Here I am in New Zealand, with my new car! I am now the owner of an automatic 1992 Mitsubishi Galant, with a 2L engine and some other bits and pieces (four wheels, windscreen etc.) But how, you may ask, did I get here? To explain that, I will have to have a short flashback to Sydney, because it wasn't exactly as planned... On Monday night in Sydney I met up with Mary, one of the Irish sisters on the Great Indochina Loop (who lives in Sydney). We drank a ...

OK people, I'm way behind with this thing so I'll skip through everything as quickly as possible. Ish. Got the Oz bus from to Brisbane on Wednesday the 16th, and the driver was none other than Cosmic Dave, the half-wit we suffered with on the first journey. It was only a small crowd on the bus, too - a Scottish/Irish couple, Jenny from the Fraser Island Adventure, and Simone, a Dutch girl I had previously met on Magnetic Island). AND the weird Canadian co...

Better start this little soap opera now. This could take a while. The Oz bus arrived in Hervey Bay just before 6pm on the Friday. We disembarked at Palace Backpackers, with arrangements to meet up for a pizza later - all except the cheese-phobe, who ended up walking down the street for a chicken burger (God, I really miss the food in Asia - Australian food is the same tasteless stodge you get back home, only with less flavour). As I exited the bus, I ...

[Photos uploaded now, check the "photo albums" bit for a step-by-step goat lassooing masterclass!] After a couple of days in Airlie Beach, it was time to catch the next Oz Experience bus. This was a bit of a struggle, since it left at 7am. I suppose it would have been less of a struggle if I hadn't been in the pub until 2am, but never mind... The day started well, I was in the top bunk and when the alarm on my phone went off at 6am I leaned over to th...

Woo-hoo, I'm still in Airlie Beach. Joy. Welcome to all my fellow Spank Me passengers (don't worry, you can unsubscribe from this waffle any time you like). At least, all the passengers whose e-mail addresses I could read after the sheet of paper got covered with beer. "Drumbeat" was built in WA and was originally owned by notorious Australian businessman Alan Bond. She won the Sydney to Hobart race in 1990, and he celebrated this win with a glass in...