Hi again everyone, we are trying to get back on track with the blog so here goes with one big one about Australia!!!

After taking full advantage of the in flight free wine we all stumbled off the plane as we arrived at Melbourne. Couldn't believe it though thought we had landed back at Manchester!! As we were greeted with torrential rain and freezing cold weather when we had just come from tropical temperatures in Asia. This was even more depressing as we had heard that there was a heat wave in England!!

MELBOURNE

We made our way to start our next adventure of staying in hostels, we had heard terrible stories from other back packers of bed bugs and sharing dorms with up to twenty other people, so we were very apprehensive to say the least but ready for the challenge!!

We were broken in gently as the rest of the bunk beds in the dorm stayed empty, probably due to the fact it was sub zero temperatures and we all had to sleep in as many clothes as we could get on.We woke up full of enthusiasm but that was soon washed away by the continuous rain as we had to trek around Melbourne in the hunt for new warm clothes as the flip flops and badly matching outfits weren't quite working!!

We did manage to see some of the sites and get a feel of the city but decided the best option was to get the bus booked and head for sunnier climates up the east coast.

We found a tourist information which is where we booked our ticket on the greyhound bus - This ended up being a fantastic, reliable service which enables you to travel up the east coast stopping at different destinations at your leisure, we got this at a fixed cheap price which luckily meant lisa could buy the UGG boots she had been looking for all day.

SYDNEY

Our first stop on the greyhound bus was Sydney, we stayed in a hostel at Kings cross which was a good central location with all the main sites in walking distance.This was our first experience of sharing a dorm, but I think it was more unlucky for the one German lad that we shared with, who had to encounter four lary girls coming in at 4am. We had been persuaded to go out with the other people from the hostel to a cheesy student night and the only way we could cope with it was to get really legless!! Don't think the German was very impressed as Lisa and Steph forgot they were now in bunk beds and both of them fell off the top bunk during the night, he was definitely woken up, either by the loud thuds or the uncontrollable laughter of four drunken stoke girls ha ha!!

Over the next few days we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing sites in Sydney and were perked up by the warmer weather. The first stop on the tourist trail was the amazing Botanical gardens, we all surprised ourselves as we enjoyed walking around the stunning gardens looking at the huge variety of plants, trees and flowers. We were even more mesmerized by the thousands of fruit bats that had taken over the gardens and every canopy of every tree in site.

As we walked through the gardens we were blown away with our first site of the Sydney Opera House!!!!! As you can imagine you see this on T.V and in magazines all the time but its truly a magnificent site to see it in all of it's glory as it is such a dramatic and extraordinary building made even more spectacular with the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. The surrounding harbour is lined with beautiful bars and restaurants, we splashed out on an ice cream as the prices here were phenomenal!! We later took a walk across the bridge and enjoyed the breathtaking views of the harbour and the opera house from a distance.

Whilst in Sydney we heard of the fantastic news of Stoke going up to the premiership, we were so happy but jealous at the same time as we could of all jumped on a flight home for the day to join in with the celebration, but believe us we had a celebration of our own!!!

Over the following week we enjoyed exploring all the surrounding districts in Sydney such as the Rocks, Darlinghurst, Surrey hills, Paddington and Circular quay.

BONDI BEACH

Next destination on the East coast was the famous well known Bondi Beach, we found an apartment to rent for a week, the weather was more like the British summer so no bikinis here, but still able to sit and watch (perv) the surfers and the body beautiful's and take walks along the stunning coast line to Coogee.

Reality started hitting home as we could no longer afford the luxury of dining out three times a day and instead had to cook cheap meals e.g fish finger sandwiches, beans on toast and drink boxes of the dreaded 'goon'.

GOON EXPLAINATION; this played a big part and had a lot to answer for during our stay in Australia!! Description: It is a boxed wine that apparently only students, backpackers, aborigine's and alcoholics drink but unfortunately we fell into one of these categories. As it was all we could afford at five pounds for four and a half litres. It tasted as you would expect for that price and to top it off the ingredients included fish remnants and milk??????????? God knows what long term damage this has done to us but as you can see from the photos the short term effects were bad enough!!

BYRON BAY

Next stop was Byron Bay after a fourteen hour journey on the greyhound which we take well in our stride now after all this travelling. Byron Bay is a more intimate, chilled beach town with a hippy vibe. We had a quick chance of getting our bikinis on, all desperate to keep our tans topped up but this was short lived as we were forced back inside when the rain came, taking with us a tin of baked beans and another box of goon! But not all bad as it gave us chance to make friends with other backpackers and reminisce with stories of the good times in Asia, as it wasn't just us missing the sunshine, culture and cheap prices that we loved so much!! Whilst on the subject of prices to put it into perspective we were paying the same price for one chocolate bar in Australia as we would pay in Asia for one nights accommodation.

SURFERS PARADISE

This is exactly what it says on the tin, it is a paradise for surfers with is glorious long beach and big waves, but as the weather was not up to much and we didnt really take to the built up concrete jungle which runs along the entire sea front. Desperate to do something and find some kind of entertainment Vikki enquired at the tourist information to be told " Sorry nothing to see or do here". It seemed the only thing to do was get drunk, which we had finally had enough of ( yes i bet it's hard to believe!!) so instead we booked our ticket to leave the following day, but one good thing did come out of it Vikki got the chance to meet her old colleague as she only lived an hour away.

BRISBANE

Brisbane really cheered us up as not only was it a really buzzing cosmopolitan city but was also the place where we started to plan (he he the morrall familys favourite word) plus the weather was glorious. We spent three days here in the cleanest nicest hostel we had stayed in so far and treated ourselves to some nice grub- aussie steaks and proper wine!!!.

Brisane is the third largest city in Australia, its one of the most desirable places to live and we can see why. It has a huge cafe culture and vibrant night life which we did sample of course, doing it Vikki style penny pinching and taking goon out in our handbags!!!!.

STEVE IRWIN ZOO

"CRIKEY" We finally made it to Steve Irwin zoo, we had been really looking forward to it and were certainly not disappointed, we all agreed it was the best zoo we had ever been to. The staff were really enthusiastic, Steve's passion for animal conservation had really rubbed of on them. The zoo was extremely interactive and you could get up close and personal with all the animals. We weren't prepared to be over come by emotion as we saw his wife and daughter (Terri and Bindi) and the vast number of fan tributes and the memorial statue of Steve and his family, it really bought a lump to our throats.We sat in the park with the kangaroos chilling out next to us, watched a nail biting crocodile show, stroked koalas played with Tasmanian devils, it was certainly refreshing to see such healthy Elephants here especially compared to the ones we had seen in Asia. We would definitely recommend people to go there as it was such a fantastic day out.

FRASER ISLAND

Next on the agenda was Fraser island where we really went back to basics and roughed it, camping in a tropical rainforest on the worlds largest sand island. The adventure started after driving through the treacherous sand roads and rain forest to the most stunning lake ( Lake Walley) which was surrounded by miles and miles of sand dunes. We had to take full advantage of the lake to cool off as we were unable to go into the sea due to the sharks aghhh!!!!!!!!!!!

We finished driving around for the day and headed to base camp. In our 4x4 were two competitive lads who were not best pleased when our tent went up first and we had to give them a hand with theirs (unlucky boys you should get out of your London offices more often ha ha!). The other two in our 4x4 happened to be chefs - whey hay, we hadn't eaten so well for ages, we contributed by being chief pot washers and bar maids- suited us down to the ground!

It was a bit daunting at night having to tip toe around the wild dingos on the way to the toilet but luckily they were more interested in the scraps of left over food!!!!!!!

We took it in turns driving along the sand dunes which was really good fun, we visited the beautiful champagne pools and Indian head point where we saw the huge manta rays. As always not plain sailing with us and as we were heading back to the boat on the last day deja-vu another tyre burst, this time not just flat but shredded to bits. The two London office boys stood around looking perplexed but luckily the two army chefs came to the rescue and got us back on the road in no time, luckily we didnt miss out on seeing the most stunning lake of all Lake Mackensie before we headed back to the ferry!!!

WHITSUNDAYS ISLANDS

Next exciting destination was Whitsundays which we had been looking forward to for so long, we paid a bit extra and upgraded to a racing yacht which took us around the Great Barrier Reef!!! We sailed around the protected islands which were lush green hills popping up from the turquoise sea, fringed with palm trees and white sandy beaches truly a sight to behold. It was a perfect spot to moor up at night and enjoy the blanket of stars above watching the numerous shooting stars as you sat on top deck sipping ummmmm goon!!!!

Certainly put our sea legs to test (esp lisa) as we found it difficult to walk after goon normally never mind on the top deck of a boat!Of course the next day we enjoyed the ultimate snorkelling experience around the barrier reef, sarah delved a bit deeper and went diving.

We saw a unbelivable array of fish and coral, the different types with their rainbow colours vibrant markings were truly captivating, there was fish and sea life of all shapes and sizes you found it difficult to take in and believe what you were seeing, to the point where there was a fourty pound parrot fish that sarah was convinced wasn't real and thought was a remote control toy, especially as the captain was such a joker ha ha!!!

We stopped off at Whitehaven beach which had a huge stretch of pure white silicon sand, the sand is protected and the only people allowed to use it is NASA to make the lenses for the telescopes (although they didnt notice the small bags we smuggled as a momento).

On the way back the captain went full throttle and really opened up the sails as we hit strong winds, he had us all rallying around pulling ropes and levers as the boat was sailing along vertically on its side, so exhilerating but put a stop to our relaxing sunbathing ha !!!

AIRLIE BEACH

Back on dry land lisa had chance for her sea legs to recover as we spent a few days chilling out at Airlie beach which was a lovely coastal town with a pretty lagoon that was perfect for lazing around by!! It also gave us a chance to catch up with the friends we had made from Fraser Island and the Whitsunday boat, this also gave Sarah and Steph time to prepare themselves for their sky dive on Mission beach aghh!!!!!!!!!!

MISSION BEACH

So we arrived at Mission beach and the day had finally come for Sarah and Steph to jump out of the plane at 14'000 feet. Sarah took it in her stride but Steph was really nervous, might have something to do with the fact that she is afraid of heights!!!!!!!!

The higher the plane went up the less nervous Steph became Sarah was to busy chatting to the instructers. The doors opened and there was definitely no turning back, as we dropped out of the plane like missiles out of a spitfire. The cold and wind hit you full on as we had a 60 second free full, which literally took your breath away, then with a forceful jerk the parachute opened (thank god) and we floated in the sky able to take in the views over the Great Barrier Reef truly a magnificent experience that provided a massive adrenaline rush!!!!!

MAGNETIC ISLAND

After leaving Mission Beach we got a boat across to Magnetic Island National park, what a strange place this turned out to be. Time and the Austrialian goverment had definitely forgotten about this place. It was like walking onto the set of " eeire Indiana". The shops and the cafes had all shut down leaving behind only a few alcoholic residents in the one local watering hole and a family of possums wandering the streets.

We did our bit for this this strange community as we helped a local alcoholic who had taken a stumble with his box of goon and cracked his head open, made us appreciate our ambulance service as we sat with him for nearly two hours waiting for them to take him to be stitched up.

CAIRNS

We reached our last drop off point on the greyhound bus, this came a lot quicker than we had expected as we had planned on spending three months making our way up the east coast but again we had beaten the record and done it in super quick time of four weeks ( Michael Palin eat your heart out).

We stayed in Cairns and enjoyed the glorious sunshine for the next ten days, three of which were spent in the Quantas ( British Airways) travel agency rearranging our much desired get out ticket back to cheap living in sunny Asia. However we did enjoy Cairns due to the holiday atmosphere and we ditched the dorms and stayed in private double rooms, this hostel even had a swimming pool which was much appreciated as the temperature had risen.

We still couldn't get away from the student lifestyle entirely as we had to queue for our free evening meal in a dingy pub with food vouchers and wait to be served with our 'gruel' we certainly weren't saying 'please sir can i have more'. We left the pub gruel behind to celebrate Vikki's Birthday in style where we treated ourselves to a slap up meal relaxing on the stunning harbour, pretending we were rich holiday makers and not lowly, plebeian, poor, common backpackers ha ha!

So we waved goodbye to expensive Austrialia maybe we might return one day when we have got a bigger budget, as we would never want to stay in another hostel and drink another box of goon as long as we live. Our next Asian destination is Bali, lots of tales to be told and we wont keep you waiting as long for the blog update.