Hi everyone,

Its been a while so here goes...

The last time i wrote in the blog i think it was Christmas eve, so Christmas Day we spent on Bondi Beach. We bought tickets for a beach party that had Christmas Dinner thrown in so we couldnt refuse. Unfortunately when we got there we realised that "Christmas dinner" was in fact a cold piece of chicken, a small bit of pasta, some salad and a dry bread roll. As Mike is a veggie i swapped my pasta with his chicken. It was probably the dryest meal ive ever eaten, oh well. Apart from that the day was good fun with good music so cant complain, though it didnt really feel like Christmas. It is a strange sight seeing hundreds of people on the beach sunbathing and surfing wearing Santa hats. On New Years Eve we met up with some friends from home and found a great spot opposite the Opera House to see the fireworks. We got there about 3pm to get a good spot and spent the day drinking, having a picnic and watching the fireworks. It was a great day and the first time i have ever been sunburnt on New years eve. After New Years it was time to leave Sydney. We decided that it would be fun to hire a camper van and drive up the east coast for a couple of weeks. We hired the van and set off looking forward to an adventure. The first stop was the Blue Mountains which are a couple of hours outside of Sydney. The first night camping was quite tricky. The campsite we were staying in was basically in the middle of a forest and that brings about lots of bugs. Everytime we opened the doors of the van a swarm of flies flew in. There was also a cockroach that was seen and never found too so i assume that i spent the night with that aswell. The cooking equipment that they supplied us with wasnt the best either and i think it took over an hour to cook our first camping meal...rice. So our camping adventure hadnt got off to the best of starts but we tried to stay upbeat. The Blue Mountains were really nice though.
Our next stop was Newcastle. I have never been to Newcastle back in England but i assume it is much better than the Newcastle in Oz. There is nothing there. However we did enter a quiz competition and won! The only downside was that the prize money was a $25 bar tab and there was 13 people in our team. It felt more like a slap in the face than a victory. Also as we were going back to the van for a sleep one night we had the pleasure of having to try and help a man who was the most drunk i have ever seen anyone, try and find his dog. Eventually we found it for him and realised he had urinated in his trousers (the man not the dog). We got some help for him and watched him walk off down the road with his trousers falling down. Poor dog we all thought. The only good thing about Newcastle is that it is close to Hunter Valley which is where you can spend all day tasting wine and getting completely drunk for free. Luckily my mate Darren was in town and he offered to take us there. Unfortunately i was ill and so could only manage about 4 or 5 glasses, but Mike and Chris took full advantage.
So after Newcastle we went to Byron Bay. Byron was quite a cool place. Nice little surfing town. Byron was also the first place on the trip where we have had to go to the police station. Unfortunately it wasnt because we were all arrested for being drunk and disorderly, the reason was that a girl had driven in to our van and driven off. One night Mike and I were asleep in the back of the van and as you can imagine it gets very very hot in there when the sun comes up in the morning. So every morning one person has to get up and open the boot as our heads are facing towards the rear of the van and having the boot open brings in a nice cool breeze. So we were fast asleep and all of a sudden a huge bang wakes me up. I look up and realise that another van has reversed in to the back of us missing my head by about 30cm. I do not know how she did it. We were in a near empty campsite! So Mike got out to get her details and as he went to get his phone she drove off. We couldnt believe what had just happened. So we reported everything to the police and luckily enough later that day she came back to the campsite and we exchanged details. Otherwise we would have been looking at paying out lots of money to the hire company!
So we drove our beaten up van to the next stop which was Surfers Paradise. It was ok. Another seaside town, which meant going to the beach during the day and partying at night. Not bad i suppose.
Our next stop was Brisbane which is where we dropped the van off back to the hire company. It was nice to know that i would actually be back in a hostel sleeping in a proper bed again. It was fun driving around for a couple of weeks but sleeping in the van and tent does take its toll. Especially when its the summer time in Australia. At Brisbane my bro Tim came out with one of his mates to meet us. There wasnt really too much in Brisbane but we did have a great night going to see the Prodigy and Simian Mobile Disco at a park down by the river.
After Brisbane we jumped on the "greyhound" bus up to Noosa. Noosa is a nice little place. We spent Australia Day there too. We went to the beach in the morning and then bought a crate of beer and sat by a river chilling out in the afternoon. It was a bit strange in the evening as we got talking to some Brazilian lads and they started cooking food for us. I realise how homosexual that sounds but they were good lads and good cooks and we all had a good heterosexual time together.
After Noosa we went to Rainbow Beach. This is a really quiet little place but the sand dunes are amazing. It felt like we were in the middle if the desert. Then you walk for 5 minutes and you are at the beach. We had some body boards with us so we had a good laugh surfing down the dunes.
The next stop was Hervey Bay which is where we did our trip to Fraser Island. This trip was brilliant. We got put in a group of 14 and we were given 2 jeeps to cruise around the island for a couple of days. There are no roads on the island so you are constantly driving on sand and this is probably the only place where i will ever drive a jeep up and down the beach. And probably the only place where i will roll down huge sand dunes and end up in the lake at the bottom, great fun. At night we set up camp on the beach which was pretty cool. On the last day we took a cool box containing our lunch down to a lake that we were swimming in and a dingo came up, opened the top with its nose and stole about 6 burgers. We saw it 5 minutes later walking around the corner licking its lips. The trip to Fraser was definitely one of the highlights of Oz.
We jumped on the greyhound again and went up to Airlie Beach for our sailing trip around the Whitsundays. Unfortunately this trip was a bit of a disaster. On the first day we boarded the boat and sat around for a couple of hours waiting for it to leave. It was starting to get a bit dark so we were wondering what was going on. We were then told that the boat was broken and we wouldnt be able to sail that day. So 2 day sailing had turned in to 1 day. We tried to make the most of it by having a little party on the boat that night, but spoilt a bit by looking around and still being in the harbour. The next day we set sail and were told we wouldnt be going to Whitehaven beach because of the weather, which to be fair, was crap. Whitehaven is the whole reason people go on the whitsundays trip so we werent too impressed with the trip at this stage. They offered us a free scuba dive which was a really great experience but didnt make up for not going to Whitehaven and the boat braking down. I also had the embarrasment of wearing my wet suit backwards for the duration of the dive. When we got back to shore the weather continued to rain non stop which forced us to make some changes to our plans. Our next stop was supposed to be Cairns but because the weather in the north is so bad with cyclones and constant rain they have closed roads and some places are completely flooded. So we left Airlie Beach very wet and caught the bus back down to sunny Brisbane which is where i am writing this now. Tomorrow we catch a flight to Melbourne which is where the sun will be and hopefully no fires...

So thats it. Speak soon x