sydney

now it is a know thing around oz that people either love sydney or hate it and people either love melbourne or hate it!!! i loved them both! melbourne, simply for st kilda but sydney is totally different. It felt almost like walking around london... same kind of buildings, cool student area, gorgeous gardens and the opera house, well that was just an added bonus.... some friends went to see an actual opers which i was so jellious about! we spent most of our time in the parks and walking round also getting a ferry over to an island where we had fish n chips and a sea gull stole dans fish right out off his fork. we also went up to the blue mountain which was so beautiful and actually blue!!!
we only had a couple of days in sydney before getting our next international flight to auckland which is where i am taking advantage of free internet!! we are now on our way to queenstown

fraser island and byron bay

We only did a day tour on fraser...... decided that enough money had been spent else where, we did however find it irresistable to miss out on a 30 quid flight in a little plane across the island, taking off from the beach we saw whales, manterays and the beautiful island from the sky! it was money well spent and we could always claw it back elsewhere :-z

It wasnt long till we were shoved back onto another over night bus down to byron bay. Its an amazing little town by the beach with loads of little boutique shops, cool bars and a great little hostel i like to call dougies 2!!! actually named (the arts factory). its starting to get real chilly but luckily this hostel has a hot tub and heated pool so nights were spent splashing around and drinking goon! we did a big long walk in the day time up to the light house which i swear nearly killed me!!! so many steps! well worth it though, the view was incredible!

next stop was sydney........

we went sailing.........we went sailing...........on whit sundays!!! la di da

After selling our beloved home in port douglas for a mere $25 we set off for cairns. Horrible place with not much going for it so we spent the day hunting down a good bargain on the grey hound bus service down to sydney with as many stops as you want along the way.

First stop was airlie beach after a grueling 12 hr coach trip through the night.
After checking in we went exploring and found a man made lagoon to chill in for the day......pleasant! after another little wonder we found some fish n chips and i reluctantly ate without mushy peas!!! again!!! the next day we hopped onto a 2 day sailing cruise around the whit sundays island. It was one of those proper sailing boats which feel like they will tip right over. Definitely got our adrenaline pumping after a day or 2 of relaxing. Any who, we went snorkeling and saw some nemos (very territorial) and lots of pretty barrier reef coral. Then we went to a beautiful beach with the whitest sand ever! it was so peaceful and there were little sharks and sting rays in the shallows swimming round your feet.

The night on the boat was horrific then combination of the goon and the swaying was unbearable but still worth being woken up at 5:30am to watch the sun rise over crystal clean water. when we got back to dry land we all went out for drinks and dinner before catching the next over night bus down to hervey bay....... next stop fraser island.

Dougies

wow, time goes so fast when your having fun!!!
So the last month has been spent in port Douglas, working, drinking, lazing by the pool, meeting the most amazing people! and well just generally enjoying every moment really!
lets see........... to start with Port Douglas is an amazing little town in tropical north Queensland, covered in palm trees and mango trees. There is one beach called 4 mile (its a long beach hence the name!) and the entire place is covered head to toe in fancy resorts. Not always a good thing but when it comes to finding a job in hospitality this meant that me and Dan were straight in there!
I worked in a little cute cafe called cafe fresque i loved it (except the days that the bosses wife would be in the kitchen and throw hissy fits and walk out with eggs still cooking on the stove with only me left in the entire place to explain to 60 customers that we cant cook there food because the chef has just had a melt down.) All that aside i generally enjoyed my 40 hour weeks alternating from cafe assistant and barrister by day and curry waitress by night! i especially enjoyed working the evenings as i would always be given free curry from the pot-head chef, never a bad thing when all you have to look forward to is porridge!
Dan, on the other hand landed a couple of very cushty jobs. He was working as a graphic designers assistant by day and by night behind the bar at a place annika likes to call hattle and rum! (rattle and hum to anybody else) all in all we had landed some beauties of jobs.
Dougie's backpackers is a dorm + campsite hostel. The way to do Dougie's however is in a tent! you wouldn't believe what some of these tents were like!!! TVs, lamps, sofas, double beds! they were basically fabric houses. me and Dan pitched our modest 3 man tent in the valley of the giants! we definitely chose a good spot though because ours was the most social area of the entire site! it didn't take long before we were integrated into a large group, some we knew from Melbourne and others joined. it became like one big happy family, eating, swimming, drinking, making fires on the beach, taking trips into town, going to the cinema, renting puppies, playing kirby, and much much more.
Alot of fun has been had in the last month and it was all thanks to;
Annika, Darragh, Matt, Steph, Natalie, Rachael, Victoria, Charlotte, Hannah,  sourcha, Andy, Casey, Matt costello, Garry, Ceian, Reds, Adam, Barry, Freshy, everyone else staying at dougies and the dougies sytaff of course. I will remember them always!