Hello!

As usual Il start by apologising for the long gaps! (Presuming people still read this!) This shall be the last entry from Australia as we leave here on Wednesday evening bound for Christchurch, New Zealand which is exciting but I think we are both a little sad to be leaving Oz!

So since the last time, we have done quite a lot! From Byron Bay we had a night at Surf Camp with the Oz Experience bus where Josie showed off her excellent surfing skills and I did manage to stand up about 4 times for 2 seconds each! Very good fun and on a very nice beach too. The next morning it was a very long drive to Sydney which I was very excited about! We drove over the famous bridge on our way into the city, its huuuge! The opera house was smaller than I thought it'd be though. So we had 5 nights in Sydney at two differnt hostels because one had a very smelly room. We walked over the bridge and around the Opera house, The Rocks, Darling Harbour, The Museum of Contemporary Art, the City centre (bought a new phone, grr!), Kings Cross and caught one of the ferries through the harbour to Manly Beach which was very pretty, if a little chilly! Really really liked Sydney, it seems to have everything. On the penultimate day we went over to Bondi beach wearing jeans, trainers and jumpers and were still cold! On the last day we picked up our camper van, I was very nervous about driving such a van but luckily it was a manual one and didnt have anything embaressing written on it which a lot of them do! As it was a hot and sunny day (yay!) we managed to drive across Sydney and go back to Bondi Beach which is a lot more impressive in the sunshine! The next 3 days were spent driving and stopping off between Sydney and Melbourne, it was nice to get off the beaten tourist track and we found some strange little towns, ports and villages to camp in! We arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon and went to the house of Mike, a friend of mine from Uni who is living here at the minute, we had home cooked food and a proper bed, it was amazing! The next day we set off for the Great Ocean Road with Mike, where there was stunning views and very nice deserted (but cold) beaches. We stopped off at the 'Round the Twist' (Childrens tv programme from back in the day) lighthouse and took a lot of photos! That night we camped in a car park and made a feast on our little gas stove. The next morning we continued along the Great Ocean Road and saw as much as we could despite the rain and fog! Pictures to follow! In the lat afternoon we went inland to the Grampian mountains which were stunning and really deserted (drove for about an hour and saw no one except a few kangaroos!). We stayed on a camp site that night because it was a bit eerie!Kangaroos sat outside our van which was cool. The next morning we had a small hike in the mountains to a nice waterfall and then set off back to Melbourne as Mike had to be at work in the evening. Yesterday we had a very early start to go see the Neighbours set which was brilliant!! We got to walk around Lassiters, see the General store, the garage, Grease Monkeys, the lake and of course Ramsay Street itself! Then last night I went to see Stereophonics with Mike which was just brilliant because it was a tiny place and very good atmosphere! Today we have moved out of Mikes as he lived a little bit out of the city and has gone to Tasmania today so we are staying in the city and going to Neighbours night tonight with a couple of girls we met travelling in Thailand and some of the irish we met in Cairns, you get to meet about 4 people from the show so im quite looking forward to it!!

We have been away for 10 weeks now so over half way! Can't believe how quick it has gone! (and the money!) But nevermind, both still having an amazing time, bring on New Zealand!

Hope you are all well, do check this quite a lot so write us a message!

Take care, love Jem xx