And so to Australia! But first the end of my stay in New Zealand...

A week is a long time to kill in Auckland. Four months ago there wasn't much to do. The town hasn't improved. So, three trips to the cinema and a wander round Auckland zoo, which frankly is a bit rubbish, although I did get to see a Tuatara which is a type of dinosaur I believe, and I was about ready to go.

My flight was booked for 6.30am, which seemed very sensible to me at the time, although I think my brain is beginning to run slower than usual in the heat as I forgot to include some valuable points in my planning. Firstly, when you take into account you need to be at an airport two hours before a flight and your bus takes an hour to get there, you realise that you have to get up at half two in the morning, whihc kind of scuppers your Friday night out. Secondly, arriving in Australia at 7.00am, again seems like you'll get an extra days holiday, but in reality you can't check in to your hostel untill 1pm, and in the mornings heat you get rather hot and annoyed with having to kill seven hours in a town thats completely new to you. So, fry up for brekkie, a long meander round the shops and a few frames of ten-pin bowling, and at last a cold shower and bit of a nap! Hurrah! Final lesson though, lack of sleep and forgetting to eat means that your first sampling of the local ale (Carlton's, not bad) put you to bed before 10pm. Which isn't like me at all now is it chaps!!

So, four days in Brisbane. As I've already said, checked out the shops the first morning (oh, and booked a train to Sydney, again another classic idea, but more of that next time), and tried to book a trip to Australia Zoo for the second morning, but coach was full, so another day of really just killing time, trying not t spend too much money.

The third day, it was off to the zoo for us! Home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter! Our coach driver used to work for him, so we got lots of stories on the bus and even a few movies about the fella which was a jolly introduction. At the zoo, which I think is quite well documented in the photo album, amongst other things, I got to feed kangaroos, watched Terri Irwin feed crocs in the crocoseum, saw aligators chasing zoo keepers around their pens, cuddled a koala (photo in the post mum) and highlight of the day, trated myself to the travelling hat I've been after for the last five months! And It's a good old leather one, very Aussie (minus the corks though), I like!

Final day, time to check out anther Aussie institution with a tour around the Castlemein xxxx brewery. Similar to most other breweries to be honest, but a couple of free beers at the end (including the old style xxx beer (not nice)).

Oh, and in all this time, it was raining. I'm sure I didn't sign up for the wet season, this is meant to be Australia, not England! Which actually made me think of things that the Lonely Planet guides should tell you to take on your travels. Number one, an Umbrella. Number two, a set of darts - The amount of times I've wanted to play but didn't have any arrows. Number three, a deck of cards - Obvious, but I didn't bring any.

The book should also tell you to budget for unforseen breakages. So far my count is a digital camera in Seattle, an ipod charger, a mobile phone (don't have water fights in bedrooms) and a rucksack. But then it was old and has seen some good times, so was time for it to pass I suppose..

Anyhoo, that was Brisbane, survived four nights without seeing anything poisonous, next a nice train journey south to Sydney. Again a 6.30am start, but couldn't be worse than the flight from Auckland surely...