Hi all

Well I have made it to Australia - the long awaited country that I have been wanting to visit for all these years!

I started my Ozzy adventure in Sydney and was originally going to look for work there but I decided that I wanted to continue travelling up the East coast and get it out of my system and then look for work! So after spending a week in Sydney with a friend I met in NZ (it was such a luxury to have my own room for a change) and meeting up with the lovely Gaenor, I then set off on the Greyhound up the coast!

I was actually really nervous, as although I have been travelling for a few months now, I have done tours and buses where you are pretty much gauranteed to meet lots of people and so far I have been so lucky with the people I met. This was the first time I was doing it independantly and it has been a real challenge!

My first stop was Byron Bay and I stayed at the famous Arts Factory. Lots of people that have been to Byron told me to stay here and its a cool, laid back, hippy type hostel with lots going on. You can do yoga and didgeridoo lessons etc (I did neither) though!). I spent a few days in Byron Bay chilling and enjoying the gorgeous beaches and went on the Nimbin tour as everyone I met had been telling me to visit this place. Its basically a little town where there are loads of hippies and a special type of cookie and cake is available! It was quite amusing and so strange that a town like that existed - it was like a mini Oz amsterdam!

My next stop was Surfers Paradise which I was not looking forward to as was told it was like Magaluf! Anyway typically I ended up having the best night out here that I have had so far in Australia. Had a good group of girls in my room and we ended up doing this massive bar crawl which was actually a lot of fun!

One of my highlights of my trip so far is the Steve Urwin zoo. I absoulutely love animals and this zoo is probably the best I have ever been too! I went on Good Friday and his wife Terri was there taking the Crocodile show. His children were also there afterwards doing a signing. It is so sad as the zoo it like one big tribute to him. Everywhere you look there are photos of him and his family and they themselves make the zoo! My highlight was holding and having my picture taken with a koala called 'Minty'. I wanted to take him home with me - I think Macy would have loved to have him as a friend as he just wanted to sleep and cuddle too!

Today, I have just come back from my Fraser Island experience. I decided to do it the so called 'princess' way and took the accommodation option over camping. The main reason I chose this was actually because I wanted a guide that knew how to drive rather than taking the chance of being stuck in a car with a buch of 18 year old boys! It was a lot of fun, we visited Lake Mckenzie and ended up doing a 5k hike to see this shipwreck as our vechile couldnt get to it. We were all determined that we wanted to see it so convinced our driver that it was a good idea to walk there! After 3 hours of walking/running (as we were going to miss our ferry) we werent so sure it was a good idea after all ;)

I now have a few days to chill out and recuperate before I sail the Whitsundays at the weekend!

On the people front, I've met lots of people but so far noone that is going in the same direction as me, so I pretty much have a new best friend every day, which is fun but also very hard work and tiring as you get to the point where you cant remember peoples stories etc!

Anyway hope everyone had a great Easter, love to all

Katie xx