Hi All White Island is an active volcano about 30 miles out into the Bay of Plenty coast. We visited it for a couple of dives just for the novelty value and were pleasantly surprised by the variety of fish, moray eels and nudibranchs that were encountered in the cold and clear water. The dives had the added underwater topographical interest of fumaroles – swim-throughs created by volcanic activity. So despite the volcanic bubbles streaming through the rocks...

Hi all! Melbourne is just a flying visit for me and am only staying for 2 nights. When I was in Cairns a few days ago, I found out that Kylie Minougue was playing in Melbourne (her home town), so I tried to get a ticket and very successful I was too. I managed to get a ticket quite close to the stage and was looking forward to an evening dancing in the isle and singing away with all the thousands of other people there.When I arrived at the Rod Laver Arena, the ...

G'day AllOn the internal flight over from Sydney to Cairns I was getting worked up about having booked an all female 6 bedroom dorm style room for the next few days, it was cheap, but when I arrived at Gilligans Backpackers & Resort I asked if they had a double room all to myself for my stay. To my relief they said yes and I was prepared to pay the high price no matter what! I'm not a true backpacker am I?! I think you get to a certain age and you pre...

Gday everyone!I here and safe in Sydney, welcomed by my relatives at the airport. It was great seeing them and I was looking forward to my 3 weeks in Oz land.The first few days I officially unpacked both of my contents of my cases which felt good and was able to see exactly what I'd packed and hang all my clothes up in the wardrobe...normality at last, and not having to live out of a bag from one hotel to another.A couple of my cousins talked about going for...

Hello!I've had 5 hrs sleep and feel knackered! The end xOnly joking! :-)The next 3 days I'd booked myself on an amazing tour with my very own chauffeaur (I think that's how you spell it!) with air con (woooooo, I hear you say!). My driver was called Utom and he's a friendly chap (well he asked if he could take me out for dinner after only meeting me for the second day....tempting, but NO thank you!). Our first port of call was to pick up my guide ...