7 "school get-ups"

It would be a lie to say that I've just started my countdown to coming home, but it's definitely contributing to the anticipation now!

So, to update:

April Fools' Day saw me high in the Blue Mountains in the little town of Katoomba, home of the Three Sisters rock formation. It's also home to Scenic World, which as the name suggests is particularly scenic. Scenic World is home to the steepest rollercoaster in the world. 'Rollercoaster' is slightly misleading in today's sense of the word; the maximum speed is approximately 5mph, but you're not belted in and at that angle, any speed feels excessive!
The following day my personal guides, Alfie and Rina - friends of my second cousin Rick, showed me a few more of the treats which the Blue Mountains hold. They're known as the Blue Mountains because of the Eucalyptus forests which cover them. The Eucalyptus gum causes the blueish haze for which the mountains are famous.

Very early the next morning I caught a train into the centre of Sydney in order to catch a bus to Port Macquarie, slightly (about 9 hours) further up the coast. PMQ is a very pretty little seaside town with plenty of beaches suitable for every taste. That includes swimming, surfing and I was surprised to discover, nude bathing. There were nice little markets and nature reserves for walking in - a very pleasant spot for a weekend.

On Easter Monday I was once again on a bus, this time travelling a measley 7 hours to get to the Gold Coast, and to see my cousin Rick and his lovely wife Rowie. They live in a suburb called Burleigh, and my first day was spent back on the beach. I wasn't brave enough to make it into the sea but I did manage a two hour walk along the beach to Surfers' Paradise and then back again. The following afternoon I had another walk (only little this time) around Currumbin, where I discovered the Elephant Rock, so named because it looks like an elephant... supposedly, The Honey Museum and the Surf Museum. I decided against the last two and instead went for a coffee at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. I was accompanied by hundreds of Rainbow Lorikeets who arrived to be fed shortly after I did. As the start to the weekend, we visited the Surfers' Paradise Night Markets which had an interesting collection of tat. One of the most popular stalls was the one where you could have your photograph taken with a large snake, although I'm not sure why. Once again I spent the weekend in the Hinterlands, this time in Tambourine. (I kid you not.) We stopped for lunch at a nice hotel pub and sat down with beautiful views out over the gardens and further out over the hills. It was all very tranquil until I noticed something tickling my leg and looked down to see a large huntsman spider run up inside the leg of my shorts. It wasn't very tranquil after that...
Huntsmans will bite, but apparantly they're not deadly to humans; their bites only cause large swellings and localised pain - but are usually recovered from in a matter of days.
On the Sunday we travelled back down to New South Wales, firstly to the Chanon, where a large hippy market is held and then onto Byron Bay. Rick and Rowie left me to climb up to the Lighthouse as they had done it numerous times (not to mention how boiling hot it was) and I spent a happy hour wandering around looking down on turtles swimming in the bay.

The next few days were fairly quiet, I explored Surfers' a bit more and did plenty of reading in the hammock :) I can feel myself automatically winding down as I come to the last few days in Oz, which suits me quite well. After all this excitement and adventure I'm absolutely shattered.