This is attempt two. Wrote a whopping big blog the other day and lost it all so I'll try again!

Hi guys!

Sorry it's taken so long but yet again we've been here there and everywhere and it takes quite a while to do these! As it is my 2nd attempt at writting this it isn't going to be that detailed - it costs too much money!

Ok, we landed in Sydney on the 3rd April and I can't believe we've already had a month in Australia. Our time in Sydney included: Walking through the parks and Botanical Gardens to reach the amazing Sydeny Opera House and Harbour Bridge at Circular Quay. As some of you may know it's not my first trip to Australia and I don't know what it is about that bridge but I love it! Did some shopping for warmer clothes too. Had a very drunken night out which involved buying in rounds of bottles of wine. Not our best idea. Next day was spent lying in a park recovering then going to the Australia Museum! Also went to the Blue Mountains which are awesome and we went on the worlds steepest railway - and my god it's steep!

After that we flew to Melbourne where we spent a couple of days with a guy we'd met in Laos. He let us stay with him and his mates in their hotel room for the night as they were there for the Easter Hols. A free nights digs in a lovely room - bliss! It took a while to get used to being in hostels again after having our own rooms in Asia with our own bathroom and eating out for next to nothing every night. Now its back to shared dorms, bathrooms and kitchens - all with varying levels of cleanliness but none of which have very high levels! Coming straight from Asia also means that everything seems sooo expensive here too so we're having to get used to budgeting a little more! It was the Melbourne International Comedy Festival while we were there so we also caught a few comedy shows which were good.

We then flew to Tasmania where we hired a car for the week and had ourselves a litlle road trip around the Island. We stayed at places called Hobart (the Capital), Queenstown (rather rough and slightly scarey!), Cradle Valley (where Cradle Mountain is. Did some lovely walks here), Launceston (such a nice hostel. Also saw Cateract Gauge here), Bicheno (where we saw a penguin parade. This is where the penguins come out of the sea at night to find their burrows on land - amazing to watch and they were so tiny and cute!). Our final night was spent in Eaglehawk Neck (near to Port Arthur, the historic prison the British convicts were shipped to years ago). On the way we saw some amazing and beautiful scenery and the Bay of Fires, dolphins in the sea, Wineglass bay and loads of other places en route. Was fab having our own car and pleasing ourselves when and where we went! That's Tasmania in a very small nutshell! Oh and the nightlife is none existant, absolutely nothing to do so we were kind of glad to get back to Melbourne for some life and noise!! We went on a day trip when we returned to Melb along the Great Ocean Road. We saw the lighthouse that was is Round The Twist (a blast from the past for us twenty-somethings!), Koalas in the wild, lovely beaches and rock formations like the Twelve Apostles. We had the quiestest group though, everyone kept falling asleep inbetween the locations! Think the driver was getting a little peed off.

From Melbourne we flew to Alice Springs where we went on a 3 day 2 night tour of the area including Ayres Rock (known as Uluru). This was a great trip, a full group of 21 people, all of us fairly young. Our guide Joel was a nutter but really knew his stuff and made it really fun. We went on hikes along Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta, slept under the stars in swag bags, cooked on open fires that we had to collect the wood for (can you believe they made us work?!) We went to Ayres Rock for sunrise and sunset which was just beautiful and learned about how it was all formed millions of years ago and also the Aboriginal culture. When we got back the whole group went out for a meal and a few *cough* drinks! A fab time in Alice Springs, really glad we went there to see a different side to Australia and sleeping under millions of stars in the outback really was magical. No bugs either which was a huge relief!!

And right now, you find me in Cairns where we flew to from Alice. Think we have done around 14 flights now! Not really doing our carbon footprint much good but oh well. It's like being on holiday here, such a different vibe from New South Wales. The weather hads been baking hot, in the 30's but today is really cloudy. We're in a really good hostel here so I feel quite comfortable at the minute. They also offer a free meal at dinner which is a bonus. Most hostels tend to offer something for free which is ace! We've done a bit of sunbathing so yes, our tans are coming along once more! We're off on a 2 day 1 night trip to Cape Tribulaution in the morning where we'll see amazing beaches where the rainforrest comes right down onto the sand and do some great activities. Then in a couple of days are going out on the Great Barrier Reef for the day where I'll do my first introductory deep sea dive! Hope I like it. I slightly paniced when I went snorkelling for the first time! Should be amazing though as we'll spend 5 full hours on the reef on a really big posh looking boat! Hope the sun makes it back out in time for these trips.
Hopefully I'll have some great updates to tell you from our time here in Cairns when I next blog.

Sorry if that wasn't the best blog. The first draft was so much better!! Hope everyone is well at home and the spring weather is still ok?! And stay away from that swine bug thingy please all of you!!

Take care and speak soon.
Lots of love
Nic
xxxxxxx