Firstly me and John went to Australia Zoo, home of the Irwins. Remember Steve? Got stabbed by a stingray in 2006, his wife now runs the place (she waved at me!), it isn't really a zoo per se, as I hardly saw a single cage. No, most of the animals are kept in enclosures, given plenty of room and appear quite happy. Kangaroo heaven was a highlight for me, it's essentially a field full of kangaroos you can go up to, stroke, feed, and have your photo taken with (by the way, check out my flickr page for photos of this and everything else I've mentioned) There's also a photo of me with a Koala bear, but it's on John's camera and I'm awaiting a copy.
Then we went to byron bay with the people we met up with on Fraser island. Much fun was had by all, but it also signalled the end the trip for many. Afterwards, people headed home or to other countries, only John stayed in Australia, headed down to Sydney, so i decided to get as much done as I could before i myself left.
First of all, I booked a trip out of Alice Springs, which is in the Northern territory, to Ayers Rock and the surrounding areas, I figured you can't come to Australia without seeing Uluru, as it is known by the locals. However the cheapest flights were out of Melbourne, so I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I flew there. Melbourne is a cool city, the temp dropped from around 26 degrees in Brisbane to around 14 in Melbourne which was a shock to the system, but after adjusting I booked the neighbours tour, for my sins, photos of me on Ramsey Street are also on my flickr page.
After Melbourne I flew to Alice Springs, where it was hot again, thankfully not too hot, in the height of summer it can reach 52 degrees in the outback, making a 10 minute walk virtually impossible. The temperature enabled us to walk around Uluru and up kings canyon, seeing some other sights along the way in what was a 3 day tour. One of the best parts was sleeping in a 'swag' which is essentially an outdoor sleeping bag, in the 2 campsites we stayed at. Due to lack of light pollution you could see thousands of stars and the milky way itself. Quite amazing.
From Melbourne I decided to fly to possibly my favourite place over the last 14 months, Queenstown, New Zealand. I found a cheap flight which returned via Sydney, enabling me to meet up wkith a few familiar faces and again see the city I landed in and met my Dad back in June 2008. Back to Queenstown though, I had my fingers crossed for an early ski-fields opening maybe enabling me to try out snowboarding, but no such luck. I did the Nevis Arc while I was there, which is a 40 metre drop followed by a 300 metre swing, the largest of its kind in the world. Perhaps more terrifying then the jump though, was the weigh-in. I found out I've put on 6 kilos (that's nearly a stone) in the 8 months since i last did a bungee. First stop when back in England, the gym.
After an extremely messy pub crawl on my last night in NZ, I left Queenstown and headed to Sydney, then onto Brisbane where I currently have another 4 days until flying home via Kuala Lumpur. Even if i did have a job, my visa ends in June, meaning that my only work experience here has been fruit picking. It's been great fun though, and definitely not the last time I'll visit this land. Having visited: Cairns, The Great Barrier Reef, Townsville, Bundaberg, Fraser Island, Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Sydney, Melbourne, Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, I have still missed out alot that the country has to offer.
My last trip will be on Monday to the XXXX Brewery, to witness where they make the stuff responsible for the extra 6 kilos of weight my now portly figure is carrying, then back to the uk where my three pronged plan of attack goes something like this:
Job
Car
Gym
Flickr photo page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25243091@N08/
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