On leaving Auckand, rather than going straight to Rotorua, I took a smaller bus around the Coromandel area. It's not where loads of Backpackers go, it's more of a holiday spot for resident kiwis. So on the first day we stopped off at the hot water beach. If the tides are right you should be able to dig your own hole in the sand and it should fill with hot water because the geothermal activity is so close underground it heats up the water. Unfortunately it wasn't...

Well this is the 6th and penultimate country of my travels - New Zealand! I arrived in Auckand with very very little knowledge of the country. Didn't know how to get to the city from the airport and didn't have any accommodation booked. Turns out you should really book beds in advance in NZ, especially at the hight of summer! Still after a few hostels I managed to find a bed. The first few days were just sorting myself out. Getting transport around the country ...

A slightly unexpected visit to Perth but what a great part of the country! I hadn't planned to go here given that I only had 2 months in Oz, but the way things had worked out I ended up with a week to see somewhere different and I'd always said it would be great to meet up with Craig and Laura again. C&L had been in Perth for a couple of weeks already as Lisa (Laura's sister) lives there and had given them a place to stay for a while. Lisa was great and sa...

Back to Sydney for the second time this trip. This time I was here for 9 days as that seems to be the least number of days you can book a hostel for in Sydney over the new year period. Sarah, Georgia and I arrived on the night bus from Byron Bay at 8am. Everyone in the hostel was asleep when we got there so we headed out to have a look around the city. We met up with Ryan and saw the Opera House, Harbour bridge etc. We went out for a few drinks and then met up w...

I'm going to group up a few things in this blog as I'm not going to write a different blog for each town I went to over the last week or so, both you and I would be bored! I'll start with the Whitsundays... I arrived at Airlie beach in the morning and it had a good old rain for pretty much the whole of the day! Still I'd rather all the rain come down today leaving it nice for the sailing trip. Thankfully this came true and the sun was out the next day for my wal...