Hello there! Well now, quite a lot has happened since last writing; we've seen and done so many things it's hard to remember all of them but here goes...

Our first stop was Wollongong for 2 nights just over a week ago. It's quite a small town about 80k south of Sydney but the people were so friendly. We bought some body boards and went for a swim. Also went to the cinema but apart from lazing around by the beach, we didn't do a lot but it was nice just to relax for a while because we'd been doing a lot of driving.

Next up was the Blue Mountains which was one of my favourite places so far. We stayed in Katoomba just a short walk away from the Blue Mountains and the views were amazing. We went to the 'scenic world' and which has the world's most vertical railway down one of the mountain faces. We also went on a skyrail over the rainforests below to get back up, and again the views were amazing; the rainforests and mountains seemed to go on forever and it was so peaceful around there. On the second day we visited the jenolan caves and did a guided tour around them - It was quite interesting but I thought that they would be a lot prettier, some of it just looked like piles of rubble. I think we were just unlucky to get on a tour around one of the uglier caves but it was still worth doing.

Then it was on to Sydney, my favourite city so far. It was so amazing. We stayed in this campsite in Chatswood which was just outside of the city (30 mins by train). The first night we headed for King's Cross for a night out and what an experience it was! I have honestly never in my life seen so many weirdos walking up and down the street, and I mean serious weirdos. People singing to themselves and talking to themselves, people without trousers, those kind of weirdos. It was quite funny but we were desperate to find somewhere that wasn't a strip joint and wasn't run by prostitutes! We found one just off the main street but it played this weird music. Everyone ended up getting in to in though!
We also...

• went on a cruise up the harbour which was really good and ensured we saw most of the city's sites.
• went to the aquarium where we saw sharks and crocs. The sharks weren't as scary as I thought they would be but the crocs!!! I really don't like them (I will not be getting in any lakes any time soon!).
• climbed the harbour bridge which was amazing and so much fun. It took us about 3 and a half hours in total because we had to have lots of safety briefs and get kitted out with our lovely costumes (!). We did it at night and the views were amazing. The city looked so pretty all lit up and we could see for miles. It was initially a bit scary climbing up the ladders to get to the actual bridge because they were really steep, but the actual bridge climb was fine. It was one of the best things we've done so far.
• we also went to see a play called DasSHOKU HORA at the opera house which was, erm interesting. None of us (or the rest of the audience) had a clue what was going on. Basically all we could tell was that there was this japanese woman running around the stage pretending to be Hello Kitty shouting 'What the f***' every now and again. Hmmmm. And no, it wasn't us being dense, there was a reviewer sitting on our table as it was opening night and he didn't seem to have a clue either!

Anyway, that was a very quick sum up of what we did in sydney - it's such an amazing city and I deffo want to go back one day!

We also visited Newcastle (which was a bit of a dive) and Port Macquarie which was also pretty nice. We visited the local museum which was very interesting and had lots of things about convivt history as it was the 3rd place that a jail was established for us pommes. Liane and I got to dress up as Victorian ladies which was most enjoyable! Then, oh my god, we went on one of our most random excursions; camel riding! The blokes leading the tours were very strange indeed but it was well worth it. I had no idea that there are over 1 million camels living wild in australia! Mine and Liane's camel was called Bimbo and smelt a bit but I can't hold that against her as she put up with me and Liane sitting on her for about 30 mins! We rode along the beach on her with 3 other camels and as we turned to come back we saw lots of dolphins swimming alongside us. They were literally a few meters away and were so beautiful. We got so excited about them that we nearly missed the whale swimming around a bit further out!

Then it was off to pat some Koalas and feed some kangaroos at a local wildlife sancturary. Koalas are definitely my favourtie animal we've seen here; they are so cute!

And that brings us up to now, to Byron Bay. We've only been here a couple of hours but I'm liking it already. It's such a random place and I currently have a man sitting opposite me in a clowns hat! That's what this place is like though; it reminds me a bit of Brighton but minus the unpredicatble weather and it has a nicer beach and everyone seems a lot happier1 We're going body boarding later on and then going out tonight which should be lots of fun!

Just wanted to say thanks for all the messages on here and on facebook and all the emails. I like reading them so keep them coming!
xxx