Well, were finally here, Australia - the last country of our trip :-(

Where has the time gone?

After a 5 hour plane journey from Singapore we arrived at Darwin airport at 5am.

It took another hour to get passed the sniffer dogs, immigration, police questioning (how long you staying? what are your plans? etc) and quarintine.....They even check if you have mud on your shoes!!!

We'd heard that theyre strict here, but didn't realise it was to that scale!!

But we got through in the end, no fines or full body searches so all was good.

We waited a couple of hours for the sun to come up, then hopped in a taxi expecting a very typical Australian accent.... but we got an Asian driver who didn't speak very good English. Haha

We had already arranged our accomodation over the internet but we couldn't check in until 1pm. We arrived at the hostel around 7.30am and luckily the owner let us check-in staight away.

Accomadation is so expensive compared to all the the other countrys we've been to, however you do get a little more for your money; We have a swimming pool, jacuzzi, and a fridge and kettle in our room. We had shared bathrooms but with hot showers and we had one of the best showers in months (no more smelling for a while)... Oh and there were two kitchen areas with ovens and microwaves!!!

Eating at restaurants is expensive but we went straight to the supermarket and stocked up!! (Microwave shepards pie & lasagne!!! deeelish)

The first night we treat ourselves to a nice meal in a chain restaurant called Hogs Breath!! Bit like Frankie & Benny's. Dom ordered a chicken burger and Beth ordered a 'small' chicken with mushroom sauce and veg (mmmm!!!!) but the portions were huge ! but so they should be for the price!!! (Came to about £23 including drinks, which is fairly cheap for UK standards but not when you come from Asia and spend on average £4 each per meal !!!)

Was nice though !!! Yum yum

So after that we stuck to our frozen dinners !! Nutritious !

We really enjoyed it though after eating Asian cuisine for 5months..... Western food is a lot more filling !!

The first day we went looking for a beach as its been over a month since Beth got her sunbathing fix....

But we got told that , yes there are plenty of beaches for us to LOOK at, but no swimming !!! as this time of year there are Box Jellyfish and their stings can be fatal (and the very least, painful!!)

The beaches were stunning as well but were all deserted (damn you Jellyfish) but we still sat on the sand for a while and took in the view.

There is a man-made lake (Lake Alexander) a bit out of the city centre so yesterday we biked up there and went swimming, sunbathed and got some excercise on our bikes!

Beth got burnt a bit but we wont talk about that....

The nightlife here is good. We are a 2 minute walk from a strip of bars and restaurants. On Saturday we noticed that there were loads of Ozzies dressed in Sailor and Army Uniforms.... They were all quite drunk and getting roudy by 5pm!!!!

Later we found out it was Anzac day which is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated every year to honour members of the Army Corps who fought during World War I. (stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps - ANZAC) They are a very proud country!

Fly to Melbourne tonight which we expect to be a little more cold than Darwin (its very hot here and you get burnt very quickly as we discovered yesterday....even with Factor 30 on!!!!)

Our Ozzy friends Chloe and Will (who we met in Cambodia) have emailed us and told us they have arranged FREE tickets to a rugby match (Sydney Roosters V Melbourne Storm) on 11th May when were in Sydney so we are very excited about that (especially Dom!!!)

xxx