headed back to pick up our bags and go to the station to get the bus up to Sydney.

We arrived really early in the morning and headed straight to the hostel to dump our bags for the day! We managed to check in earlier than normal which meant we had the whole afternoon to explore the city. We started walking up one of the main two streets - Pitt St, which also happened to be the one we were staying on! As we were walking up we found Pitt St mall, which was a nice shopping area - I couldn't resist popping in to a few shops! We carried on walking all the way to the top of Pitt St where we eventually came to Circular Quay - the harbour. We walked around the harbour all the way up to the Sydney Opera House. We walked up the steps to right next to the building, where you could see all the individual tiles which made up the sails. Next stop was the gardens surrounding farm cove - as it was such a nice day we lay here for an hour or so soaking up the sun! When we got up we realised we were too late to do the free walking tour, so decided to walk over to The Rocks area to have a look around. As we were so close we decided to walk over the Sydney harbour bridge. It took about half an hour and gave us magnificent views of the harbour, the opera house and Sydney city. We had a free BBQ dinner at the hostel tonight which was really good! Afterwards we played goon tennis and goon pong. Both drinking games involving drinking cheap wine when you lose - which the Aussies call goon!! Goon tennis involved drinking the cups which make the net when you lose a point and goon pong was played the same way beer pong is in America! Harrys friend ant arrived as we were playing, so joined in then we went sown the road to the bar under Base Backpackers. We had a good night collecting the free drinks we had vouchers for. In the morning we got up and the weather was pretty bad, we got the bus to edgecliff in order to get our visas for Vietnam. While there we had a look around the area. When we got the bus back it was raining so I went shopping while the boys went back to the hostel. Later in the afternoon we all applied for virgin active day passes and went to the gym. The boys went in the pool and sauna. I tried two new classes - body pump and mixed martial arts! While harry and ant carried onto the cinema, I did a long gym session, staying until it closed at 10pm. I was trying to make up for the lack of exercise I had been doing! The next morning we got up early ish with quite a bit planned for the day. First stop was paddy's market near Chinatown and in the hay market area of Sydney. We bought some souvenirs, fruit, nuts and veg. Next we walked up to darling harbour - a heavily tourist populated area. The Chinese garden of friendship and tumbalong park were just before cockle bay which is the beginning of the water section of darling harbour. We sat here on the boardwalk steps to have lunch. To get back to the city we had to cross the bridge back onto George St. In the afternoon we did the free three hour city tour. Similarly to the one in Melbourne we all met by the town hall then a knowledgable guide showed us around the city - including lots of places we hadn't seen and probably wouldn't have found without him showing us. We heard lots of stories about the city and Australia as a whole - including that they couldn't decide whether to make Sydney or Melbourne the capital so built Canberra in between specifically to be the capital. Harry and Ant got bored during the tour so left earlier. I carried on until the end which meant that I saw the most amazing view of Sydney at night. The guide took us up a tower by the harbour bridge which meant we could see both the bridge and the opera house lit up. They looked much better lit up in the dark in my opinion. We cooked dinner at the hostel then it was another goon pong night, harry and I lost first round, whereas him and Ant got to the second round. We got our free drink at the bar next door then carried onto the club for the night - scary canaries. In the morning harry and I checked out of MAZE hostel then went up to the botanical gardens to walk around. The weather was lovely so it turned out to be a nice morning walk. We then checked into the new hostel- central perk backpackers- a cheaper one with free breakfast and wifi. Next we went back to paddy's market to get fruit and veg for dinner. After that we got the bus to the Vietnam consulate to collect our passports and visas, then walked to bondi junction. There was a big Westfield shopping centre at bondi junction so I couldn't resist looking in the new hollister store to see how the brand was doing in Australia. It was getting quite late in the afternoon so we got the bus straight to bondi beach. When we got there we ate a late lunch then sat on the beach watching the surfers tackle some really big waves! I went for a little paddle just up to my ankles! When it started to get dark we had a wonder along what looked like the main shopping strip then got the bus back. We spent the evening cooking and planning our camper route as we were picking it up in the morning

Camper week 1 (Friday 12th July)

At 10am we were at the Jucy office in botany to pick up our camper. After a quick briefing from the girl there we hopped in the camper and were on our way to Newcastle. First challenge was to get from one side of Sydney to the other, luckily we invested in the sat nav!!! We drove over the harbour bridge which was really nice. After about an hour or so we stopped briefly for a toilet break at a cute fishing lake called Mooney Mooney Creek. Next stop was one of Newcastle's eight beaches, where we sat down to have lunch. While eating we saw some dolphins so once finished we wondered further up the coast to see if we could get a closer look. There were lots of them quite far out but still in the bay. Back in the camper we were on our way to Port Stephens. This was a bit harder to find, we had a look one side of the bay then drove around to the other side to find somewhere to stay. We visited both hawks nest and tea gardens which are on the Port Stephens coast. We stayed at Jimmy's campsite that evening. In the morning we got up really early to walk to the beach, which was right next to the campsite. We were hoping to see some dolphins but unfortunately none appeared, so we decided to get ready then leave for Port Macquarie. When we got to port Macquarie we headed straight for the Koala hospital, which the lady at the campsite had recommended. There were lots of different yards each with a koala in and their story on the outside. Part of the fun was trying to spot the koalas as some had climbed the trees and were hiding in the leaves. It was the first time we'd seen them up close, they looked really cute, fluffy little things with funny noses! Next point of call in port Macquarie was the lighthouse beach, another secluded beach with views out to the ocean as far as you could see! Last place we went was to the town centre and port side where there were quite a few boats. We kept driving through and carried on to Coffs Harbour. It was my turn to drive now, which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I decided to go slightly off the route down a road called waterfall way, I'd heard it was a nice place, didn't realise it was a road. The views either side were fantastic and really different to the trees we'd been seeing the whole way up so far. Anyway, back on track we arrived in Coffs Harbour about 30mins later, the harbour itself was as expected full of boats. We got out the camper and had a wonder along the beach front, watching a couple of people fish. Then back on the road we went to see the famous 'big banana' and took photos. We only stopped to take a couple of photos of the stunning sunset, other than that next stop was the rest stop about an hour before Byron Bay. We realised this was also a free camping ground so decided to stay there for the night (new Italy- with a museum). We cooked dinner on the back of the camper and planned to make an early start for Byron bay in the morning. As planned we got up early, went to do some washing up and saw two kangaroos eating the grass. It was quite surreal waking up almost next to kangaroos! On the way to Byron bay we drove through a place called Evans Head - purely for me to take a photo of the sign! Shortly after we arrived at Byron, we decided as it was a pretty overcast day we weren't going to be sunbathing or surfing. We wondered around the town, had a look in a few unusual shops and met some interesting shop owners. It started to rain so we thought it would be a good day to research prices for Fraser Island, Whitsunday and the Great Barrier Reef. After some research we drove up to the lighthouse, which gave us amazing views of Byron bay. In the afternoon we did some more trip research then played card games until we were ready for dinner. We parked the camper under a light right by the beach front so we could see to cook. We had rice with a pesto sauce tonight, I had leeks with mine while harry had sausages. We made sure all the washing up was done then headed down to the beach. We lay on the beach watching the lighthouse spin round, lighting up the bay every few seconds. As it was quite cloudy there were very few stars visible, it was still nice to lie there for a bit though. Once it got later we hopped back in the camper and headed for a free campsite we had seen 6km north of Byron, where we would stay for the night. In the morning we were up early again, we got ready then an old hippie camper asked us to give his camper a push to get it going. After this we cooked porridge for breakfast then drove back to Byron bay. We went for a nice jog all the way along the beach to as far as we could, which was just below the lighthouse. We watched surfers while stretching then did sprints. Harry went for a quick swim in the sea while I did a few sit ups. Then a power walk back to where we started was our cool down. An even bigger cool down were the showers we used just by the beach - they were absolutely freezing!! After we were ready we headed to book our Fraser Island, whitsunday and Great Barrier Reef tours, with success this was all sorted for a pretty decent deal. We had lunch at the camper parked right on the beachfront. Then we drove up to surfers paradise, stopping for a 30c soft cone on the way. Surfers paradise reminded us a lot of Miami beach in Florida. With a few high rise buildings right on the beachfront. We wondered up and down the beachfront as well as looking around the town centre, including a few shops. It started raining so we got back in the camper to find somewhere to stay for the night. We found a rest stop slightly further up the pacific highway. Once there we stopped to ask a couple if they were staying there in their camper, which they were and had done the previous night. We chatted to them for a bit while cooking dinner, then after dinner, washed up, and spent the rest of the evening talking to them. They were a lovely friendly couple called Sharne and Matt from Essex. We swapped contact details so we could all meet up again further up the coast then went to sleep for the night. In the morning we got up early and were on our way to Brisbane, we took the 'tourist drive' which gave us really nice views of the ocean from the road. We eventually found some free parking in Brisbane, in an area called Kangaroo point. We had to walk along the river then catch the free city ferry to the main city side of the river. Once we got off the ferry we wondered around Brisbane, in and out of a few shops, booking ourselves onto the free walking tour for the next day. We had a few boring things to sort out which took all afternoon, visiting jucy to sort some bits out in the camper and getting internet to find a place to stay. Late afternoon we drove to the top of mount coot-tha - which gave us panoramic views of Brisbane. We stayed up there until it went dark, watching the city suddenly light up! Afterwards we cooked dinner and found somewhere to stay. We were up early and ready for a full day exploring Brisbane in the morning. We decided to pay to park in the city for the full day to make the most of it. The cheapest car park was near south banks. So we walked all around the southbank parkland, past the streets beach- a man made beach. To get to Brisbane central business district we had to walk over a nice looking bridge to cross the river. Once on the other side we wondered through the botanical gardens- a lovely walk with lots to look at. Harry wanted to go in the casino so that was out next stop. We then had a look at the weekly fresh food market and planned to return later to buy some fruit and veg. We carried on looking around and ended up at the town hall with some activities going on outside where we picked up some freebies!! Afterwards we headed to the information centre to begin the free walking tour. A lady called terry shared her knowledge of Brisbane and took us to see many of the original buildings, some built by convicts. The tour lasted about two hours and we saw many things we had not previously seen. When it finished we ate lunch in the botanical gardens then got on the free ferry in the opposite direction to which we were travelling the day before, so that we could see the north part and go under story bridge (a very similar bridge to Sydney harbour bridge). The views from the ferry were great and it allowed us to explore the rest of the city easily. We headed back to town hall to look at the museum, which had three unusual exhibitions based on Brisbane. One was about the river and the other two about the world expo 1988 which took place in southbank parklands. It was time to head back to the market to get some fruit and veg before it closed. There were amazing deals so we stocked up!! Back to the camper to put the purchases away, then I needed to change my top, as the tour guide had pointed out earlier, unless I was supporting New South Wales in the state of origin game I needed to wear maroon or a neutral colour (no blue allowed!)! We went to the state library to have a look and use the wifi to pay a toll charge we think we got the previous day. Then it was time to find a seat in a friendly Irish pub to watch the rugby league game. The game was really close and a good one to watch, with Queensland winning in the end. We spent the whole game chatting to a friendly, crazy aussie called Ryan. He had some great stories and kept us entertained all evening. Once the game finished we went back to the camper and drove up the highway to a rest stop to stay for the night. It was a pretty nice rest stop, we were even able to have showers in the morning. From there we took a scenic route up to Noosa Heads. We saw lots of funny looking trees and mountains, as we drove along the Steve Erwin highway. When we got to Noosa we parked in the main part of the town and went for a wonder around the shops. Then on our way to the beach we spotted a sign to a lookout called Laguna lookout, so we drove up quite a steep road to see the stunning views of Noosa from the top. While we were up there we decided to have lunch. After lunch we headed to the main beach and just lay there for a bit watching the surfers. I went for a jog up the beach and did some exercises when I got to the other end. We chilled there for a bit longer then headed round to Noosaville. It was only a couple of minutes round the corner and over the bridge. We watched the sunset over the end of the river and with it came hundreds of small parrots, making a huge noise as they flew between the trees, we couldn't believe how may there were and how loud they were!! We sat watching all the birds for a bit then did some planning in the camper, before cooking dinner and going to bed. Our first week in the camper was complete today, we'd made it all the way from Sydney to Noosa. In the morning we were up early so had breakie and walked along the Noosa riverside. We weren't sure what to do today as the weather looked pretty bad, so we headed to the information site. The chatty lady in there suggested a few walks we could do, so we took her advice and headed up to Noosa Heads to start the walks. We opted to do the longer walk called coast walk, which took us all along the coast. It was raining a bit but that didn't spoil the lovely views, we even saw a whale quite far out to sea! After we walked back we decided us to the weather being bad it would be a library/ research/ washing day...so that's what we did! We stayed at a very well equipped rest stop and went to bed early because we wanted to see the dolphins at 7am at tin can bay- which was at least an hour and a halfs drive away from where we were. Camper week one- done and dusted!!!