Mac-where..? Exactly! If like me, your grasp of world geography is decidedly sketchy Macau is a tiny country situated on the Southeastern coast of China in the Guangdong Province. Turbo Jet (which deserves a mention in its own right) was part plane part boat. It had all the internal characteristics of an airplane - airplane seats, airplane seatbelts, a little fold away tray to use as you pleased & young, attractive ladies working the isles trying to flog you overpriced food, drinks and Marlborough Lights. But it is essentially a ferry and a fast one at that so after just 50 mins I disembarked in a whole new world.

I only had a couple of days in Macau which is all you need really as it only a small place, it has total land area of 27.3 sq km including the peninsula plus Taipa & Coloane islands. The whole country has a distinctively mediterranean feel and rightly so. Jorge Alvares became the first Portuguese to set foot in Southern China in 1513 and his visit was followed by the establishment of a number of Portuguese trading centers in the Pearl River delta. These were eventually consolidated into Macau, which soon wielded, with the permission on the emperor of China, a virtual monopoly on trade between China and Japan and between both nations and Europe. Today it is still a mixture of Chinese and Portuguese cultures harmoniously maintained and developed by its people.

In July 2005, 25 distinct sites in the historical centre of Macau were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. These are largely ancient stone fortresses, churches, Chinese temples and restored colonial villa's all scattered amongst tiny cobbled backstreets named by distinctive Portuguese blue enamel signs. Look to your left and you could be convinced you were in Portugal, to your right and you could be Shanghai.

Ruins of St. Paul Cathedral

Typical alleyway

Another World Heritage Site

I must admit I enjoyed ambling around these sites a whole lot more than I thought I would, infact the whole of Macau is one of those places which just oozes charm. Each street I ventured down had something going on, a group of old men playing cards in a shady corner of the park, old cobblers shops which look like they have been there forever and traditional chinese medicine and teashops. In the next alley there's funky clothes and souvenir shops and everywhere there are people zipping around on scooters, I haven't seen so many scooters since Vietnam. And that to me was what really appealed, a blend of the old and the new, the East meets the West.

The lads gather for a game of cards

But when the sun goes down on the history and the heritage the neon's soon come out to play. I wasn't aware of this but apparently gambling is illegal in Hong Kong so many people head over to Macau for a weekend of excess in Sin City. Now we aren't talking the strip in Vegas here but Macau is home to some 18 casino's which is rather alot for such a tiny place.

Cheeky school kids
I wanted to take some photo's of an old building but these kids appeared on the way back from school and wanted to be in the photo too

Usually I'm not much of a gambling man but I'm on my holidays and at this late stage in my trip I figured it was double or quits. Worse case scenario, I lose what very little money I have left and I'm on the next flight back to Heathrow. If I win big, its a quick call to the folks telling them not to expect me home anytime soon. Well.....either of the above happened and how can they when you playing the slots with pocket change..? But it was good fun all the same.

Grand Lisboa Casino
The scene of my flurry on the slots

And that, I suppose is the beauty of travel, you can rock up in some tiny country you know absolutely nothing about only to discover it is a real gem!

Macau remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Arriving fresh from Brunei into Hong Kong was a big-time sensory overload. Massive neon signs hang outside every shop, there is heavy traffic everywhere (of both mechanical & human variety) and plenty of noise 24/7 - but this was what I had come to experience afterall.

Kowloon

I spent my first few days in Kowloon on Chungy's recommendation (Chungy is an old Uni pal and Hong Kong native). So I ventured out with my Chungy cheat sheet and the Lonely Planet tucked under my arm to tackle the walking tour. This took me through the caged bird market, flower market, dodgy knock-off threads market, chopstick market and finally the goldfish market (I kid you not). Then I treated myself to a new hairdo (nothing fancy, just a trim) but the old Chinese guy got abit fizzy with the clippers and now I have a Shaolin Monk crop. He seemed exceptionally proud of his efforts and kept asking me "you like, you like?". I didn't have the heart to tell him it was a trifle shorter than I wanted but on the plus side, it has shaved seconds off my morning beauty routine.

Bright lights of Nathan Rd

That evening I went down to the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade to check out the infamous skyline. It didn't disappoint as the whole of Hong Kong Island is lit up in neon. At 8pm each evening they have a Symphony of the Stars performance which is essentially a light and laser show to orchestral music across the harbor. Yes, it's as cheesy & tacky as it sounds but I loved it nonetheless. I then took a saunter down the Avenue of Stars which pays homage to home grown Hong Kong talent such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Hong Kong Skyline

Jet Li - Avenue of the Stars

The following few days were spent taking in the sights. I queued 3 hours to take a cable car up the Ngong Ping Plateau on the outlying island of Lantau to see the Po Lin Buddhist monastery. The cable car trip takes 25 mins and offers some amazing views of Hog Kong but the main draw card is the Tian Tan Buddha. Measuring 34m high and weighing in at a hefty 202 tonnes its a rather impressive sight. I also covered off the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong Museum of Art and Kowloon Park - incidentally a lovely place to have a relaxing breakfast whilst watching the olde timers doing their morning Tai Chi.

Tian Tan Buddha

Funky Fountains

I spent alot of time riding the MTR, Hong Kong's equivalent of London Underground apart from it runs on time, it's ultra speedy, it's squeaky clean, it's dirt cheap and it doesn't stink of piss. It transported me effortlessly across Kowloon to Diamond Hill to see the Chi Lin Nunnery a large Buddhist complex dating back to 1930's. It was a very serene place with lotus ponds, bonsai tree plants and the monks chanting behind big carved screens. With it being Chinese New Year it was absolutely mobbed with locals praying for prosperous 2007 and offering up incense sticks.

Chi Lin Nunnery

Kowloon Park

Hong Kong Island

Made a move from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island and have been calling Causeway Bay home for the past few days. My first stop on Hong Kong Island was The Peak which is the highest point on the island. I took the tram all the way up to the top of Peak Tower to have a good look at Hong Kong down below. I was relieved to learn that the tower had been specifically designed to withstand winds of up to 270km/h - theoretically more than the maximum velocity of a No. 10 typhoon (apparently). It made for some decent photo's.

The Peak by Day

The Peak by Night

I also had an interesting wander through Hong Kong's business centre to marvel the architectural treasures - it is home to 18 skyscrapers no less (the ones which take part in the aforementioned Symphony of the Stars) including Exchange Square the Bank of China Buildings and Government House.

Central - Skyscrapers

But it was the sheer number of shops which I couldn't get over. I have never seem so many shopping malls, department stores & street vendors ever before. I mean, if anybody from Hong Kong came to visit one of London's main shopping districts like Oxford Street or Covent Garden they would be asking where all the shops were, it's insane! And they are open so late, most of them until around midnight so even late at night you can go and pick up such essentials as the latest Louis Vuitton bag or CD's from HMV. And I suppose with retail being such big business its highly competitive. I went into one gentleman's outfitters for an idle browse and the young lady working there was so friendly and helpful I left 10 mins later having bought a pair of jean, T-Shirts, trainers and jacket - how did that happen..!?

I also made the best discovery in a food outlet called YOSHINOYA. It's like a fast food Japanese style. I became hopelessly addicted, partly because I have been looking for something to fill the massive void Pret A Mange left in my eating habits and also because it is one of the few places in Hong Kong where I understood the menu. So it's been a No. 3 for lunch and a No. 7 for tea for the past 7 days straight. Considering opening a franchise in London, after my water taxi company takes off ofcourse.

Wishing you all a prosperous Year of the Pig!

Next stop - Macau.

Hong Kong remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Negara Brunei Darussalam (or just Brunei to his mates) is one of the smallest countries in the world but also one of the wealthiest thanks to the oil industry. I opted to stay in the capital city of Bangar Seri Begawan (BSB) a compact place home to some 75,000. It's certainly very different to other Asian capital cities with orderly traffic, high standard of living and no real signs of poverty.

So how do you occupy yourself for 3 days in a country where alcohol is virtually unobtainable and nightlife non existent - well you sleep alot! Nah, I hit the cultural trail hard and spent alot of time walking around looking at big gold shiny buildings.

After finding and settling myself into some very satisfactory digs I set off to check out the Mosques. The hotel I was staying in was a few km's outside of the centre and the easiest not to mention quickest way to get around Brunei is by water taxi. There are hundreds of them all zipping back and forth from the water villages and dropping kids off at school. I am considering launching a similar initiative when I get back to London, how cool would it be to have a network of little taxi boats chauffeuring people up and down the Thames - surely it's a winning idea!

Water taxi anyone?

The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque is located in the centre of BSB and stands in its own artificial lagoon. Named after the 28th Sultan of Brunei it is one of the tallest buildings in BSB. I took a trip up to top for an impressive panoramic view of the city. Then I got one of Brunei's cool little purple buses out to the J'ame'Asr Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque. This was built in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Sultans reign in 1992. After being asked to put on a full length robe type thing I was allowed to have a poke around this one as long as I didn't disturb the people praying.

The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

The J'ame'Asr Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque

I covered off the Brunei Museum, Malay Technology Museum and Royal Regalia Museum on my second day. I'd now consider myself pretty much up to speed on the oil industry, recent technological advancements and all things regal.

On my final day I visited Kampung Ayer which is made up of 28 water villages and houses a total of 30,000 people. This, I would say is the highlight of my trip to Brunei. I got dropped off by water taxi and started to explore the maze of wooden gangplanks connecting brightly painted shacks, shops, schools and workshops. The people were amazingly friendly especially the children and it wasn't long before I was invited in for a cup of tea and a chat about my travels and how I ended up in Brunei (I don't think they get many tourists so I was something of a novelty) Then one guy offered to take me for a cruise round the rest of the village's and up river to see the Proboscis monkeys (I didn't want to tell him I had already seen them at Bako & on the Kinabatangan) and on to the royal palace (Istana Nurul Iman) where the Sultan resides.

Kampung Ayer

Local family at Kampung Ayer

Footie Fans - Kampung Ayer

All in all it was a good three days in Brunei. It's the evenings which are abit quiet as there really isn't anything much to do. The locals just seem to hang around on street corners like they are waiting for something to happen which never actually does.

Next stop - Hong Kong.

Negara Brunei Darussalam remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I booked myself on a 3 day river safari on the mighty Sungai Kinabatangan, Sabah's longest river (measuring 560km) held in the highest of regards as "the" location for spotting a multitude of wildlife. Home for the next three days was a quaint little cabin on the riverbank and my fellow wildlife enthusiast, a bus load of SAGA Holidaymakers from North Yorkshire.

Day One

Met our guide Terence, the most portly of Malay guys who fell dead asleep if he sat still for longer than 2 mins. Our first stop en route to the Kinabatangan was Gomantong Cave. This limestone cave is Sabah's most famous source of swiftlets nests used for birds nest soup. No pictures I'm afraid as there was a 30RM charge for your camera, a luxury which, quite frankly I could ill-afford. Essentially very brave men build very dubious looking ladders from bamboo & twine and then use them to climb 18m high to retrieve swiftlets nests. The nests, made from bird spit and feathers are then sold to restaurants who make them into birds nest soup. The soup is regarded as a delicacy to the chinese, believed to enhance a males fertility and provide the ladies with eternal youth.

Checked into camp just after lunch, promptly piled aboard our vessel and set sail to observe the many wonders Kinabatangan had to offer. Well this is where Terence came into his own for he could spot a Rhinoceros hornbill bird a mile off. So it wasn't long before we were feasting our eyes on an assortment of tropical birds (not really my thing) snakes, proboscis monkeys, pig-tailed Macaque monkeys, silver-tailed Macaques - my old Olympus was working over time.

Proboscis Monkeys

Mother & Baby

An excited male

Silver-tailed Macaque

Back at the ranch, dinner was dominated by eager conversation of what tomorrows jungle trek would hold in store for us.

Day 2

Leeches, leeches and more leeches - brown leeches, tiger leeches and hammer head leeches. I was just waiting to be dragged under the surface of the jungle floor by the Great White leech! Luckily I had invested in a pair of leech socks to keep the blighters out of my shoes but we were covered. Non-the-less, Terence took us deep into the jungle cutting our path as we walked to look at alot of Elephant dung. All was not lost though as we cruised back to base camp for another hearty lunch, we spotted wild crocodiles chilling on the banks and more neon colored birds.

Croc

That afternoon, whilst cruising still, we made the ultimate spot - wild Orang-Utans. Eagle-eyed Terence spied a mother Orang-Utan with it's baby thick in the trees. We pulled over to observe them for a good few minutes before they gracefully swung back deep into the jungle. It was quite a treat to see them in their natural habitat although from a distance.

After all the excitement of the river safari I opted to stop off in Sepilok on our way back to Sandakan for a few days.

Sepilok

Sepilok is home to Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre and our brief but thrilling sighting of seeing Orang-Utans in the wild had only fuelled my interest in "the man of the jungle"

It was once said that an Orang-Utan could swing from tree to tree from one side of Borneo to the other without touching the ground. Sadly this is no longer the case as hunting and habitat destruction (the result of illegal logging and palm olive plantations) are shrinking their natural habitat. This has resulted in an increase in the number of orphaned and injured orang-utans which are brought to Sepilok in order to be rehabilitated to return to forest life.

I learnt that a male Orang-Utan can have an armspan of 2.5m and can weigh up to 144kg. They also have the strength 4 times more powerful than the average human male and if you really piss one off, they have the ability to rip a human in half!

The centre has twice daily feedings which are open to the public just to supplement the younger Orang-Utans with what they can find for themselves. So after hitting the information centre and watching a particularly heart-warming video about the work Sepilok has carried out over the years I hit the viewing platform.

We were lucky this time as 5 or 6 of the younger Orang-Utans made an appearance for feeding and I must admit, at risk of sounding completely soft they are endlessly appealing with their ginger fur and big intelligent eyes. We were treated to quite a show as they wrestled and scrapped like little children would. They are statically 96.4 part human and seeing them close up I was surprised at how human like they are, they all have their own individual personalities, the braver more confident ones making the first move followed by the shyer ones who are quite often hanging onto their buddy. So we watched them drink milk and pour it over their heads, eat banana's, spit it back out and wipe it on their mates back then run off and other such like tomfoolery before they ventured back into the undergrowth.

The Orang-Utans (aren't the best quality)

My personal favourite

And so my whistle-stop tour of Borneo comes to a close, was it worth travelling all the way from the South Pacific? ....Abso-bloody-lutey!

Next stop - Brunei.

Borneo - Sandakan remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The best way to describe KK is as "a grower". It's much bigger than Kuching and therefore lacks the charm and coziness I had become accustomed to. More a place of function, after a few days kicking back I soon found myself warming to KK and it's wares.

But I was here on a mission - to climb Mount Kinabalu so enough of the jollies and down to business.

Mt. Kinabalu

Set as the centerpiece for the vast 754 sq-km Kinabalu National Park, Mt Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the mighty Himalayas and New Guinea. Standing at 4,095 m it is also the highest mountain in SE Asia. Researches have found that it is still growing at a rate of 5mm a year so I didn't want to hang around too long before I started my climb.

The climb is a two day affair so after a brief stop to pick up some mountain climbing threads (it can get very cold up top) I was good to go.

Day One

After an initial 2 hour drive from KK out to Kinabalu National Park I duly signed my life away under a mountain of paperwork, handed over my Ringitt and was assigned my personal guide. Jennius was a middle-aged local Malay guy with a broad, toothless smile, he was responsible for getting me up to the summit and back down again in one piece.

So off we set for an initial 7km climb to base camp. With Mt. Kinabalu serving as Sabah's main tourist attraction steps have been cut for quite a large chunk (approx 2,500 steps) making it feel more like climbing a massive stairmaster than a mountain. However, the scenery was stunning offering generous panoramic views of the National Park below.

Kinabalu National Park at 3,000m

As we climbed higher the steps disappeared and the going grew tougher although never quite in the same league of The Pinnacles climb. My relationship with Jennius was also more one of function than anything else. Despite venturing down many an avenue to kick-start a lengthy conversation he was a man of few words and I feared I was destined to a climb of silence. Luckily, we hit a large group of Japanese walkers about an hour in so they provided the entertainment from then on.

Mt. Kinabalu - My little Hut

We hit base camp after a speedy 2 hours and 50 min's ascent, even Jennius seemed pleased. Lodgings for the night was a tiny little hut set into the mountain side with spectacular views. We agreed to meet again at 3am (I know... how early..?) so we could reach the summit in time for sunrise.

Sunset at Base Camp

Day Two

Spent most of the night wrapped in multiple blankets in an attempt to shield myself from an early onset of pneumonia. I was settling into my brekkie when Jennius breezes in - what do ya know, Yer Man's a barrel of laughs at 3am. So off we set into the darkness of the the night / early morning and he's chatting, chatting, chatting away. Turns out he's an avid Man U supporter so the conversation is slightly one-sided, he does the talking and I do the agreeing and chip in with the odd throw away comment "I know, I've heard he's a very talented young striker" and other such like pearls of wisdom. The conversation inevitably turns to the World Cup I am pleased to have the opportunity to drop my favorite footie line of all time about the England squad "on paper - we are a very good team"

Mt. Kinabalu summit at 5.30am

So before you know we have reached the summit. It's 5.30am so there is a quick photo opportunity with the summit sign then a brief wait for sunrise. It is frickin' cold at the top but I am all toasty in my Nike ACG Thermo-fit top and hat / ear muffs combo. Others aren't fairing too well, one young lady rather rationally exclaims that she is "so cold she just wishes she could just die" - suck it up sweetheart!

Sunrise - Mt. Kinabalu

Sunrise is an all but too brief glimpse of Borneo down below. Unfortunately it's really cloudy so the visibility isn't great but you can't beat the feeling of being 4,095 m high at 6am in the morning and I get some Ok photo's of alot of cloud with abit if mountain chucked in for good measure.

Me with "Donkey's Ears" in the background

The decent goes without hitch and I arrive down at the bottom by 12.30pm with a very content feeling and a pair of aching knee's.

Back in Kota Kinabalu the whole place has gone Chinese New Year crazy. I treat myself to a proper hotel room for a whole 8 GBP complete with a TV, Tea & Coffee making facilities and my own personal favorite - a phone in the bathroom. I mean who in their right mind is ever going to make a phone call whilst on the Jaxx..?

My plan is to settle down for the evening, rest my weary legs and watch HBO in bed but I can't ignore the parties on the street below so head out to join the festivities. There are big slinky Dragon's and dancing Lion's everywhere. I watch one amazing performance where there are 2 of the two person Lion's balancing on poles which must be about 6-8 ft high doing a whole manner of hair-raising stunts and dances. I tried to film it on my camera I was so impressed but a lady with particularly flyaway hair obscured my view. You'll have to trust me it was hellacool.

Next stop - Sandakan (but shhh... I want to surprise the Orang-Utans)

Borneo - Kota Kinabalu remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Gunung Mulu National Park - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Sarawak's largest National Park, Gunung Mulu is a sprawling 529 sq km's of unspoiled wilderness and home to rugged mountain ranges, deep gorges, massive caves, clear rivers and diverse wildlife. Our sights however were set firmly on The Pinnacles an incredible stone forest of razor sharp limestone towering 45m high located half way up Gunung Api.

The accommodation we settled on in Miri just happened to be run by an absolute angel called Joanne who within 30 mins of us telling her of our plan to hike The Pinnacles she has arranged flights for us to Gunung Mulu (the only way to reach the National Park is by flying in) sorted all our accommodation requirements at Mulu and booked us a guide so we had nothing better to do than treat her a few Tiger beers to show our appreciation.

The following morning we are escorted to the airport and 30 mins later land in Gunung Mulu all via a plane called, rather amusingly a Fokker 50. Our hike to The Pinnacles isn't due to start until the following morning so we spent our first day at Mulu exploring the some of the many caves on site. It's during dinner that two familiar figures come hobbling over, it's Rachel & Sarah who I had previously spent three days with on the Iban Longhouse visit. Their inability to walk was due to them just having finished the Pinnacles hike so they spent the next few hours enlightening us to what lay ahead which they described as "a bloody hard slog but well worth it".

Deer Cave

Our time has come, we meet two fellow hikers at the park HQ - Jay and Soo-Ann both from KL and jump aboard our boat which would will take us an hour up river to the starting point of the trail. Today's hiking is a steady 8.9km amble through the forest to Camp 5 where we would spend our first night before we tackled "the big one" tomorrow. And yes it was pleasant enough, not too taxing and a nice warm up, all is going swimmingly until I got attacked by the leeches. Now I'm not one of those people who gets unnecessarily freaked out by creepy crawlies I'm generally not bothered in the slightest but leeches are my "thing". I just hate the concept that you have no idea you have been bitten until you look down and there they are, locked on casually sucking you dry. They must be able to smell my fear or maybe I have particularly sweet blood cos I appear to attract them in droves. So I was relieved to reach camp 5 de-leech my legs and feet and settle down for the evening.

Camp 5

Camp 5 is really nice, it is set on the banks of the Sungai Melinau river facing the spectacular Benarat cliffs. It is a hive of activity with a group of cavers on a month long research program and fellow hikers using it as their base before or after tackling the trails. Then the horror stories began, the camp was full of people who had just finished The Pinnacles and are all too glad to tell us of the treacherous feat which lay ahead. Some find it just too hard and are forced to give up or if you don't make a certain point by 11am you have to turn back otherwise you will be lost in jungle for ever to be leech fodder.

A little smiley guy heads over to our table and introduces himself, he goes under the name of Undi and he will be our guide for tomorrow. He's a really nice guy and I immediately like him, naturally we bombard him with questions to satisfy our curiosity. He assures us we will be fine, it's a hard, unrelenting slog to the top but if get an early night and lay off the beers tonight we will be dandy. Following his advice and I am in bed by 8pm frantically trying to force myself to sleep.

I hardly sleep a wink, I am paranoid that if I shut both my eyes at the same time all the leeches in the whole of Gunung Mulu are going to make a B-Line for me so I'm feeling abit jaded when Undi comes to wake us at 6am. It's noodles and chocolate for breakfast and we leave Camp 5 by 7am.

Here's the weird thing, the hike up to view The Pinnacles is only 2.5km long which on the face of it is hardly far at all but non of us are prepared for the gradient. During the 2.5km distance we cover we climb 1.2km high. We are all taken by surprised by steepness, it is more like rock climbing than hiking as we scramble over rocks and tree roots, my body is wondering what the f**k is going on. Despite the lack of sleep I soon find my pace and spend the initial 2 hour ascent bantering with Undi, he's a top guy with an awesome sense of humour so time flies. We reach the last portion of the trail by 9.15am, Undi is surprised at our efficiency despite all three of us being completely soaked in sweat and thoroughly knackered. We are relieved to see that Undi has also had the decency to break a sweat also.

A word of warning

The last portion of the trail is a near vertical climb through a network of ladders and ropes to help you reach the top. It's not dissimilar aN enormous adventure playground apart from one slip on the slippery rock could result in a long and painful fall.

All is rewarded when we reach the top. The sun is shining as we turn the last corner but Undi stops dead in his tracks "Ohh no - what's happened here" he says "what, what's up..?" we reply, "they've gone" and then he absolutely pisses himself laughing - told you he was a joker! We are greeted by a magical view as the fruits of our labour are realised. We've been blessed with a clear view so I get some decent photo's just before the morning fogs rolls in and cruelly covers them from view for the people arriving not 10 mins after us.

The Pinnacles

Proof I made it!

The decent is definitely harder than getting up there, my feet have turned to concrete blocks and my legs to big jelly snakes but we make it down in 4 hours and I only sustain one injury when I fall down a hole. Arriving back in camp 5 it's a relief to get out of the sweaty clothes and sit in the river for an hour to cool off. The following morning I feel like I've been hit by a truck, my legs, back and arms all ache from hauling myself up using the ropes. We bid our farewells to Undi and plod the 8.9km back to Park HQ feeling satisfied that we made it - afterall failure was never an option!

Team Pinnacles
(L-R: Undi, Iduna, Gregory & Jay)

Next Stop - Kota Kinabalu.

Borneo - Gunung Mulu National Park remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Kuching (means "Cat" in Malay)

The capital city of Sarawak, the largest of the two Malaysian Borneo states is probably one of the most refined cities I have visited in SE Asia. Full of charm, friendly people and delicious food I was pleased to be using it as my base for exploring the nearby Longhouses and National Parks of Sarawak.

My first few days were spent visiting the Sarawak Museum, Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and the Cultural Village.

Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

The centre attempts to rehabilitate orang-utans, monkeys and honey bears which have been orphaned or illegally caged ready for a safe release back into the wild. I was up at the crack of dawn in the teaming rain to catch the early morning feeding for the best chance of a sighting.

Well it appears my "kiss of death" approach to spotting wildlife continues as despite the guides hour long attempt to coax them out of the wild with some pretty impressive Tarzanesque mating calls we saw absolutely zip. I wondered whether it may be the rain but figured orang-utans are pretty hardy creatures and was then informed that with it being fruiting season they are able to source all thier own fodder so they rarely make an appearance for a slice of Watermelon. Although slightly disappointed I did feel gutted for the older couple I got chatting to next to me, apparently it was their fourth consecutive visit and still no-show - you think you'd get the hint....

Sarawak Cultural Village.

The village provides examples of traditional dwellings built by the different tribes of Sarawak in a sort of living museum. The dwellings are inhabited by tribes people who demonstrate local arts & crafts, blowpipe shooting and musical performances. All in all it was very well done although obviously quite touristy. I think the secret is to get as involved as possible, I aced blowpipe shooting, sucked at basket weaving and put in a performance to be proud on the drums.

Longhouse - Sarawak Cultural Village

Fancy looking guitar

Viewpoint

Bako National Park.

Covering an area of 2,727 hectares and hugging the South China Sea on the tip of the Muara Tebas Peninsula Bako contains also every type of vegetation found in Borneo as well as an abundance of wildlife.

After registering at the park headquarters it was a rather choppy 30 minute crossing on a tiny four man boat expertly chartered by a very small, very smiley Malay guy who kept reassuring us we were Ok as we crashed through the massive waves. Shared the boat trip with a scouse guy Daz who was to become my trekking and drinking buddy for the next few days.

Mangroves

Jungle track

One of the main draw cards of Bako apart from the rainforests, jungle and pristine beaches are the Proboscis Monkey. Bako is home to 150 of this rare breed which are only found in Borneo. So you can appreciate my delight when we chanced across three or four feeding on the mangroves as we set off on our first trek. We also spotted Long-tailed macaques, silver leaf monkeys, monitor lizards a bearded pig just for good measure.

Proboscis Monkey

Day two involved a leisurely 8 hour trek through the park. There are 16 different colour coded trails running through the park which are easy to navigate so there is no need to take a guide along. That night we also did an hour long night hike (this time with a guide) who pointed out a whole manner of creepy crawlies some of which glowed in the dark which was pretty cool.

So that's Kuching and now it's time to make a move after a thoroughly enjoyable 10 days.

Next stop - Miri.

Borneo - Kuching remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Traditionally the Iban live in Longhouses - long wooden structures built on stilts where up to 25 individual families all live under one roof, each family has their own room which all lead onto one communal veranda. Tourist day visits to the Iban Longhouses are popular but I got chatting to the guy who ran the hostel I was staying at in Kuching who was able to arrange a 3 day homestay for me with a host family at the Lalang Longhouse on the Skrang River 230 kms outside Kuching. This promised to be a much less touristy experience and a real opportunity to gain an insight into Iban way of life.

Day One.

Early pick-up from hostel by Abba who will drive us as far as the Skrang river. There are five of us in total making the trip so I meet Des & Sue a lovely couple in their 60's from Northern Ireland and Sarah & Rachel two fellow backpackers from Wimbledon. The drive takes 4 hours but we stop off at the market en route to buy supplies and gifts for our host and the Longhouse Chief.

We meet Entili our host and guide for the next three days and all climb aboard his longboat. We are asked to take off our shoes and trousers and to put on lifejackets. As it is Borneo's rainy season the river is very high and we are told we can expect rapids along the way - exciting. Entili negotiates the rapids like a pro and we all arrive at the Longhouse safely. We later learn that a fortnight earlier another couple are not so lucky on a visit to another Longhouse along the Skrang, the boat gets over-turned and they drown.

I had seen pictures of other Longhouses but when we arrive at Lalang I am surprised at how make shift it is (can't think of a better way to describe it). It's made predominantly out of wood with a corrugated iron roof. We sit down with Entili and his wife to have tea and a chat about the next few days. Afterwards we are introduced to some of the other residents many of whom speak very little if any English but they are all very welcoming.

Lalang Longhouse

Longhouse interior

In the evening we have a welcome dinner with Entili and his wife in their room which is absolutely delicious, then Entili cracks open the Tuak (rice wine) this is drunk with all us sat in a circle. Entili hosts so he drinks first and then refills the glass and passes to the next person on the left, then he refills and the next person drinks. Each family produces their own rice wine but Entili has nailed it, compared to some other rice wines I have tasted in SE Asia it is very agreeable.

We are invited as guests of honour to meet the Chief of the Longhouse and give him his gifts. Then we are treated to a welcome dance by the Chief and other members of the house. I am the first to be invited up to dance with them and I don't know if it the rice wine but I am convinced I can dance like a warrior, it seems to go down well as other members of the house start clapping & cheering. After the dancing we spend the evening chatting to other members of the house. Just before bed they bring out big pots of Hot Chocolate and everyone (almost 100 people) all have a mug before we all retire - it was Hellacool!

Yer Man - The Longhouse Chief

Everybody gets involved in the celebrations

Group photo with the welcoming committee

Day Two.

We are sleeping under mozzie nets on the veranda and are up by 6am when other members of the house go out to hunt, fish and collect fruits. After breakfast we head off on a jungle trek with Entili it's a lovely day and Entili is constantly pointing out wildlife. We finish the trek at a clearing after wading through a waist high stream for about an hour. Entili and two other guys from the Longhouse build a BBQ and cook steamed rice, chicken, fish and jungle ferns all wrapped in Banana leaves it's seriously tasty food. We spend the afternoon back at the Longhouse and I help some of the guys lay some decking.

Entili manning the BBQ

After another dinner with Entili and his wife I am asked to play host for the Tuak drinking - the evening is spent chatting to the people of the Longhouse. It's really interesting to hear all about the history and observe their way of life, they are also equally as interested in us although our lifestyles couldn't be more different.

Basket making

Day Three.

After breakfast Entili suggests another trek, the others are too tired so it's just the two of us. He takes me up into the valley for some awesome views of the rice fields - annoyingly my camera battery dies. He tells he all about his two sons who are both studying in Sarawak but miss the Longhouse desperately I can appreciate why it is such a unique way of life but he also wants them to get a good education and learn English so they can have a life outside of the Longhouse if they wish. On our way back we collect fruits and nuts for Lunch.

We then take the boat back to meet Abba for the drive back to normality. The visit was such a worthwhile experience and I am chuffed to have had the opportunity to have spent some proper time with the Iban people and to have learnt about their heritage and lifestyle.

Borneo - Skrang River remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Pape'ete - where the frick are we?

Our first stop was Tahiti's capital Pape'ete where we were greeted in arrivals by what's commonly referred to as a culture shock - everyone is so bloody rude and unhelpful. We paid an absolute fortune for a taxi to our accommodation and paid a further fortune for two skanky bunks in a very skanky hostel in the middle of the red light district (got to count your blessing I suppose). The first impressions were not good.

The following morning we set off on an exploration exercise. I was expecting a lush tropical island but what we got was an over expensive, dirty port town. We had originally planned to stay in Pape'ete until New Year but decided to make a move the following day after we had sampled the night life - everyone is either horrifically drunk or proper crazy or both.

Mo'orea - the one we really liked.

We hopped on a ferry across to Mo'orea after 2 nights in hell - now this is more like it. We got ourselves settled with some nice accommodation (by French Polynesia standards) right on the lagoon. We spent alot of time chilling on the beach and saw some awesome sunsets, each evening just after the sun had gone in the reef sharks would come into feed which was a pretty thrilling sight. We met a really good crowd of people and enjoyed seeing in the New Year with our new friends. We ended up staying for just over a week, the sun was shining, we were having a good laugh and quite frankly we were abit scared to move on incase this was as good as it got!

New Years Eve with Jasper & Maria

On shark duty

One evening we treated ourselves to a night out at Tiki Village which is a replication on what a traditional Polynesian village would have looked liked. In addition to the food and dancing they take you on a tour of the village and explain all aspects of Polynesian heritage so it was pretty interesting. The show after the meal (which coincidently was cooked in a ground oven) was more of a theatrical performance and really rather good.

Earth Oven - Dinner is served

Tiki Village perfomance

Huahine - the unspoilt one.

One by one all our mates left Mo'orea so we decided to make a move to Huahine. Huahine isn't a major player on the tourist trail so it is pretty unspoiled. We checked into our accommodation to discover we would be sharing a dorm with Imke and Claudia two Dutch birds we had been hanging around with in Mo'orea (I think they hid thier disappointment well)

The weather wasn't great so we decided to hire a car the following day to explore the island. We visited a pearl farm, fed some wild eels, looked at ancient burial grounds and did some snorkeling. The evenings were spent drinking happy hour Hinano's with drunk fisherman trying to deifier what the hell they were rattling on about. We did incidentally learn some funky new handshakes as noone in French Polynesia does a conventional shake.

Bora Bora - the hideously expensive one.

A strict diet of 2 minute noodles and baguettes with Jambon & Fromage had been adopted from the outset of French Polynesia - we were too poor to eat anything else. When the girls suggested a trip to the Millionaires playground which is Bora Bora we didn't want to look like Pikey's so we tagged along.

Arriving in Bora Bora

The weather had taken a turn for the worse and it rained pretty much solidly for the 2 days we were in Bora Bora putting quite literally abit of a dampener on the proceedings. It's a nice place, the lagoon is beautiful (the Cook Islands were better) but it just isn't set up for the budget traveller unless you have an industrial strength credit card. It's full of load American tourists on cruise ship tours who dress horrifically.

We made a good friend in the guy who ran the place we were staying who doubled as our personal chauffeur. We went to go and watch some more dancing (there is pretty much nothingelse to do of an evening) and got chased by wild dogs alot.

The Band

The Groupies

Ra'iatea - the boring one.

Imke & Claudia headed back to Pape'ette from Bora Bora to catch a flight to LA so myself and Mark headed over to Ra'iatea. We stayed on a guys ranch in a converted barn which in principle was a pretty good idea apart from the weather was awful so we spent 48 hours playing cards and wishing the weather would give us a frickin' break! So we didn't really see much of Ra'iatea and we did brave the weather and chanced a stroll we got chased by wild dog again (is it my cologne..?)

Pape'ette (again)

Back in Pae'ette waiting for our flights to escape. Had abit of a tip off the Dutch girls as to where to stay which was much better. Also, and I am not at all proud of this as I am an honest law abiding citizen most of the time but we did sneak into the Intercontinental Resort and spent the day chilling at their pool and wondering why the hell American people always have to talk so loud and dress like they are stuck in the 80's.

So we survived but only just, luckily I had been having french lessons off Adeline on the sly back in the Seymour days which came in handy although I never did learn the french for "Get your fucking crazy, rabid dog off my chuffin' leg will ya mate" - you can't win 'em all.

My advice if your looking for tropical paradise, give Polynesia a miss and stick to The Cooks.

Next stop - Malaysian Borneo.

French Polynesia remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Rarotonga.

Our first stop was Rarotonga the largest of the Cook Islands. We spent our first five days here kicking back and well & truly embracing the island way of life. The first thing which struck me about the Cooks was how amazingly friendly they are. I appreciate I have said this alot on my travels but the Cook Islanders really are in a league of their own when it comes to random acts of kindness to complete strangers. We had only been there for a day when a local lad saved my life advising me against sitting under a coconut tree which was about to drop a coconut on my head. I mean the average youth in England would gather his mates and watch in great anticipation with his mobile poised to record the unfortunate event and then put it on the net for all to enjoy.

We hired bikes for a few days to get around much to the amusement of the locals who all have really cool mopeds. We did dedicate one afternoon to cycling around the island, the coastal road is only 32 kms but it took us all afternoon because everyone stops to have a chat with you 'I am very happy you have come to visit my island - have a wonderful time' how cool is that? I have promised myself that I will do the same to each and every Japanese tourist I have to barge through on Oxford St when I get back home.

The Cook Islanders also enjoy a good drink and a boogie so we spent a few evenings down The Banana Court - Rarotonga's premiere nightspot mixing it up with the locals. We were staying a few Kms out of town but if people see you heading in the same direction they pull over and offer you a lift home in the back of their pick up.

Aitutaki.

Aitutaki International Airport

The super helpful lady who ran our hostel in Rarotonga told us of a flight and accommodation deal to the close by Island of Aitutaki. Aitutaki is the island where they film Survivor Cook Islands and also Shipwrecked if you have ever seen either of those. It is a tiny island set in a lagoon and the offer was just too good to pass up on. After a 45 min flight on the smallest plane I have ever seen we arrived. If it possible, the people of Aitutaki were even more friendly than Rarotonga. Absolutely everyone you pass gives you a wave or stops to say Hi. It felt like being a celebrity at first but with it being such a small island I suppose everyone knows each other. You could be having a beer that evening and someone will come over to you and be like 'remember me, I was the sixteenth person to say Hi to you today - how's it going Bruv?'

One of my highlights of Aitutaki was definitely a lagoon cruise we took. The lagoon is absolutely stunning, crystal clear water and pure white sand. We went snorkeling, visited the Survivor Island and also a tiny island called One Foot Island which has the smallest operating Post Office in the world. You can also get your passport stamped there which we did.

Another hectic Monday Morning

We also went to an Island Night at The Blue Nun. At Island Nights you have a massive traditional Cook Islands feast and then the local dance group put on a performance of traditional dancing. All the blokes do this well cool Haka style dance which involves alot of knocking your knees together really quickly (we both got pretty good at it in the end) the ladies do alot of booty shaking which makes Beyonce look like a pure amateur!

So as you can probably gather we had a great time in The Cooks and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's after some pure island style relaxation.

The End

I will upload some photo's when I have got a faster connection.

Happy New Year!

Our next stop - French Polynesia

Blockbusters Rarotonga Branch

Aitutaki from the plane

Sunset in Aitutaki

A chilled one down The Banana Court

The Cook Islands remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We spent our first day wandering around. Rotorua is the spiritual home of Maori so there is plenty of opportunity to learn more about the Maori culture but it was the geothermal activity which we got really into. As we strolled through the park there are these massive pools of natural hot bubbling mud - now you don't see that alot at home. We spent the evening at the Polynesian Spa where they have numerous natural springs varying in temperature from 37 degrees to a whopping 43 degrees - pretty hot stuff.

The next day we went on a trip to Wai-O-Tapu a thermal wonderland. Our first stop was at the Lady Knox Geyser which erupts everyday at 10.15am prompt. Initially I was mighty impressed that the Geyser operated like clockwork until we arrived and discovered that they put some soap into the Geyser which generates a reaction which causes it to erupt. Non the less 600 tourists a day turn up to see it in action. It looked just like a water fountain once it was going but it was good to see and hear the build up.

Lady Knox Geyser

After the Geyser we headed into the Wai-O-Tapu park where there is a collection of some 25 natural wonders. My personal favorites where the Devil's Bath - a massive crater filled with florescent yellow / green water a result of excess water mixed with Sulphur and ferrous salts and also the Champagne Pools a spring measuring 65m in diameter and 62m deep. The surface temperature is 74 degrees (you don't want to accidentally fall into this one) the bubbles are caused by carbon dioxide and it has all these mad colours caused by various minerals such as mercury, sulphur, arsenic and thallium.

The Champagne Pools

Geothermal activity at it's best

After being dazzled by Wai-O-Tapu the following day we decided to go Zorbing. The Zorb is a massive inflatable sphere which you climb inside. It is then filled with water, sealed and you are rolled down a steep hill. Sounds silly? It's exactly that but we had so much fun we did it twice. At first you are told to stand up and run the down the hill but its not long before you are sliding all over the place and plop out at the end a soaking, giggling mess.

We're off

Thumbs up to Zorbing

Got to do that again!

Auckland.

We headed up to Auckland as our last stop in New Zealand. We'd heard alot of bad press about Auckland, mainly people saying it wasn't that good a city. I don't mind it too much, I mean it isn't as good as Wellington and it doesn't blow your sox off but we have spent the last 4 days here quite easily. We made a visit to the Sky Tower regarded as Auckland's premiere tourist attraction and it is bloody high, infact 328m high making it the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere. We went all the way up to the top and were blessed with a clear day so the views were pretty spectacular.

Sky Tower views

Auckland from Waiheke Island ferry

We also made a trip over to Waiheke Island a 35 minute ferry ride from central Auckland. It offers a good mix of white-sand beaches, green farmland and top wineries. It was a welcome change to the "bright lights" of Auckland City. We had some crackling weather so we got some decent walking done and spent the rest of our time chilling out.

So that's New Zealand.

Our Next stop - Raratonga.

New Zealand - Rotorua & Auckland remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The bungy site is set in the volcanic Waikato River Valley and is regarded as one of the world's most spectacular bungy sites - it really was stunning. Ofcourse when you arrive it always looks higher than you think (it's 47 metres) but I liked the idea of it being over water and getting dunked.

It was pretty quiet so we got weighed, signed our lives away and went to get shackled up. We opted for a tandem bungy was a way of celebrating our 7th month of travelling without killing one another. We hobbled to the edge, nervously smiled for the camera, then 3-2-1-BUNGY off we popped. Although it wasn't as high as the Canyon Swing I did in Queenstown I would say it was scarier as your hurtling down head first. We hit the water and bounced around a few times before being collected by the little boat. It was definitely a thrill and we both had that adrenalin rush afterwards when you've done something abit scary.

The bungy site

We went back to see the photo's and watch the DVD. We ended up buying the DVD as it is pure comedy - we are so thick about everything. First we can't locate the camera for the photo and one of the guys has to grab Mark's head and physically turn it to face the camera. Then there is quite alot of swearing as we make the jump. Finally, the guy on the boat hold out a long stick for you to grab hold of as you are lowered into the boat. Mark grabs it and he pulls us in then guy says "Ok you can let go now" Mark still holds on "Ok mate - I've got you, you can let the stick go" Mark's still not letting go. In the end he has to pries his fingers off the bloody stick one by one.

Taupo - The Skydive

We are relieved to wake up the following morning to a perfect blue sky and no wind. There is always a risk the jump will be cancelled if the weather isn't good. We get picked up and its a short drive out to Taupo Airport. I'm feeling pretty good at this stage - no real nerves. We get weighed and paid up then there is about an hour of waiting around so we watch other people coming in to land - I'm getting excited now, everyone who lands says it's awesome. Our names are called so we go and get our jumpsuits on and harnessed up, we are jumping with two birds from Sheffield and a Japanese couple.

The plane

In our jumpsuits

I get introduced to JK my Jump Master who I'll be jumping with and we all climb aboard the smallest plane ever. It takes about 20 mins to reach 12,000 so I'm just looking out the window and I feel we are getting pretty high. JK taps me on the shoulder and I think he's going to say get ready we're almost there, but no he shows me his watch which revels we are only at 2,000 ft another 10,000 ft to go - you've got to be shitting me!

Exit shot - perhaps my goggles ate abit tight..?

The land below finally disappears, we're beyond the clouds and we eventually reach 12,000 ft. Time for final safety checks, the harness is so tight I can hardly breath. I'm the 5th out of 6 to jump but before I know it I am sat on the edge of a plane at 12,000 ft with my legs dangling over the edge. Smile for the camera, wait for the green light and then we're off. The feeling is absolutely amazing, at first you tumble through the air and as I look up I can see the bottom off the plane we've just come from. Then we steady horizontally and JK taps me on the shoulder to indicate that I can hold my arms out. We freefall from 12,000 ft to 5,000 ft in 45 seconds accelerating up to 200 kmp in 9.8 seconds. It's seriously the best rush ever, your just hurtling through clouds and trying to take in the scenery. It feels like you can see the whole world you are so high, you seriously think you are the frickin' Daddy!

At 5,000 ft JK opens the parachute and we start to float, he keeps pulling the cords so we spiral and traverse from left to right. The views are amazing and it is so peaceful. The last 5,000 ft lasts for about 8-10 mins but it all over far too quickly. Soon your back safely on land but you are on the biggest high ever. I would recommend it to anyone.

Our next stop - Rotorua.

New Zealand - Taupo remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We chanced upon Katie who we originally met at the Arts Factory in Byron whilst on the ferry so we arranged to meet her and some of her Kiwi Experience mates that evening for drinks. Wellington is the first place in New Zealand we've visited which resembles a proper city, lots of cool bars, cafes and restaurants. After a hearty Nando's we ploughed into the beers and proceeded to get a little bit very drunk - but I still have all my teeth so it wasn't quite my best effort.

The following day is a complete haze, we were both sporting world championship hangovers so we just kind of wandered around Wellington doing absolutely nothing. Thankfully, soon it was time for bed so we retired safe in the knowledge that we will be feeling human again when we resurfaced.

We faired better on our 2nd day in Wellington and threw ourselves head first into sightseeing. First up was the Te Papa museum which is without doubt the best museum ever (and I have seen more than my fair share in past 6 months so I recon that's fair comment) It is absolutely massive and has lots of wicked interactive exhibits - for example you can go into a mock-up of a house and they replicate what it feels like to experience a earthquake. There was also lots of information about Maori tradition which was really interesting. Next we took the cable car up the hill so we could get a panoramic shot of Welly.

Wellington Cable Car

We planned for another quite night as we had an early alarm call in the morning but deary me, we got completely seduced by the bright lights of Wellington's night life (again) and rocked in at 3.30am.

Napier

Our next stop was Napier a little Art Deco city a few hours north of Wellington. Napier was pretty much destroyed by fire following a massive earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) on Tuesday 3rd February 1931. The city was rebuilt in the style of that era and by the end of the decade Napier was the newest city on the globe - wow!

Radioactive Fountain

Art Deco Church

I really liked Napier although we only spent a few days wandering around as there isn't anything in particular to do - it was a good opportunity to dry out.

Our next stop - Taupo.

New Zealand - Wellington remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It wasn't all bad though, Kaikoura is also famous for it's whale watching so we were straight down the whale watching centre waiting to board our vessel with multiple like minded nature enthusiasts. Typical of New Zealand the tour was exceptionally well organised, our vessel was brand-spanking new and fully blinged out with all the very latest whale located gadgetry.

We cruised out for about 15 minutes as the guide set our expectations, on average 1 or 2 whales are spotted per trip, if we got a "no show" (highly likely given our track record) a 80% discount is given. No fear though, the GPS had already picked up our first candidate and it was a millions knots ahead before it disappeared under the surface again.

There she goes

The whales appear every 45 to 50 minutes to breath on the surface for roughly 10 mins before they dive down again. You only see 10% of the whale above the water but they are enormous measuring up to 60 feet long and weighing in at a colossal 40 tons - it was hard to believe we were so close. The guide got on the mic after a few minutes and advised us to get our camera's ready "She's going down" and then the whale took a massive dive and flung it's tail in the air for the money shot. We were lucky enough to see a further two whales so we finished our stint in Kaikoura mission accomplished.

Picton & Nelson.

We continued north to Picton to book our ferry to the South Island in a weeks time and spent two day's doing some walking around the Queen Charlotte track.

Picton scenery

Nelson was much the same although we thought it may be abit more lively. We took the opportunity to book some flights to Raratonga for Xmas and toyed with the idea of making a trip to Abel Tasman National Park only to discover it was a pricey affair - cue brainwave.

Renwick - Marlborough wine region.

We realised that we would pass through a tiny village called Renwick on our way back to Picton to catch our ferry and decided to spend two days doing the wineries. The Marlborough wine region is New Zealand's most important wine area famous for its Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

Our first stop in Renwick

The lovely lady at our hostel gave us a map of all the wineries in the region, furnished us with two bikes and sent us on our merry way. Our first stop - Cloudy Bay probably the most well known in the UK (well to an amateur like me) and incidentally my Mum's tipple of choice. The Holland clan have endured many a cloudy head after a bender on the Cloudy Bay. Well it wasn't long before we were swilling, smelling and slurping like proper wino's. We visited six wineries in total sampling Chardonnay's, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grit. To think we spent 8 weeks in Oz drinking goon by the gallon is criminal - we've come a long way!

So we had a great day getting drunk for free - it was a fitting end to a great month in the South Island.

Our next stop - Wellington.

New Zealand - Kaikoura remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We arrived in Fox, found ourselves a cosy little hostel for the next few nights and went to go and book our glacier hike for the following day. It turns out we were sharing a dorm room with two aussies (Sarah and Steve) who were also doing the glacier hike so we were all up early the next morning for hearty hikers breakfast and making our packed lunches. We headed over to the hike centre to get kitted out with boots, thick socks, hat, gloves, rain jacket and cramptons to attach to our boots when we reached the glacier - we looked like extra's from Touching the Void.

It was a short bus ride to the glacier where we were spilt into two groups of 12. After an initial hour long hike through the forest we were ready to get onto the glacier so we all stopped to get some extra layers on and most importantly attach our Cramptons. Our guide was a guy called Chris who was really knowledgeable so as we were walking to the glacier he enlightened us to all the geography behind the glacier and its movements.

Fox Glacier

We had decided to do the day long hike as we've done alot of walking on our travels and it meant we got to go higher onto the glacier for better views and ice quality. It felt pretty weird at first as you are literally just walking on ice but Chris had told us how to use the Cramptons effectively so we didn't slip all over the place. There were pre-cut steps for the majority of the path's we used in the morning up until lunch time.

Chris cutting our path

After lunch it got alot more exciting as Chris used his pick-axe to cut our path as we walked - we were proper off roading. The views were amazing and the ice alot better quality, it has a really nice light blue shine to it, a result of it being so tightly compact - I suppose that is where the term ice-blue comes from. Chris took us on a walk through some really narrow crevasses which was really cool (literally) they were really narrow and cold (obviously) but an excellent experience. There were also really deep natural crevasses which you had to be really careful to not slip down otherwise you could get trapped and die.

The hat isn't mine!

In the Crevass

We all made it back safe and sound and abit tired after a long day and celebrated with a few Speight's.

The TranzAlpine

The following morning we got the bus to Greymouth so we could ride the TranzAlpine to Christchurch. The TranzAlpine is regarded as one of the most scenic journey's in New Zealand crossing from the West coast to the East. We travelled through the fields of the Canterbury Plains, spectacular gorges and river valley's of the Waimakariri River and climbed the Southern Alps. It was a welcome change to the bus and well worth the $$$'s invested.

Christchurch
where's da Craic at?

The largest of the south islands cities, we hoped it would be hardcore party time in Christchurch. We've searched high and low but to no avail - no Craic was not to be had. We have whiled the past few days away with a combination of city tours, walks up more mountains and trips to the cinema. Today we ventured as far as Hanmer on a day trip to the thermal pools and spent hours sitting in 41 degree sulphur pools until we felt faint - now we just smell of rotten eggs.

Our next stop - Kaikoura.

New Zealand - Fox Glacier remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We were back in Queenstown for an overnighter en route to Fox Glacier and also to see if MBNA had managed to send my card through. There had been no delivery at the hostel so I gave them a call to discover that it had actually be sent to Queensland Australia and not Queenstown New Zealand - easy mistake I suppose..? So we're back to square one but after many apologies I was assured that my request would be handled with the upmost urgency.... we'll see.

So what to do, we had an afternoon in Queenstown to kill so I decided to satisfy the adrenalin junkie hiding deep inside in me with something thrilling. Bungy jump? Jetboating? Nah.. there was a new kid in town - The Canyon Swing.

I signed myself up for a 3pm jump and after a short bus ride out of Queenstown with 7 other equally nervous looking people we arrived at the world highest Canyon Swing. Standing at 109 meters it involves throwing yourself off a edge of a cliff into a Canyon in whichever style you feel most comfortable. There is a initial 60 meter freefall before the cables kick in and then you start a 200 meter swing over a canyon at speeds of 150 kph.

I was the third person to jump from our group and was feeling pretty good about it. The first person popped off the edge no problems but the guy before me just froze and stayed on the edge for ages before he eventually went. Then it was my turn, the guys who run it are really funny and have abit of banter with you as they do the final checks and get you cabled up. Then your lead to the very edge and given the Ok to jump. I had decided to go off forwards which I don't know whether was a good or bad strategy but I figured if I'm going to throw myself down a Canyon I may as well have a good view of it.

The trick is not to think about it so as soon as I got the Ok I just went for it and chucked myself off. It was all over pretty quickly but the feeling was amazing. It felt just like I had thrown myself off a cliff and was falling towards the ground pretty bloody fast. The different between a Canyon Swing and a Bungy is that you don't feel the mechanism kick in after the freefall so it isn't until you feel yourself swinging outwards in a giant arc as apposed to just falling straight down that you know it's done it's job.

The Canyon Swing

After I had finished swinging and was winched to safety I went to check out the photo's and DVD they take during your swing but was too alarmed at how much I was balding to part with $55 as a constant reminder.

All in all I was well chuffed I challenged myself and did it and I dare say I went to bed that night with abit of a satisfied grin on my face.

New Zealand - Canyon Swing remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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There is no denying that it really is spectacular and completely worthy of its reputation as we admired the views from the warmth and comfort of our little boat.

It is essentially a 22km long fiord which is dominated by sheer weather scuffed cliffs and peaks, the highest being an almighty 1,692 m high.

We stayed in close by Tu Anau for easy access to Milford. It was a hardcore walkers kind of place filled with the types who have all manner of equipment clanging off the back of their backpacks - I felt abit amateur in comparison.

I'll let the photo's do the talking.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound's highest waterfall

Milford's first Post Office

Our next stop - Fox Glacier

New Zealand - Milford Sound remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We headed initially down to the very south of the South Island - Invercargill from which we would drive the coastal road through The Catlins to our final destination of Dunedin. Driving in New Zealand is so easy, there is hardly any other traffic, all the roads have 100 km speed limits so its a case of pointing the nose in the right direction and sitting pretty. Ofcourse, no road trip is complete without a soundtrack and this is where we fell short. The car had the worst radio ever which just refused to pick up any signal despite our constant efforts but more about that later.

Invercargill

We arrived in Invercargill without any real expectations and that was a good thing as there is literally absolutely nothing to do at all. We checked into a nice hostel (about the only thing going for it) and headed to the tourist information centre with the expectation of being dazzled with a list of "must see's" - no such luck. The highlight of our afternoon was chancing upon a music shop on Invercargill High St where we raided the bargain bucket and walked out rather, worryingly with Destiny's Child - all 16 Hit Singles...? Accepting that Invercargill was dull by foot we drove down to the most southerly point of the South Island just because we could really which was Ok. I'm pretty sure Invercargill has an 8pm curfew that we weren't briefed about, as we ventured out that evening in the hope of a few beers and the place was deserted - just like that film 28 days later. We ended up in the local multiplex watching Jackass 2 followed by an early night.

Most southern point of the South Island

We checked out the following morning and armed with Beyonce and the girls headed for The Catlins coastal road en route to Dunedin. In a complete twist of irony it ended up taking us 45 mins to get out of Invercargill (and I wasn't even map reading)

The Catlins

We had a great day driving The Catlins and taking in the awesome scenery. There are about 8 or 9 suggested tourist spots to visit along the way including small secluded beaches popular with Sealions, numerous bays and ever popular rock formations. It was a pretty long day on the road and to honest we both got abit sick of listening to the same 16 Destiny Child tracks despite putting the CD on random hoping that the change of track order would help - it didn't.

Sealions at The Catlins

Dunedin

Dunedin, the South Islands second largest city after Christchurch brought hope of some action and didn't let us down - I really liked it.

It poured down the whole of our first day but fear not we had a chocolate and beer extravaganza planned. Dunedin is home to both Cadbury World and Speight's brewery which both run very agreeable tours to cater for the hungry and thirsty backpacker community - the promise of free chocolate & beer - where do we sign?

We kicked off with Cadbury World a proper Charlie and The Chocolate Factory experience. We saw huge vats of steaming chocolate, easter eggs being moulded and chocolate bars flying in all manner of directions on conveyor belts. Free chocolate was hanged out at regular intervals so we concluded the tour with our little plastic bags full to bursting.

Speight's Brewery was a similar affair (in the sense that it was also a tour) One of the largest independent breweries in New Zealand and "Pride of the South" We were shown round by a very charismatic fella who looked like he had enjoyed a few Speight's in his time for an hours long insight to the brewing process. This was all well and good but the real deal breaker of the Speight's tour is a visit to the tasting room - and boy were we thirsty after all that chocolate. To cut a long story short and with little surprise we both discovered that Speight's was pretty awesome stuff and our short teasing taster session was followed by an evening in the Speight's pub next door getting pretty familiar with the bottom of empty pint classes.

Getting stuck in at Speight's

Excellent news - Speight's doesn't give you a hangover so we were up bright as buttons the next morning for our Eco-Tour of the Peninsula. First stop - Royal Albatross which I was surprised to learn was a bird and not a pig liked animal... They look like really big sea gulls and to give you some perspective as to size they can be up to 1.8 meters from beak to the tip of their tail and have a wing span of over 3 meters - impressive stuff. We piled back in the bus and headed for a private nature reserve where we got up close and personal with wild sealions and seals on the beach. The sealions where all sleeping so they didn't provide too much action but the seals did plenty of things that made us all go Aahhhh. The highlight in my opinion though were the yellow eyed penguins. Just was the sun is going down they all come in from the sea to kip in the nests they have made on the banks of beach. They are very shy creatures but if you keep really still they can get pretty close as they wander past.

Yellow eyed Penguins

Seals

Our next stop - Milford Sound

New Zealand - Roadtrippin' remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We checked into our hostel which is run by a cat called Thomas. I kid you not it's called Thomas's Hostel and Thomas is a rather knackered looking old cat who wears a cravat and runs the hostel via telekinetic's. We headed out for a quick mosey, the hostel was right on the bank of a massive lake and surrounded by mountains it has a real Ski resort feel to it and it also feels abit like being in Scotland but we're at the other side of the world.... We returned to discover we were sharing a dorm with a young American girl (Andrea) who was like Uber "oh my god" "that's sooo totally awesome" American and an older Kiwi guy who was pissed (it was 6pm) So we all headed out for drinks, Andrea kept on getting shushed by fellow patrons as she had the loudest voice in the world ever and the Kiwi guy got more and more drunk. Then the Kiwi guy (we never knew his name) had a massive go at Andrea for being so American and then he passed out and we went to a Halloween party.

The following day we decided that climbing a mountain would be the perfect hangover cure so off we set after a hearty Subway lunch. The mountain was only an hours walk but it was hard going so we were relieved to reach the top and rest our feet. The views from the top were amazing I really am totally impressed with the scenery New Zealand has to offer - very Lord of the Rings. We discovered you could take a cable car to the very top of the mountain and then take these little Go-Cart style cars called Luge's down again. The Luge's were wicked, on your first run you had to do the scenic route down which was pretty good but after you have proved you are capable of steering a little car down a hill you could take the advanced route so we caned it down there a few more times proper boy racer stylie.

Worth a stroll up a hill for.

We climbed Queenstown Hill the following day which was pretty much the same set-up as the previous day. Alot of panting, glugging of water and a decent set Subway sweats later we reached the top, took even more photo's but no Luge's on the way down this time. I am waiting for MBNA to send me a new credit card which is why I we have been doing alot of walking (it's free) and not throwing ourselves off cliffs and canyons (MBNA need to finance that) so we decided to head over to nearby Wanaka for a few days whilst MBNA where dispatching my card.

I do own more than 1 T-Shirt..honestly!

Not sure what this is but thought it looked cool

Wanaka - (not to be confused with Wanka)

We stayed in a hostel recommended by our Irish mates from Melbourne - it was by far the best place we've stayed in on our travels. Our first day in Wanaka was spent at Puzzling World, Wanaka's premiere tourist attraction. Puzzling World is home of the worlds biggest maze which we spent about 90 mins trying to get out of and also has a series of trippy themed illusion rooms. The highlights where one room which felt like it was on a tilt but it wasn't so as you walked in you got all disorientated and nearly fell over. It was a really bizarre feeling and you could do strange things like play pool uphill. There was also a room which when you looked through the window it was totally normal but when you went inside one side was really small and you banged your head (ever Mark did) and the other side was massive. And there was this freaky wall of famous peoples faces which followed you as walked past. So we had alot of fun being totally puzzled by Puzzling World.

Hope this is covered by my travel insurance..

A little privacy - please!

Mark getting freaked out

We did another walk on our second day in Wanka - seriously though the scenery is so good that although it may sound boring just waking up and down hills all day it is actually really good - honestly! We got really lost on our way back and ended up in a tiny town called Albert Town (Pop: 13) but then we found Lake Wanaka again so we walked all the way round the lake which took about 4 hours to get back to our digs.

We went back to Queenstown to discover that my MBNA card still hadn't arrived so decided to do a road trip for a few days until it arrives.

Our next stop - Dunedin via Invercargill and The Catlins.

New Zealand - Queenstown remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Buskers at Central Station

Anywho, we arrived in Sydney feeling abit tired and got the ferry across to Manly to catch some rays on the beach. Apparently it hasn't gone unnoticed that I haven't got a very good tan - better put that right. We had a right rigmarole getting booked into a hostel but eventually got a bed and our dreams of catching abit of sleep shattered courtesy of a moody french bird banging her tunes out. So we hit the beach and spent the afternoon shivering (still no tan) and watching the surfers.

Opera House from the ferry

The following day we had to move hostels so we packed up our worldly belonging again and trotted across the road. We were issued keys to the dorm from hell - I swear to god I have never in all my life seen such a shit-tip not even after 3 months in SE Asia. It wasn't that the room itself was that bad it was the sheer state the people staying in there had got it. The whole room was like that well mingin' toilet from Trainspotting. I promptly had what can only be described as an emotional meltdown and refused to stay there so we went down to reception and the nice girl from the desk came to see what all the fuss was about. She nearly passed out from the stench and agreed to put us a different room with a lovely german couple so we were all happy again.

Manly is a pretty cool little surfing town and the hostel turned out to be a real good un'. It had a great communal area so we met loads of people and had some decent nights out one which resulted in Mark being asked to leave as he was "overly intoxicated" something he is immensely proud of. We played alot of Daytona USA (an old racing video game) I only mention this because I was totally awesome at it and kept on beating Mark who is good at everything.

Sunday morning in Sydney

Time to move back to the city for our last few days. We got totally soaked sitting at the front of the ferry. One of the guys working on the ferry did warn us and we were like "yeah whatever" cue a massive wave that soaked us. We spent our first day exploring Darling Harbour which happened to be hosting the International Australian Motor Show so we popped in and admired very shiny, expensive cars for the afternoon. There were also numerous cool hot-hatches there which we did alot of sitting in and I am now frantically trying to justify a purchase to myself.

My next purchase

In my dreams

Today we went to Bondi Beach just to say that we had been, twas Ok but neither of us were that impressed. There were some cool skateboarders doing crazing tricks, I tried to take some photo's but they didn't come out too well.

So the end of our Australian adventure beckons. After a ropey start (mainly due to the culture shock after Asia) it has really grown on me. We have visited some top-notch cities, seen some stunning scenery and discovered goon.

And then to New Zealand

Australia - Sydney (again) remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I liked Melbourne as city but it's pretty different to Sydney in that there are alot less sights to see. The main part of the city focuses around big shopping centers, trendy bars & expensive restaurants, not ideal when your travelling on a tight budget but we really enjoyed moseying around and looking at stuff we couldn't afford. After a good look round the city and went to the ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in Federation Square to watch some funky short films but the majority of our time was spent hanging out in St Kilda. We were staying in a hostel which was a converted old house so it had a really homely feel to it and we shared a dorm with some nice Irish folk so we spent alot of time hanging out with them.

Melbourne is of course home to Neighbours so we thought it would be a right laugh to go on a Neighbours tour.

Would you feel like a wally on this bus?

FACT: Producers came up with the name Erinsborough the factious town Neighbours is set from the acronym Neighbours itself.

We clambered aboard the tour bus to a blaring Neighbours theme tune and cruised out of Melbourne listening to pop songs by old Neighbours cast members - plenty of Kylie, Holly Valance & Jason Donavan etc. When we arrived at Ramsey St (although obviously it is called something else in reality) we were all pretty surprised how small it was, there are literally only 5 houses on the street all of them had people living in them permanently. The guide gave us a brief history of each house so a proper walk down memory lane with the likes of Mrs. Mangle, Doug Willis, Helen Daniels & Bouncer. Then we were free to take our photo's. After Ramsey St we drove to the school they use for Erinsborough High and also past the studio's where they do the majority of the filming. Unfortunately with it being a weekend we weren't able to go and have a look at the sets. It was a good trip out but the real treat came on the drive home when we had to decide which classic Neighbours episode we wanted to watch. The overwhelming majority opted for Scott and Charlene's wedding, it was so cheesy but there still wasn't a dry eye on the bus.

Ramsey St

Can't believe I'm on Ramsey St!

The Great Ocean Road

We also took a 2 day trip along the Great Ocean Road one of the worlds most scenic roads along the coastline of south-west Victoria. There are lots of sights to see along the way.
On our first day we visited the Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, London Bridge and then watch the sunset over the 12 Apostles. It was amazing to learn that these sights have been created by the erosion of coastline by a combination of ocean and weather over thousands of years. The sunset really was spectacular, we were really lucky that it had been a clear day. After the sun had gone down there are hundreds of these tiny penguins which come ashore to spend the night on the beach to re-waterproof themselves ready for the following day (there is probably a more technical term for this procedure but they basically have a waterproof oil on their skin which protects from the water and cold conditions. They have to renew this every evening so they do this on the beach) They are only 30cms high so they really are tiny and they like to travel in groups for protection against predators so as they start to come onto the beach they wait until there are 40 or 50 of them and they all leg it up the beach together.

Bay of Islands

Bay of Martyrs

The 12 Apostles at dusk

Sunset at The 12 Apostles

We stayed in a really tiny hostel in the really tiny town of Port Campbell for the night. We had a BBQ for tea and then a group of us ventured out to the local pub. It was a proper locals place so we met some interesting characters including a older guy called Wozza who took abit of a shine to us. He was a really nice guy who said he just loved talking to travellers so we had a good chat. When the pub shut he wanted us all to go back to his caravan to carry on drinking and look at his photo's (of tuna...?) - we've all seen Wolf Creek and the plot seemed all too familiar (strange local guy befriends group of travellers and invites them back to his caravan in what seems like a random act of kindness... a mass murdering session me thinks) We said our goodbyes to Wozza and hit the hay.

For our second day on the Great Ocean Road we went back to the 12 Apostles where myself and Mark decided to take a helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles. It is the only way you can see all 12 Apostles (well there are actually only 11 left - one crumbled down last year) on a line. It was the first time I'd been in a helicopter - it was a pretty cool experience. We got some wicked photo's and were especially impressed that we got to wear Top Gun style headsets so we could communicate with one another during the trip. In the afternoon we visited Bays Beach one of Australia's best surfing beaches and where they filmed Point Break and also the lighthouse where they used to film Round the Twist if you remember that (Have you ever, ever felt like this, when strange things happen are you going round the twist?)

We had one last night in Melbourne but to be honest we were so exhausted from all the excitement of the Great Ocean Road that we just chilled at the hostel with our Irish dorm buddies. The following day we had to be out of the hostel by 10am but our night bus back to Sydney wasn't until 7pm so we had alot of time to kill. We decided to hit the casino in town - why not try and double our travelling budget...! The casino was massive, it had loads of pokies (Aussie for slot machines) which were being propped up by elderly Japanese women who looked like they had been in residency for weeks. They also had poker tables. I managed to resist the $100 poker tables, a decision based largely on the fact that eventually after 5 months of travelling I have only just about mastered Rummy. I thought I may look abit of an amateur playing with the big guys. However, we had a good afternoon wandering round and watching other people win big and lose big - then it was time for the bus.

Our next stop - Sydney (again)

Australia - Melbourne remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Captain Cook Memorial - Lake Griffin

The cool thing about Canberra is that there is plenty of stuff to see and what's even better is that it is all funded by the government so its free. We ended up staying in a pretty awful hostel so we figured it was best to spend as little time as possible there. On your first day we went to the National Museum of Australia on the north side of Lake Griffin which detailed how the city was planned and built. It featured a pretty cool model of the whole city complete with commentary and flashing lights.

Next we hit the National Gallery where we had an hour long guided tour by an art expert. I have never been much of an art lover but this guide was awesome. She explained in a very "arty" fashion all about various paintings and what the artist was trying to convey. I just thought a painting was a painting but soon we were all openly discussing each brushstroke - scary. Things got even scarier when I got told off for touching this well old painting from the 1800, I mean it's not as if I was going to smudge it!

National Gallery - Art anyone?

We were on a cultural role (well there is nothing else to do in Canberra) so we headed over to Parliament House. After another brief tour we were able to go in and watch a session in progress. It was abit disappointing actually, i'd heard Australian politics can get pretty fizzy a times but there wasn't so much as a brief scuffle. Having said that it was actually pretty interesting to see how it all worked and building itself was seriously impressive.

We hired bikes on our second day as you have to walk for miles to get anywhere in Canberra, even by our standards it was abit much. We spent the morning at the National War Memorial resisting the urge for a 2 hour tour this time. Then we cycled over to check out the Prime Ministers gaff but you couldn't see anything apart from a big set of gates. We loitered for a while hoping this might provoke some action but no such luck. After a brief trip looking at all the different embassies we retreated, a little exhausted to the park to chill.

National War Memorial

I'm glad we checked out Canberra, I did learn a fair bit about Aussie politics, Aussie War, Aussie architecture and Aussie art - this travelling lark isn't all about chilling on beaches drinking goon you know!

Now get me to the pub...

Our next stop - Melbourne

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We covered quite alot of the main city until eventually we hit the two big ones, The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Although this is my second time in Sydney they are both just as impressive sights. To be honest I made abit of a tit of myself, as we arrived at the harbour Mark was like "Hey check out Harbour Bridge - that's pretty cool" and I was like "Nah - that's not Harbour Bridge, Harbour bridge is red" turns out I was confusing it with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - what a lemon!

Sydney Opera House

We took loads of photo's of the outside and then decided to take the tour inside the Opera House. The guide was really good and very knowledgeable so we learnt alot about it's controversial background - some of which I already knew from reading a Bill Bryson book. The architect was a young guy from Copenhagen called Jorn Utzon who's original drawings were rejected by the panel of judges due to the complexity of the design. However, there was one american judge on the panel who felt that Utzon's sails design would look well wicked and persuaded the rest of the panel to pursue it. The building began in 1957 but they were working purely from Utzon's drawings, arguably, it was beyond the capabilities of engineering at the time. It wasn't long before they were over budget and the New South Wales government refused any further funding, Utzon's resigned from the project. The building was eventually finished in 1973 and although Utzon did re-join the team and went on to design the majority of the interior he has never been to Sydney to see the finished building. Today the Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognised and photographed buildings in the world.

Main concert hall

We were lucky, there weren't any performances when we took the tour so we went into both the main concert rooms which really were really amazing but smaller than I imagined. The interior is very retro and has alot of exposed concrete, apparently Utzon was a fan of "Brutalism" initially it looks abit weird but I suppose it helps to make the building unique. All in all it was a really interesting tour. We did try and get tickets for that evenings performance of Pirates of Penzance but weren't really that surprised when informed that tickets typically sell out weeks in advance. We went back to our dorm and met Matt (from Texas) and Andrews (from Norway) so we headed out to drink some beer, they were really funny guys, we had a top night.

The following morning, despite feeling abit rough we headed back down to circular quay with Matt and Andrews to go Jet Boating. The concept is pretty straightforward, you pay $30 to be ragged around the harbour for 30 mins in a 850 horse power speed boat reaching speeds of 80km per hour. The boat does 270 degree spins and loads of other tricks to basically get you soaked. We held on tight, we nearly hurled, we certainly got soaked but it cured our hangovers so we were more than happy. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out more of Sydney.

Our plan was to move on to the beaches of Bondi and Manly but the weather took a turn for the worse and with it forecast to last a few days myself and Mark decided to make the 2 hour train to Katoomba to explore the Blue Mountains.

FACT: The blue haze that gives the mountains their name, is the result of the ultrafine oily mist given off by Eucalyptus. Seen from a distance the haze makes the mountains look blue.

Katoomba is a pretty small place in itself and we stayed in a really weird hostel run by a really weird guy but you can't knock Katoomba for its scenery. We headed to Echo Point in the Blue Mountains National Park as we were both pretty keen to see the Three Sisters. The views really were amazing, we spent the afternoon walking around the National Park and taking lots of photo's which all look the same.

The Three Sisters

After a few days in Katoomba we got the train back to Sydney but the weather so still abit ropey so we decided to continue our journey south and hit Sydney's beaches before we fly out at the end of the month.

Our next stop - Canberra

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Bryon was an unassuming little town until in 1963 surfers discovered "The pass" and over the following years it became a settling ground for artistically minded people. It's like visiting a little hippy / surfing commune - very chilled out.

We opted to stay at a hostel called The Arts Factory on a recommendation from some girls we met in Malaysia. Described as "an enchanted 5 acre subtropical haven" it has it's own bar, restaurant, pool with hot-tub, cinema and whole manner of daily activities including Didgeridoo Making and Yoga. We were allocated a 10 man dorm and soon discovered we were in party dorm. There were two Canadian couples, two American lads and two other lads from the UK, soon enough the goon was flowing and we were bonding great guns.

The following day we decided to go Dolphin Kayaking with Si and Russ the two English lads from our dorm. According to the guide we are guaranteed to be petting wild Dolphins in no time. We were slightly disappointed to discover the Dolphins were having a day off and Kayaking was actually pretty hard work. Mark was sat at the front providing "the power" and I was at the back steering. Little did we know that some Irish girls we had met the previous night were watching us from a whale watching point. Apparently we had the most comedic kayaking style as we battled against the surf, oars and kayak all over the place - they didn't half take the piss that night. We were compensated for our lack of dolphin action with a free return session - our confidence was dented, we never did make it back in a Kayak.

Giving the water a break, we made the lengthy walk to Cape Byron Lighthouse (named after George Gordon Lord Byron) located on Australia's most easterly point of mainland. We had more success with this venture and managed to spot a fair few humpback whales coming back from their annual migration. They move from the feeding grounds of the Antarctic during the summer to the high latitude equatorial regions during the winter for breeding and calfing and then back again. This means you invariably see a load of whales splashing around in the water as they pass Cape Byron.

Australia's most easterly point.

Cape Byron Lighthouse

Enough time spent on dry land we enrolled ourselves at surf school having been guaranteed to stand on our first lesson. It was such a good laugh and we were chuffed that we both managed to stand on our third and fourth wave. Admittedly, there is quite alot of work to do on the looking cool and being able to control the board front but we have plenty more surfing opportunities on the rest of our travels - I'll certainly be back in the water soon.

Surf School

And ten minutes later....

There was this crazy guy who worked at the hostel called Cockatoo Paul who was a kind of hippy guy who carried his pet cockatoo on his shoulder everywhere he went. He did daily bushtucker walk around the grounds of the hostel. He enlightened us as to which plants we could eat if we found ourselves stranded in the bush, which plants would make our tongues swell up so much we would die and how to throw a spear to kill animals - all useful stuff to know as we travel down the East coast on the Greyhound!

Our final day in Byron was spent on a day trip to the nearby village of Nimbin. We all boarded the retro style tour bus, met Dougie a real life hippy and our driver and hit the road. Dougie liked to crank the tunes so there was alot of Bob Marley and other cool tunes as we cruised into Nimbin. Periodically he would get on microphone and tell us about Byron's and Nimbin's battle to keep them unspoiled and unique. He was very anti large corporations such as McDonalds and KFC being allowed to infiltrate small tourist places like Byron purely by throwing their weight around. He was an active member of the local pressure groups. We though Dougie was well cool, he was a man on a mission.

Nimbin is like the village the 60's forgot, everyone there are hippies and "at peace" with just about everything. We had a few hours to wander round and enjoy the atmosphere. After Nimbin we went to one of Dougie's mates houses, an American hippy who built his own house set in 26 acres of forest which he planted himself - every last tree. We sat on his deck eating Macadamia nuts listening to his stories.

And so our time in Byron came to an end, we made some great friends, did lots of cool, it is worthy of its reputation.

After Byron we continued our journey south and stopped at two smaller towns en route.

Coffs Harbour

Originally called Korffs Harbour, this small shipping town settled in the 1860's. There wasn't a great deal to do in Coffs but I enjoyed the few days we spent there relaxing and playing cards - (ALOT) with our new friend a lad called Liam from Sheffield. We took a trip to the nearby Muttonbird Island which is occupied by some 12,000 pairs of Muttonbirds from late August to early April. It was also another excellent land point to do some more whale watching.

We did another of our walking tours, the town is pretty spread out so we clocked a fair few K's checking out the Botanical Gardens and exploring the Marina. Mark did some more diving and I took a trip to go and see the Big Banana, banana growing is big business for Coffs there are trees everywhere. I went round the banana plantation museum and treated myself to an excellent banana smoothie for the walk home.

Port Macquarie

Really liked Port Macquarie, again its a fairly small town but abit more compact than Coffs. On our first day we did a monumental walk, we left the hostel at 11am and didn't get back until 6pm. We basically walked the whole of the town but the walk included all six of Ports beaches and we saw some brilliant scenery and a dead snake and some naked sunbathers.

On our way back we chanced across the Sea Acres Rainforest Centre. We were taken for an hours tour through the rainforest by a very knowledgeable man called Roy. Roy knew his subject well and told us all about how each tree, plant and animal within the rainforest has a very important and specific role within the ecosystem.

We were staying in a really cool hostel which was the oldest building in Port and a heritage listed building. It was like staying in someone's home. We met a really cool crowd of people and we all spent the evenings having a few chilled beers on the veranda.

On our last day in Port Macquarie we went on a really good boat tour. On the way back the captain announced that they were going to lower the "Boom Net" if anyone wanted a go. We had no idea what meant so we went to the back of the boat to check it out. The Boom Net is a massive net (obviously) on a frame which they lower into the water an then you can sit in it and be dragged through the water behind the boat. This seemed like fun and they had no takers so we dived in. I didn't have my swimmers on so I had to go in wearing my trolleys. Everyone else on the boat came to watch so it was abit embarrassing when I got out of the cold water in my clingy undies.

Our next stop - Sydney

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The following morning, on the recommendation of Paul and Maz we went to visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Its primarily a Koala Sanctuary but it also had all number of Australian themed animals including Kangaroos's, Cassowary's and various snakes and spiders. There was a massive Kangaroo enclosure you can go into and feed the Kangaroo's, it was very amusing watching a load of Japanese tourists chasing Roo's around the enclosure with massive camera's trying to capture the elusive action shot.

The highlight was obviously the Koala Bears and at the risk of sounding like a proper soft-lad they were undenyably cute! Apparently they sleep for 20 hours a day as their diet is made up solely of eucalyptus leaves which has very little calorie content so they have no energy to do anything else. When they aren't asleep they just chill out in the tree's. For a measly $15 you could have a picture taken with one so I coughed up and had my photo taken with Bertha.

Me & Betha

[u]Could this Koala be more chilled out?

After the other guys had gone home myself and Mark stayed in Brisbane for another 3 or 4 days just exploring the city and relaxing. We satisfied our cultural appetites by visiting the Queensland Museum, the Botanical Gardens and did the walking city tour recommended by Lonely Planet. We also met up for drinks with some of the people we had met on our Whitsunday's trip. On our final day we went to the Mt Coot-Tha lookout which promised to deliver a breathtaking panorama of Brisbane city. Unfortunately, just as we reached the top it started to piss it down so we sought shelter in the Thomas Brisbane Planetarium - I am now an absolute expert on the solar system.

All in all I really enjoyed Brisbane it's a pretty chilled out city (and Australia's 3rd largest Fact Fans) you can easily spend a fair number of days exploring, I'd recommend it.

Surfer's Paradise

Really didn't rate Surfers at all. We were going to pass through anyway so we figured we might as well stop off for a few days - we managed 24hrs. It's just one of those places which is full of massive high-rise hotels, tacky souvenir shops and hideously expensive bars. No one there seems to own any clothes either.

We did stay in a pretty good hostel and shared a dorm room with two nice lads from Bournemouth so we decided to go along to the hostel organised drinks night. We tried our best to have a good night but when everywhere you go is the sort of place where they are looking for volunteers to get naked for a round of appaulse I suddenly went all shy. We decided to leave the following morning.

Our next stop - Byron Bay

Australia - Brisbane & Surfer's Paradise remains copyright of the author greggers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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