Ok, I'm lagging behind badly with my blog here so I'll whip through New Zealand a bit. The arrival into NZ was much politer than the rounds of questioning that had greeted me in Australia. A quick stamp and bag pick up saw me out into the cool New Zealand night. Christchurch is the largest settlement of the South Island, with around 350,000 people. The metropolitan area contains over half the island's population of just over 1 million. The CBD is small, and muc...

We arrived in Sydney with the sun shining (for once). The drive in is impressive; over the Harbour Bridge, nice view of the Opera House and through the centre of town. We needed to drop the van off at the depot in Wolloomooloo (oh how we laughed), just to the East of the CBD. Needless to say we got lost and couldn't find where we were on a map. After stopping to ask we found we'd driven someway off our maps- the centre of Sydney is very small! We made it to the...

Just for your information, the picture has no relevance to Byron Bay, which is a small town which is, like most along the East Coast, almost entirely in existence to serve backpackers. It was largely than some of the other places and boasted a recognisable town centre of at least five (5) streets. I had left the girls and travelled down with the two Marks and a few others. The town has very busy on the day we arrived, and once more there wasn't a single hostel be...

Leaving the relaxed atmosphere of Noosa we got to Queensland capital Brisbane, a new and shiny city of large tower blocks. I was in a room with two guys I'd met on the bus, Mark and metrosexual scouser and his friend, handily also called Mark. After brief introductions with some other people we went off the the XXXX brewery, where we were wowed the by the massive scale beer making before getting pished off the end result, before rounding off the night with a Chin...

Fraser Island has been the best part of the trip so far - a three day and two night self drive 4x4 safari around the world's largest sand island. Hervey Bay is a dull little town that basically just serves as a base for the safaris. I only spent one night there either side of the trip, both times taking full advantage of the $10 all you can eat pizza deal. We set off at 6 in the morning. Our group of ten included the three English girls I'd been travelling with (...