Ok, potentially the last blog entry while i'm away I think, as having to cut my trip short early due to political situation in Bangkok and Thailand.

After Byron the bus took me to 'Spot X', a surf camp in a 'secret' location halfway between Byron Bay and Sydney. The area is actually really beautiful, and the camp was fantastic. We arrived at the beach early afternoon, just in time for a huge feed before our surf lesson. Having flailed about on a board for the past 2 days, with seemingly no recollection of how to surf, i wasn't feeling so great about a group lesson, but as luck would have it i managed to stand up and carve a bit on the first wave i took, hooray! Had a brilliant time, and the dinner and lash after the lesson was also brilliant, highly recommended.

Next day I grabbed the bus to Sydney which took the whole day (ANZAC day, incidentally). After an early night, I was up super early the next morning to try and pack everything into my two days in the city. First thing was a 6km coastal walk from Coogee beach to Bondi beach, really beautiful, followed by lunch (sushi, of course) at Bondi. Then caught the slowest bus ever back to the CBD and headed to the harbour to do the touristy thing - queue lots and lots of pictures of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, at day, sunset and nighttime, and a toursity trip up one of the pylons of the bridge to learn all about its history and construction. Well, it's got to be done.

For my last day in Sydney, trying to cram as much in as possible, I ran down to Darling Harbour (via Hyde Park, bit random) to have a look at all the posh cafes and bars before they opened, before catching the famous ferry to Manly. The Manly ferry (ha ha) gives you amazing views of Sydney on its way out and back (more photos of the Opera House and Bridge), and takes you right to Manly beach, a really lovely little beach town. Spent the rest of my day lazing on the beach, with fish and chips, obviously, before heading back into town to meet a friend from New Zealand for a cinema trip. Another relatively early night - i'm definitely getting too old.

Back on the Oz Bus again the next morning to start our 3 day journey to Melbourne. We stopped off in Canberra for lunch, which was really surreal - Canberra is like a studio lot; very perfect and quiet and just a little bit strange. Also the smallest city I have ever seen, it seems to be made up of Parliament and nothing much else. Speaking of which, after lunch we stopped off at Parliament House and had a tour, guided by our bus driver. Another very very surreal experience - like an Alice-in-Wonderland version of our Parliament. The building itself is all very modern and light and airy, and everything seemed fairly normal until we got to the paintings of the previous Prime Ministers; they all had some scandal or quirk surrounding them! Probably my favourite is the ex-PM who still holds the Guiness world record for downing a yard of beer - in just 12 seconds might I add. Can just imagine Gordon Brown giving that a go! From Canberra we headed straight to Thredbo, a small ski resort in the 'Australian Alps'. Not being winter, there wasn't a huge amount to do in the resort, but we got there just in time for a jacuzzi in our super plush hostel before dinner. Another film and early night (it wasn't just me this time though, everyone else was just as tired as me for once!) - getting to be a bit of a habit.

After an obscenely early and obscenely cold run, and an enormous breakfast, we all headed to the nearest chair lift, wrapped up as warmly as humanly possible. It wasn't warm enough though - -7C at the top with wind chill, brrrr! We all hiked a 5k trail back down to the village, before heading off again in the bus. We drove through two national parks (Kosziuszko and Alpine) and saw lots and lots of wild koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and wombats. All very Australian! After the NP and another long drive we made it to our destination for the night, and after a very very windy walk along 90 mile beach (the longest beach in Aus) we arrived in Lakes Entrance, just in time for our fish and chips dinner and a chance to catch Australian Deal or No Deal (Nan would be proud).

Another scarily early morning (there was a 5 involved and it wasn't pm) led to a huge drive to Wilson's Promontory National Park. The Prom is the most southern point of Australia, and you can see Tasmania from it! The park itself is absolutely beautiful - we stopped for a couple of hours' walk to Pillar Point (amazing photos) and then down onto Squeaky Beach for lunch. Watching the waves crashing over while eating a sandwich was a thoroughly relaxing experience, which was just as well considering the 6 hour drive it then took us to get to Melbourne. Phew! Arrived in Melbourne just in time to grab some dinner before everything closed and collapse into bed, thoroughly exhausted. Can't believe this is now my last stop before home, seems so strange!

First day in Melbourne I ran down to the river (the Yarra, ridiculous name) promenade and got very very homesick when I saw all the eights spinning after their morning outings. Promptly came home and sent emails to all the clubs I could find on google to check for any chance of a one-off outing. Sadly not, but worth a try! Spent the rest of the morning lazing in the sun on the lawns outside the library in central Melbourne, entertained by a random street performance of The Wedding Singer and the occasional 'zombie' walking past on their way to the zombie shuffle... Weird. In the early afternoon I met up with a friend from the Oz Bus and headed by free tram (bargain) to the Etihad stadium to watch my first ever Aussie Rules (AFL) game. The match was between Melbourne Demons and North Melbourne Roos, and naturally, having rooted for the Demons, I had to watch them be thoroughly defeated by the Roos. Ah well. Such a good time though, and the atmosphere in the stadium was very different to football at home - all the fans sit together, mixed up as to teams, and there are so many kids, and no chanting at all really. Really good fun to watch though - AFL has the pace of football, but with the take downs of rugby or NFL, so is really entertaining, and really easy to get into - we were yelling louder than anyone by the end (the beer may have helped). After purchasing some unneccssary merchandise and singing one too many rounds of the Roos' song, we stumbled off home.

Next day was time for the Great Ocean Road, one of the 'must sees' in Australia. I rented a car with 3 other people from the bus, for a rather bargainous price thanks to some brilliant haggling (who knew Europcar would haggle?!) and set off late morning for what we thought was a 2 hour drive. After stopping for lunch in Torquay (Maccas, nice, I don't know why I do this to myself), we soon figured out that it was actually a 300km drive and back. Eek. We drove pretty much straight up from about 1pm onwards, stopping only twice for photos (including some lovely poses with our lovely little Getz), and managed to make it to the 12 apostles, one of the most impressive landscapes in Aus, just in time for sunset at 6pm. Now that's a long drive. After really making the most of the photo ops, we got back in, and drove back allll the way to Melbourne in the dark, stopping at Apollo Bay for an amazing pizza dinner. Managed to underestimate hugely again - leaving at 6pm, for some reason we thought we'd be back in Melbourne by 9.30. Obviously that was massively off, and we only got back at midnight. Straight to bed again - starting to feel a bit lame!

Yesterday I just spent pretty much the whole day in the gym, stopping for lunch with a friend from Airlie Beach. I really really like Melbourne, or at least the convenience and ease of being in a city again, and will be really sad to leave. Not least because the gym was AMAZING, full-out luxury, and because I have just discovered that you can get churros and mini chocolate pies in Melbourne. Someone needs to bring this to London asap. Over the next couple of days I'm planning on doing lots of touristy sight-seeing; I've already wandered round the Queen Vic Market this morning and am currently checking out the interior of the State Library of Victoria - i'm told the 3rd floor is unbelievable for some reason, although have yet to make it there. Also going to hit up St Kilda Beach in the next couple of days, and just have a nice relaxing end to my travels. Booked my homeward flight this morning - leave here on the 7th, and arrive back in the UK on the 8th, just in time for Hilda's Boat Club Alumni Dinner (Sirens'), so will be happy to return for that at least - any black tie occasion is sure to boost my spirits, especially one where I get to see all my friends from Uni again. Can't wait really!

So, for one last time, thanks for reading this far to those who made it, and i'll see you all soon!