World's Highest Canyon Swing

I survived!!!! And it was amazing! That amazing I did it twice! First jumping with Jenny and the second time on my own down a slide. The scariest thing I've ever done! I'd definitely do it again!

Queenstown

We arrived in Queenstown and were exhausted from travelling and not sleeping at the airport. We explored the town and had breakfast in a nice cafe and sat by the fire. Our hostel is called Adventure Queenstown and is really central and very friendly and clean. It's quite small here and reminds me of a ski resort. We were talking to a guy from Auckland on the plane and he said the population of NZ was 4 million- the same population of Sydney. The weather keeps changing here; if it rains in the morning it's usually sunny in the afternoon.

We went out on the first night with people from the hostel. Everyone we've talked to said it was the best night out in NZ, which it definitely was! To cure the hangover we hiked two/three hours in the afternoon up 900m Queenstown Hill. The view was amazing over Lake Wakatipu from the very top.

We're about to go and get a Fergburger. Apparently there's a twenty minute queue, so I assume it'll be worth it! We've booked onto the world's highest canyon swing this afternoon at 4.30pm. I'm really nervous, but feel like I should do it while I'm here. It's a 60m drop and a 200m swing at 150km/hr. Apparently it's worse than a sky dive, I'm yet to find out!

We pick up our campervan tomorrow so I won't be getting much wifi from now on. I'll try and blog when I can.

Getting organised in Sydney

We spent a good part of Wednesday booking our 'jucy' campervan, flights and accomodation for New Zealand. We were originally going to pick up our campervan from Auckland, but after much deliberation we've decided to fly from Auckland to Queenstown and pick it up from there, making our way from South to North Island. We'll be camping out in the airport for 7/8 hours after arriving in Auckland being proper travellers and all!

Yesterday we walked around George Street and the expensive Pitt Street and went into the Queen Victoria Building, described as the world's most beautiful shopping centre, which you could say it was, with a lovely glass and architectural design. We found Jenny a pair of jeans which she wanted for NZ and headed back to the hostel.

Today we hopped on the free bus 555 running up and down George and Pitt street and went to The Rocks Discovery Museum, where we learned a bit about Australia's history. It's was quite interesting and gave up a quick summary of Sydney's history.

We're now at the airport and using the free wifi, about to board for Auckland and am looking forward to a comfortable night's sleep on the floor of Auckland Airport.... Hmmm... Wish me luck!

Sydney

The start of our stay in Sydney was quite eventful. We arrived at the airport and were lucky enough to grab a free bus to Central station as the trains weren't running. However, our luck changed when we arrived at the hostel in Glebe... out room was dirty, unsafe and the staff weren't around. We immediately knew that we'd made a bad choice by booking to stay there and asked for our money back. Seeing as we'd arrived so late, we plucked up the courage to stay the night, booked the 'Bounce' hostel located by Central station and left immediately in the morning. Bounce was great! Clean, safe, staff were friendly and although a little expensive, we were more than relieved to be staying there in a female dorm. I highly recommend it!

We made out way to Darling Harbour and grabbed some breakfast, sorted out our Sydney budget and made our way to Paddy's Market, full of stalls selling everything you'd ever need as well as food stalls selling fruit and veg. We picked up food for the next few days and headed to the supermarket near our hostel. We passed by a bookshop selling everything for half price and bought a lonely planet guide to New Zealand. Jenny and I can't stop reading it, we're really excited to travel there!

We headed to Bondi Beach by late afternoon. The beach was so clean and there were loads of people surfing. The sun goes down at about 5pm here, so after that we had a coffee looking out over the beach and headed back to the hostel to cook kangaroo burger. We kept saying how we needed to try it before we left Australia. I'd say it tastes better than beef!

Today we got on the Sydney Explorer Bus, which is a hop on hop off bus taking you all over the city for $35 (student price) which was great because of the running commentary. We hopped off at the Sydney Opera House. We were surprised by the amount of runners out on a Monday lunchtime, there were so many! After a picnic in the Botanic Gardens we walked along the Circular Quay and saw a few street performers, one juggling a chainsaw! We walked up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I'm still in awe of it, it just looks amazing from the harbour!

Back on the bus and down to Darling Harbour for some free wifi. Think we'll be reading more of the New Zealand guide tonight!

North of Cairns

There are a few things to do around Cairns; Sky Rail, visiting waterfalls in the Tableland, Kuranda Rail. We chose to travel north and visit the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation one day this week. We travelled to Port Douglas at first and had a little look around. It's really pretty and has a nice beach, but not much else going on, so it's quite a nice place if you're looking to relax. We the travelled to the Mossman Gorge which was beautiful. You can swim in the river there which seemed quite refreshing for those on our tour that braved it, but we decided to climb the massive boulders along the river instead. Next stop was a river cruise along the Daintree river. Our tour guide was awesome and he'd worked with crocodiles for 16 years so knew pretty much everything there is to know about them so we learnt a lot from him. There were 80 crocodiles along the river and he knew them all. We were lucky enough to see baby crocs and some really large ones. That was probably my favourite part of the day. We then stopped for an Aussie 'fish on the BBQ' lunch and then headed to Cape Tribulation, a deserted beach that was beautiful. It's apparently the furthest point you can go northwards in Australia on tarmac road. It was a pretty long day, the distance from Cairns to Cape Tribulation being about 2/3 hrs, but it's well worth a visit!

We visited the lagoon again on Thursday. It's cleaned every Wednesday, so we were hoping for a swim in the afternoon,  but when a drunk German lad sits beside you and your friends and doesn't stop chatting it's hard to get away!

We've been out a few times now in Cairns with people from the hostel. Gilligan's and Woolshed are the places to go in Cairns if you want to dance, drink and meet other travellers.

Yesterday we visited the Botanic Gardens. They're about a hour's walk away from the city centre, if that, and a nice place to cool off from the 30 degree heat. We walked all the way along the esplanade before arriving at the gardens. There were some massive bamboo shoots, about 3/4 storeys high, which were pretty cool and something I've never seen before.

Today we've gone to Palm Cove, the furthest place you can get to on a public bus from Cairns, costing $11 return. The beach is really nice and it's not busy at all. Great way to spend our last day in Cairns!

Off to Sydney tomorrow!

Great Barrier Reef

There are so many German travellers in Australia which I'm surprised at as I thought it would be full of British tourists. Apparently they love it here! The majority of the people in the hostel are from Germany, which is great for me as I can practise some of my German.

We went to the lagoon yesterday and lay on the grass. It's great there, it's just a great big outdoor swimming pool for everyone and anyone, looking out over the sea. It's a great idea. We watched a guy doing some yoga on the grass, who was absolutely amazing at it. I might take up yoga after watching him!

Today we went on a tour to the Great Barrier Reef with Compass Cruises. It was $159 for the day. We did an introductory dive, which I found quite scary in terms of the breathing equipment and also not being a massive fan of the sea and water, but it was really exciting going down and having a closer look at the corals and fish. That's something to tick off the bucket list! We also snorkelled, had lunch on the boat and lay in the sun on the journey back to the port. The heat makes you feel so exhausted so we'll be cooking and just going to sleep tonight!

Travelling begins in Cairns

It wasn't long ago when Jenny and I decided to book a three month trip round the world. I couldn't think of a better person to travel with, so I'm pleased it's worked so well. We're flying west to east and visiting six countries; Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, America, Peru and Bolivia.

After a two day trip involving three flights, we finally arrived yeaterday in Cairns, Australia. I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open. Unfortunately Jenny's bag didn't make it here due to the delay she had from Manchester to London, so didn't make the connecting flight. She thankfully did! We arrived at Globetrotters Hostel, showered, walked down to the lagoon in town and had something to eat. Then came back to sleep!

Today we went to Woolworths, the big supermarket and bought some food :) Jenny's bag's coming at 5pm so think we'll chill until then and figure out what there is to do in and around Cairns.

Hopefully we'll get over the jet lag after a good sleep tonight!