Australia, the land down under. Where women glow and men blunder. So said the lyrical maestros of men at work. Mind you they also advocated Vegemite sandwiches, something I object to strongly but this is besides the point. Again I'm actually writing this from Christchurch in New Zealand having left blooging to the last minute in Oz and running out of time to do it. Still what can I tell you about this place in the 2 weeks that I saw it? What I can say is that it wasn't what I expected. It was filled with the most random characters i've met on the trip, amazing scenery and great company once again.

I have to admit that I was not looking forward to getting to Oz. On the plane over to Adelaide, I realised that I was going to miss Asia quite a lot and to tell the truth it felt like my travels were over coming back to a western country. I was suprised though when I got to Adelaide by how at home I felt there. The city is really small but it feels like a little England. I really liked it there and the hostel was great. However it was soon time to move on to Melbourne. I could talk to you all about the city, telling you about it's sights, restaurants, culture etc etc, but I have to say that the best part of it for me was my hostel and the randoms I met there.

My hostel was called the Pint on Punt, a pub with accomodation upstairs. Being only $18.00 a night was also another bonus. My room mates all seemed pretty cool insite of my clumsyness especially considering that the first morning I almost killed the guy in the bunk below me. I was woken up with a sudden thump and then several obscenities from below. It turns out that when I stretched out, I managed to kick my Lonely Planet off the bed which then fell onto Justins head below. Not the wake up call I think he was expecting. Luckily I was still invited out with them and I spent the evening with them in the Pub where we won the trivia night and two free jugs of beer. Result. As my time there went on however I realised that one guy in my room was a complete knobend. (he's now christened weiner boy) It all started the following morning when we picked up the paper over breakfast and I read out the result of a survey about the worlds great cities. Zurich came top with Melbourne in the 20's below Sydney. Anyway the guy refused to believe that any European city could be voted better than an Oz city citing that even a Scottish city was in there. "Oh really" I said suprised, "where's that one I didn't see it" I said. "Look bloody Stockholm is higher than Melbourne". "errr Stockholms the capital of Sweden" I replied. "No, I'm sure it's a scottish city, I've got scottish blood in me so I should know". "Dude, it's definately in Sweden" I replied. This debate went on for another 5 minutes before I realised that he was in fact an idiot and I quickly made my escape. After managing to avoid the guy for most of the day I met up with the Italian again who was in Melbourne at the same time and we had a look around little Italy for food. This was brought to an abrupt end by the appearance of a cockroach at the end of Tessa's pizza nicley baked into the cheese. Had it been in Asia we'd probably have picked it off and still eaten the pizza (shows how my standards have dropped), but being Melbourne we thought better of it, got our money back and never returned there.

After the roach pizza I headed back home for an early night but I stopped by the common room to see if anyone was around. In comes random number two. Imagine, if you can, a traveller with a guitar happily strumming away to himself the tunes of bob marley. Now imagine that traveller being a guy named Preston with a thick tasmania accent which he sang in, a homemade jamaica tea cosy on his head and a lack of talent for any instrument and ability to remember words. It was comical in the extreme and I sat talking with him and singing along for a couple of hours. He was a great guy and we were having a real laugh when suddenly wiener boy walks in to join the fun. It turns out that he is apparently a Singing coach and also a Karaoke coach up in Queensland and so he quickly started to give Preston tips on his singing on playing. "you'll never play in Queensland if you don't take my advice" "But I don't want to go to Queensland" Preston said "I just want to play bob to the world". W.B wasn't put off though and continued on his patronising tips. Apparently people used to pay him, $100's for his advice. I asked why he needed to live in a dorm then and wash dishes if this was the case, something he could'nt really answer. He said he was a man of many talents, but I believe his chief one is the ability to Bulls***.

Anyway after 5 days in Melbourne it was off on a road trip to the Great Ocean Road. We managed to rent a car with 3 other guys that we met and we spent two days seeing the coastine. It was a pretty spectacular coastline and we managed to see pretty much all of it bu the highlight was the lighthouse from Round the Twist. I also decided that Bronson is the perhaps the best name ever now by the way. It really was a great trip but we slightly underestimated how far it was away from Melbourne. We had to catch a bus to Sydney at 7 and return the car by 6 After bombing down the motorway and being stopped by the police (oooops!) we made it to the bus station after a mad dash accross town and were then on the bus to Sydney. Here we meet random number 3, our bus driver. The guy was perhaps the most irritating bloke I've ever encountered. He basically managed to drone out useless facts about the scenery around us depite the fact it was pitch black outside. "At this train station stop folks....you'll find the longest train platform in the southern Hemisphere". Oh really...how interesting...how about you shut the hell up and let us sleep god damn it! With these witty quips all night long I'm sure you can imagine that we were pretty cheesed off when we arrived in Sydney at 6.30 am!

Still we arrived in one piece but mentally scarred and we waded off in search of our hostel. Now you've probably heard a lot about Kings Cross and all I can say is that it's all true and then some. Our hostel was realy nice with great views over the city and comfy beds. We just had to walk through Junkie land to get there. Lets just say it's one big den of Vice by night where anything goes. Mmmmm nice. Still it was cheap and was just what we needed. Sydney was just as good as Melbourne in my eyes except it's a lot bigger. It was also cool because we managed to meet up with Chris and Becs form Laos who took us around town. Perhaps the highlight was the Bavarian beer cafe where we ate almost a whole breadcrumbed pig (schnitzel) and got free schnapps for finishing it to. Awesome. However my two weeks in Oz was up and it was time to leave. I really felt it went to quickly but I saw everything I wanted to so I'm happy. Thanks to Chris and Becs for your hospitality and the good send off on the last night. See you in the UK

So now I'm in NZ. I almost didn't get in due to my Visa having the wrong passport number on it. Maybe should've checked that 6 weeks ago when I got it but hey never mind. It's the the rugby tomorrow and there's great atmosphere in town. Just what I need before having to go and find a job. Reality sucks

Later Bros

Will