So I made it to Australia safe and sound. Had to spend a few hours in Darwin, then from there on to Cairns, North-East Queensland. Suprisingly, all the locals are so friendly, I thought they'd still be bitter about the events of '03 but I've tried my best not to mention it. Found an amazing hostel called Gilligan's Backpacker Resort, equipped with warm showers (hoorah!), swimming pool, a fairly cheap bar, pool tables and it's own nightclub. It's absolutely massive, and fully booked for the whole weekend due to an influx of Australian Football players on tour, so the ratio boys:girls is not ideal, but they're all a good laugh and they'll be heading back to their hometowns on Monday anyway.

The weather here is pretty much ideal, not too hot and not too humid. The sun shines in blue skies for most of the day. Had a spot of rain yesterday but it was late evening, so didn't interupt my hours of sunshine.

I'm staying with 9 other people in a 10 bed dorm. 2 Dutch girls, 2 English guys, 2 Irish guys, 2 American guys and 1 German guy. There's a pretty good atmosphere in the room, and luckily, being in an English speaking country, I have yet to hit a language barrier and so it has been easy meeting people, especially as they are all here to meet people as well.

I'll be staying in Cairns until about Wednesday, then I'll hop on a bus down South and begin the long journey which will ultimately end up in Melbourne, but I'll be hopping on and off between interesting places to visit.

Hope everything is all good on the other side of the world on a little island 12 hours behind me!