Last week or so has been pretty hectic, soo many day trips, so little time to write about them all! I flew to Alice Springs today where I'll start the ayres rock tour, and it is so cold here, definitely missing the sun on the east coast!

So after Airlie I headed up to Magnetic island, where it seemed like everyone I'd met travelling so far all turned up at once. The girls I'd met on the Oz bus in Byron were there, as well as the guys I was in Kroombit with, the Swiss and German Whitsundays lot, and also a bunch of guys I'd done the Halong Bay cruise with in Vietnam, random! So we headed up a hill to see the sunset first which was nice, then it was time for the trivia quiz with a few extra forfeits thrown in. I drank four buckets (for old time's sake) but I'm pretty sure there was no alcohol in them! We were staying at Base which is pretty much where everyone stays, but the bar closes at midnight so if you want to keep partying you have to take the bus over to another bar over the hill. We did this but the other bar was pretty dead apart from a whole load of people playing with fire poi, strange. The bus wasn't coming back till half two so a bunch of us decided to walk home. How we made it I have no idea, there were no streetlights or signs, but we were accompanied on our journey by a very drunk aussie man giving us piggybacks and a random dog which together helped us on our way! One of the girls fell into a ditch which was highly amusing, not so much for her though.

Next day me Linda, Neele and Sandros were supposed to go on a walk to see the wild koalas but me and Sandros missed the bus so had to settle for zoo koalas instead. Finally got a koala hug although they wouldn't let you actually hug it, the woman kept shouting 'you're a tree!' at us whenever we tried to move. Passed around a load of birds and reptiles and took a million photos pretending to eat them. Then we headed to wallaby bay and fed some wallabies which were rather adorable. The guys I'd met in Vietnam were going to a beach party with some aussies they'd met and I was gonna go along but couldn't convince any other girls to go so I wussed out, really regretted that though seeing as there was nothing going on at the hostel that night and they had a great time. This is why I should always say yes to everything, a lesson I keep forgetting.

Next stop was mission beach. People only really go there to do their skydiving or rafting, but it's a pretty cool place and the hostel (Scottys) was so friendly and nice, made a nice change from how impersonal all the others are! Splashed out on some kangaroo steak then sat at the bar for a while listening to the live band. Next day was rafting time. Pip who I'd met in Byron as well as Loren the uke player were doing it on the same day but I was doing the EXTREME tour and they weren't so I ended up with a group of 16 Americans. Held back my predjudice and had a brilliant day though, the guides are hilarious and I was sat at the front so got bashed around a lot. Jumped off a load of rocks and swam down a waterfall where I was pretty convinced I was drowning, then flipped the raft a bit and floated down some rapids. And shouted 'EXTREME' a lot, that was important. Good times. Went to the bar afterwards with a girl called Michelle who had landed herself a job at the bar the night before so we ended up getting free drinks all night from the other bar guy, and chatted to some locals for a while. Most other people did their skydive here which I was pretty jealous of but I'm saving myself for New Zealand, canny wait!

Last stop on my East Australia adventure was Cairns. I boarded my last Oz bus with Loren and sang the Oz experience song one last time! We took a detour through the Atherton tablelands on the way which was great except that I'd already booked a bus tour here for two days' time. Oops. We swam in the waterfall where Peter Andre's Mysterious girl video was shot as well as the Timotei advert. It was SO COLD. Lying at the bottom of a waterfall watching the water fall down towards you is pretty cool though. Then we went to see a crazy tree then to a lake which was thankfully a lot warmer. Jumped off a tree into very shallow-looking water cos I'm so brave, then finally arrived in Cairns. That night I met up with Ed Rex who I'd met in Thailand for a few beers and a catchup, but had an early night cos we were both going to chase fish around the next day.

Peterpans travel had convinced me to go with a 'luxury' boat cos they had a discount on the diving, and I was pretty worried it was gonna end up like the rest of the 'luxury' stuff I've done, ie a bunch of grandmas sunbathing. Turned out it was a bit like that, with lots of older people, couples and kids. But there were three other backpacky types there called Luke, Katherine and Natalie, and they were pretty great so that made it ok. The sea was going a bit crazy though which meant it was impossible to sit outside on deck, and impossible to see anything while snorkelling. Wahey. We started off going on a glass bottomed boat which was rocking too much to focus on anything, then got round to the diving. This was a bit more stressful than the other dives I've done cos of the waves but the guide was holding our hands the whole time so we didn't bash into the coral, aww. Didn't see any turtles but finally found nemo. We went to a really windy sand island after that then did a bit more snorkelling in really shallow and really choppy water, dragging each other away from the spiky coral so we didn't impale ourselves. Quite a nice day's swimming overall but the journey back was AWFUL. The boat was rocking so much that everyone was just lined on the deck staring at the horizon looking green. Some guy was sick on my foot. Karma for the Thailand vomcano experience I guess. Lovely.

That night I met up with the boat lot at Gilligans where there happened to be a jelly wrestling competition going on, and Pip was taking part! If I'd known I would totally have signed up and kicked ass. Some of the girls were pretty ruthless though so probs for the best I didn't. Drank faaaar too much cheap beer but had a really good night with great people. Naturally though, they were all leaving the next day, it's always the annoying ones that don't leave!

So the next day was the Uncle Brian's bus tour of the waterfalls and lakes in the tablelands, where I ran into Dylan the uke player from Byron. I'd been told I'd be singing and dancing a lot which I wasn't feeling particularly keen on at 8am with a banging hangover, but as soon as I'd jumped into some nice freezing cold water I was well into it. The tour is the best I have ever been on, I was pretty much grinning the whole day. The bus is called Gus, and is awesome. Yes the bus. The bus driver talks to him and everything. Basically it's totally ridicilous but you can't not love it, cuz Rohan our guide is crazy in all the right ways. So we slid down some rock slides, did the herbal essences pose, jumped off the tree again and shivered around a lot, but the best bit had to be the bus. Definitely recomended!

That night I was supposed to be going for drinks with Dylan but passed out as soon as I lay down. So this morning I went in search of some warm clothes for this rock tour I'm going on which I'm now very glad that I did, in bed right now in my hoody and still cold. Ran into Neele at the airport in Alice Springs and she's coming with me tomorrow which is good, and we had a few drinks at this hostel. We've been warned not to walk around town after dark on our own here cos the aboriginals will kill us if we do. Not sure how much truth there is to that but they are everywhere here, it's really strange seeing them all lining the streets. Where do they live?! Alice Springs is a strange place. Anyway bring on the big rock wooooo!