This post is full of pointless information - but there has been someone who's asked me the question to most of these answers, so I'll just put it out there and save myself some time >: )


Favourite Developed Destination:

New York

Favourite Developing country:

Vietnam

Favourite place:

Hoi An, Vietnam (Where I got the suits made; a lovely old French colonial town).

What was overrated now I've been there?

Hawaii - was still brilliant though.

What was underrated now I've been there?

Vietnam.

If I could live anywhere I went to, where would it be?

Melbourne, Australia

Favourite Capital City?

Hanoi, Vietnam.

Least favourite Capital City?

It's close between Vientiane in Laos and Canberra in Australia. Has to be Canberra though, as Vientiane was heavily bombed years ago so they actually have some kind of excuse. Both are seriously dull with nothing going on.

Worst part of the trip?

Hard to say, but the vomiting and diarrhoea on the plane to Singapore has to be up there. Having said that, it really was quite funny. Some times you just have to laugh >: )

Best part of the trip?

This is a tough one. The 60 seconds while I was falling to the Earth at 120mph were pretty special.

Times I was told I reminded someone of Chris Martin of Cold Play:

1,789,345,678

Ages people most often had me down as:

26-28 years old >: /

Really wasn't happy about these age guesses - I suppose the sun does age you afer all...


It may seem strange that I bothered to work the below out, but when you spend as long as 27 hours getting from one place to the next on a coach, you need to do something to keep the hours ticking by....

Rough total travel time for my 5 months away? A crazy 400+ hours! Or more than 16 full days travelling >: /


Things I missed most about England? (In no particular order)

1. Match of the Day.

2. My Mac.

3. Sandwiches (so many times I just wanted a decent sandwich and rarely got one).

4. My PSP (I should have brought it with me)

5. Winter (Only slightly which I can't believe, but needing a shower 3 times a day due to the heat gets very annoying).

6. Reading the paper.

7. Riding my bike.

8. Having a kick-a-round with Saunders.

9. Reilly's laugh >: )

10. Mum's cooking.


Books read:

Bill Bryson - Notes From a Small Island (Makes you realise how good we've got it!)

Howard Marks - Mr Nice (This guy is crazy!)

Bill Bryson - Down Under

Chris Ryan - The One That Got Away (I Love my SAS books >: )

Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code (This really is good fun!)

Ben Elton - High Society (Very interesting)

Neil Strauss - The Game (This book is CRAZY! - single men, you have to read this!)

Stephen Fry - The Liar (Funny but a bit strange at points)

Gascoigne - The Biography (An old 1993 book - this man had/has serious poblems)

Dan Brown - Angels & Demons (As good as if not better than The Da Vinci Code)

Steven Gerrard - My Autobiography (Ronaldinho who?)


Observations:

I think a lot of people (myself included) suffer from 'The grass is greener' syndrome. A lot of the places I went to were excellent for a holiday etc, but wouldn't necessarily be better to live in. I thought I'd be keen to look into living in Australia for a couple of years, but I found that you're so far away from what's going on elsewhere. The weather is great and the beaches are excellent, but the countries (not including South East Asia) lack the depth that European countries have. New Zealand was great, but the place has all these adrenaline sports because there's little else to do. Christchurch, the 2nd biggest city in New Zealand, is like an English town on a Sunday afternoon, which is what a lot of the country is like.

England isn't so bad >: )

Anyhow, I hope you've not found the blog of my travels too boring; I made sure I gave you the option of just looking at the pictures >: )


Over and out,

James

So finally I came to my last destination - New York.

I'd been looking forward to this for a while for two reasons. First of all, I've always wanted to go there more than most places and secondly, my old buddy Tom Dover arranged to meet me out there >: )





Usually flying from Hawaii (averaging close to 30 degrees), to New York (averaging close to zero degrees), would give you a cold pretty quick, but I skilfully managed to avoid this. I can't say it didn't feel rather strange however and it didn't help matters not having a coat for the 1st day, before Tom arrived with my winter clothes in the evening.

New York is often mentioned in the same breath as London for being one of the best cities in the world and I'd agree with that to some extent. The place really does have a buzz about it and feels pretty special to be there after all these years of wanting to visit. You're certainly reminded which country you're in while you're there. (All the U.S.A Flags...)





There are quite a few sites of interest that are pretty obvious such as Time Square, The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Central Park etc. We packed all of these in which are shown below...

The Empire State Building and the view from it were excellent; it's a shame the Twin Towers weren't in the skyline, but that couldn't be helped >: /








Central Park was as exciting as a park can ever really get, but it was fun all the same and the frozen lakes gave some good pictures. Tom's mum wanted a shot of part of the park shown in the film 'One Fine Day' - as you can see, we tried to bring it to life >: )





And a shot of one of the horse and cart sets that take you around Central Park......





Ground Zero was a little odd to see and it didn't really register to be honest. To think we were there 5 and a half years later was incredible, it feels like yesterday and probably more so for the people immediately involved. The size of the hole is hard to get across - we could see a subway train track that enters the square hole and then goes back underground which give you a reference for scale. It will be interesting to visit again once the new Freedom Tower is built and the monuments for the Twin Towers also.





The Statue of Liberty was great to see, but I'll warn anyone who plans to go - it's not as big as you think it is! That doesn't mean you're not impressed to see it finally, but it was a little surprising. The boat over to Liberty Island gave us excellent views of Manhattan, which I've combined with the one of the green lady.





Time Square was another of the famous sites and was probably one of my favourites in a child like way. The amount of advertising boards and screens is astonishing - it makes Piccadilly Circus look rather second rate. (It was hard to get a night shot as the bill boards change quickly so you're left with a picture of Time Square full of blurred screens >: /





On one of the nights we managed to get tickets to the New York comedy club, which is aired on TV over there. There were about 10 different acts and they were all pretty good; they often pick on people in the audience and we didn't escape. It only happened once, but the guy was quite chuffed to find out we were English; cue stereotyping with posh accent and tea jokes >: )

The following evening we had a night out in an area we were told could be quite lively, where we ended up in a bar that played excellent live music; I'd like to say we had a crazy night and showed them how to really party, but we were pretty restrained >: /

I'm not sure how cheaply you can do New York really, but if you're someone who buys a new wardrobe every year, the saving you'll make in The Big Apple would cover a fair bit of the cost. It was pretty much like shopping in the sales often is in England.

So to sum up, New York was an excellent city to check out and I'll definatly go again given half a chance. Like I said, it has a similar feel to London, but having said that, it obviously doesn't have the same history as the European cities, which it obviously never will. Unless you go in 500 years time >: /

I arrived early morning for my second to last destination - Hawaii!

Many people stay just down the road from Honolulu in a place called Waikiki, which has high rise hotels next to an excellent beach. I still find it strange to walk along a beach and not get hassled as I often did in South East Asia.

On first impressions, Hawaii seemed really picturesque and this was highlighted after a walk up the crater of an old volcano that blew it's top years ago. The view was stunning as the photo below indicates, but it quickly brought forward how developed these islands have become at the hands of the US of A. There are convenience stores over here called 'ABC' and there are sometimes 3 on each block - It's insane, yet they are always busy with Americans buying food and drink....





Hawaii really doesn't cater well for backpackers like the other places I've been to so far. It's really a place for old people and others on holiday looking to do all-in tours with money not often an issue.

Usually when I ask a hostel worker for tips on places worth seeing, they're only too happy to help - here in Hawaii no one seems keen. On the whole I've found the people to be quite rude, whether it be on the bus or people in shops.

Oahu is the most popular of the Hawaiian islands and is home to the famous Pearl harbor. There is a relatively good bus network, but it's painfully slow to get anywhere. The other islands can't even offer much in the way of buses so if you don't have a car, you don't get far.

The pictures below are of Waikiki beach at day (with the crater in the background) and night.







For one of my spare days I took the bus to the East coast of the island to check out what I'm told was voted the best beach in the US. It certainly was pretty good and not too busy either, which was a bonus. Pictures of this are shown below...








One of the attractions I hoped to see the most was Pearl Harbour and to visit the museums and memorials. The picture below is of a memorial which sits across the Arizona battleship that was taken out by the Japanese. The ship is pretty much a mass grave which is obviously sad and leaves you feeling a little down.





I managed to get some pretty cheap flights enabling me to island hop to Maui and the Big island (called Hawaii) but it was close to pointless, as they don't cater for people without cars. There's the odd bus (not in service on weekends!), but really I shouldn't have bothered. Would have been excellent if someone had told me this, but what with people not being friendly etc...

It wasn't a complete waste of time however, as I met a good group of guys who had hired a car and went out with them couple of times, to the beach etc. Two of them were Spanish and from Barcelona so I mentioned I supported Liverpool. What a win >: )

So that's the short and sweet version of my time in Hawaii.

I'll add this edit - Hawaii really was great in many ways and the pictures show that. If you decide to go however, make sure you drive so you can make the most of your time. It's just that I wasted a few days due to the poor public transport >: )

Next (and last) stop, New York....

So the next stop was Fiji for a week.

I was looking forward to a bit of sun to top up the fading tan, but was met with quite a bit of rain. Right now Fiji is just coming towards the end of its rainy season, but incredibly it hadn't seen much, (if any at all) for December and January. The week prior to my arrival saw it rain pretty much constantly, which continued for a couple of days causing concern. Nadi, which is the town/city you fly into, was severely flooded past waste height and my bus trip around the main island had to be put back a day or more depending on when the rain stopped.





To see info on the flood, check out the link below....

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=56950


Luckily the water level somehow managed to recede and my trip began for the 4 day tour of the island, but many homes and businesses were damaged causing millions of dollars worth of damage. Fijians are not the type to have insurance either so it was quite serious.

The 1st day of the trip we had a BBQ on a beach, although most of us stayed and ate it on the coach as the weather was still quite bad. We then moved onto a local village to see an interesting example of how many Fijians live from day to day.

The picture below is of where we stayed the first night...




There was a great little bar on the first night which we took advantage of, although I must admit I didn't do the Tequila 'Suicide' like the other lads. This is a slight adjustment of the Tequila 'Slammer'. The 'Slammer' is where you lick salt off you hand, do the shot then bite the lemon.

The 'Suicide' is where you snort the salt through a straw, do the shot, then squeeze the lemon or in this case, lime, in your eye. See picture below for more detail...





On the 2nd day we did a 3 hour trek through rain forest to arrive at a lake. It took me 4 hours as I helped a 78 year old lady do the walk. Her name was Barbara and she was a good stick - she bought myself and a couple others a beer for our troubles. To be getting involved at her age was excellent and she didn't stop there.

At the end of the walk we arrived at a river and tubed down it in similar fashion to the time in Laos. The picture below is from this:





The river level was quite high which made it all the more interesting, but we didn't do it for long before being stopped. We had to get out of the river to go and jump off a waterfall, which was pretty darned good, although most people chickened out.

One random thing I'll say about Fiji is that if you don't get bitten by mossies etc, you're one lucky guy/girl - the picture below if of my precious leg...




On the 3rd day, we again visited a Fijian village and joined them for a traditional meeting in what is effectively their community hall. We brought gifts including a root, which was ground down to make a muddy water styled drink called Kava. This is actually a narcotic and makes your tongue go numb, but when in Rome.....

We all had one drink each and then the ladies were taken off to make bracelets. It was then the job of us men to finish off the bowl. After 7-8 rounds, I was finding it quite difficult not to pull a natural face of disgust, brought on by the fowl taste. This we were told, would not go down well, so I had to try hard to suppress those feelings. Imagine not pulling a face after sucking on a lemon and you get the picture.

The place we stayed at on the 3rd night was really quite lovely and it was a shame I couldn't spend an extra day there. It's well known in Fiji for excellent sunsets and the picture below perhaps indicates why:




On the 4th day we visited a hot mud pool and got...muddy >: )


The picture blow is quite clearly from this:





Next to the mud pool was a lovely hot pool of water, which was like a bath that I nearly couldn't go in due to the heat - this is where we cleaned up.


I had another night in Nadi after doing a full circle and then caught a boat the following day to an island known as Beachcomber. This little island took 10 minutes to walk around and had the best snorkeling I've ever experienced. The water was incredibly clear and the tropical fish plentiful.




The voucher to go to the island included all meals, which were excellent although the meat gave most of us diarrhea. Once again, thank you Imodium!

There were about 10 of us who'd made friends during the tour around the island and we all had a rather large night celebrating the birthday of a guy called Scott. He was 21 and being American, needed to make the most of legally being able to drink; this he did quite well although he remembers very little.

I had most of the next day to chill out on the island before catching a boat back to the mainland and then hoping on a bus to the airport.

Next stop Hawaii.....

So now came the North island.....

I got the 3 hour boat to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and was there for 4-5 days in the end. If I'm honest, I just caught up with mates and read a couple of books, so I didn't do the 'must do' things, such as the museum of New Zealand.

I stayed in Wellington for more days than intended due to a guy called Charlie. I met him in Hoi An, Vietnam, where I got the suit made; he also got one made and the picture below is of him wearing said suit >: )

When you make a stupid suit, you have to go for it and I'm a little upset that he found an even better/worse material than I did.

He had met a guy called Elliot in Hoi An also (the day after I left) and they kept in touch. Basically, between them they managed to win and get hold of tickets to the Rugby 'Sevens' tournement, so I stayed an extra day to go. I'd like to thank Elliot for giving me his spare ticket and for putting us all up at his place. Thank you to Charlie for cooking us a great English breakfast before we hit the stadium. The eggs tasted better than they looked >; )

The Sevens tournement is famous for being one big fancy dress party pretty much and people didn't dissapoint. Virtally everyone got involved and there were some excellent constumes. The picture below indicates one of the more 'controversial' examples...

After Wellington, I travelled on up to Taupo, which is next to Lake Taupo, the largest in the southern hemisphere. Here I did what is regarded as one of the best walks in the world and to be honest it probably was. I say probably, as I can only go by the pictures I saw from a mate who did it the previous day. The day I went up, I spent 6 hours walking through clouds. The walk takes you across a volcano and past what many of you may know as Mount Doom from The Lord of the Rings (Below). This was where Frodo threw the ring into the lava at the end:

I managed to get hold the pictures to see what I missed; some parts were as you'd imagine Mars to be like on the surfice. Pictures, curtisey of Tom Evans are shown below....

The following day I did a skydive over Lake Taupo from 15,000ft. This was an incredible experience and it still hasn't quite registered yet. I was the only one who did it from 15,000ft (the others jumped at 12,000ft) and I was quite nervous while climbing that little extra, after watching them fall out. To be honest though, it wasn't too scary and as many people say, was easier than a bungy or the canyon swing I did.

The chute opened at 5,000ft so I fell 10,000ft in about 60 seconds of freefall. My eyes watered like crazy which made me lose a contact lense and my sinuses felt as though they were about to explode. When you leave the plane the temperature is about -5 degrees which made my hands a litle chilly >: )

The noise of freefall is extremely loud, but when the chute has opened it's virtually silent, with the guy telling me what certain things were in the distance.

After Taupo, I headed on up to Rotorua which quite litterally stinks. There are geysers and hot springs etc, with a great deal of sulpher being released, making the whole town stink of rotton eggs. Here I did Zorbing which was a good crack - you climb into a big ball with a mate, they add water, you get pushed down a hill and then giggle like girls. The picture below is from that.....

From Rotorua you can do a day trip to a cave with water running through it. This was excellent and included an abseil of 100ft or so. I was the '1st person in 14 years' that hurt themselves on this I was told! I was just moving to hang myself over the edge, when some flesh from my hand got caught in between the rope and a metal clip. I couldn't get it out as now my whole weight was pulling down and adding pressure. We managed to get me released eventually after the guide worked out what had happened and I was left with a small blood wound. Accident prone through this trip I fear...

It really was good fun and the glow worms were incredible. The pictures below/above are from this day.



The last night in Rotorua I attended a meal and show at the local Mauri replica village. We were shown the mock up village of what it used to look like and the various things they used to do. It was interesting enough, but the all you can eat buffet was the real highlight >: )

After Rotorua I shot up to Auckland for one night, before heading to Paihia in the north. To be honest, I didn't have time to see much of Paihia, but it seemed ok. Nice enough place to take a canoe out and explore.

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand and home to a third of the population - however, it's not really a place with a great deal of character and I didn't make any particular effort to wonder about.

This is the end of my New Zealand exploring and next I'll be posting on my week in Fiji >: )

See you soon....

So next I popped over to the South island of New Zealand, after flying in to Christchurch from Melbourne.

Christchurch was quite familiar and similar to an English town, which was nice for a change. The weather was also like England however, which was not particularly great. The picture below is of the Chapel there:

I was only there for a day before I left on the Kiwi Experience bus, which is where things quickly became interesting. In a 'I can't believe ANYONE could be so stupid' kind of way.

About 10 of us got onto a mini-bus that was intended to take us to a meeting point, where a larger one would be waiting with backpackers, (who'd left a different destination that same morning). We'd meet at about 1:30pm we were informed.

This was all fine and dandy with us. We went on our way picking up some breakfast and then stopped at about 11am or so for a walk (they stop for walks a lot on these backpacker buses).

We were told the walk was about 20 minutes long and while some went to do it, others including myself quickly stopped for the toilet. Two girls who were chatting away went to the toilet after me and I strolled off to do the walk. I came up to two signs. One said 20 min walk, the other said 1.5 hour walk. Off I went catching up with a guy in front. When we got back to the mini-bus after what was really a 10 minute walk round a large Tesco carpark for comparison, we soon realised the girls were taking their time. It quickly dawned on us, that they might have been a little distracted by talk of hair straightners and had gone down the 1.5 hour walk. (Disclaimer: they were talking about hair straighteners when I left them!)

This was a pain and I kindly offered to run after them (Please, no 'Hero' comments, anyone would have done the same). The bus driver said not to bother as they were probably about half way so we'd wait for them to finish the loop and end up at the car park like the rest of us. The unfortunate thing was, an hour later the driver noticed that it wasn't actually a loop they were doing as the instructions on a sign noted. In fact, it was only a 1.5 hour walk if you turned around when you got to a bridge (after about 45 minutes), then headed back. If you carried on you were actually on a 3.5 Day trek.

Unfortunately for us, these girls were not the sharpest tools in the shed. They were confident that they had done the 1.5 hour loop (but 'very slowly') and would any moment find themselves back with the rest of us. They thought this for 2.5 hours - 2.5 hours into a 20 minute walk I might add. At which point they realised it was best to turn around. Back at the car park, we'd called the police who took an hour to drive to our location and meet us. We handed over information of their names and what they were wearing - if they had water etc. The policeman had just uttered the words, 'I'll get the helicopter out now' when they appeard at 5:30pm. 6 HOURS after we left for our 20 minute walk that only took 10.

They said they got to the bottom of the mountain that was in the distance which turned out to be 7.5 miles away. One of them hadn't even eaten any breakfast and had therefore done a 6 hour, 15 mile walk without food.

I hope this story translates well, because the rest of us were baffled at how you could keep walking and walking like Lemmings. One of the girls had just left her friend that morning who she'd traveled with for the previous 3 months, so she could prove to herself she could, 'do it on her own'. What, a 15 mile walk? Jeez....

There wasn't much of interest on the tour of the south Island for the first few days, until we reached a place called Franz Joseph. This is pretty special, as it's one of 3 places on Earth (one in South America and the other also in New Zealand), that has a glacier meeting a rainforest.

I did a 6 hour walk (this one was SUPPOSED to be 6 hours) up the glacier in the freezing cold and rain. It cleared up later on however, which improved my mood no end. The views were excellent and the picture below gives you an idea of what parts were like:

We then stayed at a place called Wanaka, where there's an adult sized puzzle maze place which is crazy. The picture below is of Allen to the right and myself to the left. The room is built in a way to trick your mind and make you believe one of us is far larger than the other. Clever stuff.

The next place of interest was Queenstown, which is the activity capital of the world. This is where Bungy Jumps as we know them started and there are a number of other adrenaline sports to keep you occupied. I didn't want to do everything here, as I don't have the money to begin with, but also due to spreading activities over my trip around the country being a good idea. You can do skydiving cheaper in the north island for example. I did however do what's known as The Canyon Swing, which was ridiculously scary. I did it twice as the 2nd jump was only a little extra, (a quarter of the price of the 1st) and I have my 2nd jump on DVD to show you all on another day, which will be better than me explaining in detail. I basically jumped of a cliff >: /

I was in Queenstown for nearly a week as it's a great place to chill out.

The picture below is of Queenstown..

From Queenstown I was able to do a day trip to a place called Milford Sound which is a stunning Fjord as the picture below indicates:




The pictures below are of scenery we saw on the way to Milford Sound which were quite impressive:






After Queenstown, it was back up to Christchurch completing a full circle, then on up to a place called Kaikoura. This was a nice little town and was significant for being in close proximity to an underwater canyon along the coast. This canyon is full of things that Whales an Dolphins eat on the way to wherever they go, which means hundreds of them swimming about in the wild.

I had to get up at 4:30am in order to walk down to a dolphin centre, where a group of us were taken a mile or so out to sea, to find a few hundred dolphins. We then jumped into the water and swam amongst them! I doubt I can get across how incredible this experience was. This isn't some Florida type scenario, where you get into a large pool with a trained dolphin that hits beach balls. These dolphins are 100% wild and if they don't want to show an interest in you, they won't; this happened to a few people who did the swim the day before.



I was extremely lucky however, as the dolphins were extremely playful with my group; I would get a dolphin swim right up to me and circle me, while I followed them in the circle. They'd speed up, then dive down assuming you'd follow and continue playing. This is never going to happen however, as the wet suits were extremely buoyant for a start. The dolphins were so close I still can't believe one didn't touch me and although I could easily have touched one myself, being wild you're asked not to.

This was pretty much the end of the south island in terms of anything worth mentioning. Stay tuned for the north island....

So I'm now on the second stage of my trip, where I do it on my own and in countries that are quite a bit more established  >: )

So far it's been a pleasure to be left alone to walk along the street and enjoy the Opera house without someone trying to sell me something!

I spent the first 3 days at Manly, where I stayed nearly 5 years ago during my gap year in 2002. It's scary to think nearly 5 years have passed since then, but that's life. The pic below is of Manly beach, which taking into account that it's a couple of miles from Sydney's CBD, is quite impressive. It beats swimming in the Thames, that's for sure.

I pretty much decided to put Australia into my itinery specifically for New Year's Eve; I love the country, but felt I should spend more time elsewhere. As a result, I'm here for 2 and a half weeks; a week in Sydney and a week in Melbourne, with travel time between the two in the middle. This is enough to see a city however and it really is one of the best I've ever been too. The setting is of the largest harbour in the world and as the picture from the tallest tower in Sydney shows below, it really is impressive.

After Manly, I made my way to central Sydney and met a mate (Malick), who was over for the Ashes series. We didn't do a great deal to be honest, although we did have a meal or two at Darling Harbour however, which is pretty special at night as the picture below indicates:





New Years Eve was spectacular and the video footage I have of it, gives you an idea if you ever see it. I was near the Habour Bridge in the middle of a huge street party, where small lorries had whopping sound systems blasting the crowds with trance music. Everyone was in shorts and T-Shirts pretty much, although it wasn't anywhere near as hot as last year (42 degrees), as we were often told. The pic below shows the crowds at midnight and the bridge just starting a fireworks blast in the background.

It's also quite nice to get some excellent shots of the Opera House and Habour Bridge while I was in the area, which really are impressive landmarks for the city as shown below >: )

The next part of my trip in Aussie was catching a bus down to Melbourne. It can be done in about 8 hours at a push, but the bus I took was more of a tour and took 4 days. It takes a more scenic route through the countryside along the way and even gave us the pleasure of visiting Canberra, Australia's capital. It is quite possibly the most boring place (Capital city at least) in the world. I have NOTHING else to say about it.

We did a few walks through rainforest and up to the highest point in Australia as shown below (We were too lazy to go right to the top but we were there or there abouts  >: )

That isn't just low clouds you can see, but mostly smoke from the bush fires everywhere:

We got up early everyday, but this time it was for a nice reason; to see some Kagaroos in their natural habitat. When European settlers arrived, they asked the Aboriginees what they (the bouncing animals) were. The Aboriginees replied "Kangaroo", but Kangaroo meant, "I don't understand" which wasn't realised until years later.




When we arrived at Melbourne, we were pleased to feel as though we could quite easily live there. It seemed to have more depth to it compared to Sydney and the people were particularly friendly and helpful. We stayed in a place called St Kilda, which is by the beach and popular with backpackers, but the city centre itself is also excellent. The pic below gives you an idea of how nice it is:




With a couple of mates I met on the bus from Sydney (Chris and Paul), we managed to get tickets to the one day International Cricket. The stadium (MCG) could hold 100,000 people and had an excellent atmosphere on the day. A lot more happens in the one day Cricket matches so we saw a fair few wickets fall (but then don't you always when watching England play?).




You can't visit Mebourne and not visit Ramsey Street, a.k.a the home of Neighbours. The pic below is of me standing outside the house of Karl and Susan Kennedy >: )


It's actually a real street that people live in and isn't called Ramsey street.




You may also remember the children's TV program 'Round The Twist'? The pic of the lighthouse below is from that:




We saw that lighthouse while doing 'The Great Ocean Road', which is probably self explanitory. There is a fair amount of scenery that's worth a pic or two, but the one below has the best story.

The little island used to be connected to the mainland by way of a bridge, until an eventful day in January 1990. A number of visitors were enjoying their day walking across the bridge and enjoying the view, when a bloke noticed bits breaking off and falling into the water. He was a bit of a hero, shouting to everyone to get back across the bridge, as it was likely to colapse any second. The bridge colapsed and although no one died, two people were left stuck on the remaining island. The coastguards were alerted, but decided that they wouldn't rush with their helicopter, due to other matters taking priority, (the two people weren't going to die so it was no emergency).

This casual attitude meant the media and their own helicopters arrived before the rescue team, to catch it all on live TV. Strangely, the two people left stranded covered their faces when the helicopters got close, with a clear effort to discuse their identity. It turned out that although the man and women in question were married, it wasn't actually to each other, which made the media's interest a little inconvenient for their affair. Karma, I think they call it >: )






So that's the end of this particularly long post. Sorry it's been quite dull, but I haven't injured myself lately or caught food poisoning. I'll make sure the posting for New Zealand has a few funny tales  >: )