Happy New Year everybody! I cannot believe that it is 2015!

I also can't believe it has been about 2 months since my last blog. I have been spending all my time so far in Australia in the state of Western Australia.

I first spent nearly a week with my friend, Farney, who I met at camp (he has been going for over 25 years!) in Perth. After that I caught a train and bus south to a small town called Margaret River known for it's 132 wineries!

Here I stayed with another friend from camp, Lincoln. His family own a tour company for the area and have a large amount of land. So I helped and worked on their land and around the house and this paid for my bed and food that they were supplying for me.

One of my first jobs was to help upholster a couple of benches for a truck used on the Kangaroo Safaris.

I have never upholstered before. Neither had Lincoln. So after watching a few youtube videos we were experts. After a breif panic that we had to cut material perfectly first time as we had none to spare, we grabbed the staple gun and went for it. The end result was beautiful, if I do say so myself, and you can see the pictures in the albums section.

Other work also included taking down a stockyard...and putting it up again in a new location. Getting up on a ladder and fixing the net over th orchard and feeding the chickens to name a few jobs.

Our location was beautiful. Two more friends joined me, Kirsty and Rob (Rob you will have seen on other parts of my travels) and Kirsty and I shared a caravan which, when we woke in the mornings, was surrounded by kangaroos. Even on occassions when we had to walk to the carvan at night in the dark they were there.

One night when I had the torch I came across a kangaroo only 10m from me. It looked pretty cool so close, so I proceeded to get my phone out take a photo. At which point the kangaroo was transfixed by the torch I was carrying and thought he would take a closer look. He started bounding towards me - and a kangaroo can really bound! - I was very brave and decided to scream and run in the opposite direction. Clearly my fierce scream scared it (as I intended) and it veered off into the bush.

Ok so I wasn't that brave in that situation but I do pride myself on dealing with a huntsman spider that we found in our caravan it was only a little smaller than the palm of my hand. This creature I managed to knock away without being bitten (which I hear is pretty painful). So I am sure you are all pleased to know that I am surviving the wildlife. Although the flies are clearly the most annoying, especially when you are carrying a wheelbarrow load of hay and have no hands free to swat them away as they decide to be friendly and settle on your eyes, nose and mouth .....yuk!

Of course it wasn't all work and battling the wildlife. I had my afternoons free and would often cycle into town or one of the many beaches to top up my tan.One day even tried surfing, unfortunately I didn't manage to stand but I have got pretty good at body surfing (no board required!)

I also had the opportunity to go on one of the tours that my friend was hosting. I got to see how wine was made at the wineries, visit a chocolate factory and a cheese store...yumyumyum. As well as this was visited on eof the many caves that were in the area.

As well as all this I also had the novelty of Christmas in the heat. It is very strange having Christmas in the middle of the summer but we did a few things to get us in the mood. Such as attending a carol service in the park, buying Santa hats and tinsel, watching "A White Christmas" in an open air cinema. But it was the day itself that made me feel Christmasy. Lincoln's family made me feel unbelievably welcome and part of the family. They even got me a gift and we had a lovely roast. Although no Aussie Christmas is complete without a BBQ, which we had to cook breakfast, and a swim on the beach. It was a beautiful day and everyone was there wearing Christmas hats.

After Christmas day we went camping for our last few days in Margaret River and after all our work over the last few weeks we decided we deserved a few days by the pool before the travels resumed.

Then it was back up to Perth to stay with Farney again. Here Farney, Rob and I explored Perth along with another friend from camp, Al. Here we went to an animal park where I got to stroke a koala (they are so cute!) and feed kangaroos, clearly they weren't the same killer kangaroos found in Margaret River!

On our last day in Western Australia we went to an island called Rottnest, which is probably the only place on earth where you can see the cute Quoka. It is kind of a cross between a gerbil and a kangaroo. In the 1980s people used to play football with them until a fine of $10,000 came in. It is hard to believe people would do this to the cute creatures who are so tame that they sniff your hand and like to be stroked!

So yesterday, 7 weeks after arriving in Western Australia, it was time to fly to the other side...Melbourne. We caught our flight and prepared to touch down 3 hours later. When the plane was approaching Mebourne airport we found we were circling for about an hour and not getting any lower. As it turned out, there was a terrifc storm in Melbourne meaning we couldn't land. The pilot came on the loudspeaker and told us our fuel was getting low so we were going to fly to Canberra, the capital of Australia. This is not where we had planned to go. Once landed at the capital we couldn't get off as there wasn't a stairs there that fitted. After a 2 hour wait and 15 tons of fuel to refill the aircrft we were in the air again to Melbourne. 6 hours after we should of landed, we touched down in our intended city at midnight. There I had a friend to meet me who I hadn't seen in 3 years.

I have already started exploring Melbourne and there is more to come but I guess you will just have to wait for the next blog to find out about that!

I guess this is a good place to stop. Sorry for any incorrect spellings, it is usually pretty late when I write these.

As always I plan to follow my blog with photos of make sure you check them out.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the New Year is full of adventure!