Wow it's been ages since I've updated this blog so I'm going to be here ages writing it and you're going to be here for ages enjoying it!

Last you heard, i was preparing to leave New Zealand - well, that didn't quite come off as planned but i'll explain that in due time.

Thursday 15th May - This was supposed to be our last night in New Zealand. It would've been as well, but for a 4 litre box of wine, half a litre of vodka and my alarm not being loud enough. Louise and I went out that night to celebrate the good times that were New Zealand with some of our friends from the Kiwi Experience. We both got ridiculously drunk, I got thrown out of the club and all but passed out in the bathroom on our floor in the hostel before returning to my room at 3:15. We had to be awake at 4 in order to get the Airbus to the airport and catch our flight. When we awoke at 7am, 15minutes after our flight had taken off, needless to say we were a little annoyed. Everyone in our room except us had heard my alarm (which was next to my head) go off but decided not to wake us!!! In any case, I couldn't've handled a flight that morning so it worked out for the best. We spent the Saturday and Sunday mooching around Auckland, buying souvenirs, sleeping, eating too much and going to an Auckland Blues rugby match (against Wellington Hurricanes) before FINALLY going to the airport and leaving for Australia. We were both quite sad that we had to leave New Zealand at last bearing in mind its the greatest country in the world but it was time to move on. Going to Australia isn't really that strenuous after all.

We arrived in Cairns on Sunday 18th and spent the night in a dive - bright yellow breeze blocks, 2 piled mattresses for beds a curtain that had been cut in half to accomodate the window. We spent Monday - Saturday in Cairns and despite the fact it was quite a lively city; because we didn't know anyone and we were put in a twin room in our hostel, it passed fairly slowly. The typical day would involve, free muffins for breakfast, sunbathing (very very hot), walking round cairns buying souvenirs (I have a boomerang, Louise has a didgeridoo), then heading for a free meal at The Woolshed and then a huuuge ice cream from one of the numerous Gelateria's around the CBD.

On the Wednesday in Cairns, we went on our Great Barrier Reef dive. It was a relatively small boat but to be honest we didn't really spend much time on it as we were either diving or snorkelling. The weather was stunning though so for the time we were on the boat, we sunbathed. We did 2 dives on the reef, the first being on Oyster Reef and the 2nd on Upolu Reef. The latter was a far better dive than the former mainly because we had more freedom to move around. As they were only introductory dives, the instructors were fairly strict at keeping you close and guiding you round but ours gave us a little leeway to take photos and get up close. We saw clown fish, parrot fish, hundreds of types of coral and fish, a ray, a reef shark and so much more besides. We hired out an underwater camera so you guys could enjoy our the pictures and we could feel deliciously smug! All in all, it was an awesome day.

Couldn't find anywhere to watch the Champions League Final so i just watched the repeat the next day at the Casino in Cairns - come on United:D

I'm effectively transcribing this blog from my personal journal so if i'm vague it's because i haven't written in my journal for days. Our next stop was Magnetic Island off Townsville. On our journey from Cairns, we spent a few hours at Crocodile Centre we we got to hold and interact with an array of reptiles and birds and we got to see hundreds of crocodiles, crocodile feeding, Cassowarys and i fed the Kangaroos. After arriving in Townsville, we headed off to Magnetic Island on the ferry. We spent Saturday 24th - Tuesday 27th May on Magnetic Island and in that time we did very little. I went on a walk up the beach to the docks, collected some shells (as you do) and went a walk to the WW2 fort facing out to sea. Also, weirdly enough, met a guy from Marlborough who really likes Cricklade! Otherwise, spent our evenings out on the deck of our dorm, drinking goon (cheap white wine - 4litres for 4 quid) and talking.

Now for the interesting stuff! On Tuesday 27th we headed to Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. We met a really friendly group of travellers on the Oz Bus and that night we all booked a Whitsunday 3 day 2 night cruise and our excursion to Fraser Island further down the coast.

Wednesday 28th - We boarded a tri-maran (not sure how to spell it) called the Avatar at the Airlie Beach marina and headed out to the Whitsunday Islands. After crossing the Whitsunday Passage, we stopped and went snorkelling in Cave Cove ( i think thats what it was called) where, ironically, i managed to dive far deeper than I had when i did my SCUBA dive. Anyway, we had a really eclectic group on the boat and we all got on really well which made the tour even better. We stopped off at an inlet on Hook Island and went for a bush-walk to see some Aboriginal cave paintings before heading back to the boat and dropping anchor for the night.

That night, everyone was on the goon! We played Ring of Fire, What's the name of the f*cking game? 21 (Getting to 21 after 5 rules was one of the greatest collective achievements i've had when drunk) and all of us got horrendously drunk which is always a great way to meet people.

The next morning, we were woken up at 7am by Christina Aguilera 'Dirty' blaring over the speakers. Not the best wake-up call but never mind. That day we headed to Whitehaven Beach which is the most breathtakingly beautiful beach i've ever seen - the pictures don't nearly do it justice. We went on a short bush-walk to a lookout point and then our group headed down to the beach where we had fun taking some Baywatch pictures, jumping off rocks etc etc. We christened our group 'The Goonies' in honour of that most delicious beverage - Goon!! (Check out the Facebook pictures)After leaving, Whitehaven we headed out to sea where the waves were extremely choppy and made for some amazing sailing, particularly sat up on deck! We headed to Mantaray Bay for our second snorkelling session was even more amazing than the first before watching the sunset over the islands and dropping anchor for the night. There was slightly less enthusiasm for the goon that night as we were all extremely tired so we stayed up with a few drinks and watched the stars for a few hours - i think i counted at least 15 shooting stars!

Our last day on the Whitsundays was spent snorkelling, taking pictures of us jumping off the boat in our extremely tight and revealing stinger suits and then sailing back to Airlie Beach. The whole tour was absolutely amazing, we met so many people, saw so many beautiful things and even the simpler pleasures such as sitting on the boat in the sun were made better somehow just because of where we were.

That night in Airlie Beach, our group were served free drinks (after the obligatory goon session in the room) at our hostel before we headed out to the various bars in Airlie beach. Louise and I got horrendously drunk and somehow managed a McDonalds meal and an extra burger as a reward! We also had a meal the next morning for breakfast - the budgeting isn't going so well.

I think that just about up to date with my travels thus far. Onward to Fraser Island!