so we are now in australia, been a very very long time since we last updated. We went on the bottom bus in N.Z, we went to Dunedin first, where we visited the Cadburys factory (which was pump),and the Speights brewery (which was class). We then went to a little place in the middle of no where called Curio bay, unfortunately or not, there was no room at the Inn (hostel) for me and smilz so we got put in a gorgeous self contained 2 bed bungalow, looking out onto the ocean, it was awesome, here we also went to a fossilised forrest. I had cold throughout this bottom bus excursion so there was lots of snots!! During this 4 day trip, we went for a walk on a beach where there were wild sea lions which was ace. You could get right up close to them and they didnt batter an eyelid as they too big, fat lazy and sunbathing to chase us - thank god. A tonne of blubber that big and apparantly they are well fast could do some damage. The next day we headed to Te anau, we did a few walks on the way, but I stayed on the bus as I was approaching near death of cold (as you can imagine), we were booked into a reckommended hostel by the Kiwi experience. It turned out that we were staying in a converted garage, with no heating, the mankiest carpet you have ever seen in your entire life (were talking 60's local pub carpet), and only one of the heated blankets work on which the electrical safety test ran out last year! we tried to get our money back but they wouldnt budge, so we checked out anyway and into a self contained gorgeous cabin with sky. So we spent the night on the sofe with a duvet, more snots, movies and a chinese, just what the doctor ordered.

Then it was the Milford Sound day trip. This was a special place, we drove a long time to get there and through deep long tunnels through mountains and valleys, passing glaciers and avalanches, but it was well worth it. When we arrived we met the ferry and its hard to describe just how breathtaking it actually was, the pics do it no justice.  It was a river that met the sea, very wide and surrounded by mountains, the river having been created by glaciers.  In some places the mountains were straight up and down for 1km, and in others they were well over this.  We also went to an underwater aquarium and saw black coral, which is the only place in the world you can see it, apart from hundreds of metres below  sea level.  This was because of something to do with the sea water and fresh water, and the density and stuff so there!! we cant really remember you'll have to look it up on the net if you bothered.  After Milford Sound we were back to Queenstown for a night and sleep, and then back on kiwi to Christchurch.  We had the slowest driver in the entire world and it took nearly all day AND he kept insiting on stopping all the time.  We didnt see much of Christchurch other than a damn good Indian!!!(meal that is)  We left for the airport at 4am, and smilz managed to muster up the energy to beat Terminator at pinball !- I was half asleep still.

 So we arrived in O.Z and the much needed sunshine!  We were absolutely knackered from the kiwi experience, and had no where to stay, so we late roomed it .com and booked a hotel for a couple of nights to regain some shuteye, and baths.  We took a gamble and booked a mystery room, which was quite exciting, however it turned out to be in Paramatta, which is right at the top of Sydney.  We couldnt find anyone who wanted to take us, well not for less than $100! so we caught a shuttle into town (sydney centre), and managed to get the train all for under $20!!! The hotel was mint 4.5*, we had plasma, mini bar, luxury again at last.  The first day we stayed in bed watching t.v and being general bums.  The next day we played in the pool.  We basically did nothing while we here, and had no energy or wish to do anything either.  We went back into Sydney, having booked no where to stay again, and could find nowhere.  We trailed about for ages and at last found a scanky hostel to put us up for 2 nights, but we literally only slept here so it wasnt too bad.  On the first day we went Darling harbour, found a pub and had a $10 steak and mash, which the cheapest and one of the best meals we had ever had, until we found one the next night for $5!  The next day we went to see the opera house, china town, went shopping and back to darling harbour.  We tried not to do too much here, as we will be doing it all in Jan with everyone, so we saved all the exciting stuff for then!

Next we went to Bondi, which was a bit of a dissapoinment, as it was not the picture postcard we imagined.  There was alot of grafity everywhere,and tons of surfers which I suppose you would expect.  The hostel we stayed at was a complete dump, the whole of Bondi was already booked up, a very busy place and expensive accomodation everywhere.  You have to look at the pics of this place to beleive it, we had a 60 yr old drunk o.z in our room who lived there permanently with 2 knackered old suitcases.  The guy that worked there didnt care when you were checking out and had had people living in the rooms for 13 months!  We spent an afternoon on the beach, walked around the housing estates, which are all pretty run down, its a bit like blackpool in a way.  We had a very drunken dinner date and ended up swimming  in the sea at 2am, and somehow shopping trolleys became a focus?  Next onto Coogee bay which is gorgeous, smaller than Bondi but much nicer, with a lovely swimming beach, so you wont be battered by boarders.  We were here 3 nights, bimbling around in the shops and on the beach and looking for apartments.  We had no idea what our plan was at this stage, considering everything, where to go and what to do next.  Its a tough decision when theres the whole of O.Z to question.  So we thought lets go to Melbourne and work there.  We booked a flight, as its cheaper than greyhound or anything else, and here we are.  We arrived in StKilda about a week ago, and again bimbled around trying to decide what to do.  We decided to do our proper jobs, but then discovered kids here are on summer holidays.  We had been apartment/ job huntinf for 4/5 days solid, we looked at one apartment, as theres not much going and that decided it for us!  It was a dump, and we reversed our ideas back to our thinking in N.Z - get the campervan first.  In one day we have a campervan (with playboy seats which are hilarious), have bought bedding food supplies and spent today preparing the camper for our first road trip tomorrow - along great ocean road, which is the picture that opens this journal.  Our van is awesome, we (Lee) had do some minor mechanics on it - fix the window as it fell down like the punto's used to, get the radio working, fix an indicator.  But generally its in good health and should serve us well - we hope.  It is a toyota hiace 2.2 petrol automatic, with a stove and everything!  pop top roof aswell.  Tomorrow night were sleeping in the van by the beach at a campsite called skenes creek, all very exciting stuff.  keep you posted on future road trips.