G'day and goodbye from Oz.

So its our last few hours here in Sydney before we head across the ocean to Auckland, New Zealand!!!

So we've spent the last week in Sydney trying to re-charge our batteries and get our washing done (thanks aunty Pauline and Laura!)

One of the highlights this week was the world famous Sydney bridgeclimb. boy was it the best experience! The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and we had views over the whole of Sydney, even as far as the Blue Mountains. TO make the adventure that bit more memorable, we ended up doing the climb with 4 more brummies (for those that care they were from Stratford and Selly Oak) what a small world....

THe climb up the arches was suprisingly easy, but the early stages were tricky climbing over and under steel girders. But it defentelty a worthwhile experience.

From the climb we got some awesome photos, which are currently in a tightly sealed wine box waiting to be shipped across the many seas and up the rivers to birmingham. It's a challenge between us and the box to see who gets back home first!

TO sum up our trip, we racked our brains to bring you a few facts, figures and highlights of the oz leg of our adventure.

Here we go.....

We have travelled approx 9,350 km's around australia (or 5,809 miles for our english readers).

To achive this, we have travelled via 2 planes, 1 helicopter, 11 boats, 17 buses, 1 hire car, 2 trams, 1 cable car, 1 surfboard and 1 bodyboard.

TO rest our sleepy heads, we have caught 20 winks in 52 beds, 2 underground bunkroom, 2 swags (outdoor sleeping bags ish..) and 4 comfortable coach seats.

what have we lost... well so far it's 1 hat, 1 lunchbox, 2 tops, some blood to leeches (more later...) and most importantly 1 toenail (err!).

Celebrities who have followed us to Australia have been Nicki Chapman, Some due from Home And Away (he plays a copper in a wheelchair, apparently) neighbours cast (check out the picks) and David Gower.

10 or 11 weeks travel have introduced us to some amazing and wierd people from England, including Brummies and essex girls, aussies, americans, canadians, germans (loads), spainish, swiss, italian, irish, israel, french, swedish, belgian and counting...

We have also been munched by leeches who found a home in our trainers and well as meeting 100's of insects who made thier mark by bitting us to pieces.

gourmet aussie food we have sampled include Kangaroo steaks and sauages, emu, camel curries, yummy fish and crocodile (which was wierd)

Finally, some of the ripper aussie words we have picked up are: b*****, no worries, schooner, esky, capsicum, manchester (some random word for towels and stuff..) sick (surfing slang), g'day, addictable, fair dinkum, crikey.

So, thats it for this great country, we've had the best time, got great memories, pics. bring on the nz adventure and sheep.

Thanks for the emails and messages,

signing off from oz

ruth & adam xxxx