I’m writing up about my final 4 weeks in Australia in just the one entry and from 11km high up in the sky on my flight to Singapore. Things slowed down a bit for me at the end in Australia and I must admit my desire, enthusiasm and drive for it all waned a lot. I’d seen the things I really wanted too and in truth I was waiting for Asia a lot. Anyway here’s a recap before Asia’s events happen and push what did happen further from my mind and I forget the little details.
Below is an itinerary of all the places I managed to visit on my trip to the Southern Hemisphere in 2010/2011.
Long before I actually booked anything on this trip I’d read about places to go in Australia and the one most raved about was Tasmania. So I put it at the top of my priority list of things to do in Australia along with driving through the outback. I’d managed to meet up with a Canadian girl Marisa who was going at the same time as me and we’d agreed to hire a car together and find other people once we got to Tasmania to fill up the car and cut down the costs. We had put an ad on gumtree whilst in Melbourne and had already arranged to meet with a couple of people about an hour after we arrived in Hobart!
Once I arrived in Adelaide I had an empty car, so up to 4 spots to try and fill with only around 24 hours to do so. I was a little stressed at first that I wouldn’t find anyone to go. Fortunately things worked out quite well. I’d posted an advertisement on Gumtree whilst in Alice Springs. Gumtree is a website where you can advertise pretty much anything – and finding people who want to head to places on here is often easier than finding people with similar plans in the hostels on such short notice. I had quite a lot of people show interest, but as I was out of reception for so long, most had made other plans by the time I got to Adelaide. I only had 1 person firmly interested. I met up with a German chap but he had about $150 left and was never going to blow most of it on getting to Melbourne – he needed to find a job really! I followed up on some other postings online and found two German girls (Alex & Roxy) who were interested and arranged to meet them and Emma a Scottish girl the following day.
After Fiji I made my way upto the Northern Territory in Australia. An overnight stop on the way was enforced after Qantas changed my flights about – luckily they switched them to the day after my flight from Fiji rather than the morning of my flight from Fiji when I’d still be in Fiji! After making it to Darwin I didn’t know how, but I knew what I wanted to do – Go straight down the middle of Australia. I’d done some research into some tours and looked up the cost of buses etc, but none of it made much sense. The cost was high – like £1000 for 2 weeks, if not more. And the ability to do exactly what you wanted was somewhat limited.
So this past week has wrapped up my Australian activities until March, and I managed to see the majority of remaining things required in Sydney before spending the weekend with a friend in Canberra. Tomorrow I spend a day travelling and shall find myself to Auckland, New Zealand. Read the rest of this entry »
This is of course my second stint in Sydney and it wont be my last as all my flights into and out of Australia head through here, however this is my main stay here and I’m planning to do the bulk of the ‘to do things’ in this visit.
I arrived in Sydney on Tuesday 28th December, and I have a full 10 nights here. I’ve managed to pack quite a few things in over the past 5 days, so I guess now is a good time to summarize them before they slip from my memory! Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas of 2010 was my first ever away from home. It was an interesting experience for sure, but one echoed by many other people in the hostel, not particularly Christmassy. There’s just something about it being ‘summery’ weather for Christmas which is just plain wrong! Read the rest of this entry »
So now feels like a good time to write this entry, although maybe an hour earlier would have been better, as I think the alcohol from last night is now well and truly out of my body which means all those random ideas I had to add in this entry appear to have gone now too! Read the rest of this entry »
So I have under 3 weeks until I’m off on a 7 month trip around the world on my own, with just a few friends who I’ve met for a few days on past adventures to visit along the way. If you’ve never been travelling alone before I guess that sounds quite daunting, but having spent 2 and half months travelling North America in the summer of 2009 it doesn’t feel like such a big deal. At least not yet anyway.
So how do you go about planning for such a trip? There are various things you need to be aware of and prepare for, the most important are obviously are those that concern money and health. Being properly vaccinated and having the right medication as required is obviously really important, and anyone going on a trip to places which aren’t anything other than the most developed countries you are likely to need some vaccinations. I’ve had to have a Hepatitis A vaccination at the doctors, and also got to go to a private clinic to get a Yellow Fever vaccination for travelling in South America. It’s also not 100% clear if I need malaria tablets for my time in South America, I’ll be getting clarification when I go to get my Yellow Fever vaccination. Additionally good travel insurance is to be blunt a pain in the arse to find. In the end I’ve got mine from Essential Travel and works out at £160 for 7 months, which is pretty reasonable and seems to have good coverage on the key factors. However you only ever find out if these insurance companies are worth while when you need to claim. Here’s hoping I don’t have to find out. Read the rest of this entry »
Cities I’ve Visited