Wow! It's been a long time since I've written one of these.... this could take a while!!!

So I'm now in Aus and its finally hot and sunny after wearing my thermals in New Zealand I am now rather happy.....

But lets go back a bit

So in Queenstown NZ, we decied to keep going with the adrenaline sports and went snow boarding for a day, we had a couple of lessons and free time in the middle of the day to practice, it was such good fun and we were turning on the slopes by the end of the day!! I loved it! We went for cocktails in a teapot that night - yummy!

The next day we left Queenstown after a little wander around the park there and then drove to Milford Sound

We had a nice boat trip around Milford sound, it was a truely amazing place all the mountains meet the sea and snow capped mountains were beautiful. We got to see some albatross too!

We then drove to Dunedin, and spent a few days chilling there, met up with a guy we had met whilst volunteering who now goes to the uni there, saw toy story 3! (has to be done!) and we went to see the yellow eyed penguin colony thats there - they're so sweet and just waddle everywhere! We got to stand in the trenches that had been dug just off the beach and watched them come in from their day fishing in the sea and waddle to a nice shelter :-) they were awesome

We left Dunedin not without seeing the world's steepest residental street! and started the drive up to Kaikora (so the whole length of the island nearly!!) it was a nice drive though, we got to see the big boulders (whos name Ive forgotten now) which were like perfect spherical boulders dotted on the beach, and we also went to see the blue penguin colony (the worlds smallest penguin!) they were so sweet, we just saw them rested there.

In Kaikora, i went for a nice walk over the cliff tops to see all the amazing coast and cliffs there (and also a seal colony - they make me laugh....) the next day we were meant to swim with dolphins but unfortunatley beacuse of the winds it was impossible to see where they were because the sea was so rough, so we had to come back. We decided that we really wanted to swim though so we stayed an extra day and went the next morning. We were then successful! and it was so worth staying the extra day, there were literally hundreds of dolphins everywhere swimming less than a metre from us, we had to sing and make lots of noise so that they stayed to play, and they swam circles around us and we followed it was amazing!! and surprisingly I didnt really feel the cold - though we did get good equipment! We got some good pics and videos with an underwater camera too. We then had to rush all the way to Christchurch to return the campervan in time!! We only just made it by literally a minute or 2!

We then spent just the night in christchurch, we had wanted a day or 2 there but we'd decided we would rather swim with the dolphins and skip christchurch - we had heard it was boring anyway! Me and sally went out that night with some nice people from our hostel, and oddly enough a guy from Blandford!

The next day we flew to Australia and arrived in Melbourne!!

We had a few days in Melbourne and went to the Queen Victoria Market the 1st day, and that night met some nice people in our hostel, the next daywe went to central town and explored that on the free shuttle bus and saw china town, the harbour and all the nice builidings. I went to the Tim Burton exhibition which was amazing, i got to see all the costumes from his films, and the hand from edward scissor hands! All his original sketches from his characters, it was really awesome!

Me and Sally had booked to do the Oz experience and Kat and Paul are getting the greyhound up the coast. So the next day we got up early to get the bus, we met some nice people on the bus and then had a 3 day tour up to Sydney.

the 1st day we went to Wilsons Prom. National park and saw where the 2 seas meet, and all the stunning scenery there, we then went and saw a whole heard of wild emus and then loads of wild kangaroos!!! They were so funny hopping along! We got to try and walk up and get close to them, got a few metres away so all good! We saw a wombat too! They are some funny looking creatures!

The next day we went to the Australian Alps and a few people from the group went skiing, but we went for the cheaper option and went sledgeing for the day which was good fun! After our freezing cold day we had a really nice hostel to stay in with a hot tub, we celebrated that it was sally's birthday at midnight and met some other australian skiiers!

The next day we drove to Canberra, Aus capital. It was a really interesting city actually, really interestingly laid out all with cirlces and triangles and stuff, we got to see the old and new parliment buildings, and all the embassys there and learn how the government works, it was really interesting actually... i dont know how to unbold this....

We then went to the national aus museum, set in a very odd contempory style, the buidling was awesome it just was covered in giant brightly coloured weridness, all the exhibitions were pretty kool too all about good old aus. That night we arrived in Syndey and spent the night celebrating sallys actual birthday and went out with people from the bus and had a really nice fun night with things like musical chairs drinking games, oh and I went for my 1st ever thai!! yum!!!!

The next day we explored sydney harbour and went to see the opera house and walked along the birdge and back, it was soo weird to actually be there after seeing it so many times on tv and stuff! it truely was epic and the opera house was beautiful and so intricate. I took many pictures.... We went to the toilet in the opera house just so that we could say we did! I also found a guylian chocolatecafe and had a milkshake - wow it was soo good! They have a lindor cafe too! We got the ferry over to manly beach and chilled out there for the afternoon taking in the views, going for a little walk and watching the surfers. we got the ferry back in the dark so that we could see the harbour with all the lights, it was fantastic even though it was raining and freezing on the boat! That night we were knackered and went to bed at 7.30!!

The next day we packed a lot in, went to hyde park, the botantical gardens - but again got caught in the rain, darling harbour, we went to the paddys market and bought an amazing dress/skirt thing which can be made into a 100 different outfits, and that is what I wore that night when we went to the opera house to see an opera!!!!!! Thats right we went to see opera! We had seen a sign for whats on, and we went in and enquired that lunch time about prices, you can get standing tickets for about $40 - but we actually got seats in the end because there were some spare!!! It was fantastic, it was the only opera ever with a wild west theme, it had sur titles luckily so we could understand what was going on. It was an azming set with video imagery projected onto the stage and massive ssets, it was a fantastic evening! We went for more teapot cocktails that night and saw the world hertiage listed cocacola sign.

The next day we got the bus to surf camp!! A nice free perk on the Oz bus, we spent the night round the camp fire getting to know the poeple on our bus and had an epic buffet dinner!

The next day we had a few hours of surf lessons, the boards were HUGE! But that made it easier and I managed to stand - woooo! For quite a long time actually... im a total pro now - hehe. Loved it! Can't wait to try again now..!

We've now arrived in byron bay and spent today hanging out at the beach because it was actually hot enough to do that, and met some locals and hung out with them. Its a very kool but random town!

So thats everything! We've booked pretty much everything up the east coast now! It's a pretty tight schedule but we're doing it all!!!! Ahhhh exciting times!

Hope all is well in sunny old england or wherever you may be reading this from

xxxx