Ah Cairns! It's not really much to look at and no-one we've met has had any a kind word to say about it, but we've had an absolutely wonderful time here. We spent the first day lazing around near the man-made lagoon reading out SE Asia travel guide and preparing for Indonesia. They need a lagoon here because it's mud flats all the way out to the sea and if you can get there without being swallowed up then you risk being terminally stung by a box jellyfish or me...

Compared to Si's enthusiastic attempts to kill me in Byron Bay, the last few days have been very quiet. First stop after Byron Bay was Brisbane. The highlight here was definitely catching up with old friends again - Ellie (who I've know through Quaker things since I was about six), her top husband Lee (who also loves crisps) and their lovely and incredibly energetic kids Ben (4) and Keira (2). I haven't seen Ellie for about a million years so it was brilliant to...

Simons despatch: Byron Bay 'Chill out under sunny blue skies in Byron bay' the LP promised us. Sounded good so off we toddled from Sydney to Byron on a 12 hour train ride.... to be greeted by rain! Luckily not the British, all day, kind of rain but more the tropical, big cloud with vertical rain for 5 mins then nice for awhile, kind. Byron Bay is a very artistic, musical, hippie, surf centric place and we stayed at the musical epicentre - the Arts Factory. Thi...

We've been on this train for ten hours now, only two more to go. Luckily it's comfortable, we're well supplied with books and we've been eating our way through the tough times (breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea (twice) and a tasty dinner is imminent). Oh, and I've taught myself how to crochet. We're on our way from Sydney to Byron Bay and so this seems like a good time to say what we've been up to in Sydney. Sydney is a lively city, laid back but metropolitan. N...

Australia is different to New Zealand. People speak differently, instead of saying "ah yeah bro, ay" they say "g'day", "no worries" and "good on ya". They also have mammals. Really cool ones. In Melbourne we stayed with another old housemate of mine, the brilliant Helen Maynard-Casely and her gent of a husband Andy. They moved out here from Edinburgh last year when Helen got a job working at the Australian synchrotron (bit like CERN, but friendlier). They're fan...