14th November 2007, Abel Tasman.

So got up today, pretty early, most people had already gone i must admit but i got up about 9am. which isn't bad for me at the moment.

So had some breekie, which was actually just an apple that i had brought the day before but i have to do something about those pies don't i.

so had my apple, which doesn't taste as good as a pie, but was nice for an apple it was a granny smiths apple. nice to know they have quality out here somewhere. then off for my walk. all alone, but thats not a problem.

The sun is shining it is a really nice day, took my camera and headed into the national park. Found a beach or two, actually the first beach i found was rather pleasent ;) why you ask, because i looked down the beach from the track didn't see anyone and thought well lets have a look. got onto the beach and there was 2 people on the beach. two topless women as a matter of fact, both pretty and nice and brown. so mmm what to do. stayed there for a little while. i wasn't perving honest. And no, no pictures again this time Michael, sorry mate. Although now i have my camera i suppose i could of...mmmm next time mate.

So basically i just walked up through the national park which was absolutely beautiful you follow the coast line and see some great views, located a few beaches on the way, nothing as good as the first one ;) , but they were rather nice for beaches. managed to take my top off and sit on each beach for a while, reading my book.

all in all i spent about 5hours, walking and sitting on beaches, i noticed it was getting a few dark clouds up in the sky, so i decided to head back as i was about 4 hrs into it then. Surprisingly it didn't take as long to get back but i suppose i wasn't taking pictures and sitting on beaches.

Ok got back to the hostel, chilled out with a few friends i had made from the stray bus. had a few drinks with them, well it would be rude not to won't it :)

Pretty much played some more guitar in my room, had dinner and went to bed.

nothing to exciting, it would be better if i wasn't on this pony pc and could attach pictures you would see why i walked and stayed on beaches for most of the day.

13th Novemeber 2007. Kaikoura to Abel tasman.

OK jumped on bus today, Graham and the posse is still doing my head in, and this is a long day, actually most of these bus journeys seem like a long day.

OK this bus is not just a bus from this town to that town, it actually does a tour aswell, and stops in interesting places and you get commentary all the time about the places you are and the things you see around you.

So we stopped at a seal colony which was just up the road about 30mins from Kaikoura, seals are kind of cool, they are just lazing around on a rock, which is alright for some. guess when i think about it that it what i am doing lazying around on a big rock we call a country. nice :)

so there was about 20 seals on these rocks, as i said just chilling out. as they do. jumped back on the bus. the east coast looks very nice, kind of reminds me of the great ocean road in OZ, but not as beautiful. we are driving right on the coast up, the sea and lots of rock formations are to the east and inland to the west is lots of mountains, the distant ones have snow on them, but mainly they are just grass mountains.

so anyway did a few more stops, where we was able to take some lovely views of the coast and surrounding areas. Then we went off to picton, which is where you get the ferry over to wellington which is the north island. however i am not going on there yet, i have the rest of the south to explore.

Some good news though, that dick head graham is getting off here, good good. So about 5 people got off here and we ended up picking up about 15 people from the north island. From here i lost the current guide a woman called Nads (yeah nice name, she as ok not a great guide) But we now picked up a guide called bagginz (yes like lord of the rings) he seems pretty cool, rather chatty and jokey so this could be fun. then we went along to Abel Tasman which is a national park at the top of the south island.

The hostel we are staying at is called "Old Macdonald's farm". mmmm nice name, it is actually a farm fully working but has some huts in the middle somewhere where they have put in bunk beds. bit disorganised if i say so, as the guide paid for the rooms with everyones money and just put a bit of paper up with all the rooms we had to choose from. I didn't mind really as i ended up on my own in a three bed room. sweet, nice and peaceful.

By the time we got to the hostel/farm, it was 7pm, so by the time everyone cooked and there was only 4 hobs between about 20 of us, i finally got to cook at 9pm. so had dinner, chilled out played some guitar in my room. got some sleep.

Looks like a lot of people tomorrow are doing a 4 hrs hike through the national park then getting a yacht back. some are doing the other way round. one is doing a full day sailing on a yacht.

however i have decided i will just go for a walk, try and save some money.

12th November Christchurch to Kaikoura (dolphin swimming, oh yeah babe)

So taking my first stray bus journey today, off to Kaikoura. Bus seems a little quite, there is only 9 people on the bus, that holds 45 people.

And there is a group that has been traveling together is seems round the south island, and dam they have an annoying bloke called graham with them. He is from peckham in London, and is about 40 years old, but still thinks he is about 15. And he has a way of changing all conversations into a cheese sex thing. not very nice to be around and i hope he isn't with this group for very long not sure i can hack someone like him for long.

So the way to Kaikoura we stop for breakfast, which is just a little cafe in the middle of nowhere. i got a pie, and yes it does look like i have been eating alot of pies, thanks you very much (especially Mr Roche) and to be honest i probably have been, they are so tasty over here.

got to Kaikoura, seems like a nice little town, not very big but then i hear most places in NZ aren't big. This is where they catch alot of crayfish which seems bloody expensive round here, for a whole one it is like $80, or i think thats what the sign says.

so on the stray bus they pass around an activity sheet which has a selection of activities that you can do in the town we stop at, and i have seen they do dolphin swimming, how exciting, i hope it isn't like the dolphin "swim" i tried to do at ocean park in HK.

so i booked it anyway. By the time we got to Kaikoura we had to go straight to the dolphin centre after checking in. so the bus dropped us off. Got to the dolphin centre had a quick video advicing us what the dolphins are like and that they are wild and they may or may not come close to you blah blah, show me the dolphins.

So got the wet suit and all that stuff on again. Got on a boat and it took about 40mins to get out to where the dolphins are. wow i have never seen so many dolphins about, there is about 200 here and they are all wild. So got ready to get in the water, the alarm sounded and we were told to get in the sea and the dolphins are over to the right.

Got over to the right and i see 4 dolphins swim rather fast past underneath me, about a metre or 2 away. and then they disappeared, well this kept going on for a while. basically i felt there was too many people in are good, don't get me wrong i really loved it and i saw the dolphins and they swam near me, but you got to think these are wild animals and there is 15 people jumping the i the water after them they are scared so the fuck off really quickly. and we spent most of our time chasing after the dolphins, getting back on the boat back off when we was near them and that continued for about 40mins.

After that we had to go back to the land, and that was really good i got to see some really cool dolphin jumps and stuff. and got some really good pics.

But i am glad i did the dolphin swim was really nice to be in the water with them.

So for the rest of evening i went back to the hostel, got some chips from the local chip shop, which is meant to the best around here, well it was no Chinese chips but they were pretty good.

So then i had to have an early night so went to my room and read my book for a bit, finally got to sleep.

11th Novemember 2007, Christchurch, White water rafting.

Wow really looking forward to this day, i have white water rafting, and i can't wait. About time i got myself doing some things again, it seemed like i didn't do alot in OZ.

OK got picked up from hostel, taken to a place just outside Geraldine, to a lovely place, built of wood in the middle of nowhere, but next to a lovely river. some great scenery again.

So had some free tea, got into our wet suits, boots, fleeces, jackets and everything else they gave us to keep us warm. had a briefing, we are going to start off on a couple of number 1 grade rapids, work and work our way up to, grade 5, which is the highest you can do out here, well that the law will allow anyway. sounds great, can't wait.

OK had a little 10min bus ride to the top of the river. Have been put into a group of 6 people and got a guide called Kam. Seems pretty cool, but i guess you would be with a job like this. All jumped into the boat. this is all pretty calm here at the top, we first have to practice rowing in sync, forwards backwards. while the guide steers. yeah he doesn't row just steers, anyway it looks like its gonna be hard work, i hope its not as hard work as surfing.

So down the river we went, i was at the front typical, no one else would do it, so Ian to the rescue again.

wow what fun i had, i didn't fall out, but the guide made 2 other english guys fall out, which was quite funny. Not really sure how to describe the rafting, was wet great fun and knackering. Being at the front there was quite a few waves that went straight over my head, so a few time si thought i was drowning, but obviously survived.

Oh at the end of the rafting we had the opportunity of jumping of some cliffs, one at 5m, and the other at 10m. Boy my group loved me, well most people jumped off the 5m, but again no one was will to go first, but the way i see it i would rather go first then sit up the top and think about it. So Ian to the rescue again. da da da d da, super length..... lol

So anyway i volunteered to go first, and i was going first all my other group had to jump next before everyone else as they were taking pictures of us jumping, (they took pics all the way down and yes i did get a copy, but they are int he room, sorry still no pics) so they were like thanks ian, thanks very much. So did the 5m, and then 3 of my group including me did the 10m, again i had to go first, well didn't have to but as i said i don't wanna thing about it. 10m is quite a height and we was advised if you don't land right then you could really hurt yourself.

well he who dares rodder's he who dares. :)

10th November 2007, LOTR rohan. (christchurch)

First off sorry for no pictures, i am on a PONY PC that will not expect my memory card or pen-drive. but alot of people want this updated so enjoy.....

Im rather excited today i get to go see where they filmed Lord of the Rings Rohan scenes which was out of film 2 twin towers.

Got onto the bus it takes about 2hrs to drive out there, and the bus is full so i had to take the front seat. thats ok with me, i get a better view of the country side. So we got commentary on the way, things like how the discovered the place. apparently it was peter jacksons scouts was flying a plane around and didn't find what they were looking for, but on the way back they flew over this valley and they called peter he came down and had a look and they filmed there.

Well there is a little more to it then that, other things we were told was, that it took 8months for them to build the town, which was mainly out of polystyrene they then filmed the scenes only the outside as the inside of the hall was done in a studio in wellington. the filming only took 8 days to do, and then they took it all down, apparently the government said peter could do all this work in NZ as long as he left it the way he found it, bummer really it would of been nice to have the town there and actually walk round it.

Anyway, got there and wow it was so amazing. the valley they choose is really really spectacular, got plenty of pics, we first of took pics from the distance then took the 6 wheel jeep over the streams, only just making it mainly because the driver forgot to engage the wheel nuts, anyway we made it, stood on the hill thing that the town was built on and stood around for a while taking lots of pictures, was there for a good 30-40mins. Still can't believe the scenery was so amazing.

then had lunch which was free, we had sandwiches, wine and cake. nothing special but was good enough. then back to Christchurch, we i vegged out for the day, watched another film sorry people, but its either watch and film or something or go out drinking and yes i have done enough of that.

P.S sorry for the late updating this, but when traveling round New zealand with the stray bus, there is not much internet available plus i am on and off the bus pretty much everyday. the places they did have internet it was $5 for 30mins, where i ususal pay $3 for an hour. sod that.

9th Novemeber 2007. Christchurch.

OMG some people are so fucking rude. mister american arsehole im not gonna introduce myself and be a big fat cock all my life. Decided he is getting up, i think going to work, anyway at 6:30am. but instead of being nice and quiet im gonna slam bathroom doors and wake up the whole universe.



Thanks.



So i finally got up as i was not gonna be sleeping. decided i would change rooms there is enough rooms in this place so i can find one that i like surely. would like some good sleep for a change.



So changed rooms to one with just 2 women in it. american women, but nice enough or seems it anyway. No i didn't wake them up, they were actually rather impressed i managed to come into the room, take a shower and move about without waking them up.



so by the time they actually woke up it was infact around 12pm, we had a chat and that. then they were going for a cheap lunch. $5 for a curry. Well im game for that sort of price.



So they invite me along we go for some curry. wasn't bad. well was pretty good for $5. They seem like nice girls they are traveling together have a car, and are going out tonight and want me to come along. Well ok twist my arm, you know me never like to drink much, but being the gentleman i am, have to escort these lovely women out for the evening. its a hard life.



so i left them there were gonna walk round the botanical garden and do some shopping or something (don't get me started again. lol )

so i left them to it and went to the information place. to book some stuff. So looks like there are a few things to do around here. first off i want to do a lord of the rings tour, i get to go see rohan. which should be pretty good booked that for tomorrow, and the next day the 11th i will go do some white water rafting.

Oh yeah also booked my bus tour round NZ, wow i just spent lots of money in a matter of minutes, not good, but will be worth it, i hope.

so took a walk round the town and botanical gardens, got back to the hostel and had some dinner, then watched another film. went to bed

8th November 2007, Christchurch New Zealand.

Hey i am so excited off to a new location and new country which is a great feeling after being stuck in sydney for 7 days. and those at the end where pretty long days.

So left Sydney at 9:30am and arrived in Christchurch at 2:30pm. i am now 13 hrs ahead, and looking on a globe it appears i am pretty much exactly half way round the world. wow scary thought i think. but pretty exciting at the same time.

So the sun is shining weather is sweet. Not a really hot day, but still sun is better then bloody rain. Yeah i bet a get a few comments about it, seen as i have been rubbing it in for england. wonder if it is still raining there.

So got to christchurch, i am in a hostel called cokeys, which my sister informs me she stayed at, says it is a good one, lets see. First impressions it looks old, but it is big.

So did the usual went round christchurch, did the walk around thing and get to know the place. went to a information centre, there quite a few things i wanna do round here, like the lord of the rings city rohan was filmed round here and they do tours, white water rafting and a few others.

at the moment i just got some leaflets, to give me this evening to look over them and decided what i wanna do.

So treated myself and got a KFC for dinner, went back to the hostel meet some room mates, not sure there name now, some koren guy and some american which didn't actually introduce himself anyway. well nevermind.

Went down to the bar, had one beer to celebrate getting out of oz alive. lol. Then got kicked out the bar as there wasn't enough people in there to keep it open. how shit is that.

So went to the TV room, meet a lovely women called lorry ( i think) she was a american chinese women, with dreads, not seen that before, she has had a heavy night and was watching movies all day. anyway watched another movie with me, and i went to bed pretty much after that.

7th November 2007, Sydney.

Still raining. but today wow the diving card has turned up. Bloody hell it was no easy task though. I called the head office to see where it was they told me it is in glebe post office. i went to glebe post office. they told me it wasn't there. I asked them to look. they spent all of 30sec's taking a look. Sod this phoned head office again from in the post office, they confirmed it was still there in the post office, told them that the people here didn't look every hard.

the person i spoke to on the phone was gonna get the officer who dealt with my query to call me back in 5mins.

Anyway while waiting for the officer to call me back. funny enough the post office actually found the parcel, it was there all along.

Told you Oz post was as good as english post.

OK well Tania left today for bali, so i went and changed my flight out of here for New Zealand for tomorrow. yippee i can't wait. I hear NZ is better the oz, and people are more friendlier.

Lets hope plus i am bored of sydney now.

6th Novemeber 2007. sydney.

Still no diving membership. Again didn't do anything, i have run out of things to do, i do go back to the opera house and took a few more pics with the new camera.

Nothing to report appart from still raining.

5th Novemeber 2007. Sydney.

Didn't actually do anything this day. just walked around, im waiting for my diving membership to arrive from home to the post office in sydney, it was guarantee to be here by Monday. oh look at that this is monday. Bloody oz post office is as bad as englands. Pain in the arse.

By the way it is still raining.

4th November 2007 Sydney.

Well its bloody raining again i have never seen so much rain in oz, in all my travels. Might of bloody well stayed in england. nah !!!!!

So what to do when it rains, well the girls again wanted to do more shopping this time in actually shopping centres, not paddys market. Dam i have not got a lot of options there isn't that much to do round here when it is raining.

so spent most of the day, talking to david, thank god for some male company, cheers dave. While the women again walked round all the shopping arcades and didn't buy anything. bloody women, but hey i have been they will not repeat myself.

After this shopping nightmare, we had a walk round darling harbour. which was pleasant it was still raining so nothing special. check the imax out to see what they were playing, nothing i am interested in. i know caroline wanted to see harry potter, because the last 20mins in a imax are in 3D, may of blagged me to go and see that but they have stopped playing it now. Although they have beowolf coming out soon which is is 3D or so it says. but not out yet.

so anyway got back to the hostel and got a box of goon between the 4 of us, this should be interesting as Tania says she has never been drunk, turns out she has, but she thought drunk meant you didn't remember anything and was really silly. sorry babes, it just means you are drunk.

Anyway this night we played games, we played trival pursuit, it was the 20th anniversary addtion, so we thought it would be easier like the english version, but we forgot we was in australia and it was gonna be about the last 20 years in australia. Needless to say we were all pretty shit with the oz questions, some sciences ones and film one we were ok with.

So after that we decided to play Jenga, which was pretty good fun, we actually got the tower to 32 ful levels. which i think is a personnal best. certainly didn't get that high wheni was playing with just my mouth in pi pi island.

3rd November 2007 sydney,

So the weather is a bit brighter, well it isn't raining and from what we hear that is gonna be the best day we will get for a few days.

Today the four of us, decided to go down to bondi beach. Plus i get to try out my new camera.

got a train over there and then a short bus ride. Well not as big as impressive as i thought it was gonna be. not sure what i expected, but i have definitely seen bigger and better beaches, Maybe it was the weather maybe it wasn't.

As lucky would have it we are there just in time for a college sculptor display. There was about all in all about 30 sculptors. some where good some were to me pointless. However we wanted to walk from Bondi beach to coogee beach which is meant to be a very nice 2 hour walk. and the display was on the beginning of the hike.

Did the walk it did actually take 2 hours, was some nice scenery, i have seen better, but defiantly worth the walk, yes it was worth the walk.

got to try out my new camera, which bloody hell has a zoom on it any man would be proud of at a beach ;) lol.

sat down in coogee beach for a while, didn't do alot. Got back to the hostel, made some dinner, chilled out. watched some TV. house was on, which is a class tv program.

2nd november 2007. Sydney.

So i can't believe it is raining today, bloody great. So today, the four of us, David, Caroline, Tania and I. All went shopping !!!! well lets be honest now, Tania and Caroline went shopping, David and i watched and sat outside shops and talked alot.

Dam i like Tania and hanging out with her, but its like having a girlfriend sometimes, but not having any sex. well yeah ok its like having a girlfriend !!!! lol.

So i only agreed to go shopping as it was raining and it was raining heavy. So we went to Paddy's market, which is just a big market full of stalls that sell everything. Walked around there for the morning, i didn't buy anything and im not sure anyone else did as a matter of fact. lol women.

So found a food court that sold cheap dinners, it was only $8 for a pretty big meal. Had lunch. I think we then went shopping in a arcade, which is a shopping centre or mall. So its still raining, but at least it is nice to be hanging out with a man, at least i get someone to talk to while women are "shopping". how the hell so women do it, shop for hours and don't buy anything, i suppose it is one of the worlds greatest mysteries. like why do women always have to have there mouth open when applying mascara, or why stairs are called stairs inside but called steps outside.

So i am getting my camera back today, well i thought i was. I got a call about 4:30pm, telling me that the camera was really broken, and didn't just have sand in it like they thought. It was gonna cost me like twice and price of what i paid for it, which i don't see how the hell that works. anyway, the bloke on the end of the phone also told me that i had to pay $50 just for them to have a look, but if i didn't come into the shop to pick it up, then they couldn't charge me. mmm nice of him to say.

so left the camera there and went looking for a new one. Couldn't find one that was a cheap as the one i just brought, maybe that is a good thing seen as it broke after 7months. So i ended up buying a Fuji finepix s5700, which wasn't the cheapest, but was by far the best and was only $50 more then the cheapest one. so i got that.

David wanted to go for a beer then, yeah it wasn't me honest !!!! ;)

So there is a pub near the hostel called nagshead, yes just like only fools and horses, i think it did actually look a bit like it. Went there for 1 beer.

Got back to the hostel and chilled went to bed.

1st November Sydney.

ok today i split up with Tania, went to a converse shoe outlet, just outside sydney what she wanted to do, but i wanted to go and take pictures of sydney opera house and stuff, which she has already done.

So went to the botanical gardens today. yes i may of been to alot, but the price is always right, free. plus this time if you go to the end of the gardens it has a viewpoint to take the picture that everyone takes when in sydney. see pic 3.

So got into the gardens, it was rather pleasant, i must admit the best botanical garden i have been to is still melbourne. but these are rather nice. Has some nice lakes, and water features, again i felt compelled to take pictures of flowers, yeah i must be getting old.

So got to the viewpoint, which i thought was really really nice. as you can see from pic 3. i probably took more photos then i should of done, but hey i am only gonna be hear once, will at least in the new few years anyway.

I then walked over to the opera house and had a little look around it, didn't go inside. One thing i did notice is that there is a wire mesh over the opera house, which i didn't expect, did also take a close up but didn't add it to this, it maybe on facebook. However i was going from the Sydney opera house back to the main street, which is george street, just to see what else i can take pictures off.

AND my fucking camera broke. couldn't believe it, i have only had this camera 7 months. Dam it. So found a shop that will send it away for repair, but it will cost me the same price as i brought it brand spanking new for. dam it. so to him to go ahead.

but i know have no camera, shit. Well walked around for a bit more, meet up with Tania, at the hostel, and chilled out that evening. didn't so much.

Two of Tania's friends have joined us, a nice couple, bloke David is welsh, and his girlfriend, Caroline hussey is from Ireland.

So spent the evening talking to them, and as luck would have it they have also got into our room, so its nice to have a few more people to hang out with.

31st October 2007, Sydney.

Ok got off bus today in sydney. I didn't have a bad sleep, not a great sleep, but better. I think it was well worth investing in this travel pilloow. wow.

So anyway located our hostel it is just outside in Glebe, quite a nice hostel. There is another dutch girl in our 5 bed dorm, so Tania can practise her Dutch, she tells me she is struggling after speaking english for the past year.

As always with a new town, we went into the centre, actually we walked into the centre, it only took about 30mins. Not a bad walk. although it is a walk. dam im getting lazy(er)

So explorer the main street in sydney which is george street. Tania has been here before so that helps us out. she needed to go and collect her mail that has been building up while she has been traveling. Did that. I located Qantas office to change my flights out of this place.

then i wanted to walk through Hyde Park. yes Hyde Park. Was a nice little park, not much there really, a few statues, a pond. but pleasant park indeed. Basically i just wanted to say i had been through hyde park.

After that we went to a Art gallery, the price was right at 0 pounds. Well not sure what to say about this art gallery, it has art in it. Some good some/most crap. Im not really an art man, i can appreicate some art and the talent some artists have. but some are really crap and looks like a kid has done it. Bit like Aborigney art really.


It has now started to rain, so we was gonna walk up to the botanica gardens, but can't be arsed int he rain. So went back to the hostel. It is film not here tonight, so made dinner sat down to watch a film. Dam it what was it. mmmmm. had ewen Macgregor in and was really a strange film. it was about him leaving a town where we was the greatest to see what he can make of himself. quite an old film. big fish or something like that. anyway if you have seen it you may understand what i mean by strange film. not sure if i liked it or not.

Well i hope the rain stops for tomorrow. but anyway i don't let rain spoil my fun, it just mean is i get wet.

30th October 2007. Byron bay. to Sydney

Well its no ones b'day today, well not any one we know so guess what, weather was absolutely beautiful. Just like penguin !!!!

We have the bus to get in the afternoon. And Tania really wants to see hairspray, well at least it is cheap today. So we both went to the cinema again, i know i probably shouldn't of but i had nothing else to do. didn't want to go to beach or do surfing as i have packed my bag and don't wanna take wet clothes in my bag to sydney.

So cinema, i really didn't want to see hair spray she Tania went on her own and i watched Michael Clayton. mmm not really sure what to make of the film, very hard to explain. a kind of confusing film. it was good but was shit at the same time. i know im not making much sense, but Tania asked me after the film what it was about and if i liked it. i confused her as well so don't worry.

getting one that takes all night and we get here in the morning. i know it is hard to Hung around till the late afternoon to get the bus to sydney, it is "only" 13hrs. so i suggestedsleep on buses but we save a "whole" nights accommodation money. yippee..

So got on the bus, managed to get two seats to ourselfs, which is always good when you have to sleep. plus i get to try out my knew traveling pillow, which worked out beautifully thanks for asking. i hoping that put a film on in the bus as they do on big journeys. Asked the bus driver and he confirmed this. forgot to ask what it was but hey they all seem to be shit it was just something to watch.

BUT OMG i didn't think it was gonna be the first ever series of "on the buses" my god how shit is that, its still in black and white which i know isn't a main problem but my god it was so so so so so so so shit. The really big problem was for some reason this driver had the TV so bloody loud i couldn't even listen to my ipod without hearing the TV. which is again sods law, as i have had a film on this type of bus before in oz, yes it was shit but it was half watchable, but the driver had it so low i coulnd't really hear it.

So anyway i think i managed to watch about 7 episodes of on the buses. OMG i want to jump under the bus by the time the first episode had finished let alone by the seventh.

Anyway one think it did do was remind me of my parents next door neighbour, which looks so much lke olive, from on the buses. Which come to think of it is not a good thing.

nevermind hit sydney tomorrow lets hope thats better then these episodes.

29th October 2007 Byron bay,

So today is Tania's birthday, she has hit 20 years old. ahhh just a pup. i think i can remember back when i hit 20. although not sure at my age. might of been a bit of a haze anyway.

So Tania thought that since she was in australia she might actually get a day with sun as she has never or since she can remember have had a sunny day on her birthday. Well law of the sod says if you wanted it to be sunny it won't be. and my what a shit day it was raining all day all night. Was gonna do a few things on this day like hire out a surf board. i was still gonna do it, as yeah i going to get wet anyway. but decided against it, i couldn't leave poor Tania alone on her b'day.

So we actually didn't do anything during the day i think we sat in a internet office for a while, we did go to the cinema in the evening, as that is what she wanted to do. Oh she also wanted Pizza and cake for her b'day. Well you can't let someone buy there own b'day cake or pizza can you. So i treated her to both. i mean really buying you own b'day cake. Not on my watch darling.

she thanked me for both and we went to the cinema, she wanted to see Hairspray, but that isn't on in the evening. so we went to see Good luck chuck. It wasn't bad, chick flick. quite funny. there is a fat bloke in it that was quite funny he was just blanant with what he said and didn't care how rude it was.

So that was that day. i had a few drinks in the evening for Tania, i think she had one, but yeah i had a few someone needs to celebrate. lol. any excuse.

28th October 2007 byron bay. Nimbin.

OK today we booked a trip to Nimbin, which is Amsterdam in Australia, which basically means its where loads of hippies are and all they do is smoke marijuana all day everyday.

Well first part of the trip they took us to bungalow which is a town in this area, it has a huge market there. Im not too interested but Tania is and they take they there anyway if you like it or not.

So got to the market, had a look round, managed to walk round the whole thing, it was pretty big, it took us 1hr and 45 mins to walk round, lets just say if i was on my own it would of took me about 20mins. but we all know what women are like. she brought some beads to make a braclet with, and that was it. in an 1hr and 45mins and god knows how many stalls she brought just beads. oh well thats women for you. i brought a hotdog. thats men for you, lol.

So got to nimbin, its not very big we managed to walk from one end to the other in 5mins. so that shows how big is it. We only got offered marijuana about 7 times in that 5mins, No i didn't buy any. neither did Tania, which is surprising she is from holland. lol. no she is a good girl.

Nothing really much there we went there just to experiance Nimbin for what it is a hippy town with hippys all over the places. We did walk into a "museum" which was a house with four rooms talking about how the place got to be a hippy place. nothing to interesting. one of the rooms had people sell pot again, another room had classes on how to roll a splif. so yeah nothing of interest to either of us.

Tania brought some tea from there, not sure she really realised it was made with hemp or something but she is excited about it. To be honest i wasn't really listening to the man when he was talking about all these types of tea and what they "do" for you. some BS about helping medical conditions or helping you to get erections. i don't know. anyway i told her after we left the shop that she would properly get high from drinking it and may not want to take it through customs, although the man did say they are legal. Yeah i suppose selling marijuana on the streets is legal too, No is it not anyway in australia.

anyway i hear she has sent it home, and her mum is interested in what it tastes like. they could be fun to watch. Go Tania, please tell me what it was like and if you and you mum got stoned off it. lol.

Anyway on the way back we was taken to a waterfall, sorry that should be a "waterfall" australia is having its worst draught for 10-20 years or something, so there was not alot of water over this waterfall. had a nice view but nothing i had not seen before.

So got back to hostel, decided i needed an earlyish night, spent evening playing cards and reading. No tell a lie we watched a film with an italian guy. Which makes me laugh really because he was "working" there, well not a the moment as he has hurt his foot. he is aloud to have the keys to the TV room after hours and sit in there and watch films. As always its not what you know its who you know. that reall annoys me those types of things, if he can do that then everyone should be able to. anyway we had befriended him a few days before and we watched it with him anyway.

27th October 2007.Bryon Bay

Walked up to the light house today, it is the further eastern point in Australia, which is pretty cool. it was a nice walk up there, the lighthouse is situated on a pinnacle. Took about an hour or so to walk up there, we went from the hostel up to the beach and walked along the beach. too the scenic route up to the light house.

what was really excellent was when you are up at the lighthouse you can look out to the sea, and we actually saw wild dolphins, whales, sea turtles and string rays. i tried to get a picture of the dolphins, you can just about make out some shadow in the water where they were. i was quite far up. anyway.

After that morning of walking we got back to the hostel decided on going to the beach. this hostel also has free body boards, so took a couple of them, no i don't mean 2 for me, im not that fat thankyou. i mean one for Tania and one for me. thanks you.

Went down the beach did some body boarding, was much better at it this time, then i was in surfers, this is a different board. oh shit how do i put this without soundly like a fat bastard. these boards are sturder and better made. no that didn't work.

so topped up me tan again. this is hard work this topping tans up ever so often. mum i never knew you worked so hard lying outside in the garden whenever there is sun. :)

So got back to hostel, made some dinner. Got back to room. Natalie and Ella the two english girls from our room are going out tonight. So they twisted my arm to go along.

Went out to a place called cheeky monkeys, yeah i did fit in rather well. Actually i thought it was a shit night. Went out, they got chatted up by blokes and got them to buy them drinks. bloody women, cheeky if you ask me. anyway i thought well sod this and left them to it, i wasn't going to hang around on my own.

26th October surfers paradise to byron bay.

So got the bus today, just as it says in the title from surfers paradise to byron bay, doh.

Have heard lots of good things about bryon bay, hope they all all correct. OK got off the bus, hostel is hear to pick us up, but the bus they own is being repaired, great start, actually you dont really need a bus as it was only a 5min walk, buti guess that isn't the point. actually got to the hostel and the own was just going to pick it up after being repaired.

nevermind. so put bags down, this place looks quite nice has a pool. meet the 2 girls in our dorm, so again yes its me and all women. the other 2 girls are from england, seem ok. Tania says there not her type of people. but i think they are ok, i get on with most people.

So as usual first day so im not doing much. had a walk round, getting my bears. chilled out for the evening in hostel.

25th October 2007. Movie world.

So off to movie world today. Got there around 10am, not as big as Tania and i had hoped, but till looks like something to do for the day. There are 2 main rides here, Lethal weapon (lol, need i say more !!!) superman escape and wild wild west falls adventure.

now so start with wild wild falls is not working, great. So we went straight onto superman, which is not bad, no upside down bits, but it propels you from 0 to 120KMH in 2 sec's which is pretty good. so basically it was a fast ride.

from there we went to lethol weapon, which was really good, you do 2 loop the loops and 3 cork (haha nearly wrote cock then) screws.

Then we went to see shriek live show, that was ok, nothing special more for kids then anything, it was just a little story about fiona wanting to have a concert in the swamp and shriek didn't, they all sung and danced and shriek joined in. but was ok, plus we got out of the rain, and by the time we got back outside it has stopped.

After that i think we took some lunch, nothing special i had a bat burger i think, something like that. From there we went to shriek 4D (same one as in orlando, if you have been there) but actually ended up in police academy special stunt thing. Well to be honest with this one, both Tania and I thought the best bit was the police bloke at the begininng entertaining the crowd while everyone got to a seat, he was taking the piss out off alot of people that walked by did some balloon tricks there where funny, and generally clowned around. the show was ok, they did sokme stunts nothing i haven't seen before. spinning cars round, blowing them up, they even had the fake person from the crowd they kicked about the place and stuff.

anyway from there, i think we then went to the shriek 4D show, which was good, again as i had done orlando one i knew what to expect, but good seeing Tania hadn't seen it before. Like the sneeze and the spiders personally, (sorry i dont want to spoil it for anyone that has not seen it)

After that we did the scooby doo scarey ride. which i thought would be crap, but was not bad, the first bit was a little shit, just like a ghost train but then you climb up and it speeds up and you go round corners really quickly.

there are two batman rides there aswell, batman 1 is just a straight up in the air and fall down, i don't like those really, so we did the batman 2, not knowing what it was. Well it was shit, it was just a simulator nothing great at all.

Oh yeah we watched the parade at somepoint, which is where all the pic's come from. that wasn't too bad. catwomen was very nice to see :)

Just added the pic so you can see what i mean :)

after all that we had a little walk round, then back to the lethal weapon ride, as it was the best. managed to get on that 2-3 times in a row as it was closing time which was only 5pm, thought that was a little early nevermind. still had fun.

24th October 2007, Surfers Paradise,

OK well, feeling pretty tired today, thought i would have another lazy day, plus tania is coming down to meet up with me today, we will travel the last few stops down to sydney together.

So they hire out free body boards in my hostel, so i grabed one of them and headed down to the beach, pretty much stayed there all day, did some body boarding which is alot easier and less knackering then surfing i will tell you.

So stayed on the beach till it got dark, then just went back to the hostel and chilled out, watched some TV. Tania arrived at around 8pm, we stayed up chatting and deciding which amusement park we are going to go to. We have decided to go to Movie world tomorrow. Hope its fun.

23rd October 2007, surfers paradise.

so got up today, it seems strange boy from the room did bring my film back so i guess that is some points for him at the moment. although he sleeps alot. thats pretty much all i have seen him do so far. watch TV and sleep. anyway his life.

there is a few things to do around surfers, but i had a call from Tania the dutch girl i meet in cairns who is also traveling down to Sydney, like most all people that start in Cairns. anyway she wants to meet up and travel the last few places together, so i said i would hang around surfers for a bit for her to get here. actually she should get here tomorrow afternoon. it just means i can't do much until she gets here, as she may want to do those things as well. Basically there are some amusement parks around here.

So today i have a surf lesson. mmm what to say, well i did stand up twice in my first lesson which i thought was pretty good. it is only a 2 hour lesson so i thought it was good anyway. Well i say stand up that means staying up for aroudn 5 sec's, which is good i don't care what you think, and i don't think i should get any comments unless you have actually tried yourself. yes that includes you Mark R, plus i think if you did try the board with sink with that belly of yours ;) lol.

So surfer, well that has to be the most knackering thing i have actually done on this trip, yeah definitely. wow i can see why all these full time surfers have muscular bodys, hey maybe i should take it up. get rid of this so called beer belly i have had comments about. :(

so after that, i went for a pint, yeah im sure real surfers dont do it. but i really needed one to quench my thirst. surfing was really good i hope to do more on my travels and maybe more when i get back to england. i can't get the spring straight up onto the board but hey i think i did well getting up on the board twice in a 2 hour lesson.

So the rest of the day was resting. on the beach topping up my tan. eating and sleeping very very well. very very well.

I didn't actually take any pics of surfers paradise sorry about that people of england, whoever reads this. at the end of the day it was a beach. a nice big beach but just a beach.

22nd october surfers paradise

so took the bus from brissie today. Said goodbye to Zara, as she was going further down then me. way hey !!! not like that people.

Anyway said goodbye, i got off at surfers paradise. sounds nice. Well all in all it was very very nice and looked alot like paradise but had a city backdrop, which kind of spoilt things a bit.

Anyway arrived booked into the hostel. actually found out that indy the american F1 was here over the weekend, and i should of come a day or 2 days before to see it. dam that would of been quite sweet. they race around the streets and stuff, like F1 does in Monaco.

anyway i mess that, all i got to see was the mess they make and all the stands and stuff they had put up, as i believe it takes them weeks to take them down, just like the british works these boys out here, i guess they learnt from the best !!!!!! it takes them ages to do anything, but i main difference instead of drinking tea all the time and doing nothing else, the boys out here just drink beer all the time and do sod all else.

So my hostel is a little out the way, about a 10min drive, but they provide free buses in and out of surfers main town centre.

so as most new days i walked around got my bears of the city, sat on the beach for a while. Booked a surfing lesson for tomorrow, i have been waiting to do some surfing for a while, but this is really the first place that has decent waves. Beach is nice enough much like the other ones, however it is probably much bigger. looks like it goes on for miles. and i also see some more boobies here, which is nice i guess ;)

so got back to the hostel it was movie night, so had dinner and chilled out in the TV room. watched road of redemption, i think. it had tom hanks in it and wasn't bad something i hadn't seen before. yeah i think it was that film.

anyway went to bed, leaving other people to watch my Die hard 4 dvd that i brought in china. My room mate will bring it in when he has finished. He seems ok a bit strange not quite sure what i mean, just a little strange.

21st Brisbane

Ok still in Brisbane this is my last day, i leave tomorrow for surfers paradise. that should be a bit more interesting.

So today i we found out that we can take the ferry up and down Brisbane river for only $4. so we decided we would do that. Also meet up with Zara's friend (sorry forgot her name, an irish girl) picture shows Zara on the right and friend on the left.

So again didn't do anything, just went up and down Brisbane river got off on a few stops and walked around there is not much here to see.

A city is a city is a city.

In the evening, meet up with Zara's friend and her friends sister, went into town, Had a few drinks, they wanted to go clubbing, but the only club we found open on a Sunday was a gay place. i was not "feeling" that place, so i left early and left the girls to it.

sorry this is a little boring but thats what i thought of Brisbane.

20th October 2007, brisbane.

OK checked brisbane out a bit and it seems there isn't that much to do around here, so basically walked round the whole of brisbane, well the whole of the city centre, didn't actually do anything.

OMG i nearly forgot yes i did. MR ROCHE i finally got a haircut, hows that. blimey i nearly forgot to say that. well i best add a picture i suppose otherwise you will not believe me.

Well i look a bit gorless in the pic, but i guess thats me :)

What else did Zara and i do. mmmmm. oh yeah we went to the cinema, we want and say rogue assassin, new film with jet lee and jason bloke from transporter. Not a bad film, rather twisty and has you thinking through the film, but i expected more marital arts, which i didn't get.

not much else to say about this day really

19th Noosa beach to Australian zoo to Brisbane.

So had to get up today pretty early, as i have booked a trip to the australian zoo, which is steve urwins zoo. well i guess that should be was his zoo, all his family still live there. His father actually started the zoo, and that is where steve grew up and got his passion for animals. I watched a film on the bus on route to his zoo.

Anyway got to the zoo, not as big as i thought, but there are a quite a few animals here. so walked around went and saw all the animals. Best animal i think was the wombat, which was the first time i had seen one and is in the 2nd picture. I thought they were really cute and i want one. never got to stroke one but that doesn't matter.

So what else did i see, tigers, kangaroos (normal and red) koalas, wombats, snakes, crocs, lizards, komado dragon, elephants. and lots of other things i can't remember. sorry need to check out the photos on facebook if you wanna see, i made sure i took a picture of every animal, well nearly the only one i didn't see or take a picture of (obviously silly boy if you didn't see it !!!) was a Tasmanian devil. which i was interested to see, i have seen one before on TV, but not in real life. well i guess i have more time in my life to see one.

So im glad i was moving on straight from there to brisbane, because the bus they arrange for you from noosa and back, you don't pay for but you arrive at 10:00am ish, and they dont pick you up till 4:30pm. That is a bloody long day to spend in a zoo, especially when it is not that big.

anyway i had finished looking round the whole zoo by about 13:30. and i had booked a greyhound bus from here to Brisbane for 14:50, so i didn't have much time to waste i basically left the zoo sat outside in the hot hot sun (hahaha england :) ) and read my book. blimey it was really really hot that day, i got even more brown then i was, which is pretty brown well for me.

so got on the bus, it took me only about an hr or 2 to get to Brisbane. checked in to the hostel which is just outside the transit centre of Brisbane. Then got a call from Zara asking if i was in Brisbane yet. so meet up with her, walked around Brisbane for a while, just to get some bearings. Went back to the hostel, made some food, chilled out and went to bed.

18th october 2007 Noosa Beach.

Ok got up today, had a look what there is to do around here, There doesn't seem to be alot here to do. the hostel hires out kayaks which i think we will do today. check out how far the beach is, but you need to get a bus and walk for a while. its a little to far to be honest.

So hired some kayaks out with Zara, and went for a little kayak straight over the river, we located a no idea what you call it, a little stream that goes into the island, and is only big enough for a kayak, i.e no boats, we have been told there should be some string rays and wild life around here. Actually on the way down the stream thingy we found a big bird, looked like a pelican, but it had a black beak, so i have no idea what it was. sorry this isn't working out to well so far is it i don't know the name of anything so far. well i know my dad should understand all these thingys and what-you-call-it's !!! :)

Anyway found this bird that was eating, so we stayed still for about 5-10mins and watched that eating, it was quite nice, nice and peaceful, no body around and no noise. tranquil if you like.

anyway once that bird had flown off, we continued on down the stream, we both thought that this would lead somewhere and but found out it goes to a dead end, and it wasn't really big enough to turn the kayak around in. some how we managed it.
and then on the way back we actually , located some string rays, which was nice. i think we found around 9-10 string rays. just floating along on the bottom of the stream thingy.

got out back to the river, kayak'd around for a while. got tired so headed back to the hostel.

Walk around again, this time went down to the proper town part, OMG this looks posh, lots of toffs walking around. oh well. We went down to the nation park which we did a walking trail round. didn't see anything special. well saying that i found 2 people that i did whitsundays with that i also saw on fraiser, nice to see them again. kevin and barbara.

got back to the hostel it was dark by then. chilled out in the bar area and had a laugh with a few people. played some table tennis, well i tried. and yes you know me and fell right over and cut my knee open, apparently as usual it was rather funny or so jason tells me. anyway a few more drinks and laughs later. decided it was time for bed. Got back into my bedroom. with another drink and two women decided to walk in and join us.

all got chatting and jason and i said we would go out with them to a club or something. yes they were both fit.
so got changed ready and went back to there room, so sara could finish her goon (sorry goon isn't actually wine it is fish eggs and has no grapes or anything in it, don't ask any more as i dont know anymore, but it gets you pissed)

so got back to sara's room, sat there for a while with a few more people, having a laugh, then realised we were not going out anywhere, so sodded off back to my room as they were a bit boring. and yes i wasn't gonna get anywhere with a room full of people.

18th October 2007, Hevery bay to Noosa Heads

OK, got up today, well tell a lie, got woken up today by oliver. saying it was 9:30am. Zara and i had booked a bus down to noosa beach that leaves at 10am. oops.

Literary staggered down to the mini bus that takes us to the greyhound terminal. Got on the greyhound. tried to sleep most of the 4 hrs down to noose beach. didn't do to bad, but they put a film on, no idea what it was i was trying to sleep. But how rude are these buses, it's like 10:30am, im trying to sleep and they put a bloody film on, well i never !!!!!

So finally got to noosa beach, feeling a bit better then when i got on the bus. So HAd to call the hostel we had booked because for some reason they weren't there like the rest of the hostels. thats not a good start surely.

anyway got to the hostel its quite a nice hostel, nothing bad from what i can see. they hire out free kayak, so will give that a try some time.

So because both zara and i was so knackered, we did nothing today, walk around the town, had a nice chinese meal as we both didn't want to cook and hey you can treat yourself ever so often.

Got back to the hostel, actually it was strange the whole of our dorm, which was full. 8 people were all in bed and asleep by 9pm. i have never seen that before, apparently the night before was a full on mess and the guys in the dorm had a party going on till the early hours and have now had a bollocking and if they do it again they will be kicked out. which is good for me as i want sleep, sleep sleep.

17th october 2007 fraiser island, back to hervey bay.

Ok got up today, at around 7:30am, i actually only got up because i thought i heard the voices of my group, however on getting up and checking it out they were the voices of the other groups. oh well.

this time i cooked my own breakfast. fuck everyone else. no bloody thank you's or nothing.

So finally everyone else got up, steve's turn to drive again, not sure i would want to drive in the morning. lucky i don't have to. this time we are off to lake wabby. Parked up had about a 30min walk to the lake. nothing special it is another clear water lake, so nice not to have any salt water. hang around there for a while. Got back to 4x4, made some lunch, actually we had the dinner we never had on the first night, so roast beef sandwichs and mash potatoe's. does the job.

Next i we went off to eli creak. yeah they even have creaks over on this island. i hate to think how many creaks i have seen or gone over in australia, there are thousands, every little bit of water is a creak. anyway walked down this creak took a little over 10mins. got to nothing. didn't see anything, just got my legs wet up to the knees.
checking the itenerary, it says it should take us an hour to drive across the island, however we all think it will take more, so we have given ourselfs a good 2 hrs. to make sure. dont wanna miss the ferry if we do it is a $250 fine. yeah ouch !!!!

this time i drove again. still love driving on sand, good fun. got to the ferry port, about 40mins earlier so thats quite good. had some left over food while we waited. Got the ferry back to hervey bay.
I drove to the garage where we got the 4x4 from. how strange to drive on roads again. mmm.
got to the garage had to clean out the car and get all the stuff down, then we noticed that the camp stove we had, was somehow broke the metal had actually broken nearly in two. not sure how that happened, but i think we were lucky. Lisa and philly worked at the hostel i am staying at and got to know these guys that loan the 4x4 to us quite well, and the bloke said "i didn't see it" as he took it into the garage. which is always nice.

not sure they would of been as nice if lisa and philly weren't they. Well at least those two were good for something i guess !!!!! (oohhhhh bitch :). )

so got back to the hostel, had time to chill they give you a room with everyone in. Oh i forgot to say the irish girls started drinking at 8:30am this morning, they felt they had to finish off the supply or something. i don't care i had my fair share, plus i was driving, not a good idea to get back to the garage smelling or goon (that cheap wine to you and me england, and no it doens't mean arsenal Mr roche )

So anyway we had to pay nothing which is great, i hear while we was away, some group got salt water on there engine and had to pay $200 each which was the deposit we put down when you take the 4x4. i also understand they were not happy and started a punch up with the bloke, claiming they hadn't done it. not my problem anyway.

So chilled out in the hostel, everyone want to go out and keep drinking, well the irish girls did anyway, i guess they were already on there way, so what did it matter.

We all got pizza delivered to the hostel played the drinking game again, i think it's a hit. must play it a few times when i get home, if i get home. not thats more likely when i get home.

So went out i thought we were going to a club, but ended up going to another hostel that has a big bar. played some pool, drunk some beer. had a chat and a laugh with a few ozzies that were there, strange they are the nicest ozzies i have meet.

anyway got home around 4am in the morning not sure what happened to the irish girls they left early. can't handle the pace i guess, typically irish all mouth no stamina. lol.

16th fraiser island.

got up today, impressed my self actually, i was first one up, and was last one to bed last night. oh well. these kids of today, just dont have the stamina that i had in my younger years. ohhhh must be all that TV and computer games, well when i was a kid we were lucky to get a stick and a stone to play in the streets with. my god they don't know how lucky there are. hold on thats not me, mmmmm.

Anyway !!!!
i started cooking breakie this morning, that got everyone up once they had smelt the sausages i was cooking. funny thing was, not one person said thanks, which kind of annoyed me a bit, well actually one did but she didn't need to as she was a veggie and cooked her own food. nevermind. hangovers i guess are a mother****er.

so oliver drove today, we went down the beach north to indian head, apparently you can see dolphins and whales from up here, but i think we are a little too late, i thought they normally come out early morning or late afternoon. anyway we didn't see them.

so then it is a hour walk to the champagne pools. wasn't bad, but i dont think it was worth the hour walk, you can drive up to them, but our insurance for some reason doesn't cover us past indian head. Basically it is a little pool the otherside of sea rocks. (pic 2), and when the water comes over the rocks i guess it looks a little like champagne, it wasn't deep though you can't even swim in them. Basically we are here till 2pm, due to tides again, so we had 4 hours to waste. Sat in the pools, talking to people for most of them time then took a slow walk back. had something to eat in the 4x4. waited around, playing cards with zara for a while. haha this time she isn't irish and i won something like 6 games to 1. hahaha. (bloody irish, yes thats you paul!!! lol)

this time we went for a little drive about, then got back to the camp before dark. yeah we was able to get some firewood and stuff in the light, so much easier. And i had an axe, so i was chopping down trees. it felt really manly too. Got back to camp decided to let other people so some work as the bloody women were doing sod all as usual. god knows what would of happened without 3 men in the group (yes i am a man before i get comments thanks:) ) well as i said no one can start a fire, i watched for abuot 20mins, then decided they had, had enough and helped out, they were putting may to much wood on the fire to start with and wasn't using the correct type of wood to start it with.

so finally got the women to do something, well actually it was dora and julie, which also helped to get some wood, they cooked dinner this time. spag bowl. which was ok. all food is precooked before we get to the island so there isn't alot involved really.
the Aborigines came along that own the camp and told us, that however build the biggest fire gets to have the Aborigines dance round it later tonight at 930pm. However 30mins later they came and asked us for a lift into the local town to get some supplies (and what made me laugh that included marajuana. mmmm not sure how Aborigine that is but whatever.

So because we took them to town i thought i would blag that they dance round our camp fire and we wouldn't have to go to someones elses. which i did. go Ian :)

So we had dinner, actually feed other campers from our food, as there group was messing around with fish they had got of a fisherman on the island or something, i wasn't realy listening, too busy drinking and talking to my group. but there was plenty to go round.

So everyone want to play the drinking game again i introduced them to yesterday, bloody group twisting my arm to drink and then play drinking games, im not sure how i am ever going to survive this traveling thing, It is such a hard life (or yeah england hows the working life going, lmfao (thats laughing my fucking arse off, for the older people that don't know, i won't say who they are ;). )
So played the drinking game again, everyone was still alive and well i was gonna say sober but that would be lying, still awake thats better.

Aborigines came to do there dance around 930pm, which was really really good. however my camera decided to die on me and i thought or was told we was gonna share photos, but it seems no one has, thanks zara for offering to send me some, when i actually get to emailing you.
so they were amazing, can't really describe it really, lots of foot stamping, banging woods together( no not my wood thanks). and singing, well sort of hopefully you know what i mean.

Oh yeah i forgot to say there are two rules when around these guys you can't whiste and you can't spit on the fire, it brings evil spirts. so come on people guess what ian did when they stoppped one of there dances, yep that right, gave a nice big whistle of appreication. boy did i get some looks from them and told very sharply not to whistle. oh well i am still alive and didn't see any evil spirts. plus lets be honest if they had come when i was a sleep my snoring would of scared them off, a Michael (hope i spelt that right this time).

so finsihed the night off by more drinking games. then a zara oliver and myself wanted to go down to the beach to check out some stars. wow there are more stairs here then in the outback. it was so beautiful. by the time we got back everyone else was asleep, no sorry sally wasn't she didn;t want to sleep alone and got me to sleep near her so she was not scared. Boy did she pick the wrong person to sleep near and she found out and proceeded to tell me in the morning, ian you snore !!!! :0 oh do i sally sorry must of been the drink. lol.


Bloody hell thats alot, i must be getting back into the swing of this writing thing. hope my writing is gettting better for people to understand i am trying to not miss words out. hopefully. hope everyone is well :)

15th October 2007, fraiser island.

ok up and away we go. Got to island explorer which is the company lending us the 4x4 car for fraiser. did all the usual contract shit. if we brake this and that we pay, got extra insurance for the underside of the car.

Got the 10am ferry over to fraiser, stephen is driving at the moment, looks like fun driving on sand. So we have an itinerary, which should take us to the best places and miss all the high tides, as we definitely dont want to hit any sea water and mess the engine up. big no no !!!!

So from the ferry we went to lake mackenzie. Wow what a lake, the best i have ever seen for a lake. and it was so strange the lake had spring water, it feels strange to get a mouthful and not have salt water in your mouth. absolutely brilliant. We stayed there for a few hours, played a few games in the water, had a few races in the water. People were quite shocked how long i could hold my breath for underwater, espeically being a smoker. oh well !!

so this is all that was on the itinerary for today. was meant to get to the camp site before dark, however we decided to stop at the famous ship wreak on the beach which we had to go past to get to the camp site. Oh yeah i was driving.

Wow how cool is it to drive on sand. the beach was ok, just had to adjust to the soft sand which would send you in the tracks of our cars whereever they went, which was ok. just turning into the turn (if that makes sense !!!)

however when not on the beach you are on sand tracks, which are all soft sand that is a good 1f soft sand. most interesting and definitely worth the experiance.

So by the time i actualy got to the camp site. everyone was well on there way to being drunk, as they started just after we left lake mackenize. me driving, well i didn't get drunk, but i was drinking. my co pilot was also my personally cup holder thanks lisa, she did a good job :)

so we got there it was already dark, found some tents that were not occupied, although they were alittle out the way, which was properly a good thing, we were the noisest group in the camp site. come on ireland/england.

So i went and got some fire wood, which was too easy in the dark, when your told there are lots of dangerous snakes around and be careful, plus i was the only one with a torch. well done guys/girls.

so got some firewood, i was surpirsed to know that know one else can start a fire, so i did that aswell. by the time that was all done, most people were pretty much pissed, and couldn't be arsed to cook. so we all had a liquid lunch instead and got pissed.

Played the drinking game i had learnt on whitsundays, which everone seemed to enjoy. zara went to bed about 7:30pm. me and steve carried philly to bed around 9am, she was in a sorry state, dam !!! :) lol.

And i think everyone else went to bed around 10pm. i stay up till about midnight, i had some drinking to catch up on, plus i am not driving in the morning, oliver is. nice one oliver, as i don;t think most people will be ready to drive. We are meant to leave by 730am.

We will see how that goes !!!!!!!!!

14th October 2007, Hervey bay.

So got booted out the hostel at 10am. Decided to walk to the other one, doesn't seem to far on the map !!!!
Yeah anyway took me an hour to walk to the next hostel, this is nothing special it has a pool, but doens't look like much. Room is ok, again it is just me and 3 women. god must like me. actually these women are on my fraiser island tour.

Did nothing hung around the hostel did nothing all day again. Had our briefing for fraiser island at 6am. There is 3 guys and 7 women. 3 english, zara sally and i. 7 irish, oliver, stephen, lisa, dora, julie, philly and sue. Looks like this is going to be a piss up with that many irish.

again chilled in the evening have to be up at 7am to get to the 4x4 and have another briefing and get all the stuff ready for our self drive tour of fraiser.

13th October, down to hervey bay.

So was on this bus heading down to Hervey bay. bloody hell how annoying is this bus driving, for some reason whenever he stops he feels the need to tell everyone, surely he knows if anyone is getting off. so at 2am he stopped to let people on, and then stopped at around 6am aswell.

so didn't get too much sleep. Anyway got to hervey bay, actually forgot i had 2 free nights in hervey bay, as thats what i got when i booked the tour to fraiser island. So got to a hostel anyway that i payed for, it was ok. nothing special it was run by a family with a few kids so at least, i knew it was gonna be quite.

did nothing went down to the local town, which was about 5min walk. got some food went back to hostel and hired a couple of DVD's from the hostel itself, which are free. chilled in my room which had a dvd player and watched them. There were both films with val kilmer in, nothing special, i can't even remember the names of them, but it was nice to just hang out in my bed and do nothing.

booked on my tour for fraiser island, i can't wait this should be fun. It is the largest sand island in the world and i have booked on a self drive tour, basically me and 9 others get given a 4x4 jeep and let loose on the island. I want to drive never driven in sand before, sounds like fun.

12th October, whitsundays, back to airlie beach and onto

so up today. wow feeling that drinking game. think i was first up though. only because the yacht starting moving and i can't stay downstairs while the boat is moving, makes you feel so sick.

so didn't do anything today, i did volunteer to be on the ship for a week and and do general cleaning, they started saying yes to me, then just as we were getting off phoned to say there wasn't enough people to warrant 2 volunteers. i could stick around they and they will let me know. sod that, im not sticking around for 3 days just to be told they don't need me again.

oh well, back to dry land. got to the hostel and realised my next destination, Hervey bay, is like 14 hrs away. so it is best get an over night bus. checked the timetables the bus leaves at 11:50 heading for hervey bay.

so did nothing for the rest of the day, just hang out, nursed the hangover.

so i had to leave the hostel at 10pm, as that is when the office closes. im not loosing money i had a free night in this hostel. so got down to the bus station sat around talking to a few people while we waited for the bus.

11th October 2007, Whitsundays.

OK, got up with major hang over, today. can't wait to get into the water, always helps the hangover.

So we got dropped off on white haven beach, which has to be the nicest beach i have ever been to, can't believe how white the sand it and how clear the water is. its just a a shame we can't really swim much out here, again there are jelly fish all over the place.

so had a little stroll around, as you can see we located the lookout point. how nice are these pictures. well you can more when i get home, or i have some more on facebook.

after we chilled on the beach for a while, well i actually located myself a rock from everyone else round the corner of the main beach and just sat there, thinking. feeling alone on a desert island, it was a really nice feeling you know.

anyway got back on the boat, got told we would find a place to do some diving, well i was looking forward to this, but once we got there, the qualified divers had to wait for all the intro divers to have theres, this took about 1.5hrs, not much fun really the beach wasn't even sandy. apparently there is a storm coming in and they can't take us to the normal place.

Well diving, what a load of shit, we could only go down 5 metres and there was nothing there a really really really really big let down. most upset about that and all the other divers were aswell. well thats a lie the intro divers liked it, but hey what do they know.

So got back on the boat and we went to a bay. anchored up for the night and played drinking games, this time everyone joined in.

we played slaps, for a while, then played kings, which is the same as the other game i played yesterday where every card has a different mini game. but this time if you get a king you have to pour some of your drink into the a mug in the middle and the forth king that is out the person has to drink the concoction that has been made, then the game stops. Other then that the only other difference is we had a gimp. yes a gimp. if you pull out an eight then you have to wear a dive mask and you can't talk only grunt. if you talk then you get spanked by a flipper. and people get to order you around. that was quite funny. we made a guy pole dance and do other things.

anyway we played that till the early hours and all got very drunk and went to sleep.

10th October 2007, Airlie beach, whitsundays.

Well got up reasonable time today, had a walk round the place in the light. found the lagoon, again you shouldn't swim due to the stingers, (Great) chilled there for a bit, i think i prefer the cairns lagoon.

went to my hostel to book a trip to whitsundays, they actually have a deal that includes fraiser island aswell. so i took that deal, only thing is the whitsundays either leaves today or friday. Well i dont wanna hang around airlie beach till friday. sod it i am going today.

had to go book into the whitsundays thing at around 13pm, did that. then was told i have to get to the docks for 3:30 ready to board at 4pm.

ok so didnt really do anything except pack a little bag for the 2 night sailing trip. got to the docks, all of us are waiting to go. another english guy, 3 german women, 1 malaysian women, 2 chinese women. 1 austrian guy, a swiss couple, and irish man and women and a ozz women.

the yacht is called Romance, and is a 23m sailing yacht, with aircon. (sorry about the pic i was on it so didn't get a good one and this is the only one i could find on the internet )

I am doing well women out way men again. So got onto the boat, meet the crew, headed out towards whitsundays. pretty much just seeing lots of beautiful islands. we dont land on main islands, just the main one which i believe we do tomorrow.

tonight, we just sail out to a bay past lots of islands (pics of a few above, there are 74 islands all together) , chill out have dinner. have been told that we had to bring our own beer as they dont sell anything like that on the boat.

However we got to this bay, as it was just getting dark. There is a resort on the island, and we could go over there to the bar. Personnaly i didnt want to i came to sail on the yacht, and i brought beer with me. It seems i am the only one that thinks like that, actually me and an irish guy stayed on board while everyone else went over to spend money in the bar !!!! whatever.

so me and the irish guy kevin, stayed with the deck volunteer who washes the dishes and bed stuff, and general dogs body, and wow what a body. i can see why they picked her, a beautiful blonde norwegian women. yummy.

Anyway stayed on there with her and the chef chris. basically we had our own party and played a few drinking games, one called slaps. where you start by slapping your legs. the starter person asks everyone "whats the name of the game ? " we all say "slaps" he says "whats the name of the game?". we say "to get fucked up".

right so the starter hits his left of right shoulder and says one, then then goes round in a circle which depends on which side of the shoulder you slap, left or right so you can change direction at any moment. When you hit seven, instead of hitting your shoulder you have to but you arms out hoiziontal and seven. then when it gets, sorry if it gets to ten, you have to say "get fucked" and point to someone, and they drink. Not a bad game but we really needed more people.

when ever you fuck up you drink.

next we played horseracing. which was the jacks are horses we bet on a horse then turn cards over, what ever suit comes up that horse moves forward. whatever horse wins, the person/s who bet on that horse can give drinks out to people. again not a great one this if you ask me.

whoever the last game we played i thought was excellent. not sure what this one was called. imagination or something like that.

ok, you get a piece of paper and call cards means something. one's like drink 3 gulps, give 3 gulps. make up a rule, start a story. one called pussys (i.e all women drink) one called dicks (all men drink) lots of different things. sorry i can't name them all. so we played this for a while. story one person says a word and the next has to repeat and add another word. that was ok.

the best one was chris the chef had to make a rule, you have to say "up the arse" after ever sentence for the duration of the game. now as you can imagine this was rather hilarious, and we actually went through the whole deck with 4 people, so plenty of drinks. but it was so funny as you said things like, who's turn is it up the arse. mine up the arse. i want a card up the arse, and several other things. so we was laughing all the time. and plenty of drinking with all the other games.

so when everone else got back we were still playing, and after every sentence we said up the arse, didn't we get some funny looks. oh well i had a good night.

lets see what tomorrow brings im told, beautiful beach, diving. and more beachs and sun.