The month in New Zealand, the final stage of my adventure, has gone so quickly and been so much fun. It started slowly, spending a week in Christchurch where I decided to wait for my friend Lesley to arrive whilst also finding a rugby team to play for. After a terrible training session with the New Brighton team, I arranged a couple of games with Sydenham, near to Christchurch city centre. Once Lesley arrived and we headed off to see Dunedin, the original New Ze...

It's a real shame my time in Aus suddenly seems to be drawing to a close, as over the past 2 weeks I've done some great stuff and met some cool people, who it would have been nice to keep travelling with. The fraser island tour was great fun despite being pretty tiring, spending 2 nights under canvas in a mixture of intense heat and humidity plus post-cyclone winds. Driving around in a pink 4x4 was good fun - we were given a tight schedule by the tour organisers...

It's been a busy few weeks since I last wrote, in fact I can't beleive how the time is flying now.Since leaving Sydney I've progressed up the east coast and am currently en route to Hervey Bay, from where I will take a 3 day 4x4 tour of Fraser Island. Along the way I stopped off at Byron Bay for a few days, which was my first real taste of staying by the sea. I dabbled with surfing which I'm pleased to say went suprisingly well, even with my lack of balance! Byro...

As I progress through Australia the cities I am visiting are largely as I expected. Arriving in Canberra on a cool Saturday morning, I observed the orderly nature that is usual with planned cities. Whilst Canberra seems somewhere that has too many roads for people/cars, it does not have the souless atmosphere of english versions such as Stevenage or Milton Keynes. The view across Burley Firkin lake towards Parliment house was sufficiently impressive as a capital...

An update from sunny Melbourne, where I have been for almost a week, having successfully completed the Great Ocean Road cycle trip last Saturday. The final 2 days of cycling were quite different to the beginning of the journey. The fourth day, where I completed the ocean road proper, was probably the most varied day of the trip. Starting out along the coast, the slowly undulating coast road became steeper when crossing a number of creeks running into the ocean. ...