We arrived early at Melbourne Southern Cross Station (I met the boys at the station in Canberra and we got the same bus to Melbourne). After dumping our stuff in lockers for the day we got the tram to St Kilda where we had a look around and breakfast!!! We then went to sort out arrangements for the Great Ocean Road and met Liz, wandered along the beach and past Luna Park where we saw the Neighbours Tour bus pulled up outside a theatre where Carmella was talking t...

The bus journey was interesting. The bus broke down at one point and we ended up stopping for over 30 minutes at Mittagong, a small town in between Sydney and Canberra where ironically I have some more relatives which unfortunately I couldn't visit in the end as they are ill. An hour late I rolled into Canberra and met John, my mum's half cousin at the bus station - we had agreed that I would be the one with the straw hat!!! We drove back to their place in one of...

So we arrived in Sydney mid-morning and walked over the road from the drop off at Central Station straught to our hostel! It was amazing in terms of facilities - cinema, swimming pool, supermarket, cafe, bar as well as the usual internet, kitchens etc etc. We weren't allowed to check in until after midday so after grabbing a small breakfast in the cafe we made a start on the walking tour provided in the lonely planet guide. We managed to pack in St. Mary's Cathed...

We left Brisbane at around 1pm and arrived in Byron Bay about 6pm. New South Wales (where Byron Bay is) has daylight saving whereas Queensland doesn't so we were now one hour ahead. We arrived to pouring rain and were greeted by Liz (who we first met in Cairns) who had really kindly sorted out our accommodation whilst we were travelling as everywhere I phoned was fully booked! We waited for a good hour though at the bus stop for the hostel mini-bus to come as ...

Once in Brisbane we were picked up by Caitlin (who we had met on the tour in China) from an area called 'The Valley'. She took us back to her place in 'The Gap' to the north-west of Brisbane and were greeted by some of her family - Mum, Dad, Madonna (also on the China tour), Zoe (sister), Gen (sister) and their boyfriends. We had an amzing barbeque dinner cooked on their inside barbeque and then went to bed. The next day was spent walking around Brisbane with ...