After a bit of a delay in Auckland we arrived at Sydney with no more problems. Untill we reached the hostel we had booked in to the day before, We tried to check in but they explaned they were having a few problems and could we wait a min. After 2 hours they discovered that we had been double booked and could not find any space for us (great start to Oz) So they got us a taxi and sent us to another hostel, o my lord it was the worst hostel I have ever been to hence to say we moved back out the next day and went back to the one we should have been in with no problems this time. Hoping this was just a set back to Sydney the next day we went to find the Opera house and the bridge, but the weather was shocking and the piccy's are not looking the best! We will have to try again another day!! With our fingers crossed we got up the next day hoping top catch some of those ozzy ray, and guess what rain yet again and it's not funny any more I didn't sign up for backpacking in the rain!!! So we went to the aquirium and saw some fishes without getting wet. saw lots of shark's and from a safe place which is a little unusual for me at the moment hehe. We have also discovered that the bar in our hostel has a happy hour yipppee and that we had a free drink, champagne it was (it's just as cheep as the wine here, bonus!). we have also now met some of the locals, all I can say is erm.... there a little odd so far but it's early days.

The next day woke and it looks like our prayers are begining to be answered, it was sunny yippeee!!! So we caught the bus over to Coogee Bay to see my cousin Jo. Arrived there and met up on the beach (much nicer than the city). Tried one of the local bars and then tried what the local offy had to offer followed by a trip back to the shop for more supplies. Followed by a Barbie on Jo's balcony. Going back to the hostel after that was a massive come down, going from a nice clean apartment to a noisy tatty hostel was great!!!

What a suprise the next day it rained again, joy. So we did the really fun stuff registered with a job agency, bank account, address and phone card yawn.... we then job hunted until about noon the next day it was then we relized that we dont actually wont to work, so started looking at much more constructive ways to spend our time. My first idea was to go to the bar and I hink most of you will agree it's a fantastic one. But although good I dont think I could cope with a hangover every day so we looked in to ways of getting out of Sydney on the cheep. Everything was really expensive and it was starting to look like my first idea was going to be the winner or worse still we really would have to look for jobs!!!!No I here you all cry!!!! Then and angle called me on my mobile and offered us a camper van for the bargin price of $5 a day if we delivered it to brisbae for them, and suprise suprise I said "aye lad tha'll do it".

So on the 6th we packed up and went off to Maui campers to pick up our home for 3 days. Bearing in mind that the biggest thing I have ever driven is a Escort estate, i was a little scared when we saw the size of the van. It was hugh... it was a luxury van, it even had a shower (how posh). Once behind the wheel though there was no stopping me, well people aint going argue when they see a hugh camper coming towards them and then see me grinning behind the wheel. We choose our destination for the first night, a national park called crowdy bay and headed in that direction, we turned off the highway on to a track?!?! which turned in to a very bumpy rid after about 40 min going down that rubble trackthrough the bush and not seeing any other cars we started to worry, eventually we found the camp group and loads of Kangeroos wondering around peoples camps. How Cool!. Every one around us were expert campers (you know the type) they had the barbi's set up, all sat around with there food & wine all comfy in there loungers. Me and Sam on the other hand did not have a barbi had forgotten to go to the shop so had ham sarnies for our tea, we had also run out of water so had to boil our tap water on our stove (first having to borrow matches to light it, oops text book error when camping) after tea we wrote a list titled when camping - 1. Matches 2. Water 3. Food (other than bread and ham).

In the morning we set off again, after clearing the roo's from under the van and relized why we had not see any cars on the road the day before, there was a short cut in to the camp with a supermarket about 5 mins away. (mental note - buy better map next time). Today would be more organised and we drove all day and made it all the way to Tweedy heads not far from Surfers paradise, this was a posh camp and we got to plug in to the electricty this time which turned out to be a bad thing! We made tea that night "Spagette on toast" I can just tell how jeallous you all are of our cullerany expertise. That night once safly tooked up and snoozing away in bed a storm started, a very big electric storm and we were still plugged in to the mains. Take it from me you dont feel very safe when your laid in a metal box on wheels. Anyway we made it through the night yippeee!!!

And off we went again feeling like real campers now... we drove up through Surfers paradise and got our first glimps of all the surfers. We then drove up to Brisbane and dropped the van of, it was fun while it lasted. Next time it will be for longer! We arrived at the hostel in the afternoon and discovered it sold cider on draft yippee! and happy was soon upon us. what more do you want we had cheep cider and sunshine, things are really looking up, that night we took full advantage of happy hour. The next day we went for a wonder around the city and it's really nice here, we saw a weekend market and they have christmas decorations here. We did a bit aofd sunbathing and gnerally took it easy.

How exciting we went to Australia Zoo today (Steve Irwins Zoo) I had my piccy taken with a Koala bless they are soooo cute but they stink. We then saw the croc show and lots of snakes (mum you would have hated it). It's a little odd in places as there are tv's around the zoo with Steve Irwin on all the time. The zoo is really really good and well worth a visit, I wont however be putting the pic they took of my on here as it's horrific, i'm not kidding!

And thats the adventure in Bribane over and we are heading back south towards Sydney with a few stops on the way.

Love Liz x