Hi everyone - yes once again, slightly delayed on the updated, so we are dedicating our whole time on the internet to our blog, well that and facebook!!

After the two homeless backpackers arrived in Sydney and were taken in by Kate and Andy we moved to our hostel in Sydney Central, quite a cool place and was a bit of a luxury with key cards and carpet in the rooms!! we were actaully really lucky with our dorm, we were sharing with 2 english guys and 2 english girls - although one of the girls owns an ice-cream van which wa rather random when your running through the ritual of "where have you been, where are you going, how long for...bla bla bla!!" anyhoot amused us slightly!

sydney was very much a time to organise our eastcoast trip and sort out an oz phone, which may i add was a complete hassle but we acheived it and so now fully up and running round Oz!

Our first days consisted of the opera house, harbour bridge taking in all the sights and generally being mesmerised, by 1 - how big the opera house is and 2 - debating whether or not the opera house has bathroom tiles on it?!! if you look closley we were pretty sure they were! after our very touristy day we headed back to base to cook ourselves a delicacy of...noddles - fab!

The next day - the weather was gorgeous - we have overall been lucky with the weather but the odd cloudy day has crept in now and then. So, with the sun shining we headed to Manley Beach and spent the whole day there - it was bliss and gave us lots of time to take in and think - oh yeah we are in Oz!! the beach was gorgeous - the random lifeguard tanoy messages were rather distracting but nonetheless this was one of our most productive days as the tans are coming along a treat now!! Manley was lovely and getting the ferry across there only made it better!

It was our last night in Sydney so we decided to treat ourselves to go to Darling Harbour and have a glass of wine and reflect on our time in Sydney! had a really good night as we then headed back to our hostel bar and met up with our roomies and then headed to bed.

To save money on accommodation where we can we opted for the greyhound bus overnight to our next stop byron bay - we have booked our ticket with greyhound all the way up the eastcoast - which so far has worked out really well - we were very close to hiring a campervan but we have heard such horror stories we are now sitting smug in a declinging chair (although I'm (Hannah) yet to experience that because every chair i have sat in on the bus has been broken!!

anyhoot to what i was saying our bus wasnt till the evening so the day we decided to head to bondi - like you do!! again another gorgeous beach and could well and truly stay there for longer!

so that brings us to the end of sydney - we met a couple of scot's thanks to one of their mums talking to us at the bus station!! actually made our 12 hr journey go quickly - funny guys and they are doing pretty much the same route as us so sure we will bump into them again. and for the parents dont worry Milton the bus driver was our health and safewty officer throughout the trip - checking our belts are all in working order -really funny guy - WE LOVE FUN BUS DRIVERS!!

Next stop...BYRON BAY BABY!! xxxxxxxxxxx............................Byron Bay Ladies and Gents....what can we say, most defintely somewhere where you could live!!! The most chilled out place, but with just enough cool bars, shops and gorgeous beach to entertain ourselves with. With stiff necks and tired eyes we checked into our hostel for the next 4 nights 'Aquarius', really friendly and cool staff, wicked bar to get the nights started, although we did opt for the backpacker drink "Goon" to keep things within budget! (for anyone not familar with this tasty alcholic beverage.....Goon is a 4 litre box of wine, and we're not talking merlot, shiraz or even chardonnay, we'd say more table/house with fish extracts!

Having settled into our girls dorm aka the "Nunnery" and meeting a cool Canadian girl Jackie, we hit the beach!!! We then dragged ourselves back to the dorm to get ready to sample some nightlife which we had heard a lot about! Drinking games to get us in the mood with guys we met in Sydney and then first stop the Beach Hotel, a huge, very cool bar over looking the beach where they have live bands (we got to hear one the following day....sooooooooo good! 8 Piece band, with awesome songs, Black Eyed Peas to Stevie Wonder mixed in with some Reel Big Fish style, such a great vibe, everyone was going nuts, dancing and enjoying themeselves! Loved it!)

Sorry back to the night before......yes after Beach Hotel we sampled the legendary Cheeky Monkeys, what a place!!! Dancing on tables, squeezing through all the sweat, testosterone and alcohol we had a thoroughly good time! And yes food was consumed on the way home too! What a suprise!!!

The next day we were blessed with amazing weather and hit the beach to soak up some rays.....obviously with the aid of SPF 30 plus!! And then after the entertainment from the Oz band we prepared ourselves for our trip to Nimbin......oh what a place! Somewhat illegal in England most definitely.....to be continued and to leave you in suspense!!!

Ok so the real reason we left you in suspense was because we ran out of time on the internet, but to continue......Nimbin, yes a small town approx hour away from Byron Bay is a place where old hippies live and tourists go to see how they live and sample the local delicacy...weed (don't worry parents, all was carried out in moderation!) and go the the "Pot Museum", Hemp production shop and buy "cookies"! The strangest thing was the police station was only down the road, yet they seem to just overlook this and the code word for police in Nimbin is "Taxi", so all illegal dealings are then hidden! Hilarious! Our delightful bus driver Steady Eddy then drove us to a cool craft market and waterfall, and even cooked up a storm of a bbq!!!! The bus journey home was interesting....lots of giggling passengers!!!

That night we cooked our favourite food of the moment...."mmmmm pasta, or shall we do noodles tonight Jo, we could vary it slightly Hannah and have bacon with them, well yes or how about tomatoes and cucumber?" Oh the joys of hostel cooking!!!! Mum's we miss you!!!!!

Our final day in Byron Bay saw us dodging the clouds and rain in search for some sun, so we investigated the shops (as girls do!!) and then got ready for our trip further up the coast to Brisbane!!!!!!

p.s. we by-passed Surfers Paradise, with advice from fellow travellers and with good reason too having driven through it......one phrase for you "Bennidorm in OZ!" Not fo us!!!

So to Brisbane; a very cool city that we both liked very much, it was nice as it's obviously smaller than Sydney and we found our way around very easily, taking in the scenery via the City Cat over to the lagoon "Streets Beach" (man made beach just off the pavement and lagoon, wierd but cool!). It has a very friendly feel about it and the next two nights were spent in or hostel called "Bunk" (supposedly the coolest one in town, although not the most spacious) and the interior was more like a high rised car park?! Interesting!!?

Our evenings in Brisbane were lots of fun, escaping the dodgy entertainment in our hostel in the form of "Dirty Blind Date" we met up with our friends from Sydney and went to their hostel bar and onto a nightclub called "Down Under" for some dancing!!!!! Yeah!!!!!

It's starting to sound like all we do is drink and go dancing, we don't honestly!!!! The following morning we took off on the Greyhound to a small cute town called Noosa Heads! This finally brings us up to date and to where we have just spent the most amazing day on the beach in a small cove soaking up some more sun! And finally swimming in the ocean properly!!!!! Beautiful!!!

Tommorrow were off to "Austrailia Zoo" where we will salute and pay our repects to "Mr Steve Irwin!"