Australia and I didn't get off ot a great start...probably something do to with the fact that a chocolate bar is beyond what i'll consider paying for a sugar fix. I'm still recovering from the shock of how expensive everything is comapred to Asia. Sydney demanded over $30 for the privilidge of sharing a room with 7 18year olds who all had conflicting opinions on the concept of sleep. So after investing in some warm clothes and briefly venturing to some sights that mostly reminded me of things from finding nemo, I was ready to leave Syndey in search of sunshine. The first group of unsuspecting randoms that were going that way adopted me, renamed me Sam and off we went.

The southcoast days were spent being thrown around by waves while trying to stand on a surfboard, involuntarily swallowing dangerous amounts of saltwater and eating pies. We've just got back from Fraser Island where we were one of the last groups to be able to tour the island unsupervised. Apparently someone in the government decided it wasn't such a great idfea to hand out 4x4s to inexperienced backpackers, load them up with alcohol and send them off to explore a sand island with vicious wild dogs, venomous repltiles, beaches with treacherous rip tideswhere tiger sharks breed and trust them to work out how to use the beach as a highway between themselves....

Forutnately I found my lisence the day before we left but convincing the boys to hand over the keys was another story. We drive off the ferry and stopped where the 'road' ended...'can I drive for a bit..?' 'sure, sure' then 5minutes later when we're all ready to get going the guys all look at each other nervously... 'so who's going to drive...?' 'no, no i'll drive' and as I walk towards the car their uneasiness increases and they start mumbling '...maybe you should wait until we get onto the beach...?' but this wasn't really a good enough argument as I cheerfully pointed out that the beach was 10 metres away and we could all see it from where we were. I didn't drive for long. Apparently giggling when you can't see where you're going or you hit a dune too fast doesn't instil confidence in your passengers.

We're currently planning our next adventure sailing around the Whitsundays so I have to go and play some tour operators off against each other...

After-thought of the day: One of the most confusing things about this country is the way Australians greet you. In the version of Enlgish that I speak, 'how ya going?' is definitely a question... but they aren't expecting an answer, they don't want to hear about your emotional well being and they look at you in confusion if you reply with anything more vocal than a friendly nod. When did 'hi' get phased out and who the hell decided to replace it with a rhetorical question??!!