Arrived in Sydney after a 13 hour flight, and checked into our hostel - central YHA, which thankfully wasn't too far to walk, where we met Alice. She was a girl from the Africa tour who we had arranged to travel with in Australia.

Upon meeting, we were told horror stories of her having to stay in a family friend's house for a week or so before we arrived, which was filled to the brim with china dolls - as they were collectors. Creepy. Subsequently, she hugged us so hard when she saw us I thought I might just collapse when she let go, on account of my bones being crushed. Still intact however, we disposed of our rucksacks and went to look around the city.

The first thing I was struck by is what an attractive city Sydney is. It's clean, for one thing, and the architecture of the city's statues, fountains, and other decorative pieces are modern and sleek, owing of course to the fact that Australian history and buildings themselves don't date back very far, but it all adds a cosmopolitan feel to the city as a whole.

Being a tourist there, there's a wealth of things to do and see, but only if you have the money. The next day we toured the Opera house, climbed the harbour bridge and went to see a production of Billy Elliot in one of the theatres. All of which cost us about the equivalent of a week's food and accommodation, meaning for the next week we dined on home brand cheap food, including sausages which were moose inside. So very wrong.

The single best thing we've discovered since being in Australia is the godsend which is Cold Rock. This is an ice cream shop that was dreamt up by a sugar-loaded 5 year old. You can have any type of ice cream you want, with anything - and I mean anything in it. Peanut M&M's, Nutella, gummy bears, brownies, anything you could possibly think of, and they bash it all in to make your dream concoction.

We were told of it by an Australian couple on the Africa tour, so when we arrived at Sydney we immediately set out to find it. Easier said than done -the search for the holy grail was probably more fruitful. After two days of searching, walking miles, and asking everyone we saw - we discovered it was about a two minute walk around the corner. Pfttt.

We also went to Taronga Zoo, where we were told we couldn't hold a koala as it was 'illegal', so we had a photo strategically placed beneath one in a tree instead, whilst it pooed everywhere. I secretly hoped it would poo on one of the many annoying children around, but, alas, no luck.

We took the ferry and went to Manly for a day too, where we went in the sea as the sun was setting, saw the sunset, and body surfed the waves beneath the moonlight. Memories like that can never be replaced, or re-enacted in fact - (especially not in Wales, brr).

To travel up the coast to Cairns, we decided the best plan of action would be to catch a backpackers' bus - The Greyhound - up to Brisbane, where we would pick up our hire van and drive the rest of the way. The company we went with specializes in ... individual vans shall we say. Each van is hand painted/sprayed so no two are the same. They can have cartoon caricatures on, rock bands, film icons, or just a bit of graffitied swearing in some cases. The best bit about it is you have absolutely no say in which van you have, it's whatever they decide to give you. We've seen a few that may a bit of unwanted attention on the roads, but holding out hope for a nice PG rated Toy Story one, or the like.

From meeting so many Australians on the Africa tour (and of course buttering them up), this meant we had lots of options for places to stay. In Port Macquarie we stayed with Meg's parents - one half of the Oz couple we were friendly with - and thoroughly enjoyed being in a house again. They were unbelievably good to us, fed us up (we're still growing you know), took us round, and generally made us fell completely at home there. So much so in fact, that we were all a bit teary leaving them.

After leaving our new family, we travelled on to Coffs Harbour - home of the big banana. Strangely, Australia has a fascination with big things, and 'big things' are their trademark, apparently.

The list of big things is very extensive, and also very bizarre. For example, so far we've seen the big banana, the big prawn (?!) and the big guitar. Still to come though, is the big pineapple, the big goon box, and the most strange, big cockroach.

After Coffs we got back on the bus to Byron Bay, where a few friends from home were staying. They immediately insisted we get on the 'goon' and join them for a big night out. One big night out soon turned into two, and concluded, when, in a goon induced state I was loudly proclaiming the wonders of Australian money to anyone who would listen. I was most impressed with the fact that it didn't rip. Feeling this story would be more dramatic with some demonstrations, I decided to get my last $20 dollar note out, hold it up high and try to rip it. I of course succeeded in ripping the note clean in half with almost no effort whatsoever. The next morning I awoke with a hangover, a slight remembrance of events combined with severe embarrassment, and a ripped $20 note. Brilliant.

Whilst we were staying in Byron, we had no accommodation, as we had tried to book and everywhere was full. As a result, we slept on our friend's floor until we got caught and had our wrists slapped. I say we slept on the floor, that was the agreement, but what actually happened was we would get into their bed before them, fall into a deep unmovable sleep, forcing them to sleep on the floor while we slumbered peacefully in beds - all for free. After all this free accommodation, we felt we weren't quite ready to begin paying for things again, and took the opportunity to travel to Surfers Paradise to stay with another friend from Africa.

We ate healthy food again - which nearly sent my body into shock after all the moose sausages - and generally had the time of our lives. We lazed on the beach, went to water parks, went shopping (window I must add) and went on a club crawl, which ended quite innocently, sitting outside the club, eating a pack of crisps and drinking a ribena whilst watching drunkards fall about. Tut.

All thats left now is to pick up the van....surely it can't be that bad?

Kayley Thomas - Surfers Paradise - 6 April 2008