Leaving on a jet plane....AGAIN!

And then to Kiwi Land...well not quite - there was a brief interval in between arriving in Darwin and departing Christchurch. This part of my life is called trying to squeeze the thus far untravelled three quarters of Australia into just under four weeks...mission impossible?!

Two cheap flights and a day long trip on one of the most famous train journeys in the world (although don't expect any Australian to have heard about it) - The Ghan and we have come full circle and arrived back in Melbourne. A few points to be made on the in-between moment...

We paid a painful amount of money to do a one day tour to Kakadu in the Northern Territory which turned out to be an OAP spectacular...I am all for air conditioned buses and walking at a snail's pace so that everyone can keep up but not when it means we have to scrimp and save on the amount that you see...so in the end we didn't see all that much of the park, the river and some aboriginal rock art , we had to hang out with the sandal and sock wearing crew and the day was topped off with wine and cheese...brilliant I thought - I'll get my moneys worth here OR I'll eat so much cheese that I end up being sick...niice! It didn't even compare to the previous day when we paid a fraction of the cost to drive through all the same countryside to go and see the Jumping Crocs and also managed to see Sea Eagles (almost seagulls if you say it but defintely not quite as exciting), Kites, baby crocs AND the added bonus of holding Medusa the Python (the prospect of dying at the hands of the crocs was enough for Ayms without throwing the Python into the mix as well :)

Our three day outback tour to Uluru managed to begin on my birthday, pleasingly at 6am! Not the best time to encounter our fellow traveller Ian who talked a lot and loudly and disturbed the already difficult task of tryingt to sleep on a mini bus. The rest of the 21 people consisted of Amy's neighbour who was ALWAYS the last one to get on the bus due to some fabulous photo opportunity that no-one else had spotted, Frenchie - hilarious and did all the walks with her handbag in tow!! the little blonde German dude, the tall blonde German dude, the German dude with bad hair...you get the idea! We became professional stirrers, ate camel bolognaise, slept out under the stars in the freezing cold, climbed and walked over every rock formation we could find, watched the sun set and rise from every possible angle and of course there was the obligatory goon. All of this ended in another drunken night out back in Alice Springs and therefore another hungover flight the following morning to Perth.


To the person or persons who suggested that when you pack your backpack you seperate everything with plastic bags....you deserve to be shot or worse, you deserve to have to spend a night in a dorm with these people who took your advice whole-heartedly. Because in the same breathe these are the people that always feel the need to get up at 6:30am.....AHHHHHHH!


Imagine the most annoying fly in the world...then imagine this fly went and got himself a training camp for all the other flies in the world and they all graduated as equally as annoying flies...then imagine these flies congregated in West Australia.


From Perth we hired a car which I did under the pretence of being 24 - apparently the birthday bypassed me so much I haven't even acknowledged the turning of 25?! Aye well, luckily the guy in the shop spotted the error and discounted the relevant amount of money off the bill - a good job really since we chipped the windscreen (not my fault) and had to pay for the damage. We were planning to go a little way North then a little way South but in the end decided to follow the sunshine and went all the way to Monkey Mia via Kalbarri, Pinnacles, River Hutt Province, York and Freemantle. A lot of boring straight roads and not a lot to keep us entertained in between places apart from our brand new purchase of a Flirty Dancing CD - played to death by the end of the trip. We had one hairy moment when we almost ran out of petrol on a stretch of road with no service station for 110km, luckily brainbox and brainboxer had the initiative to drive at a snails pace in order to convserve petrol - this didn't stop the mild rush of panic though when the red warning light came on and we still had 30km to go...AHHH! Luckily we rolled into the services and carried on our merry way now free from the fear we may have to hitch a ride with some unshaven-ute-driving-outback-loving-aussie!

The final days were spent in the company of the one and only Miss DIbby - exciting news people she is due to be moving to the UK so you will all have the pleasure of meeting our new-found friend :) We ate Grill'd burgers, listened to Paul play guitar, went out in St Kilda - just like the old days and a good reminder of all the good stuff we are once again leaving behind.