The end of the New and the begginning of Australia

It really has been a long time hasn't it.
Last time I left you i was in Rotorua, in the Northern part of the North Island of New Zealand. Rotorua was really great, i spent a good few days up there, camping and getting wet and seeing lots of cool volcanoes. I travelled with a rather cool swiss lady called Patricia (pictured with tongue out, Maori style) and together we experienced a rather cool Maori evening (including dances and eating (thanks for recomendation ryan)) and stangely it was there that i bumped into Hamish from the Kensington Arms, as in the pub i drink at and he works at.
Hamish kindly dropped me in Taupo the next day (after listening to some trashy music in a pub the night before and waking up with a rather painful head) and from from Taupo I got a lift from a rather Hunky fireman down to a quiet place called Turangi. Patricia was at this time following me (or maybe i copied her) and she stayed in the same place. That night we ended up at the local pub playing pool, and i actually won!
The next day was amazing! We trekked across the Tongariro crossing (MT Doom from Lord of the rings) and saw amazing emerald lakes, huge volcanic cliffs and at the top took our shoes off on the thermally heated floor. It was bliss.
Once again my travels took me back to Kowhai house and the Volunteers in Wellington. That night i ended up staying up all night watching Lord of the Rings among other things, it was really great. Unfortunately that meant that the rest of the next day was spent on the sofa at the House watching trashy films and eating vegemite on toast. Later on however me and Lauren had a 'girly night in' and ate some yummy stir fry and watched 'Happy Feet' which was super fun.
The next day was beautiful and i dragged myself from the Volunteer house and after a number of public transports found myself North about 50kms in Kaitoke Regional Park. I walked along the hilltops with my massive bag (falling over often). It was incredible, clear skies means i had views down the valley for miles- i saw literally nobody all day and it felt amazingly peaceful. Eventually i reached the deserted campsite by a river and set up my tent. The night passed and included both a frozen tent and frozen snot at the end of my nose- but i survived- just about. In the morning I packed up my stuff and got a lift back to Wellington with a man called 'Jedi'. He had copious amounts of beer and other things in his car which was pretty amusing and he even offered me to sleep at his house- he lived on the streets.
For the last and final time ever i stayed at the Volunteer house (which was sad cos i LOVED it their) and drank lots of their tea and stayed up late again- it was fun though.
Next morning me and Katie (ginger texan from the Volunteer house) went about exploring New Zealand together. We caught ourselves a train (with an annoying commentary by a man who looked like Jummy Neutron) up to a place called Ohakune. Although it turned out to be a deserted ski town, we had our fun. We were staying in a pretty cool hostel and we did lots of Walking in Tongariro National park. Everything about it was beautiful. We also found a cool cafe (where the locals were very interested in our knitting) and we ate lots of hummous as well. After a couple of nights their we sadly parted.
I really really really loved New Zealand.

After a rather long and arduous bus journey to Auckland i arrived in the early morning and rang mum which was lovely. I then grabbed a delicious brekkie from a cafe and headed to the airport where i hung around for what seemed like hours. After a 3 hours jaunt in the air I was in Sydney and it was WARM and their was SUN. Amazing. I scurried along to the hostel i had booked, complete with smell of chinese food in the room and pretty much went to bed.
5am the next morning and i was on my way back to the airport to meet Alice. After a bit of a nervous wait out she came, tanned and all, and we headed back into the big city.
I really liked Sydney, it's incredibly multicultural and clean and set on a rather famous and beautiful harbour. Our time in Sydney was almost straight out of the guide book but so much fun. We saw the bridge and the opera house and walked around the amazing botanical gardens and got drunk at a place full of English people playing the same music that we listen to back home! We ventured to the bohemian quarter of Glebe and the rather posh beach called Manly and to an amazingly terrible bar called Scubar where they played Sean Paul. I even stayed up one night to watch the dreadful FA cup final.

After 4 wicked nights in Sydney we took the train and bus up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains and stayed in an amazing backpackers called the Flying Fox. Every day we went for walks along cliffs and through valleys and next to waterfalls and every night we chilled outside by the fire and chatted with the brilliant people at the hostel. We became quickly familiar with the Australian travellers drink of choice: 'Goon' (5 litres of wine for 5 pound) and i got in a debate about feminism, little of which i remember of course. Our days up their flew by so quickly.
After this we made our return to Sydney where we stayed for another couple of nights (one of which i watched Liverpool lose in the champs League at 5 in the morning) and we went to the famous Bondi beach one day. Bondi is really full of rather beautiful people and we fitted in perfectly of course (with our chips and mash on the beach).
When the time came to finally leave Sydney we caught a bus to Newcastle (yes they steal our place names) and then a local bus to the quiet bay of Port Stephens. We planned to stay for two nights but camping in the Koala and bird filled garden and chilling with the baby 'roo proved too much to leave behind. Along with it being a great hostel we also spent time on deserted beaches, climbed a big hill, went on some massive sand dunes and drank goon with a few people at the hostel. We also took a boat out into the harbour and watched dolphins play all around us. One of whom, Zach (orange t-shirt), took us to the beach one night where we lit a bit fire and lay back and watched the stars, it was beautiful.
And now we are in a place called Port Macquarie, but more on all that later. Again this has been so brief to describe so much. It has all been so good.