Hi everybody! This is going to be our last update from the wonderful Australia. Since the last posting, a lot has happened, let us begin our tale...

On the 19th, after a late start, we headed from Port Douglas, back to Cairns. On our arrival, we went for an adventure around the espalande,and caught some sun next to their man made lagoon. After visiting the tourist information center we found out that we would be facing a big fine if we parked on the streets in the van, so we headed to the cheapest camp site. After getting lost a couple times then speaking to a topless old man and his deaf wife, we found our way to a site for the night.

On Wednesday the 20th December, we left the camp site in the morning to do a bit of clothes shopping (we have lost various items on our travels). We went to a "go-sushi" style restaurant for lunch and then went to the cinema to see the pap new Bond film (there were several scenes that Debbie enjoyed but these werent really vital to the plot). After leaving the Bond film dissapointed, we sneaked into the cinema next door to see the last half of Borat (again) which made up for our dissapointment!

On Thursday 21st December we explored central cairns, getting lost in the many identical and symmetrical streets. We then went for a swim in the lagoon, until it started to rain when we departed for the local shopping mall which despite it's 3 floors, only had about 5 shops (all of which seemed to be aborigional memorobilia stockists). We parked up on a side street for the night and then went out for some drinks to see what the nightlife in Cairns was like and then for a curry.

On Friday 22nd December we spent most of the day emptying out the van for its hand-in on the 23rd and then went on a wild goose chase looking for some washing liquid (the excitement of being in Cairns!)

On the Morning of the 23rd of December we handed the van back to Wicked and bid an emotional goodbye to our home for the past 8 weeks but we were both excited about our return to hostel life. We got a taxi to the YHA hostel in the center of town and dropped our bags off whilst we waited for our room to be cleaned. We ventured to the local markets to get some fresh fruit and vegetables for tea and went a little vegie crazy with the thought of having more than one gas hob to cook them all on that night! Once our room was free, we dropped off our bags and then picked a spot by the pool to do some sunbathing and top up our tans whilst we were still in the tropical heat. That night, after stir-frying approximately 12KG of veg into a meal, we found that blues brothers was on in the TV room so our entertainment for the night was sorted!

On the 24th December we got a shuttle at 9am to the Airport for our flight at 12 to Sydney (wooop!). Whilst in the air we got a beautiful view of the Great Barrier Reef from above (the only living thing visible from space supposedly - I guess that Daniel Craig's ego doesn't count!) We landed at 4pm and arrived at our hostel by 5:30. Upon arrival, we were informed that a large parcel of food had been waiting for us for a day or so. After some initial confusion, it appeared that the cheeky Berry family had sneakily arranged for some fine food, cheeses and alcohol (thanks for the whiskey guys) to be delivered to the hostel, awaiting our arrival! This was an amazing surprise and it made us both very happy - youre all too nice to us! After hiding all the booze, we were then introduced to our new family for the xmas and new year period and our little dorm room. We would be spending the festive period with;
*Jackie and Claire - Two scottish nurses who were living and working in Sydney (we miss you guys!)
*Adam - A Welsh guy who was on a trip before he started his own Farrier business (miss you too mate!)
*Asterid - A Dutch girl who was very friendly, though busy working most of the time we were there - she loves goooold and making us listen to her having one night stands in the bunk below us - dont ask.
*A German Guy (Marrilon??) - We spent a lot of time with this guy without knowing his name but he was very nice all the same and wore a beret!
*Allison and Liz - Two girls from somewhere near London, both very nice but they unfortunately had to head north to Cairns for NYE so they missed a lot of the fun!
*Some miserable guy who thought that we had all stolen his santa hat (dont miss you too much - get a grip!)
That night we all went out into town to see in xmas day. The two of us first went out for tea to the highly recommended Star Bar whose $5 steaks were out of this world! (especially with mash and gravy). We then met the rest of the group in an irish pub called Scruffy Murpheys where a local band were playing. When we realised that they were more interested in pimping their new album rather than singing xmas songs, we decided to sing our own over the top! After this, we moved on to another Irish bar called Paddy Maquires where the live band were atleast playing songs we knew, even though they werent christmassy. After this, we all staggered back to Kings Cross singing xmas songs at the top of our voices (via some fancy restaurants who all got their own private renditions). We made it to bed around 5am with merry spirits and sore throats.

On Christmas Day we both realised that we had forgotten to get each other cards or presents (dont worry, were going to re-live christmas in February) but some of our roommates had presents to open so we enjoyed that. We then all went to Bondi Beach for the Traditional "Orphans Xmas". Bondi was packed with other travellers all partying and enjoying the slightly surreal atmosphere. We had an xmas lunch of spagetti bolognaise and 4 cheese tagiatelli (nowhere did turkey sandwiches, shockingly!) and then caught some rays with our roomies (they were easy to find - just look for the massive Scotland flag!). We then went back to the hostel and got beautified for our xmas night out on the town. This started back in Bondi at a gormet pizza restaurant (it was christmas day, we had to spoil ourselves!) and ended on a bit of a wild goose chase. It seems that very few pubs are open on christmas night in Sydney (which shouldn't be that surprising if you thought about it, which we obivously didint!) We eventually found a nice bar, in Kings Cross bizarrely (about 2 mins from where we were staying, in comparison to Bondi which is about 30 mins away - for all you geography fans out there) and after a few xmas drinks, we retired to the dorm and joined everyine else who had also failed to find a bar for the night.

On Boxing Day we decided to take in some of Sydney's beautiful sights. We started down at the Darling harbour and then went to the Circular Quay, home of both the harbour bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Both of which were spectacular and caused our camera's memory card to fill very quickly! On the way back from the harbour we were enticed into the boxing day sales at Australian department store Myers. If our parents are reading this, we were both very good and didn't spend much, if hardly anything at all, it was more retail therapy than anything else (winter sales are a stable part of our lives usually and we will NOT be denied that satisfaction, anyways...). We were then tempted back to Star Bar for two $5 steaks and then returned to the harbour for night time photos of the opera house and some drinks in the Opera House bar.

On Wednesday the 27th December we had a productive day. We started by going to the post office and pricing up how much it would be to send a box of things home (expensive by air, cheap if they tie a ballon to it and float it across) and then put the xmas pictures up on the website. After this we headed into town to get me (alec) a well needed haircut. That night, we read in our lonely planet guide that Sydney had some quality jazz clubs so we went on a hunt for them, with some of our roomies in tow. After a lot of walking around town, we decided that our guide was possibly a little out of date since one club seemed to have been knocked down and the other was a hairdressers. We bid farewell to our disheartened peers and jumped in a taxi to look for our now necessary fix of Jazz. After a couple of bars (and drinks) we found ourselves back in Kings Cross (at about 2am) in a very cool bar caled Deans. This was essentially a house where the front doors had been opened and the front room gutted apart from a couple of sofas. We sat out in the patio eating chips and drinking large glasses of wine - nice! There was no Jazz playing but there was definately something Jazzy in the air!

On Thursday the 28th December we decided that we had not been exposed to enough solar radiation for a couple of days so we needed to get our beach fix. We decided to go to Coogee Beach which is a small seaside village within Sydney. After a couple of hours of tanning we returned to Kings Cross and met our new family member - a guy called Guy. We all went to World Bar that night and enjoyed many free drinks (thanks Original Backpackers crew) and (finally) some christmas songs! WOOOP!

On Friday the 29th December we got the ferry to Manly beach for some more tanning. One of the most memorable events today was meeting the wonderful Hitler impersonating busker (see photographs). For whatever small change you happen to have in your pockets, an elderly gentleman dressed as hitler will make a little puppet hitler dance on your hands - simple harmless entertainment! After we had blown all of our money on the Hitler dance, we decided to head back to Kings Cross. That night, the two of us and Claire and Sarah (Claire and Jacky's friend) went out to a couple clubs to see in Alec's 23rd (ARGH!) birthday - many drinks were required!

On Saturday the 30th December (Happy Birthday to Alec, la la laa), if you dont include the being woken by a drunken Irish guy falling from his top bunk through the table at 4am (Debbie thought it was morning and did try to get the room to sing happy birthday to Alec), we got up at around 10, opened the birthday cards from home (thanks everyone!) and headed to Palm Beach, of Home and Away fame! We spent the afternoon lounging in the sun with Jacky and Claire and co. When we got back, whilst I was out phoning my parents, Debbie managed to arrange lots of balloons to be blown up and magically made a cake, all of which was given to me as a surprise when I returned (along with everyone singing happy birthday and me going very red in embarrassment!). Then we got dressed up and made our way into the centre of town for an italian meal on the harbour (very fancy!).

On New Years Eve we had an early start so that we could get a good spot in the Botanical Gardens, the prime viewing point for the evening's fireworks. This meant getting up at 7:30 (not that early, but remember we are workshy backpackers now), leaving at 8:30, arriving at 9:30 then queueing for 2 hours, hiding alcohol about our persons and then finally getting a space for about 11:30 where we sat for the next 13 hours waiting for the fireworks, which were totally worth it! Whilst sat at our point for the day, there were many forms of entertainment including; throwing inflated items at the posh people in the enclosure against us, throwing inflated items at the boats passing us in the harbour and then making the people get into the water when we miss, throwing tennis balls at security guards and (Debbies favourite), singing Oasis songs at the top of your voice to drown out the Aussies who were getting the words wrong. Surprisingly, the time passed quickly and we were treated to two firework shows, one at 9pm for the families and then the big one at midnight (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb8lanW_VYw for a video of what we saw). It was unbelievable and everyone there was very emotional afterwards when we all realised where we were and what we had just seen! After that we called all our friends and family and then made it to bed for about 3am.

On New Years Day (Monday for all you day fans) we had a good lie in until 1pm and then did boring things like clothes washing for our impending departure. Later in the afternoon, some of our good friends from home (Phil, Ryan and Aiden) were in town so we invited them to the hostel and went back to Star Bar for some more lovely steaks to catch up and also say goodbye to our new friends from our dorm.

On Tuesday the 2nd December, we packed our bags and checked out of the hostel and then decided to squeeze in a walk along the harbour bridge before our flight at 6:30pm to Christchurch. After some emotional goodbyes (it had been an intense week!) we made our way to the airport and started our new adventure in New Zealand!

Thats all for now, our next update will be from the beautiful (if not a little chilly so far) New Zealand! We hope that you are all well and are having as much fun as we are.

Lots of love,

Alec and Debs