Weds catch our greyhound at 12pm to Mission Beach. Just over 2 hours later we’re in Mission Beach. Not a great deal here unless you are planning on partaking in some adventure activities....and of course we are. Within a few hours of arriving we have booked ourselves onto a package to do a full day white water rafting on the Tully River (Full day! Up to grade 4 rapids! Eek!) topped off nicely by a 14,000ft skydive the following day. Andy also spots some fami...

Cairns We had a stupidly early start leaving Melbourne, we had to be up at 4.30am to catch the train – to get to the shuttle bus, to get to the airport for our flight! After all the rushing, and attempt at running (which definitely does NOT work when weighed down with a big rucksack) the flight was actually delayed by 45 mins! At least we managed to have a snooze on the plane before we took off. On landing into Cairns, it looked suspiciously like we would no...

Cairns We had a stupidly early start leaving Melbourne, we had to be up at 4.30am to catch the train – to get to the shuttle bus, to get to the airport for our flight! After all the rushing, and attempt at running (which definitely does NOT work when weighed down with a big rucksack) the flight was actually delayed by 45 mins! At least we managed to have a snooze on the plane before we took off. On landing into Cairns, it looked suspiciously like we would no...

Monday 9th Nov - After a nice smooth flight from Auckland, we were confronted with stifling heat when we stepped out the airport at Melbourne. A bit of a shock to the system, but actually quite nice! After sussing out the ‘skybus shuttle’ we managed to sort out transport to Southern Cross Station, where we were able to catch a courtesy bus to our hostel – Perfect! After a brief walk around the neighbourhood, we had a much needed early night. We had arrive...

Rotorua Our first encounter with Rotorua..the delightful smell! Thanks to all the geothermal activity in the area, it absolutely stinks of eggs. Rotten ones. Yuk! As I am still feeling under the weather, we try to seek out some nice low key ways to pass the time. We stumble across the sky gondola, and after the great ride up the one in QT we decide this will be just perfect. Well, it was somewhat more windy in Rotorua than QT...and halfway up, our irrational th...