After a very hectic few weeks we're leaving the land down-under. Apologies about the lack of posts since we got here, as I said it's been quite a busy period.

After leaving Sydney and the madness of Mardi Gras (and the strangely small seeming Opera House) we headed to Melbourne where my mate Mick was getting married! It was  bit of a shock to arrive and be launched straight into a mad Goon fuelled stag night but it was deadly. As a note I did not drink any Goon, it has fish in it. Wine should only have grapes in it. No Fish!

We hung around in Melbourne a few days and the wedding was an absolutely beautiful affair in a pavilion in the city's Botnaic Gardens. After that we flew up to Brisbane – 2 hour flight vs. 16 hour bus? No contest – which is a really nice laid back and arty kind of town. Lots of wandering around markets, galleries and an odd beach right in the middle of the city. Also it had the heaviest rain I've ever seen, it was jumping 6" back of the ground when in fell.

We've been in Byron Bay for the past week, soaking up the sun and generally getting into the whole surfer/hippy vibe that permeates through the town. I've been to a yoga class, had a massage and spent an hour in a flotation tank (which was a bit of a mad trip, I started to have weird lucid dreams about aboriginal people dressed in black with purple faces). The surfing has been pretty cool too, I did a bit of body-boarding yesterday, the waves were perfect. The beach we're on was also "clothing optional" and there was one free spirit dancing around in the nip, which was quite funny. Sorry lads, no photos.

Anyhoo, we're off to South-East Asia for a few months, I think the whole California/New Zealand/Australia leg has started to blend into one big blob. I know a few of you will start giving out syaing "you've only been in Oz for like 3 weeks!" but in fairness, most people come here to (A) work, which we're not doing and (B) get drunk, which I can do a lot cheaper in Asia and (C) there's too many Irish people around, which I tend to avoid back in Ireland… ;) Talk to ye in Asia.

PS Come on Ireland for the Grand Slam!

We flew into Sydney and unbeknownst to us it was LGBT Mardi Gras! All of the hostels and hotels in the city were pretty much packed ot the rafters so we had to stay in some flea pit near Chinatown. Needless to say Elaine wasn't very impressed with it (neither was I for that matter) and coupled with the fact that we we're both feeling a bit ill from our last night in Fiji; not what you think, Elaine had an insect bite and I got a dodgy belly from some spaghetti bolognese...

Saying that though, the rank conditions of our hostel forced us out onto the streets and we made our way to where the Mardi Gras parade was kicking off. There were tonnes of folk there for some gay pride — men dressed as women, women dressed as men, men and women not dressed at all. It was pretty cool to see and the whole vibe was great, up to a point. There were a lot of folks out that went a bit too far with the drinking and we saw a few casualties by the relatively early time of 10pm.

Maybe we caught Sydney at the wrong time, or maybe it was a combination of our surroundings and feeling poorly, but we didn't really like the city too much and moved onto Melbourne pretty quickly — more on that soon!

Photos on Flickr