Batty Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane today and my first impression is I LOVE IT!! It seems like such a nice city. For some reason I thought it was a surfer town but it’s actually a city on the river. Unfortunately we only have two nights here and decided more or less straight away that we would spend the day at the Steve Irwin Zoo tomorrow so we had to make the most of the afternoon.

We decided to go to Southbank which was such a good decision. I really hadn't heard a lot about Brisbane so didn't know what to expect but I'm definitely impressed. The path we walked along at Southbank had flowers all around which was so pretty and when we came round a corner we got to this beautiful manmade swimming pool. It was like a little lagoon with mini beaches in between the pools and round the sides. Luckily we'd brought our swim stuff so we piled straight in. It was ideal and afterwards we went for a little walk and saw lots more pretty areas including a picnic spot.

A cafe had also caught our eye because it was called the chocolate bar. This place was amazing with chocolate pizzas, fondues and crepes and I had the best white hot chocolate with crunchy waffle pieces in it.

When we came out it had started to get dark really quick and all of a sudden there were these bats everywhere. They were absolutely huge- I felt like I was in Gotham City. I'm not the biggest fan of bats either as they are complete creeps but it was definitely something to see numbers of them flying about as the sun set over the city skyline.

Throw another shrimp on the barbie mate

We've just spent 5 nights with our friends Suze and Ben in Surfers Paradise which was lovely and relaxing after weeks of hostels. Suze and Ben have found an amazing apartment; about a minute’ walk from the beach with its own indoor and outdoor pools, sauna and jacuzzi. This was definitely paradise for the backpacking bogans.

The first night we arrived the three of us were pretty tired so just napped and watched Harry Potter, ‘Chamber of Secrets’- timeless classic. The next day we were eager to get in the pool but the weather wasn't too great so we mainly slothed about, enjoyed the indoor pool and booked some bar crawl tickets for that night. For some reason we couldn't convince Ben to come out with four girls but we did involve him by nipping back to the apartment about four times to get more drinks and play UNO after having our free drink at each bar. We also had the pleasure of going to a bar afterwards and watching Wales BEAT England in the rugby.

The weather cleared up a bit the next day so we had another lazy day by the pool....

But the bogans had a mission; they wanted to throw another shrimp on the barbie.  This was made possible in Surfers as we had plenty of time to make use of the outdoor BBQs by the beach. Loaded with shrimps we headed down and had a whale of a time each taking it in turns to ‘throw another shrimp on the barbie’. It was such a nice evening and we all loved the BBQ on the beach novelty, especially as they were so easy to use so we didn't have to mess around lighting the charcoal. We then went home and being massive party animals we played UNO for the rest of the night.

The next day the temperature had picked up even more so we attempted a day at the beach; it was really pretty down there but we were all so hot from the humidity that we soon ended up back at the pool. Suze, Luce and I are now professional synchronized swimmers complete with our own unique routine.

We decided it was time for another night out but this was maybe not such a success as the first. Suze was hammered and fell asleep in the toilets and I smacked my head on a TV resulting in a dent the size of the Grand Canyon in my forehead. Luckily this went down and was replaced by a golf ball but we didn't stay out for much longer.

It was soon our last day at Surfers so we decided to go bowling in the evening (I made sure that I lost so that the others would feel better).

Today we said our sad goodbye to Suze with a big thank you for putting up with us and our MESS for the last few days. One bogan down we have now made our way to Brisbane.

Goodbye Sydney.. Hello Byron!

We had our last day in Sydney on Tuesday after a fab four days. We decided to do the free walking tour of Sydney, which we probably should have done on the first day. It was still really good as our guide took us to see all the main sites, obviously the Opera House and the Bridge but also to see Hyde Park, St Mary's Cathedral, St. Andrews Cathedrals and the Rocks (where most of the convicts first lived), as well as giving us lots of interesting info. We mostly spent the tour laughing at a lady who had brought a fold up chair with her that she would set up every time we stopped for the guide to give us information. Not sure it was really necessary.

After this we had to catch our bus to Byron bay which was a thirteen hour overnight journey (ouch). I hadn't planned to sleep straight away as it was only 7.00pm but as soon as we started moving I was snoring. I think this is because, after all our long journeys I am now an absolute pro at sleeping in vehicles. I slept the entire journey more or less, only waking up for an hour or so to watch our ‘in coach movie’, Avatar. Despite this, we were all still shattered when we arrived and couldn't check into our room for another couple of hours.

We did get chatting to the girl at the desk though who told us that some boys had seen a python at the hostel the night before and also that she had a huntsman spider (massive one) in her room the other night. After finally checking into our room we quickly realised that we were sharing with some miserable Germans who slept all the time and got moody if we woke them... excellent.

As it was a nice day we went down to the beach taking with us the free body boards from our hostel. Gwenda and I were looking forward to this as Luce had told us once, twice or ten times that she can body board so we wanted to see if she could live up to her words. Unfortunately, for the first time the sea was pretty flat so we didn't manage to ‘catch many waves’. 

The next day we woke up to a massive thunder storm and so had to cancel the sea kayak that we had booked, but once it had cleared up we went on a walk which took us to the most easterly point of Australia. We were all so exhausted, partly from sleeping on a bus the night before and partly because it was unbelievably humid. It was worth the walk though because when we reached the most easterly point and looked down to the sea we saw dolphins, turtles and stingrays swimming below us.

We were so tired when we got back but had decided to go out so we forced ourselves. Unfortunately we had a bit of a tag along for our night out. We had left Luce alone for five minutes and she made a friend who was a massive pain. Thankfully she didn't last the night and we ended up having a good night at the well renowned ‘Cheeky Monkeys’ backpacker bar.

The next day however was not such a good time as we had to get up for our rescheduled sea kayak. The Germans were also unhappy with this early morning situation and we did not leave as pals.

We weren't feeling too bad considering our 4.30am arrival back at the hostel and our 8.00am wake up. When we got to the Kayaking place we realised that it was two people to a kayak so the girls abandoned me and I went in with this Dutch guy. We were the best team though as we were the Welsh and the Dutch so together we were team Wutch!

We started off pretty strong and it was really good as we got to see some sea turtles when we paddled by. When we got further out we also got to see some dolphins which came within a few metres of our boats so that was not too bad. However the waves were seriously choppy so after a while we were three pretty green sailors and Luce was actually sick over the side of her kayak.

On the way back we had the chance to get out and have a snorkel but only one person could go from the kayak at one time so we had to take it in turns. This meant that when a dolphin swam over the other member of team Wutch was in the water so that was a bit disappointing. Gwenda was in there with it though so that was really lucky for her.

We are now at Surfers Paradise visiting our lovely uni friend Suze and boyfriend Ben so we're enjoying a bit of luxury of not being in a hostel.

Sydney- "the best I can offer you is beer and bongs"

Our flight arrived in Sydney about midday (but we obviously didn't get to our hostel till about 4.00pm because we are ALWAYS last to get dropped off). It was really cool flying into the airport though because we could see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the air which was just incredible. We are, of course, staying in the red light district area of Sydney, thanks for that PeterPan tour company. We were lucky with our room again though because it was just the three of us in there which meant we could spread out our clothes to cover the whole floor. 

We didn't do a huge amount that afternoon because we had to sort out our east coast tour; however we had arranged to go out with the Emily and Medi, who we had run into in Apollo Bay. We decided that we would go out by our hostel in the red light district part which I think was an excellent idea. It actually wasn't bad though- the streets were crawling with brothels and prostitutes but inside the bars it was a good laugh. We made the slight mistake of thinking that the Wales V England six nations game was playing that night so made our way on the train to a Welsh bar that the other girls had seen. Despite the game not being on, this was so worth it because there was a crazy guy on the train who started singing Johnny Cash, using his empty water bottle as a microphone. This was simply a classic moment; there were a load of us in the compartment so everyone was clapping him and stamping their feet and he was doing smashing rendition after smashing rendition. He did like to get the crowd involved by holding the 'microphone' up to our mouths, as well as stroking my hair. I would also like to say that during the entire performance his butt crack was on show. 

The next day we met the girls again and got the ferry to Manly Beach because we had seen that the Australian Open Surfing Competition was on that day. We trekked for absolute miles before finding the right quay to take us there but it was worth it because as we were coming round a corner we suddenly caught sight of the Opera House. It was amazing seeing it right there in front of us, I don't think I realised how breathtaking it would actually be to see such a famous landmark. We took plenty of pictures and also got to see a lovely view of the Opera House and the bridge as we were pulling away in the ferry. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at Manly the surfing had finished but the beach was still packed out so it was a good atmosphere. Medi and I decided to go into the water and I can honestly say I have never experienced waves like those. Luckily Medi had been in similar ones before and knew that you had to duck under them to avoid get dragged around like a rag doll. However, I like to experiment and decided to try and go over one- it was SCARY, I literally got tossed forward and spun round. Didn't do that again. 

That evening we went for a nice meal close to the Harbour but the heavens had well and truly opened so we had to leg it through pouring rain to get there- this was unfortunate because we missed our usual hooker spotting as we ran by. We did however get treated to a drunken hooligan at the train station. He told us we could go back to his if we fancied (he was very kind). He also said the best he could give us was "beer and bongs" and tried to hug Gwenda because "he liked her best".

The next day we went to Bondi beach, I was very excited about this as we had heard there were lots of sharks about at the moment and I would have loved the drama of a water evacuation and seeing a fin roaming towards the beach. I was also looking forward to seeing the famous Bondi Rescue team. Unfortunately I only got to experience the latter. The beach was really nice though, except for the fact that a 10 year old girl latched herself to us and kept trying to get Lucy and me to go in the sea with her. However, she splashed water in my face so our friendship was over after that. 

Medi and Emily joined us a bit later and luckily Medi is as much of a restless sunbather as me and the girls buried us both so we could be floating heads. We went to quickly wash the sand off ourselves and were just floating about in the sea when we suddenly realised we had actually floated quite far out. This was fine and we just started to swim back, except that we couldn't. We just kept getting dragged back out; we were actually getting nowhere, I could hear Medi saying "I can't get back" and I was like "neither can I"! It was actually really scary but eventually with our guns of steal we managed to get out. Unfortunately this was not before the Bondi Rescue Team had driven over and said over the speakerphone "next time you want a swim girls go between the red and yellow flags". Luckily they didn't come down to do any filming for Bondi Rescue until later as I would have been mortified if we had been on it- complete tourists. 

We went out last night again but in a much nicer area which was by the girl's hostel. We were in our element because we were in a massive queue and the five of us got bumped to the front by the bouncer- hooray. We had a really good last night and we got slightly more drunk than planned considering we had to check out at 9.00am this morning. For this reason the girls are slumped in our hostel’s common room sleeping. MASSIVE BOGANS.

Great Ocean Road and Uncle John

The Great Ocean Road Experience has been one of the best of my trip so far.On the first day we saw Bell's beach and stopped off to have a look at some wild parrots that you could buy food for. Two of them went completely beserk on me trying to fight each other for the food so I got some nice scratches from those little bogans. We also got to see a cute, little koala and its baby clinging to a tree.

We decided to spend the night at Apollo Bay which was a really good decision as it split our Great Ocean Road trip up really well (if we had done it all in one day we would have been travelling from 7.00am till 9.00pm). Luckily for us the weather was good so we just chilled on the beach and Gwend made me into a mermaid because I'm too much of a restless person to sunbathe quietly all day.

We then went to check into our hostel and discovered that the owner was mental. His name was John- privately we called him Uncle John and he made us stand outside and hose ourselves down before we were allowed in the room with any sand on us. To be fair to him the hostel was really nice- we were in a four bed dorm but had it all to ourselves. It was a really small place; it was just us and two Dutch boys staying there so we had a good game of Ring of Fire with them.

Also, the strangest thing happened whilst we were at an internet cafe; we were sat on the computers and just heard someone say "Gwenda?" and one of Gwenda's friends from uni was stood there. It was so weird bumping into someone from Swansea in a tiny little seaside village in the middle of Australia.

We didn't really get up to anything exciting that night except wind up Luce by telling her that Uncle John might pay her a visit in the night and also singing 'My Uncle John from Jamaica' (Vengaboys classic).

The next day we finished our Great Ocean Road trip which exceeded my expectations massively. I wasn't really sure what it was all about but basically you go on the trip mainly to see the twelve apostles which are rock formations that have naturally broken away from the main cliff edge. It’s unbelievable how beautiful this looks when you see it in person. There are also other formations including a gorge which a stunning beach and a rock called London Bridge. 

It wasn't all rock spotting though... we did see some more koalas which were just so cute.

When we got back to Melbourne we were shattered because, of course, we were the last to get dropped off at our hostel (this happens every time we go anywhere). We had planned to go to China Town for a quick shifty but our hearts weren't really in it because we were so tired so we just got a bit of rice then went to bed so we would be able to get up ready to fly to Sydney.

In the morning it was a bit annoying because we had to go and pick up our East Coast package that we had booked a few days before. It was leaving it a bit tight because they didn't open till 10.00 and our flight was at 11.40. However we rushed over there only to find out that the moron who had booked our trip hadn't booked or printed any of our tickets- idiot. He said we could get them from the office in Sydney so we tootled off to the airport to get there and be told that our terminal was a 5minute walk away and we only had 15minutes to check in. Of course we kept cool heads by running off like the teenage mutant ninja turtles that we are with our backpacks. It was the MOST stressful thing; eventually Luce just went "El I'll take you bag- just run". So I went sprinting off at the speed of light, arriving at the check in desk in a sweaty slump and we managed to catch our flight by the skin of our teeth- PHEW.

Aussie- you dirty bogan!!!

We arrived in Melbourne on Monday and we were like "frogs in socks" (aussie phrase for excited) to see our travel companion Lucy Baines. Because we got there a bit earlier Gwenda and I had a little look around the city which is amazingly big compared to what we've been used to so far. It’s really nice with a few older buildings including a St Paul's Cathedral and a tram system which runs throughout Melbourne.

We had a look at Federation Square which was interesting and saw a granny riding a scooter which was very funny.
Went and picked up Lucy and basically she's a dag (aussie for a filthy sheep tail).

We've all had a fantastic time learning some Aussie lingo- "No wucking furries", "Bogan" (our favourite and it means pikey/chav), feral and cobber (friend).

The day after we arrived was a scorcher so we headed to St. Kilda's, a bay close to Melbourne. We got a free tram ride because we couldn't work out how to pay so sometimes being ignorant tourists is a bonus. We sunbathed all day and went to a Valentines party at our hostel where Luce jibbed out of a blind date game.

We arrived in Melbourne on Monday and we were like "frogs in socks" (aussie phrase for excited) to see our travel companion Lucy Baines. Because we got there a bit earlier Gwenda and I had a little look around the city which is amazingly big compared to what we've been used to so far. It’s really nice with a few older buildings including a St Paul's Cathedral and a tram system which runs throughout Melbourne.

We had a look at Federation Square which was interesting and saw a granny riding a scooter which was very funny.
Went and picked up Lucy and basically she's a dag (aussie for a filthy sheep tail).

We've all had a fantastic time learning some Aussie lingo- "No wucking furries", "Bogan" (our favourite and it means pikey/chav), feral and cobber (friend).

The day after we arrived was a scorcher so we headed to St. Kilda's, a bay close to Melbourne. We got a free tram ride because we couldn't work out how to pay so sometimes being ignorant tourists is a bonus. We sunbathed all day and went to a Valentines party at our hostel where Luce jibbed out of a blind date game.

The next day we went up the Eureka Skytower which is the highest in Australia (I think) and got an awesome view of the whole city. Last night we also headed to the Victoria night market in Melbourne which had LOADS of tasty food but was absolutely boiling (30 degree heat at 9.30pm). We also saw a knife swallowing street performer called Ariel who was trying to get the crowd cheering- we were his loudest fans.

Tassie

While still in Hobart we made use of the free bicycles for hire from the museum. We took these to the nearby botanical gardens which was quite funny because I was too short for mine and felt a bit unsafe as I couldn't touch the ground (damn short Davies legs)! Also Gwenda's handlebars were broken so she was all over the place too. This didn’t break our biking spirit though and we rode through the streets singing ‘Tazza Tasmaniaaaa’ at the top of our voices. The botanical gardens were lovely and my favourites were the cactus house and the Japanese gardens.

The day after this we headed to Launceston to stay with Gwenda's great aunty and we were spoilt to death by her family. They treated us to a nice meal the first night and we tried 'parmys' which is basically crumbed chicken but was really nice. The following day we went to have a look round the town and also to a beach in Low Head called East Beach. In the evening we had a BBQ with Gwenda's family which was delicious (I could get used to Aussie BBQs).

On our last full day there we went to Cataract Gorge which was really nice; there were wild peacocks running around and it was really nice and sunny with lush scenery. We also went to the nearby zoo and saw the famous Tasmanian Devil's being fed, were able to feed wallabes and kangaroos and saw cute koalas and wombats. Luckily we had gone to Launceston at a good time because there was a food and drink festival on where I STUFFED my face- I ate wallabe sausages, feeling slightly guilty after seeing them at the zoo.

We went back to Hobart the next day to catch our flight and stayed with Gwenda's cousin Robert who also spoilt us with food and took us to the jail where Brits were historically transported. One guy got transported for six months for stealing a loaf of bread.

Tazza Tazmaniaaaaa

We had a bit of an annoying flight to Tasmania because Jetstar had completely changed our schedule from the original flight we booked. This meant that we were flying to Melbourne at 9.00pm and arriving (Aussie time) at 10.30ish, then our connecting flight to Tasmania wasn't until 7.00am the next day. We thought it would be fine to sleep in the airport and it was alright for the night but I wouldn't really advise it. I slept on a bench under my towel and Gwend was on the floor next to me covered by her towel and scarf. In the morning I actually heard people giggling as they walked by us. I was not in the mood for that. The security checks were quite funny though because for some reason Gwenda always gets stopped and when we were coming into Tasmania the sniffer dog there was onto her as he could smell the remains of an orange in her bag. I was loving it. 

When we got on the plane Gwend and I were both complete knock outs for the whole flight, which was only about an hour. We couldn't check in at our hostel straight away so we went down to the isite (tourist info) and raided their stack of leaflets. Unfortunately the weather has been completely unpredictable today, raining one minute and sun shining the next. This has been a pain in our plans because we were going to walk to the botanical gardens. Instead we took a trip to Mount Wellington which is the highest mountain in Tasmania and has great views. We were crossing our fingers it wouldn't be covered in cloud when we got to the top and we were in luck. The view of Hobart from up there was spectacular. Some of the beaches looked gorgeous and in parts, because we were so high up, you could see where the rain was coming down. We're in a crazy 'Rasta' internet cafe at the moment and there is a photo of Bellatrix Lestrange (Harry Potter) up on the wall, hmm.....

We're sleeping in a twenty bed dorm tonight which is full of Asian people who ignore us. 

Saying goodbye to New Zealand... with animals

We have spent our last two nights in New Zealand staying in Kaikoura. Unfortunately the weather's been very cloudy but it hasn't rained so it could be worse.

This morning we checked out of our hostel- the fish tank lodge as it was only free for one night and so we have moved to the Adelphi which is a creepy place that we think may well be haunted.

We had booked a horse trek for this afternoon and had some time to kill this morning so we decided to go and check out the seal colony. It was only about a forty minute walk until we saw our first seals lounging about. They were so close to us especially this one which was down in the grass only a couple of metres away. We got our cameras out and Gwend went to take a photo with me and the seal. She kept saying "go a bit closer" and I was edging over thinking nothing of it. That was until it flopped round and started baring its (huge) teeth, growling at me and flapping slowly towards me.... of course I ran for my life. This was all much to the amusement of Gwenda and the other couple watching us. After that I kept my distance using my zoom to take photos of them instead.

Gwenda said it was probably just as quick to keep walking the loop back to town as it would have been to go back the way we came (she is a liar). It was a really pretty walk along the coast but I was shattered when we got back. No rest for the wicked though and we were soon jumping on a pair of horses.

My horse was called Prince and Gwenda's- The Doctor. It was a pretty quiet trek and I was slightly disappointed we didn't do any more than a trot. Although when I was bouncing around in the saddle I was thinking that after having not ridden for six years maybe it isn't quite like "riding a bike". 

We had a good last day in Kaikoura, waiting for our coach to Christchurch airport, as the sun finally came out. It was still really cold and windy on the beach but we discovered that if we lay down the wind didn't catch us and it was boiling. This was quite funny because we were sunbathing in next to nothing and there were people walking past in coats and hoodies probably thinking we were insane. 

I am GUTTED to leave New Zealand but looking forward to Australia which is our next stop. New Zealand was so much more than I ever thought it would be and I am so glad we decided to come. I will definitely be coming back!

We love Candy! Dun Dunnun Dun Dun

So we went back to Kaiteriteri in our amazing car Candy. It took a while to get used to an automatic car and to start with when I was using my left foot "lightly" on the brake it kept coming down so hard that we would do an emergency stop each time. After a while I remembered you're still only supposed to use your right foot on the brake so we went more smoothly after that.

The whole reason we went back to the beach was for a bit of sun but unfortunately it was overcast all day so we did a walk in the Abel Tasman national park instead. We stopped at some nice places along the way- waterfalls, beaches with caves etc.

We had a little break at one bay and I went in the sea for a dip. I didn't think it would be too cold in there as some bloke was snorkelling about in his budgie smugglers....I was wrong. I didn't stick it out for too long.

After our little hike we decided to head back to Nelson with a few stop offs on the way. We went to split apple rock which was a beach with a rock about twenty metres out shaped like...... a split apple.

We Kept going on to Nelson and in the evening we went out with my cousins and saw a band called the Rhythmonyx. They were good but there were a lot of high people, there including a guy who invited us back to his for wine and weed.

We left Nelson for Kaikoura today and we have a horse trek booked for tomorrow...

My Big Cous Gets Married

After leaving Queenstown we stopped a night in Christchurch where we felt our first earthquake. It was only a small tremor but was still pretty scary and I can’t even begin to imagine what the huge ones had been like.

My family managed to pick us up from the right bus stop in Nelson despite my awful contact. We spent the night with my family as they had a lovely place on the hill overlooking Nelson then the next morning it was off to the beach where my cousin, Mel was getting married.

It was a bit of a cloudy start to the day so we were slightly worried but by the time we got to the beach the sun had come out. The ceremony was lovely and we were on the most gorgeous beach called Little Kaiteriteri where the sand is a golden colour I have never seen before. After the ceremony we headed back to the yacht club where the girls were having their evening do. It looked really lovely as they had a rainbow theme so all the tables were covered with coloured candles. 

We're on our last six days in New Zealand now so we had to think about what we wanted to do with them and..... we've hired a car. She's called Candy and she's our babe. She costs about £7.50 each a day so we thought why not? And so far we've managed to successfully drive about an hour, back to Kaiteriteri because we really fancied some time on the beach chilling out. Fingers crossed Candy will get us back to Nelson safe and sound.