Rollercoastering

Canberra. Yep, that's about all there is to see

A double rainbow (second one is a bit blurry)

A card from a museum in Nimbin. Nimbin had a lot of hippies. Leppard would have loved it.

Byron Bay Sunset

I couldn't decide which kind of wallaby I am. I was there for hours thinking that one over

Take your time now and just tell us, where did the clown touch you?

After a fun day out at Dreamworld

Get it? The most easterly point...

More Byron Bay

Scientists reconstruction of how Nick would look as a small dinosaur

I've finally seen some Kangaroos. I was half hoping not to see any before leaving Australia so I could carry on believing they don't exist

You can't beat the comedy value of a rock that looks like an arse.




So we're back on the road again now, having said goodbye to Melbourne in suitable style. Essentially, this just means we went out in St Kilda, got drunk and ended up walking by the 24 hour pie shop for some 24 hour pie in the early hours. Whoever decided that St Kilda needed 24 hour pie was a genius.

On Wednesday 10th, we left Melbourne to head East and up the coast. As I mentioned in the last blog, we headed through Canberra in order to see the nation's capital. Didn't take much seeing to be honest, one night was plenty there, after seeing all of Canberra's sights in a few hours we went to see '300' which was spectacular. I met an Israeli guy a couple of days ago who loved the film so much he would occasionally shout out random quotes such as "FOR SPARTA!"

Above, you'll see a slightly blurred picture of a double rainbow. This happened on the way out of Canberra to Sydney. Not only that but we drove through the end of a rainbow. Seeing as I had always thought this impossible, thinking that rainbows are always a fixed distance away, driving through the end of a rainbow was pretty damn impressive. Unfortunately no pot of gold though, some cheeky leprechaun must have got there before we did

We stayed in Sydney and met up with Sydney-based friends for a few days. Two of these days we stayed in a hostel where the receptionist was so friendly and helpful we decided he had to a born again Christian. We think he would have adopted us if he'd had the chance. One highlight of our trip to Sydney was watching Amy chase Nick round a burger place called O Porto at about 2am with some mashed potato, trying to force him to eat it. That is the difference between not liking a food and fearing it.

We left for Brisbane on Monday 9th, to stay with Ron and Lyn, friends of the family. During the couple of days we spent there, we had a good look around Brisbane and went to a Koala sanctuary. During our look round Brisbane, we went to an art gallery. In this art gallery was an exhibit by a guy called Tim Woodward. He had just bought stuff off ebay, printed out screenshots and ebay receipts and then made an arrangement of the various crap within a space in the gallery. At first this seemed like the biggest load of crap ever until you realise that you have to give the guy some credit for convincing enough people that this was actually a work of merit. He must be a master blagger, having realised 2 weeks from his deadline that he had done absolutely nothing and needed to come up with something fast. Tim Woodward, we salute you.

After Brisbane, we headed to the Gold Coast for 4 days of running around theme parks. After the first day at Wet n Wild, we got a surprise in the form of Rhiannon appearing as if by magic. But it was all a cunning plan by her and Amy after we had said what we thought was goodbye in Sydney. Obviously unable to cope with not seeing me and Nick again for such a long time, after they left us at the airport they hatched a devious plan to have Rhiannon turn up out of the blue on Friday. It worked, me and Nick were just confused at first. Then the realisation set in that we would have to spend another weekend in her company and our hearts sank...

The weekend of roller coasters and water-flumes was good all-American family fun and we were early-to-bed, early-to-rise each day. How wholesome. Movieworld was probably the best of the parks, especially the Scooby Spooky Coaster which none of us expected to turn into a laser-lit rave halfway through. I could try and explain but it's one of those 'needed to be there' kind of things.

I write this from Byron Bay where I have gone to spend a few days exploring and surfing (or trying to). It's a really scenic little town. In fact I'm going to go surfing after I finish writing this. As long as I can find somewhere where there aren't too many other people about because I haven't learned how to steer yet so I need a good clear runway.

Also, I spoke to Mr Waterman yesterday and he is booking a ticket to get to Singapore on the 15th May, the day after we'll arrive there! He will join us on the Asian leg of our trip, and he will hunt food for us and whittle canoes out of twigs and leaves. His beardiness will give Nick something to aim for. I have attempted to grow some rampant facial hair but it just ends up being crap and itchy and I shave it off.

That is all for now.