05/07/2012

Where to start?! Last night was a blast! The state of origin match was fantastic! I supported New South Wales because they were the under dogs, but man did they fight back. It was 20-20 in the last 10 minutes, with Queensland landing a drop goal making it 21-20 for the final tense 5 minutes. Gutted they lost, but the hardest thing for me to do was to put a cap on the amount of money I could spend and slow down my drinking whilst watching sport. But y'know what? It was alright. I even went out to wet wednesday again, not to get smashed, but to have a good time. Saw Lauren from the first night, and had a brilliant time. Can't remember the last time I went out sober and had a good time! Woke up hangover-free but a bit tired and headed over to the office for the talk on travelling. Holy s***-zu there was a lot to take in! Every activity they described sounded awesome, the things you've GOT to do, and the places you HAVE to go. I didn't know how I'd fit it all in. But me being me, I've come up with a rough plan. It goes as follows:

• Move to Bondi for 1 more week in the area, hit the surf and hang out with Issy.
• Fly up to Cairns (whilst it's still warm).
• Travel down the east coast
• Sydney for Christmas & NYE
• Travel West through Melbourne
• Travel North through the red centre to hit Darwin outside of their wet season.

That's the plan anyway. The only problem is November. I was planning to see the eclipse in November up in Cairns. According to that plan, I'll be somewhere along the east coast in November, and probably unwilling to spend a few hundred dollars to fly up and back. Something to think about. Nothing's really set in stone here, so I'll just see where things fall.

After the talk, we headed down for the bus to Bondi as we drove, the rain started and got heavier. Luckily it stopped by the time we got to Bondi. All the guys went in the sea for a dip. But the planned beach walk from Bondi to Coogi and the BBQ was changed and we ended up having a bus tour. The music we listened to was hillarious. You'll have to youtube "I've had an absolute C**t of a day" and "You can't say C**T in Canada". We Stopped when it wasn't raining and for fish and chips. Saw a Seal in the water from the clif top and a Golden Orb Spider! Pretty awesome day. Not completely sold on Bondi, but the crap weather and crap waves probably didn't help. Stil, looks like I'm moving there next week with Luke, the hostel I'm looking at has free surfboards for use, free cereal breaky and costs $24 per night!

Tonight will be an early one, got to be downstairs at 7am for the blue mountains trip! Hopefully it'll stop raining by then, it's really starting to come down now. Just played cards with Max, Greg and Natasha's new friend Emily who bought us all pies from Pie Face. Definitely the highlight of the day.

06/07/2012

The blue mountains were incredible. Bigger than Belgium, the scenery was epic. Vast forestry and waterfalls off massive cliff drops. That should give you a taste if you haven't seen the pictures on facebook. The tour guide leader guy was such a nutcase (in a good way) he was constantly pepped up on life, his job consists of doing these tours for people and in his free time he basically does that stuff anyway. 'Some days, I just drive solidly up to Darwin, I take the dirt bike, kyak, surfboard and drive on up'. If we ever want him to join us for anything, send him a message and all we have to do is pay for fuel and buy him lunch. He was a proper Bear Grylls style guy, knowing everything about the plants and nature around us. 'Try one of these' he said, handing me a berry 'Tell me what happens'. I trusted him. My mouth dried up completely. It was horrible! But pretty cool at the same time, he gave those of us that did it a leaf to chew on which tasted sweet and kind of like apples. The whole day was full of facts and mindboggling scenery, I really can't explain it. The train back up is the steepest railway in the world and boy did the operator take the piss. Michelle and Rachel were absolutely bricking it, and obviously he loved it. "It's got about a 40% survival rate, so we might be lucky today".

07/07/12

Just a quick update this morning. Hostel booked for Bondi. Flights booked to Cairns. Hostel booked in Port Douglas. Activites booked all down east coast including skydive, scuba licence course, Witsundays sailing trip, Frasier Island 4WD self drive safari and Thai intro for the way back! Absolutely nuts morning, actually planning my route. This is so exciting! Loving it. Also, had a skype with my dad and Sarah, which was nice =)

As for now, I'm going for a surf at Manly! This is starting to get exciting!

I write this having just got back from surfing and our day trip in Manly. The surf was incredible, a lot stronger than anywhere I've surfed in the UK and a lot more difficult. But with our week at Bondi booked for next week and free use of their surf boardsGot kangaroo burgers on the way back and cooked them up nice.