hello....sorry its been a long time since i have written i have been busy...seeing the desert and making my way over to the lovely and beautiful place that is new zealand...so i have had only one night here and one day and i love it so much...today was a perfect spring day...cool air, clear skies, blue skies and sunshine....had such a good day. met a guy on the bus last night on the trip from the airport...and bumped into to him again today so has a coffee and walked round the city..botanical gardens and the park...going to see the musems and galleries tomorrow...so hopefully the weather will stay the same...i have enjoyed being in fresh cool air...i think i am a cold person...i like to be fresh rather than hot and sweaty...maybe i have been in the heat too long.

so i have had a walk round the city...which is beautiful...victorian house, churches and gardens. i have seen daisys, dandelions, weeping willow trees, oak trees, sycamore and silver birch...blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows and daffodils and bluebells, mallards, canadian geese, cherry blossom,......anyone would think i was in england....i think thats why i like it so much...especially the punting on the river avon which is on cambridge terrace!!!

i walked in to the backpackers last night and got invited out for one beer(which was my intention)....which ended up me turning in at 4am...welcome to nz!!!!

ok so now about the desert....

alice springs is a nice town but its nothing special....there are some nie shops and a few nice bars but its expensive (as you would expect in the middle of the desert) and not really clean....the aborignal people are mostly drunk...i dont mean to stereotype but they mostly go into to alice to drink as their communites are dry...they have no concept of the value of money as they have never had to earn money and their bodies are unable to deal with the alcohol...so when they come to alice they make the most of the government handouts by drinking....its not safe to walk alone at night ..but then i guess i wouldnt do that in any town. they do make you feel wary but they are not out to hurt you so as long as you are aware of yourself then its all good.

the tour departed monday morning at 6.10am (like being back at work!)...we travelled to a camel station and had a coffee then headed on to another stop and then another and then another...the total travel time from alice was about 5 hors...including all the stops. we first stopped at the olgas...or kata tjuta...36 rocks that form a sacred site. we did a 3.6km walk round them and it was amazing....the colours, the views were just spectacular. we then heaeded over to ayers rock (uluru) for the unset. ok so please remember that i was in a budget bus...cheapest one i could find....so when we arrived at the sunset spot there were buses and bueses of many wealthy tourists....drinking champagne and having bbqs whilst watching the sunset... i had some fresh air and to go with that some more fresh air...!!!! it was good though...a beer would have gone down well!! the colours are amazing and the rock is good but i think a little overrated. we headed back to the camp to cook our own dinner ( not cooked for us!). had a glass of the goon....which i am begining to despise....but yet i still drink it. i went to bed...which was a seeping bag insde a swag ( bigger sleeping bag)....had one of the best nights sleep ever...falling to sleeo under the stars was amazing...such a good experince.

the next day we got up at 4.40am to get ready for the sunset....this was beautiful again...but there are many tourists doing this so its a bit busy wich takes away some of the atmosphere..the walk round the rock....9.6km was very good and i enjoyed it...took about 2hours because of the heat and photo taking. this was my rock highlight really.

so we jumped on the bus, had lunch and headed to kings canyon. stoppeed off to see mount connor on the way...a guy owns the rock so you can only go to it if you book from him and there is an aborignal community living out there so not many tourist manage to get there....good views though and managed to see the salt lakes...

the kings canyon took another 5 ish hours to get to...so it was dinner and then bed....a swag again...saw a very bright and long shooting star which was just breathtaking. in the morning (5am) we got up...ate brekkie and began the kings canyon walk and the walk was something else...this has to be my tour highlight....the first bit you walk up 100m vertical (ish) in 15mins....thats quite a lot....so very steep but after that you mainly just walk round the top of the canyon...so amazing...got to see the garden of eden pools...the views were just spectacular...i loved it. all my photos are on so please enjoy looking at them. its just shame they dont capture the heat...37deg everyday all day nearly...so hot..drinking about 5 litres of water a day!!

i met some great people on the tour...i spent a lot of time with 3 canadian girls...lots of fun and they were staying the same hostel aftyer the tour in alice so spent time with them...so good.

donna...who i was travelling with before has got enged to her boyfrined who she met over here whilst with us...so great news...he did the whole romantic thing. private plane over to a seculded beach...hotel room at the shangri-la...rose petals and champagne..beauftul ring...amazing!!!

thanks for reading....i will try to get it updated regularly....miss you all lots...xxxxxxxxxxxxx