Hello again from Sydney! Thats not a Sydney photo of course, but I have seen lots of wild roos on my way up here so thought it was appropriate! I left Melbourne on 5th March at 6.30am! Nittin was so nice he helped me carry my stuff to the bus pick up and see me off! Was sad to say goodbye to my housemates and my house and the cat, and my new city of Melbourne! Was on a tour 'Oz Experience' up here to Sydney - like the Kiwi Experience but more tour - like. We paid a kitty fee and had all our breakfast, dinner and accomodation all the way for just $70 - bargain! So we couldn't choose where we stayed or what we ate, but it was all brilliant so that's ok!! And they were a really nice bunch of people - mostly Brits! And they were all southerners too which is a bit mad - usually you get such a mix of countries and equal number of southerners and northerners but not this trip! There was 21 of us which made it pretty packed coz it wasn't a coach like the kiwi experience - it was a little minibus! Was better though coz it was much more social. On our first day we headed east in Victoria to a national park called Wilsons Promontory which was so gorgeous! Just trees and hills as far as the eye could see. We stopped on the side of the road and walked a little way into the bush and saw loads of wild roos and joeys too! Most were chilling out under bushes and we saw some hopping across the plain it was so cool! Saw a massive wombat burrow too!! Then we headed off to a beach called Squeaky beach - the sand does actually squeak under your feet and it's also squeaky white sand! Turqoise clear sea with big waves which I went in, and the whole beach was surrounded by forest - one of the best I have seen so far! We went to the hostel after that and we were staying in a caravan park with caravans with a bathroom and kitchen and everything but with the tiniest bedroom you have ever seen in your life! Had a nice BBQ and also met the group travelling north to south (we were south to north). A few of us then went down the local pub which was a wierd place! Got to know some people better - is easier when there is less people! Didn't drink (or on the other nights!) as I am trying to save money loads! Next day we went to Tarra Bulga (maybe) national park and went on a rainforest walk and our bus driver Joel told us lots on the way round - better than on kiwi bus they didn't do that they stayed on the bus when there was a walk! Was really nice. Then had quite a long drive to Lakes entrance where we went to a winery for lunch. We had the wine before we had lunch! But I didn't have too much so wasn't drunk! It was a really nice place but I thought we would be shown round the place and would drink it either outside or in a cellar but it was just at a bar so it killed all my images of what a winery would be like! Lunch was good - sat on a balcony and 2 cheeky kookaburras sat very close ready to attack like seagulls and one landed on my plate just as I was finishing it was well funny - got a great pic! Then we went to 90 mile beach but we didn't stay very long coz it was ridiculously windy! 3 guys went in the sea but kept getting dragged along coz the currents were really bad - hilarious to watch! Then we drove up to our accomodation for the night which was fab! An organic 800 acre farm in the Snowy mountains national park! We had really nice big rooms with en-suite again!! I had a walk around and found and enormous termite mound, saw a wallaby and a funnel web spiders hole arrrgghh!!! Was sush a nice place, they had woodland, ponds, amazing views and fields with fruit trees, chickens and sheep. Had a completely unforfilling vege meal that night unfortunately, but was quite tasty. In the morning we had pancakes and home made jam - amazing! Then we drove for hours on a gravel road with a massive drop on one side! Amazing views but quite scary! We stopped on the border of Victoria and New South Wales and had a look at the snowy river - so nice. Then we got to where we were staying in a place called Jindabayne (ski resort town) in Kosiozco national park and had lunch before driving up the mountains past many ghost-like ski slopes (as the only have snow 3 months of the year!). Only 4 of us were up for the hike up the hill and the others went on a shorter walk along the river. The 3 I was with were really cool and although the walk was knackering I felt good for it and the scenery was pretty wild! Then if that wasn't enough we briefly went back to the hostel then went down to lake Jindabayne to go wakeboarding! The girl that did it before me has been doing it at home for 4 years so was really good and made it look really easy, then I had a go and made it look impossible! I really couldn't do it to save my life - it was really hard though! The rope you hold onto just kept slipping out of my hands and I kept falling forwards! Was fun though, and the lake water was so warm! Had to wait quite a while for others to do it, then headed back to the hostel for a fab dinner - all you can eat buffet, my kinda meal!! That hostel was dead nice too - we had our own balcony overlooking the lake!! Next day we drove to the capital city - Canberra! Joel gave us a a tour round parliament house which only opened in 1988! It's so big and grand and modern - very different to our Westminster!! There was an old one that was built in 1920's but it's not used any more. Canberra only became the capital when it was purpose built about 100 years ago - before that Melbourne and Sydney were arguing for ages that they should be the capital so they built a whole new place to settle the dispute! So Canberra is ultra-modern, and rather manicured and organised as a result! But very nice - very green, quiet and is surrounded by mountains! Only 350,000 people live there compared to the over 3 million of both Mel and Syd! Anyhoo, we went on the roof of the building which has grass on! Had a group piccie, then went for lunch in the city, then I said goodbye to the group that carried on to Syney and was dropped off near my hostel, as I have just spent a week there! Will write about that in my next postcard......