Well hello everybody...hows it going? i am so sorry i havent written for ages....you would not believe how hard it is to get on the net and actually write something for you all to read. Usually, the internet places are far too hot to sit down and do it or im on the road and there is no computer to write on. But here we go..im going to do my best to update you as much as possible. At the moment I am in Brisbane and it is very hot. Today weve been off exploring a bit after ive been sat reading my lonely planet! We walked down to the river from our hostel (which by the way is a really nice hostel..most impressed) and got on the citycat which is a boat which takes you up and down the river to loads of different stops and you just jump on and off as you please. which is what we did. however technically you are suppose to pay something called a fare but unfortunatly we didnt know we had to do that (yeah right!) so just went up and down for free which was good! saved a bit of money there! We eventually got off at south bank after sweating our arses off on the back of the boat. South bank is where they have the artificial beach and cafes, restaurants, bars etc. It also had loads of market stalls dotted all over. I expect these were only about because it is sunday. Stalls are quite big coming out on sunday as they also have stalls which come out every sunday in St. Kilda, Melbourne which we also walked around one sunday. The artificial beach was very strange. Completely full of children and adults trying to get out of the heat. We wondered around and ended up going to a bar for some lunch. After having some yummy salmon and honey beer we got back on the boat and went back to the hostel to shelter a bit from the heat in our air conditioned room.

Ok so on to the hostels here in Brisbane. Well the first one we went to when we got here, Tinbillys, had a great review in the guide. Stating a bar connected to the hostel, golbal gossip on nearly every floor (any traveller should know the importance of global gossip. To everyone at home its the best internet place to go to-air conditioned, every electronic item you could need, clean and most importantly...cheaper than nearly any other internet place). It also boasts of an ultra-modern feel and a happy helpful buzz. Admittedly some of this was true yet it was a terrible hostel. After room confusion, me and em ended up in a 8 bed dorm with no one else in it...bliss! Unfortunatly a strange indian man came in to the room. It wasnt nice, he just kept staring at us constantly and kept talking on the phone constantly. After one night a whole family of chinese people moved in the room too. Who were nice enough yet it was the additional guest who we didnt appreciate. I like to call him Bob. The biggest cockroach you have ever seen in your life. Bob was first spotted in the bathroom above the sink. Later that evening Bob was running freely around the room. Screaming, one of the chinese men caught and got rid of it for us, thank god, it was horrible.

After that i was determined to find a better hostel. This is how we came across this place. Managing to get a double room for a reasonable price, it almost looks like a hotel room, thats how nice it is and having gorgeous spacious showers is bliss. So we are here for a week while we look for a cheap car yet with dwindling funds it doesnt look hopefull. Thats where needing a job over here kicks in, which we dont mind doing yet we want to see more stuff first. I am desperate to get to Frasier Island...what ive been waiting for since I got here, hopefully we shall be doing it soon and i am so excited!!!

Right, so i havent written one of these things since Adelaide. That seems like so long ago its rediculous! I will try my best to fit in as much as i can since then but i only have 20 mins left on my timer unless i can find some more change from somewhere.

Ok, here it goes....

After staying in Glenelg and really not liking it. Think a beach side trowbridge! we were to set off back to melbourne in the faithful old camry. The plan was to drive for a few hours a day stopping at random places on the way until we reached melbourne again. Not knowing what came over us, we decided to drive all the way back to melbourne from adelaide in one stint. Looking back on it now it seems like we must have been mad. We all (me, claire and ems) had gone slightly mad by the time we reached our destination. with only me and ems insured on the car, we were the only ones which did the driving. admittedly ems did most of the driving yet it was still tough. Using only a few stops now and then to re-fuel and playing stupid car games we made it back. To try and convey just how insane we all had gone, emily was singing old macDonald on the last leg of the journey in a very scary manner (i think both me and claire we slightly worried that she was the one driving at this point!).

After making it back we stayed put in melbourne for a while and max and mollys house. Claire stayed in a hostel in the city as there was not enough room for the 3 of us to stay. Claire seemed fine with this though, happy to fill her days however she pleased then meeting back up with us every now and then. Most of our time spent in melbourne would be drinking wine in the back yard on the bench chatting to the girls or wandering up and down chapel street amongst the shops, restaurants etc. During this time Claire also left us to continue her own trip, leaving us waving at the airport she walked off to explore new zealand. (Lau, it was during this time I met up with Steph).

After some time hanging around the girls house, which by the way was haunted and scared the hell out of me so much I had to take emily to the bathroom with me and night if i needed to go....trust me...scary lady in the hallway. however, she apparently only came out at 10am in the morning when we could hear her walking up the hallway yet it scared me nonetheless and i wasnt taking any chances (sorry off on one then..back to the story...) after some time hanging around the house (and after dog sitting their naughty dogs for 10days while they went to new zealand to visit max's family) we decided to head off to Sydney before flying to Christchurch to get our working visas.

We took the camry we were still renting off of cathy (im sure ive mentioned her previously...mollys friend, the one off telly) up to Sydney. Sydney was great, however it did rain a bit on the way up and it chucked it down the first time i saw the opera house and harbour bridge. We stayed in Sydney for about 5 days looking about the city (i really cant remember exactly what we did...god my memory is getting terrible...dont worry, extra detail i remember im going to write in somewhere as and when i remember, prob a on a new journal entry so you guys know i have done it but i cant guarentee, remember how long it took to write this one from the last one!). We spent about 2 days travelling back down to melbourne staying in a few random motels. It is really in these random motel towns that you see a different side to australia, the people are most strange!

Once returning to melbourne yet again, we had one night and then we were flying out to christchurch. Trying to get to melbourne airport was a right mission, we called around a load of melbourne hostels as a lot of hostels do shuttle buses to the airport for a cheaper fee than anything else. after finding a hostel that did a shuttle we got a taxi there yet the shuttle didnt go from outside the hostel like most shuttles do and we ended up trying to run up and down the same street for ages trying to find the stop where the shuttle goes from. Bearing in mind we were already late for the shuttle as we planned the time from going from the hostel, we just couldnt find the stop. Again it was a blistering hot day and with what seems like 20 stone hanging off you its not fun. We ended up giving up and pracitically throwing our backpacks on the floor, sitting on them and wondering what the hell to do. we were going to miss our flight. thats it, miss it, waste loads of money on the shuttle we had just paid for, the actual flight itself, just loads! Then, it was like hearing an angel sing...we heard "EXCUSE ME.....U LOOKIN FOR THE SHUTTLE?!" we jumped up to see a man at the end of the street and a SHUTTLE BUS!! yay! how on earth he saw us we have no idea, we were after all almost on the floor behind a bush and post boxes, a bench, not the most noticeable place. we tried our best to run to the bus. thanked the man over and over and finally borded. we were greeted by some less than amused passengers on the shuttle (after all it was like 20mins late departing!) yet we didnt care...thank god...we were on our way to the airport!

After the 3 hour or so flight, we landed in Christchurch. Now, we should have booked accomodation a long time in advance, yet after frantically phoning everywhere from melbourne airport we landed with no where to stay. Apparently christchurch was in its busiest season yet normally you can drive anywhere in a city and at least one motel would be free. therefore we werent too bothered. I managed to book us a place in a hotel called designer cottage using the airport phone and their billboard thing, giving the cottage my debit card details (never normally do but had to as we were desperate. normally we give emilys already cancelled card but she was in the bathroom). Jumping in a taxi outside the airport we were on our way to our place for the night, or so we thought. The taxi man was really strange (and sorry to say it, indian). he said he knew where this place was. $60 later he had no idea (bearing in mind it should have cost $30). it was gone 11pm at night due to the time difference from oz and we had to find alternative accomodation as no one knew where the cottage was. The taxi driver kept offering to let us stay at his place. saying he wouldnt be there until about 4am as he was working anyhow. DODGY DODGY DODGY! We were never going to do it. After offering and offering, we were stopping at evry motel to just get out of the car. Yet due to the bloody golf, every motel was fully booked. then we came across a posh hotel. emily went in and came back out saying they had a room. thank god! however, all was not what it seemed. emily had just said that to get us out of the car as after speaking to the receptionist she was like just get out, its costing loads and he's dodgy! yet we did have somewhere to stay as she put us up on the floor of a conference room!! yet we had to pay $120 for the priviledge and only had 4 hrs sleep as we had to get out for a conference to start early in the morning!

The next morning we were up very early eating breakfast in the hotel (we had to pay for again..not in the $120!!). the room was full of old people on tours...really strange. i managed to book us into a hostel in the city so as soon as we could check in, we did and slept! The new hostel was not great but it was a room and onlt $60 a night for both of us. However, we did not like Christchurch at all, so after applying for our visas, we were outta there! We rented a car from GoRentals (which was v hard to do as everyone had no cars! Such hard work getting that) and drove to Kiakoura. Kiakoura was gorgeous. A lovely little town on the coast. This is where we went swimming with dolphins and whale watching, and saw the seals (in the photo for this entry).

Unfortuantly im going to have to leave it there for now. I have spent a fortune trying to fill everyone in to this point. The stories of new zealand and onwards will have to wait until next time. My love to everyone....

Also...any money donations would be gratefully recieved....just incase anyone out there is in the generous mood and wants to help out!

Love me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

p.s. thanks for all the messages guys, i really appreciate them xxxxxxxx