Robin and Melinda took us out for the afternoon and we went to coma house (i think), really nice house, first big house in the area. has really nice gardens that you can just wonder around, nice little private hidden areas as well as open areas! we then went for a drive around and saw some of the biggest wealthiest houses in melbourne, some were unbelievable! we stopped for a drink and then went home for a bbq! gav had his dinner on a serving plate, shouldnt have needed to eat for a week after that portion!! was delicous though, as were all of Robins meals, miss those too!

Guess where we are here!!! yep, Neighbours! we couldnt resist the tour being so close to it and all!!! we started the day by meeting libby! wasnt very star struck but kinda cool! then went to erinsburgh high, to greese monkeys then the street! was a lot smaller than i imagined but all i wanted was my pic outside jim robinsons house!! few juicy storylines, skys baby kerry gets cancer and stingray dies saving her life! was a cool tour but not really worth the money!!

after that we met adam sharman for lunch always random seeing people from home so far from home! was good to catch up, we went on the free tram around the city and saw the cow in the tree! art?! all good fun!

Here we are in tasmania!! we werent planning on coming here but we did it with the money we got for my lost bag! we spent one day in port arthur where all the prisoners got sent if the offended twice and the other day in and around hobart city and the whalf!

port arthur was lovely, so green and so nice for a prison! although im sure it wasnt much fun! they got lashes for everything! theres so much history i wont bore you with, but whilst there we went in and around the cells, the church boxes so they could only see the priest (kinda cool), on a cruise around the isle of the dead (burial island) and then through a load of places on the way home! was really nice few days but we need to go back and do tassie properly! ie, see the forest and mountains!

one last pic, another craj reunion! met up with russell who took us to torquay! surfing place in melbourne where they hold comps and stuff! really nice place, went surfing, we were both a little crap only managed to get a few times but hey it was great fun! we went to a webber bbq in the evening which was great - we will have to do that for my bday this year, auzzis certainly know how to bbq!!

right thats it for now! were off to africa in a few days so any more posts may have to wait til we back in england! love you all and miss you loads!! sara and gav xx keep us up with the goss!! hi to everyone and huge thanks to the crokers for having us and just being great!! xx

So whilst in Melbourne we went on a day trip to Philip Island to see the little penguins! the day was quite cool, we went to a winery, most horrible! then to an aminal sanctuary, the to woolomi beach (surf beach on philip island) which was nice, where else, oh to see some fur seals but they were too far away to see properly but weve seen loads anyway! then finally we went to see the penguins! you have to wait til dark then they all come out the sea and run up the beach to their homes! they were soo cute, i dont know how well these pics will come out but they really were adorable!

These pics are from a night out in williamstown! it was tims 23rd birthday (yes felt old) so we went out with him and kate and met up with a load of their friends! england won their first cricket game that night so not many auzzis were happy with us pommes! they are such bad loosers!! anyway, we had a great night drinking, dancing, cathcing up, the night just flew by! williamstown is a really nice place to go out as well, just outside the city with some really classy bars, awesom night!

heres me and kate on St Kilda beach, lovely beach, very wealthy area, in the background is the skyline of melbourne city, was a really good view! we all went out in kates soft top jeep, felt very cool bumming it down the highway! went for a strool along the beach, saw a wedding, and had a nice relaxing afternoon!

trying to think what else we did whilst in melbourne, we shopped a lot, went back to the market to get some ugg boots (40 quid!!), went around federation square and along the yarra river and through the gardens around the city! melbourne is literally surounded by gardens - just lovely!!!

HAYLEY!!! our second craj reunion!! we managed to spend a day with hayley who worked with us at camp and although we only spent 24 hours catching up we had a bloody good time doing it! hayley drove us round the local area of Dunedin to beaches and harbours around, its all so pretty! we thought we saw penguins in the sea but it turned out to be surfers! ooops!! we also drove up and down the steepest road in the world we werent sure if the car would make it for a bit! this pics are from the evening, we went to speights brewery for dinner (delicious) and unfortunately only water came out the outside tap but still it looks good!


after hayley left gav and i went to the cadburys factory and it was really qute good, we got so many freebies and bought a load to, they do so many flavours you cant get elsewhere and most of them are pretty good!! miss good chocolate!!






These last few pics are of us in melbourne! we had a fab time in melbourne, loved every min and want to go back there too! we stayed with family friends of mine ive known since i was a baby so it was great to catch up with them! so here we are with robin, melinda (mum and dad), kate and here boyfriend tim! they took us to the gaslamp night market and it was great! they had all different kinds of food - we tried emu, kangaroo and crocodile as you can see and they were all good! croc is great!! theres also a market going on and live bands, it was bloody good night!

Still in new zealand!! the first 2 pics are of us in milford sound, gav is with his roomies budgie smuggler (sure you can guess why gav nicked named him that) and giovanni, both cool guys! we were really lucky because we got a free upgrade on the boat we were on, had really good weather (for milford sound) and had a bloody good time! a few of us wen kayaking and nearly capsized when the wind got really strong making the waves strong, and then a few less of us (not including gav) went for a quick dip and when i say quick i mean jump and jump our asap!!! it was freezing! but refreshing! saw loads of waterfalls and some glaciers high up in the mountains was very picturesque!



From milford sound we went to a place called lake ohau which is just gorgeous, the lake was crystal clear blue, the mountains were gorgeous, god it was just stunning! my bed had the view of the 3rd picture, absolutely awesom! we only stayed there overnight but i would love to go back there to ski its just amazing! we went for a walk and avoided the sheep poo! all good fun!

our last day on tour we were going to hike on mt cook but it was too bad weather so instead we hiked to the top of mount john which was pretty tough in itself! heres gav and i at the top, cant actually remember what the town in called in the background but it was a nice view!

i think the reason everyone says new zealands like scotland is because of all the lakes and greenland, its sooooo gorgeous, i really want to go back and have another look!!!

hello! so after a hard days work horseriding and river boarding (tried to get some pics up but not working) we hit the city of Queenstown big time!! we started off (pics back to front) at an ice bar called minus 5! everything was made of ice, the chairs, the bar, the statues, the walls, even the glasses we drank out of! it was a really cool venue, getting dressed up in uggs and thick coats! you can only stay for half an hour but that was great fun! after that we went to a bar called the world bar, apparantly theres one in london, anyway they serve cocktails in teapots and give you shot glasses to drink out of! we had a lot of fun with these! gav and simon stuck to the beers, but me and lucy as you can see in the pics made the most of the cocktails! had an amazing evening! on the way home the sky was incredible i swear trillions of stars just looked so cool!





hay, dont know if anyone noticed but i straightened gavs hair this evening, it looked sooo much better, i was alone in that thought thou!

Hey from Queenstown! This is me standing opposite our hotel with lake wakitipo and the remarkables (mountains) behind - isn't that just beautiful! The mountain range is called the remarkables because the ridge follows the line from north to south exactly - it only happens on one other mountain range in the world! pretty remarkable hey!

so whilst in queenstown we went horseriding in a place called Glenochy and i just fell in love with the place. if i could live anywhere I would want to live there. just look at what i would be waking up to every day. i just couldnt get enough. the horse ride was brilliant too, we went through rivers, we cantered along beaches and through the plains (gav didn't but he had a great time too) the whole experience was just mindblowing. oh and incase any of the backgrounds look familiar its where they filmed lord of the rings! our guides told us about the filming, where it took place, one of the horses on our trek was riden in the film! weve riden through the film set of lord of the rings! feels very cool! god i want to live there!

After horseriding, we dashed in and out of the hotel changing into our cossies and went river boarding in the afternoon! there will be some more pics of us actually doing it soon but it was so much fun! basically, on the rapids you go white water rafting on, we were going down on a body board! how great does that sound! i did gulp a few mouth fulls of water (yes dad there was some left in the river) and gav did get a little scared at times - even he will admit that but we both really enjoyed it! been thrown around by a rapid and whirled around by a whirlpool, it was fantastic! the paddling was hard work and we all had cramp in our legs and feet but it was soooo cool! when we got back we went rock jumping, i only jumped from 5m which was pretty wimpy compared to the girls doing 25m but that was high enough for me! they also had a slide that you went down on your body boarding and went skimming across the river, and a tarzan style rope swing and they were all great fun! Queenstown is definitely the adventure capital and we definitely made the most of it! what an incredible and fun day! and the fun didn't stop there...!

so here we are in fox glacier!! this is the west side of new zealand, we kinda zigzagged around a bit! the weather wasnt brilliant but it didnt rain which was great in itself! the glacier is actually compacted snow as oppose to frozen water and if you look close up and you can kind of see that! we had to hike in the temperate rainforest for about an hour to get to a safe point on the glacier to hike. more snow falls that glacier melts so this glacier is getting bigger every year, and with the daily earth movements new crevasses open/crack everyday. when we got to the beginning of the hike we realised that people have to hack out steps for us to climb over the glacier everyday - ie the earths movments make the previous steps unsafe! mad!


the closer to the glacier we got the colder it got - i bought a possum fur hat/scalf - and before any animal protesters get me i did check and yes its real but possums are a huge problem in new zealand killing wildlife and rainforest so really im helping to preserve the beautiful new zealand by buying it! and thank god, it kept me so nice and snug! it was such an amazing place to visit the surroundings were so picturesque, the rainforest and mountains all around, the glacier going up behind us to higher points and the river flowing from the melted glacier at the front. its one of only 2 glaciers in the world which has a temperate rainforest meeting the glacier - normally the temperate rainforest causes the glacier to melt at much faster rates consequently disappearing, but not here because the cold weather from the one side meets the warm weather from australia making a perfect snow temperature and increasing the size of the glacier. well something like that! the hike was a lot of fun, we did have a few girlie girls who didn't overly enjoy it but we thought it was great! the last pic is pretty much everyone on our tour, dont we all look happy! cool huh!

oh my god!!!!!!!! how scared do i look?!!!!!

yes i did a skydive!!!!!

it was incredible, i would love to do it again!!




i was really excited all morning, watching other people float down before my turn, going up in the plane - until about 11000ft! i casually asked what height the parachute opened expecting around 8-9000ft, nope, 5000ft! we were free falling 8000ft in 55 seconds!! that kinds freeked me out a little! so we get to 13000ft, the door opens, and i really begin to panick. my friend diane moves towards the door, in seconds shes gone! then i get a bit more scared, i hold onto the sides of the plane, and i scream that i dont want to do it (even though i still did i was just freeking out) until im hanging out the door looking down at what looks like a million miles away. at this point im really panicking as you can see - i kinda think i look more like lucy than me too!!anyway, the camera mans taking all the pics, my tandem man thomas is yanking my head back and then were off!! and suddenly all panick thoughts were gone and oh my god this is amazing is all i can think!! it didnt really feel like i was falling because the ground doesnt seem to get closer! another girl off the tour told me not to make my video boring so i do end up doing a lot of movements which is funny to watch - i cant wait to show you guys! we went spinning, we went through a cloud (which felt kinda warm!) and came to a sliding stop as you can see! when the parachute was pulled i was in the middle of swimming in the air, had no idea it was about to happen and it was only then i thought, yes im not going to die - id forgotten about that during the freefall! the parachute bit was cool, looking all over abel tasman national park and the coast, it was such a nice day too - big shocker for new zealand! the whole thing was incredible, such a great feeling, incredible views, i would love to do it again but not for the money! anyone out there whos thinking about it - just do it, its fabulous!!

just a little bit more about wellington and nelson!! we only had an afternoon in wellington, its an alright city, very windy!! gav and i saw 2 maori guys fighting in the street, bottles flying, fists flying, loads of other maoris trying to pull them apart! bit scary really. then 4 white policemen came along, not sure how much they would do, they are so small compared to maoris!! went to a museum and went to the volcano section, they had a simulator to make you feel like you were in an earthquake which was quite cool! the night out was superb! almost everyone from the tour went out and got completely hammered on the $3 drinks all night! everyone was dancing a pratting around! we ended up staying in the same bar all night because it was so cheap and so good!!

gavs gone out so he cant tell you about his quad biking, i know he had a lot of fun, he went around the abel tasman national park which is really beautiful, i know they went near cliff edges but thats about it! anyway time for more pics of me!!

here are a few pics of us in wellington out on a very good night out! and a view from a hill just by the harbour! then we went across to the south island to nelson, abel tasman national park - beautiful, gav went quad biking and had a lot of fun! i did something else, lots of pics of that to come!! in a big rush gotta go!! xx

hey! stil in rotorua! i tell you one great thing about being on tour - no dorm rooms, ensuite bathrooms and hot tubs!! our first 2 nights we spent going from tub to tub meeting the people on tour drinking nice cold beverages....! bliss when i think back to it! the girl with me and gav is diane, a canadian girl and a girl i spent a lot of time with, got on really well and plan to see again in canada one day! she helped me do my sky dive too, there was her all calm me not quite so but ill save that tale for another day! so anyway here we are enjoying the new zealand lifestyle!




this is gav and i in the maori village, these guys gave us a bit of a show including the famous haka, which was fantastic to watch! we just couldnt resist getting a pic with them afterwards! how touristy are we!!!



our next stop was the beautiful lake taupo, we didnt have the best weather here but we had a lot of fun as the pics suggest! one of the bars we went into you had to drink a shot while doing the limbo to get in! so heres me, didnt spill a drop, alright yes i have a big mouth!! had a really good night out, first time out with everyone, and discovered someone on the bus had ghds so i was in paradise!! cnat remember much about the night apart from having a bloody good time!




this is another one of the hot springs we went in, its just so strange going in these hot springs and it being so hot! some parts are literally boiling and you just cant stay there! so lovely to relax in and it doesnt smell in lake taupo either! we also visited a mini niagara falls waterfall in lake taupo the name escapes me but they were cool! only there an afternoon and night but had a bloody good time!!!


thats all for now folks, in melbourne and i think my long lost english friends are taking us to the beach! love you and leaving you! s and gx

New Zealand!!

So here we are in Auckland!! capital of new zealand, the main thing we noticed was how empty the streets were - cars and people! nz only has a population of 4m people - and is twice the size of the uk! auckland is know as the city of sails and we saw loads of evidence of that with boats everywhere! we arrived in auckland to a cool 22 degrees which felt cold compared to the high 30s of sydney - however in our dorm were 2 canadians who had just come from -30 so i guess maybe it was warm! auckland was where we joined our tour and our first stop was the auckland sky tower - one of the many high rise buildings you get a view over the city so heres gav and i with auckland in the background! this was the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and whilst up their i also used the highest toilet!! hehe!



we weren't in auckland that long before we headed to Rotorua, really nice place but it has plenty of evidence of new zealand literally being in a ring of fire of volcanoes - the earths crust is only 18km from the core compared to the average 1800km!! so you can imagine the heat coming to the surface creating the natural hot springs leading to warm rivers and boing mud pools. this may all sound very nice but the sulphur ferments on its way to the surface and creates a very bad eggy smell and because its smokey it makes it even harder to breathe! just when you think you're used to it the wind blows the smoke your way and nope you're definitely not used to it!! the first pic is of us up a volcanoe - live but not about to erupt - and what an amazing view it gave all over rotorua. in the background you can see the hundreds of small and large volcanoe hills created over time - these are always moving, i think around 1cm a year!







while we were at the biggest mud boiling lake in new zealand our maori guide collected some mud for us - this stuff costs a fortune in the shops - at first we were a bit unsure not wanting to smell like the sulphur but we were soon slapping in all over us and rinsing off in the hot spring/lake - who needs a sanctuary when you can have it o-natural for free!



the tour we went on was really good, we visited a maori villiage and they told us the history of their people coming to new zealand and finding the lakes and the hot springs, feeling very lucky to have so much hot water readily available. they also told us of how agressive they were when europeans came over which is probably why they have regained their land whereas aborigines and indian americans are stil fighting for much of theirs. the second day we went to visit a second village which was great because we got to compare 2 villages that were so close together, had similar beliefs but were totally different. in the second village they are brought up to respect the body and have open baths - they reckon they are the only place in the world where a wife could bath with her neighbours husband and neither respective partner would mind - yeah i reckon too! (nobody has a in-house bath they are all communal!) whilst there we also had haki which is maori food steamed from the hot air coming through the earths crust - the veggies and puddings were great but i wasn't so keen on the meat, not sure i'd recommend steamed beef but hey you gotta try everything once!