"Welcome to Australia, please stay seated, it is currently unsafe for you to leave the aircraft due to the lightning, we will let you know when the storm has passed sufficiently for you to safely disembark"

The impressive storm and flash flood that greeted us as we flew into Melbourne didn't quite fit the stereotypical sunny beach image of Australia, but then again it is their winter! We stayed for five days with Elle, one of Jess's old school friends who recently emigrated, and her boyfriend Rhys, in Fitzroy, a suburb just a short leafy walk outside Melbourne city centre. The city had quite a quirky feel to it, with lots of street art (no competition for Valpairisso though), a cute old fashioned tram, characteristic bars, cafes, and just generally lots going on. One evening we went to a light festival celebrating aboriginal heritage, with didgeridoo players, and open fires, the next day a free jazz festival provided us with a perfect lunch spot! Ticking off one of Melbourne's must-do's we went to an Aussie rules football game (a mixture of football, rugby & street brawling) in the 10,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground. We watched a Melbourne vs Hawthorne match, and even googling the rules half way through we still had no idea what was going on, but both the atmosphere and the cider were great, and we totally appreciated the skill required for all this leaping into the air, and carrying off the very short shorts! Always keen for culture, we sampled the delights that the Lindt chocolate cafe (a surprising Australian trend - chocolate cafes everywhere!) had to offer, which definitely did not disappoint, not that the same can be said for chocolate generally in Australia - alien ingredients added to make it stop melting, and they still think its acceptable to put a Cadbury's wrapper on it! Melbournians were also really into their coffee, with independent coffee houses in every alleyway spilling onto the streets, so it would be rude not to have tried it. We strolled around the huge botanical gardens (one of our favourite recurring free activities) and went to the war memorial with fab views of the city skyline, and had a lovely evening out with some friends we met in Brazil, Sam and Adrian, reminding us how much we have already seen and done on our travels.

Canberra... was very concrete! Despite not hearing brilliant reviews, as we were passing it on our way up north to Sydney, we wanted to make our own opinion and see the capital of Australia for ourselves. You can tell it was very purpose built, mainly made up of parliament buildings, museums and galleries, which provided more than enough for us to do in our visit. We enjoyed the National Gallery and sculpture park, making us feel very at home with a replica Angel of the North, but I don't think we'll be rushing back, as after you'd done the museums, the city didn't have an awful lot more going on.

The bright city lights of Sydney, on the other hand, were absolutely amazing, enhanced by the fact we arrived to the vivid light festival, with the opera house and harbour bridge lit up stunningly in a changing sequence of bright lights. Considering we arrived late on a Thursday night, the Circular Quay was absolutely rammed and had a real buzz. Sarah squealed at her first sight of the opera house, much to the amusement of the people around us! We were lucky enough to get tickets to go and see a classical performance of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the opera house. Mustering together the smartest outfits our backpacks could produce, we enjoyed a very sophisticated evening, with great views of the city, a brilliant performance (we couldn't even name half the instruments!) and the impressive and unusual architecture - definitely an evening to remember! Sitting soaking up the atmosphere in the bars on the pier, with views of both the opera house and harbour bridge is up there with our favourite spots yet.

After delights of Sydney we travelled back south a little to Bulli, an area near Wollongong, to visit Sarah's family - Uncle Rob, Aunty Sam, Freddie and Milo. We were mind blown when a double decker train rolled into the subway station in Sydney, definitely an idea London should invest in! It was lovely to stay in a real house, sleep with a proper quilt and be plied with amazing food (including all the food we've missed - Sunday dinner and curry to name a few, along with numerous delicious puds!) and we really just had a great time relaxing and enjoying a bit of Aussie family life. They live within a five minute walk of the beach, work, school and church, not a bad set up at all! We had a great family day out driving up the beautiful coastline, had some fish and chips at the seaside, went to read with Milo's year 2 class (apparently our British accents are really exotic!!), and never in our lives have we been to a church where the priest rocks up to the front in boardies, thongs and baseball cap and addresses the congregation with "hey guys, lets pray." Not going to forget that in a hurry!

We returned to Sydney for a brief weekend as Jess's oldest school friend Holly flew out for a holiday (missed greeting her at the airport with a beautiful hand made sign by approximately 1 min 30 secs!) Elle also flew up from Melbourne, reuniting three old school Kingsley girls, staying in her parents penthouse apartment overlooking the harbour (amazing!!) We nearly got blown off Bondi beach, visited the famous fish market, enjoyed fireworks and cocktails at Darling Harbour, acted like children at the Luna Park, and Holly and Sarah ticked another thing off the bucket list, climbing the iconic harbour bridge, catching the sunset on their descent - very beautiful!

For the first time in three and a half months we then decided to go our separate ways, nothing personal (for those of you who were convinced we're going to fall out!) Having not seen them for four years, Sarah decided to stay with her family in Bulli for a little longer, whereas Jess continued north up the east coast with Holly.

Jess

I was sad to leave Sydney, although it was probably a good idea for my purse's sake, as it's difficult to forget you're on a traveller's budget when in such a vibrant city.

Not having had enough of an overnight bus fix from our travels in Chile, we decided to travel up the coast on the Greyhound bus, which unfortunately provided no competition for the South American ones in terms of comfort or entertainment, but were decidedly more accurate on their timings! With a rather ambitious itinerary of getting up to Cairns within two weeks with lots of locations en route, there was a fair amount of travelling to be done.

First stop was Byron Bay; the barefooted hippie-central of the east coast. This little town was extremely laid back (more so for some than others), and with its beautiful stretching beach, provided quite a change of pace from Sydney. We were soon greeted by "Mr Byron Bay", a local enthusiast took it upon himself to give us a free personal tour, casually pointing out some migrating whales, dolphins, and a wild wallaby! I did a surf lesson, as this was apparently one of the best places to learn in Australia. I absolutely loved it, or loved trying anyhow, and can totally understand how people get so addicted! My surf instructor, 55 year old Gary, long blonde dreadlocks, claims to only wear shoes at funerals, with house on the beach, was brilliant and continually came out with phrases like "don't panic, the ocean is organic!' Funny guy, and a great experience!

After countless hours on a bus, and a rather forgettable stop in Hervey Bay (24 hours of continuous rain & miserable skies were not ideal in a harbour town reliant on good weather....), we were soon welcomed with sunshine to Airlie Beach. It was here we embarked on the Whitsundays Adventurer, a catamaran, ready to set sail to the Whitsundays islands for 3 days. Whitehaven beach is a definite "take your breath away" beach in the Whitsundays, and it was truly stunning, with the whitest and finest sand I've ever seen (98% silica). The swirls of white sand with turquoise water were picture perfect, even with my lack of photography skills it would have been difficult to make this place look anything less than beautiful. I had a go at paddleboarding (much like a long wide surf board with an oar), which was great fun, bloody hard work on your calves to keep balanced, even in flat water, but easier to look less like a fool than surfing! We also had a go in a glass bottomed kayak, and went snorkelling - one morning we saw three turtles before 9am, and although it seemed pretty early to get in the water, it was definitely worth it, as the turtles were just waking up so were very docile and stuck around for a while. Our boat boasted the worlds smallest hot tub, a glorified bath, which with a glass of wine, made for some nice relaxed evenings watching the sunset - how romantic!The crew on the boat were great, and real enthusiasts of the area and the marine life. Did you know that a whale's tale print is unique just like a human fingerprint, and that the legend of mermaids comes from drunken sailors who haven't seen women in years, spotting breastfeeding sea cows and mistaking them for some kind of mythical woman?!

Our penultimate stop was Cairns, and after days of back to back night buses and bunking on the boat, it was refreshing to sleep in a real bed. Arriving in at 5am straight off a nightbus was the ideal opportunity to take in the sights and sounds whilst waiting for things to open. The city had a great backpacker vibe, with a lovely swimming lagoon (we soon learnt the beach was off-limits because of crocodiles?!), a picturesque esplanade, and of course, most importantly, access to the Great Barrier Reef. Holly, the dive enthusiast, spent our first day on a intensive dive boat called Silverswift, seeing a white tip reef shark, moray eels and a morai wrasse, to name a few! The next day I joined her on another boat, Tussa T6, and despite not actually having dived for seven years, I was surprisingly (and slightly worryingly) allowed to dive without any kind of refresher. Just like riding a bike... We were buddied up and it was great to dive together, very clear, relaxed diving with loads of large colourful fish and coral. Loved the Great Barrier Reef -which definitely lived up to expectations, and really liked Cairns itself! Despite us starting to fully appreciate how massive Australia really is with the amount of time we have spent on buses, it didn't feel very big at all when I bumped into Natalia, a coursemate from Durham, but I guess when pubs provide free backpacker dinners travellers do tend to congregate!

Again reluctant to leave (too short on time is becoming a reccurring theme), we flew down to the Gold coast to spend our final few days with a family friend of Holly's, Tanya, before flying out of Brisbane to Bangkok! We met back up with Sarah and the three of us had a wander around Surfer's Paradise and a local's tour of the coast.

Sarah

After four years, five days was just too short a time to spend with my family, so after a lovely weekend in Sydney I headed back down to Bulli for another week or so. I filled my time going to basketball, guitar and piano lessons, swimming and school assemblies - safe to say the boys have so much going on, and was so good to spend time with them, and have a long overdue catch up with Rob and Sam! Was also great to pick their brains about their travels in Vietnam - getting excited for Asia now!

As much as I still wasn't ready to leave, I thought I should make an effort to see a little more of what Australia has to offer! So a night bus from Sydney took me up to Byron Bay, where I spent a couple of days wandering long sandy beaches, browsing ridiculously expensive shops (which when wearing a backpack you automatically feel you shouldn't be allowed in), oggling at surfers, and finally getting in the ocean in Australia. Really not sure what anyone here does for work, as for those two days midweek, about 80% of the town's population seemed to be permanently in the sea. Lovely place, but a little like a time warp, easy to forget there's life elsewhere!

From here I went a few hours further up the coast to Noosa, another beautiful set of beaches and Aussie holiday destination. Unfortunately I only had the night here, but enough time to peruse the expensive boutique home shops (old before my time), eat ice cream made from liquid nitrogen (amazing), and soak up my first few rays of Aussie sun... Safe to say dragging myself back onto a bus as the temperature crept towards 30 degrees for the first time since I'd been here was difficult! So back to Brisbane to be reunited with my travelling pals, and an important final stop off… Having only seen a dead kangaroo thus far, visiting an Aussie farm was a must do. I left a happy chappy having fed kangaroos and seen both baby koalas and boomerangs being thrown - unbelivable skill!

Since travelling in Australia we have become experts at getting ourselves almost whole free ice creams made up of samples, and learnt how to push the free wifi available when you buy a coffee at a cafe to an embarrassing level (4 hour record!) We definitely feel that Australia is the country we have the most to come back and see, it's just too big and we've really only had a taster, and a touristy one at that. A massive thank you to all the people we have stayed with, it's been great to catch up with family and friends on the other side of the world, and your hospitality has been hugely appreciated!

We said goodbye to Holly, but may see her again in Vietnam. Currently on the plane, preparing ourselves for the change of relaxed Aussie pace, to the madness of Bangkok. Looking forward to feeling wealthy again after the expense of Australia, and not going to miss the diet of jam sandwiches, peanut butter, pies and 1 dollar pasta. Though if anyone can find us somewhere in England that sells Tim Tams in time for our return we will be very happy! Bring on the sunshine, and the next section of our travels - two months in South East Asia!