Friday 27th April

Journal entry brought to you by Tami (shortly to be leaving Australia, sob sob)

Got up at 9.30am, only to realise that we had to check out in half an hour. We had a bit of a mad flurry, and then realised it didn't actually matter if our stuff wasn't together because Chris wasn't checking out and therefore we were planning to leave our stuff in the room anyway. We went to reception to check out and were made to pay a day charge for being on the premises past 10am (ridiculous), and then decided to go into town. We were stalked by a slightly bizarre French guy called Fabrise, who invited himself along for lunch with us. We wrote some postcards, and I had a really great banana smoothie. Then Chris and Sophie went up to the lagoon, and I headed off to the internet café to do some blog updating (you see, I do care about you). We then returned to the hostel and introduced Chris to Scary Mary, the receptionist (who PROMISED us she would read our blog, so Hey Lorina, you had better not have lied!) and began to get our stuff together to leave Australia. Sniffle. We then went to say bye to Scary and she was horrified we'd been charged for the day, so she gave us free meal tickets although we weren't eligible for them. We then caught the bus into town and went to the Woolshed for the last time, looking seriously great in our massive rucksacks.

We decided to upgrade our meals as it was our last night, so Sophie and I paid $6 (about 210p ? there are no pound signs on the computers over here) and got broccoli quiche, vegetables and chips. Was a really good meal actually. Then we just sat outside for a while, trying to prolong the length of time we had before we had to say goodbye to Chris. To make up for how sad we felt, we did the Cassowary dance for a bit, but it only served as a reminder that it was the last time we would be able to do it. We eventually decided that we couldn't put it off any longer and caught a taxi to the airport. It was really rubbish saying bye to Chris, he's been an amazing friend in Australia and we've had some really awesome times together. We know he'll be reading this at some point on his snazzy iMac, and on behalf of both myself and Sophie, I'd like to send out a massive thank you to him for everything he did that made our time in Australia that bit more special. Chris, you are such a great guy and a true legend. Thank you so much for the cartoons, they are, in a word, incredible. To surmise, I would just like to say...

Godfather: "Would the Assasinate please open der eye?" Sophie: "I think it's YOU." Chris: "I think it's YOU". [Repeat]

Rich: "Confidentness... I'm sure there must be a better word for it..." Chris: "Confidence?!"

Chris: "Brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. What a load of rubbish. What a kerfuffle."

And lastly: "This is THRILLER"

Sorry, know that doesn't mean much to most of you. But had to get it out of my system. We then made it to the airport eventually, and after walking to the international terminal because we'd been dropped at the domestic, we attempted to get some sleep on the benches. It was FREEZING. I was so cold. I had some minutes left on one of my phone cards and as I was on the phone I could hear my teeth chattering. Not cool. Brr. Because we are the cheapskates that we are, Sophie and I decided to sleep in the airport for our last night, although our flight was at 6.30am and we could quite passably stayed in a hostel, but no, we thought we'd save on accommodation. Cuh. Sooooo cold. Last sleep in Australia. I'm really quite sad. We've had some great times here, met some fab people, had an immeasurable amount of laughs.

Bring on New Zealand!