So firstly apologies I havent written on the blog for four weeks! And also apologies in advance but this may be briefer than my previous blogs as a result!

So when I left you I was in Singapore, but not any more! I have well and truly hit Australia (four weeks ago actually!).

I arrived in Sydney in the evening of the 29th, after flying the hard way stopping in KL (again!) on the way, and spent one night there before moving on up to Cairns on an internal flight. That evening I met up with Hayley and Becky in the agreed hostel and we had a lovely evening of catch up before the others joined us the next day. We then spent a couple of days literally just chilling in the sun and catching up on everyone's travels. (for those of you who don't know I am now travelling with Phil (as before) Vicci, Phil's Sister, Hayley, Becky and Jade all from back home in St Albans, and as previously arranged).

We then had a great day out on the Great Barrier Reef diving, seeing sharks and some really cool reef but unfortunately no turtles! The next stop on the way down was Mission beach, which was where the five of them sky-dived and tell me it was awsome but clearly it wouldnt have been as good as mine! While they did so I spent the day whitewater rafting in the river Tully which was absolutely fantatsic. I was in a boat with 5 Irish guys (2 of whom couldnt swim) and we had a really good laugh througout the day struggling to keep the boat off the rocks!

We then headed on down to the Whitsunday Islands for a 2 day 2 night sailing trip which was really cool; we meta great bunch of people and had a really good time snorkelling and on the amazing beaches, even if the weather wasnt great and we didnt get any actual hands-on sailing that we expected. The final day on the boat was aslso Vicci's Birthday so we celebrated by getting up early, to not see the sun rise beacuse of clouds and hills, but we did have a barbecue and a night out in Airlie Beach with the people we met on the boat.

We then had a morning learning to surf in 1770/Agnes water which was really good fun, before heading down to rainbow beach. From Rainbow beach we then went on a 3day 2 night Fraser Island 4x4 self drive safari which again was breathtaking. The lakes and stuff on the Island were brethtakingly clear and the scenery fantatsic. We shared our truck with 3 Irish girls and an Irish guy (I must attract them!) who were really nice and we had a really good time just enjoying the surroundings and even each others company! We even saw a dingo on the last day while heading back to the mainland.

We then headed down to Noosa for a day which was a nice little place but not too much to do so we ended up going to the cinema to see Hancock which was alright. The next stop was Surfers paradise where we didnt surf but spent some time on the beach and in the water withsome huge waves! We also managed to get some hot showers from two Canadians that Hayley and Becky had met when they were last in surfers before we joined up, which was really nice as the only other showers we seem to find are outdoor ones that are always freezing cold!

We then headed on down to Byron Bay for a couple of days, the highlight of which was building a sand castle ('Catle Maine') on the beach which was admired by lots of people (under the age of 8). From Byron Bay we then headed on to Newcastle via a town called Nimbin which was pretty odd and is basically the Hippee central of Australia. Newcastle itself was ok but not very exciting with nightlife which really doesn't compare to its British counterpart unfortunately.

We then headed on down to Sydney for the day, mainly in order to catch the rugby but we also walked out to the Sydney Opera house which was pretty nice. The rugby match we saw was Australia vs New Zealand and was absolutely amazing! The atmosphere from the VERY TOP row of the stadium was good and the view was actually pretty good considering it has a capacity of 80,000 +.

That leads us to today where we are in Canberra, whcih again seems not too exciting but it is a sunday evening so we will have to see tomorrow morning before we move on to Melbourne. We then hope to have a day to do the 'Great Ocean Road' before giving our prized vans back!

Hopefully I will get to post another blog whilst still out of the UK but we will have to see. Apologies this is so brief once again I will give out more detailed info once I get back and Im sure I will talk to you all about it at some point. Hope youa re all well, Im certainly doing ok, R x