A you may have noticed, am a bit behind on journal entries and photos. This is because we have been kept so busy over the last few weeks. New years in Sydney was amazing. The fireworks were everything and more than i expected. We watched them with a perfect view of the bridge and the opera house. Our hostel there was fantastic as well. We often went out in a big group to the backpackers bars. Had a great time. I also have an update for my nightmare blog. This is a good one. A German lad who was on the opposite bunk to me woke up and saw that i was sitting upright. Apparently i had a look of sheer terror on my face. He asked me what was wrong. I was staring at the bottom of my bed. I then said, "Its massive". he asked me what it was and i said, "There is massive spider". He then turned on his bedside lamp, and there i was, staring at this massive thing at the end of my bed. It turned out to be the lump caused by my feet in the sleeping bag. We all had a right laugh about this the next day. I honestly believed at the time that there was some massive spider or something at the end of my bed. HAHA

Anyways, on the 2nd January we headed off in our car to the blues mountains, and to Katoomba. We only stayed one night because the weather was terrible. We spent that night in the hostel, watching "The Godfather". On the 3rd January we left for a place called Foster. We spent two nights here, where we met another London lad called Paul. One of the days we rented Kayaks and went round the great lakes for the day. This was fantastic. Got to see massive Pelicans, secluded beaches and all sorts. Plus some very good exercise. Of course, after all this hard work we decided to load a trolley full of meat and have a big barbeque feast back at the hostel. we also saw a white tip spider here, which is one of poisonous ones in aussie. It was right outside our hostel, horrible looking thing. On the 5th we set out for the drive of all drives. We drove from Foster to Nimbin, with a Barbeque stop in Bellington (left over from the previous night). We arrived about 7.30pm, after setting off at 10am. What can i say about Nimbin. Its a hippi town where everyone is constantly stoned. The hostel we stayed at was fantastic, full of character. It had loads of chill out areas including a Teepee. The owner, Doug, was hilarious. he kept forgetting what he had said. This was probably due to weed overload. Funny guy. We had one full day in Nimbin and decided to go to Minyan falls and do a jungle trek. We were following a path which ended abruptly. We ended up going off the track and getting lost in the middle of the jungle. It was kind of like the start of arachnophobia when they are in the jungle. We saw the biggest spider anyone has ever seen outside of a zoo. Its body was like a walnut. Mick had a few leeches as well. It eventually reached the point where we had to try and find our way back before it went dark, or risk being there for the night. Luckily after about 2 hours of walking we found our path back. Favourite trek so far. We didnt see a single soul on it. Pure nature at its greatest

Yesterday we made the short one hour journey to our current destination of Byron Bay. When i last went to australia, this was one of my favourite places. Once again it has been absolutely superb and i have only been here for about a day. We made a trip down to the beach yesterday as the weather is scorching. On the night we went to the Rail bar where we bumped into one of our room mates from Sydney. That happens quite a lot up the east coast Today we had our first day of learning to surf and i think im hooked already. By the end of the 3 hour lesson we were all able to stand on the board and catch some waves. We have two more days of surfing and i cant wait. Tonight I am off to one of my most favourite bars in the world. CHEEKY MONKIES. Have some great memories from last time i was here. We would have gone last night but its closed on sundays. They play loads of drinking games there and everyone ends up dancing on the tables by the end of the night. Fantatic. So thats my journal up to date. Gotta buy some booze now and get myself in a cheeky monkey mood. Hope the weathers nice back in England, lol