Weds. 24th June So I have made it as far as Brisbane. A little unsure what to expect as I had head such mixed reviews of this place, and the nickname "BrisVegas" used quite widely in Byron and Surfers... but I'm really not sure where it comes from, Brisbane is pretty nice!! I hated it on my first day here, almost entirely due to the fact that it was grey and heavy and pissing-down with rain all day, which was depressing and frustrating and generally m...

Sunday 20th Junio. It's hard to imagine Surfer's being a paradise for anyone other than someone with endless money to spend, nothing to do all day and a great love of partying all night. Even the surf is not that great, so there are few surfers here, surf schools do well, but that's about it! It's not all bad, I'll put the good bits first. On Thursday, I paid $13.50 to ascend Q1, the world's tallest residential building, at 322.5m, with an observation deck on t...

Wednesday 17th June My time in Byron Bay is coming to an end.. I leave this afternoon, at 3.30pm to get the bus up to Surfers Paradise. I'm sad to leave here, it's so beautiful and peaceful and little and unique and has such a great atmosphere, think Surfers may be a bit of a Butlins in comparison. I've had a few wonderful beachy days here, sometimes the wind is cold, but it's more than warm enough to lie out in the sun for a few hours and read or doze, it feel...

Saturday 13th June On Thursday, we were taken on a trip to the land of Nimbin, a bizarre oasis out in the hinterland country. Our guide for this trip was Jim, an old hippie in a paisley shirt, and our vessel of transport a rickety old bus painted in rainbow stripes. One of Jim's specialities was to provide us with a soundtrack to our adventure consisting of music from the 70s and 80s, blues, soul and various drug-related sound clips. The driver was awesome, he...

Wednesday 10th June So I left Sydney in the dark, bright and early on monday morning. Had had a minor panic the evening before, when I realised that monday was bank holiday (the queens birthday) and that there would be no bus to get me to the other bus in time! But I booked a taxi and it turned out fine and I was characteristically half an hour early for the oz bus..better early than late and certainly better than 24hours early like I was for my flight here! Ch...