From Brisbane we continued on our journey south, making short stops in Byron Bay, Woolgoolga, & Tea Gradens before we hit Sydney. A highlight was a visit to the Walkabout Wildlife Park, a 30th birthday pressie from my friend Charlotte. We breakfasted with kangaroos, learned about Aboriginal culture and had a 12ft Python wrapped around our necks - great photo opportunity! We decided to spend a few days in Sydney, saying final goodbyes and enjoying a las...

The land of Oz....a gigantic country, the equivalent of 60 England's, and we have 6 weeks to squeeze in as much as possible. To save time we flew north to Cairns on the north east coast, and collected our transport for the long journey south to Melbourne, a (hopefully) reliable bright red Toyota! First stop, Cape Tribulation & The Daintree, set in the northern rainforest of coastal Queensland. Wow, this place is hot - sticky, humid, can't-breathe hot. ...

Our lives in Sydney kicked off at super speed...we were both thrown in at the deep end with our jobs, quite a challenge after nine months of doing nothing but lazing around only worrying about where our next day took us...our brains really did need a good workout so the challenge was much appreciated. Thankfully we both found work doing what we did in the UK, great for the CV and even better for the wallet, no hostel-bar-pint-pulling or fruit picking, thank goodn...

Finally landing in Auckland, 2 days later than planned, we took our connecting flight to the south island of New Zealand. At this point we were raring to get kitted up and hit the mountains to get some snowboarding in. Thankfully the weather was amazing with clear blue skies and fresh snow, perfect conditions for the slopes. The last time both of us were on a snowboard was 4 years ago and in all honesty, we weren't brave enough to go it alone, so we booked 3 ...