G'day mates! Onto Australia then after a fairly lengthy break, of which all will now be revealed.

We'd managed to change our flights to Perth so that we had a free 8 hour stopover in Melbourne. We managed to see most of the city centre, through walking and using the impressive tram systems there. I caught another tram down to St Kilda beach and back again, before taking the bus back to the airport. Our flight was delayed for the first time on this trip, then for a second time, then bought forward slightly. On the plane, I politely asked why the television in the front of my seat wasn't working to be told, "Ah yeh a lot of them are like that!" by the flight attendant who then promptly walked off.

Cheryl and Phillip were waiting for us at Perth airport. Cheryl is my Mum's cousin, who emigrated to Australia years ago. Cheryl and Phillip had kindly agreed to put up with Dave and I for a few weeks, whilst we were going to have a 'break from travelling'. Due my lack of funds, the situation had changed dramatically in the last few weeks, so I was now looking to stay a few months and start job hunting. Cheryl and Phillip were absolutely brilliant in housing and feeding us and I can't thank them enough. It was awesome to spend time with their children, and indeed my third cousins, Rosemary (who has a baby due in August) Judith and Peter, who are all roughly my age. Some of the family looks and characters remain the same! It was also good to catch up with Elly a few times. The view from Elly's flat over the city and the Swan river is amazing!

I spent most of my time during the first fortnight, attempting to find a decent job in a fairly gloomy job market, as with most other places right now. Recruitment agencies in Perth are rubbish. It was fairly tough to know where to pitch myself in the job market, meaning I didn't know how much I should be paid or what type of jobs I should be applying for, especially as I only have a working visa. But by far my greatest successes have come from identifying companies on web directories, then finding email addresses to mass email them all my newly updated CV.

So I had a few interviews which went by reasonably well. And I excepted a position with a company called Avon Valley Beef! The agreement was that I'd be heading into a business development role, to start a bakery business to produce pies, bread and other bakery lines. All with the aim of using as much trimmings from their beef carcasses as possible. I started a training period, supposedly for the first month by working in their main retail store - which basically involved stacking vac packs of meat on shelves, or asking 'cheque, savings, or credit' to all and sundry at the till. Fairly mind numbing stuff but only for a short while as I'd been promised. Nearly another month went by and it appeared the bakery wasn't quite so important for the owners as they had originally stated. It started to become clear that funding was no longer available, so after just two months we agreed to part ways! The salary was almost as decent as I'd expect to find in England so I managed to save enough dollars to carry on with the tour.

Perth is a very modern city and I've been told the most isolated city in the world. Its divided into suburbs which are all different to each other, of which Sorrento is one, 15 mins drive north of the city and next to Sorrento beach. I managed to see most of the city during my two months. Dave and I went on Judith's friends bus trip around the Swan Valley on a rather drunken tour of vineyards and breweries. I've also been to check out Jude's dog grooming business, which is pretty good, providing you can cope with dog breath everyday! We went out to see Bad Company at Metro City, which was fun particularly because Pete is so into his dnb. Dave and I also visited the beautiful beaches at Cottesloe and Sorrento. Dave decided to carry on to the east coast of Australia and so I was left, living and working in Perth. During my 3 days off during each week, I saw most of the city and around. Kings Park in probably the highlight, offering brilliant views of the iconic city skyline. Took a trip to the Perth Mint one day and Freemantle another to look around the former convict prison, which was only closed a decade ago. Saw some kangaroos on a walk in Pinerroo with Rosie and Jude - even though it was almost dark. But it wasn't all a bed of roses - I found Perth to be pretty quiet sometimes as I hardly knew anyone apart from the family. And the fact that the place is so new means it has no history and therefore, little culture. Which I only began to notice after a few weeks. What you see is what you get with Australia - there isn't much depth because people simply haven't lived here for long enough. So when work finished unexpectantly, there seemed to be only one decent option - to carry on the trip and reach London again in August.

Having not been on an official backpackers tour yet, I decided to take a 3 day trip to see south-western australia. With what turned out to be 2 dutch girls and 2 taiwanese girls. We visited Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough, Margaret River. This featured lots of stops at distinctive coastline and beaches. Margaret River is reknowned for its wine so there are lots of breweries and vineyards to stop off at, to sample their wine and beer. I spent most of the time one of the dutch girls, Lytske. The following day we drove even further south to Augusta, Pemberton and Albany. First stop was climbing the Gloucester tree to 400m metres above ground level. They used to use this as a fire look out, before planes and satelites came along. I was suprised to learn that around 10% of the forest is intentionally burnt each year, to help the authorities deal with any wild fire outbreaks. Next stop was the famous tree top walk. We stayed in Albany that night, sank another few bottles of wine and spent the next day driving all the way back to Perth. I'm glad I tried a tour like that, but any more that a few days of being told 'you only have 20 mins here' or 'sorry we haven't enough time to do that' would become even more frustrating! Think I'm more of an independent traveller and enjoy finding out how to travel between places.

I flew to Brisbane from Perth and caught the airtrain into the city centre. It sits on a U-Bend of the Brisbane River and is definitely more lively than Perth. I did all the usual stuff that tourists do, up the City Hall Tower, had a personalised tour of Parliament House, Botanic Gardens and Gallery of Modern Art. The most interesting was Streets Beach (Walls ice cream to us Brits) which is a completely man-made sandy beach on a meander of the river. Sitting on a beach with a city skyline in the foreground is pretty unique to my trip so far. Went out for a few drinks with two Irish girls. Watched Man Utd win the Premier League by drawing 0-0 with Arsenal. Next day it was off on the Greyhound bus to Surfers Paradise. Surfers is typical club 18-30 material, with lots of trashy bars, clubs and tourist paraphinallia. Having seen the beach I wasn't really interested in anymore so off to Byron Bay, the star of the east coast.

Byron Bay is a beautiful place and lived up to the many reports I've heard over the years. The beach is stunning, flowing in a curve towards the north. Walking up to Cape Byron (the southern perninsular) the view back across the beach is stunning. I can understand why so many people love it so much. This is evident in some of the travellers staying at the Arts Hostel - some of whom have been there for months or even years. There is a atmosphere close to that of a festival at night, with people playing guitars down at the jungle hut. It made me warm to the idea of staying in a commune like that for a while. They do a few hours work at the hostel every other day, to pay for their tent space and food, so have very little else to do apart from relax! All this would have been even better if it had not been for the rain! Having stayed in Perth way longer than planned, its now almost winter in Australia and my time in Byron Bay suffered as a result. It was for this reason that I had previously decided to speed through this part of the trip - Brisbane to Sydney in less than a fortnight. I took a bus trip to Nimbin on one day - which is supposedly the cannabis capital of eastern Australia. Students organised the Aquarius Festival in 1973 and many hippies took up residence afterwards. During the finally day it rained almost constantly - caught the 13 hour greyhound coach in the evening. This bus wasn't made for driving rain and water kept running through the air vents above a lot of peoples seats. Some wiseguys had bought tape along so a few of us where kept dry by taping some bags above us! I learnt that is a Greyhound policy to stop the coach every 3 hours for a 45 minute rest! Hardly an entertaining idea in the middle of the night. By mid-morning we drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and arrived.

I've been staying here at Base hostel for the last four nights. Bought a new camera on friday and headed out with it on saturday. The opera house is simply stunning and together with the harbour bridge in the background is the most iconic view I've had on this trip so far. Spent the day walking through the botanical gardens, across the harbour bridge, luna park and then back to the rocks for museums, contemporary art gallery and observatory. Played drinking games with the teenagers in my dorm and went out to a nightclub called the Chinese Laundry. Since then I've been to Bondi Beach, Kings Cross and Manly. Went to the opera house again last night to see a show called 'When The Rain Stops Falling', a story set in the past and the future, when fish fall from the sky!

Although I'd spent parts of South America on my own, this leg of traveling has been different because I've done it all solo! I've met a lot of different characters. Some interesting, some not so... It can be a lonely experience if you're not always enthusiastic with people and particularly if the weathers bad! I've been recounting my thoughts to various people that traveling australia is like 'big england'. Half the people in the hostels are english and the rest foreigners - pretty similar to london really! What you see is definitely what you get in Australia. I've felt more like a tourist than a traveller over the last fornight because I've rushed through so much. So looking forward to getting stuck into some different cultures again. Next stop mumbai! Not sure how long I'm going to stay in India because the monsoons are approaching - but the weather still looks fine for the next few days so may well be alright.

Still due to be home in August. Missing you all!