We are off to find the wizard! - coopsandbets
It's been forever in the planning but finally we pulled up our socks, dusted off our backpacks, bought some luscious new travel towels and we were off. Plan is 6 weeks in central America, 6 weeks...

The jungles of Costa Rica
Granada, Nicaragua
Well, sorry it has taken so long to get going but we have been too busy having fun and getting to grips with the Central American ways!!!
We arrived in San Jose now over a week ago to be greeted by prostitutes on the drive from the airport to the hostel! Nice! Was not all bad though as the hostel was nice and fed us delicious pancakes for breakfast! Nyum nyum! We didnt stay long in San Jose as essentially it has little to offer apart from the crazy food market where we had Casados (a traditional dish) and lovely national theatre where we found out how Costa Ricans used to dress to go to the theatre.....really educational!!!! :-S
We soon moved onto Alajuela where we went to a Butterfly farm where we both turned into little children squealing "ooo look at this one, look at this one!" A newly hatched butterfly actually climbed on our hands as it seemed dazed and confused...it was very exciting!!! We also went to a national park to look at Volcan Poas (a non active volcano crater) however when we got there we were greeted by a sea of white clouds and therefore could see sweet FA! This gave us rage until after waiting patiently for ages it slightly cleared and we managed to get a glimpse (ish!) but we did see another crater lagoon which was beautiful and had turquoise water!!
On our travels on some questionable bus journeys (including some super narrow deathly mountain roads!) we have been able to admire some of the amazing Costa Rican scenery - lush green hills, gushing rivers, rows upon rows of coffee plantations and brightly coloured houses alongside corrugated iron roofed shacks!
We thought we needed to embrace the outdoors by embarking on a small hike from La Fortuna, our next destination. We enquired about the standard tourist packages, but thought "oh no no no" we can use our own initiative and do it alone! It turns out the 6km "hike" up and down (!!!) the extinct volcano Cerro Chatto was something of a nightmare! After the first 5 minutes in the midday sun we soon realised this was not going to be so much fun! We thought upon entering the rainforest the shade would make the experience somewhat more enjoyable, however when we began to climb over tree roots on the near vertical path (if you can call it that) the banterous team spirit started to dwindle! This was marginally interrupted by Lauras over-excited sighting of a monkey/sloths tail swinging from a tree...as cameras were quickly grabbed from bags some stinky Germans waltzed up and shattered the illusion by announcing it was a merely a leaf and then just bogged off, leaving us very disheartened! The jungle seemed to go on forever with no sight of the top and we started to lose the will when our clothes were soaked, beads were rolling down our faces and mud covered our hands and knees! After what seemed like hours we reached the top only to be greeted by a pants view point and feeling a little sick. We then had a further climb down to the lagoon in the crater, being rained on and going down on our bums made us question "Why god! WHHHY!" We returned to our hostel feeling like Zombies and aware that the aching limbs were going to come thick and fast!
The blow was softened by a fun evening with some new hostel friends from the Cayman Islands (no we didn´t know where they were either!) and a game of guess the song (don´t ask!) We also made a visit to a super tall (we curently cannot remember exact measurements) waterfall and attempted to swim in the breath-takingly cold pool at the bottom! This only lasted a few minutes as we kept getting pushed back towards the rocks. So instead we found a nice calm spot where we chilled on the rocks in the sunshine and could dip our toes.
We then journeyed on lots of pubic buses to Liberia (attempts of speaking spanish ensued with Laura realising she remembered shockingly little of her gcse spanish lessons with Miss.Hernandez and Letty coming to the rescue as some sort of bilingual saviour!) The hostel was a little questionable, but the friendly peruvian owner (and the big comfy hammocks) made up for it! Strict demands were made when considering our next visit to a national park, that it must be "flat". So we headed off on a nature trail at Parque Nacional Rincon de la Vieja. We took this very slowly as any sudden movements were proving too much as we still ached. We spent the entire circuit with necks strained looking up at the trees for a sight of any of the array of wildlife we had been told so much about. Our excitement was clear when we first saw some Coatis (racoon type cute animal) and some weird giant orange rat look-a-likes that we found out were called "agouti"! We saw some natural hot springs, mud pots, waterfalls and what they called a mini volcano (!?!) After some fellow walkers told us they had seen some monkeys we were very disappointed we had missed out. But whilst quietly eating lunch Letty spied some monkeying around out the corner of her eye! We were VERY excited and our cameras have now been filled!
Unfortunately we are now sitting with some horrendously itchy "mountain-mosquito" bites! Aaaaagh! (we are hoping they dont carry any sort of diseases we don´t know about!!!)
Costa Rica - DONE!
Today we arrived in Granada, Nicaragua...more to follow on the next episode...!
Coming up - Laura´s new friend, a kitten the size of a fist!!! weep weep!*
Love to all you Englanders - we hear its getting cold...moohahaha!
xxxx
written by  coopsandbets on September 18, 2010 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: We are off to find the wizard!

Colonial exploration in Nicaragua
Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
Coming over to Nicaragua was the first of many crazy border crossings, which have turned out to be fairly hectic affairs with people trying to rip us off left, right and bloody centre! Luckily a local Costa Rican American (possible drug smuggler) told us the 411...essentially just pay everyone off. The bus dumped us in the sweltering heat on the side of a road in Granada. For some reason, it was far hotter in Nicaragua than the muggy tropicalness of Costa Rica. The fact that our hostel dorm had no air con/fans/any kind of ventilation, meant that we spent the whole time feeling grossly clammy. As previously mentioned, there was the cutest, tiniest kitten at the hostel...still not too sure if it was a stray but Coops wanted to put it in her backpack and also feared that someone would tread on it in the night!!
Granada was the first of our colonial towns and was definitely an exciting change of scenery. Our first venture around town was filled with lots of photo opportunities of the beautiful buildings, every single house painted a different bright colour. The main square had horse drawn (cant really call them) carriages with some slightly sad looking horses, which made Bets feel bad. We also made ourselves want to cry by venturing into some of the lush hotels that surrounded the plaza. They had beautiful courtyards and swimming pools which we were close to jumping into with our clothes on! We got very excited when we found a cute cafe (with book shop on the side) and completely forgot that we werent supposed to be drinking tap water when we both ordered an iced coffee. Bets felt the consequences the next day...eek!! Endeavours to find the supermarket were slightly unsuccessful (as we made our way through the bussling, market street as darkness approached) so we were forced to eat out and were severely disappointed. We ended up in some American sports bar near to our hostel...the only redeeming factor was the fact that we were entertained by a drunken American couple but Coops food was essentially kfc and Bets had a "baguette" in a burger bun.
The next day we made our way (with the help of a friendly nun!) to a market in Masaya. Lots of handicrafts, souvenirs and some local tat! We allowed ourselves a few treats, both of us deliberating for ages on what colour hairband to get!! After a quick lunch from a barbeque in the main square we were pointed in all different directions to find a bus to Lago (lagoon) del Apoyo. We have found this a lot.....even though the locals are trying to be helpful, quite often they dont really know what theyre talking about!! This may have something to do with the language barrier! As usual we were thrown off the chicken bus at the top of the lake and had to walk downhill for about 45 minutes to reach it....when we got there we werent even sure we had the right place, because the beach was fairly questionable! However the view was stunning and the water crystal clear. Even though we had bikinis at the ready, we only managed a quick paddle and stopped for a drink, which Bets managed to through all over herself due to being zonked out from the heat and mugginess. The journey back was a nightmare as it was a sunday evening and the buses had stopped running...so we ended up forking out for a taxi (again!) Another extremely disappointing meal was had in the main square that night, where we thought theyd accidentally given us childrens portions. We havent managed to find any really tasty food as a lot seems to be fried, american stylee (The US influence is a lot more noticeable than we were expecting). Weve been trying to be "economical" by having endless ham sandwiches with crisps to liven it up a little...two weeks on and we didnt realise you could actually hate a piece of meat!!
We took a tour around the isletas (little islands) of the nearby lake with a fairly useless guide, who quite happily told us he doesnt speak much english....helpful! The islands are really cute..some tiny with a family living in a shack and others massive with wealthy nicaraguans owning their holiday homes here (the ex president Samosa had one!). The highlight, once again, was animal related as one of the islands creatively named monkey island was home to 4 monkeys who came right up to the boat as we approached and we were actually a little bit scared...do monkeys have rabies?!?
Then we went up to Leon, another impressive colonial town but much less restored. We stayed in one of the happening hostels, with some real traveller types! We befriended some of the many Germans that seem to be travelling here, through the use of the tiny communal kitchen. We decided that we could finally allow ourselves the luxury of a day of rest, in the form of sunbathing! Once again, wed been informed by some helpful locals (?!?) that the beach at Las Penitas was beautiful. After a long excited bus journey we arrived to find the beach completely deserted and the (kind of) grey sand frigging boiling! We set up camp only to be perved on by some local guys who came out of nowhere so decided to quickly move on and placed ourselves in front of a hostel for safety! (Mums...be proud). The waves were huge and rough but we were so hot and covered in sand that we had to brave them. Bets managed this with the well practiced trick of diving head on into the wave. Unfortunately Coops didnt know about this! She took two steps in and mild panic set in. When the wave hit her, her little pegs couldnt take the force and she got totally wiped out! This would of been ok...had it not been for the subsequent two other waves that then went over her head with Bets shouting from a distance "watch out!!!" She appeared after a full salt water nasal flush looking confused, disorientated and slightly traumatised. As a result...she is still picking sand out of her hair!!! It was hilarious though! The long anticipated icecream had to wait until we returned to town and we shotgunned the only 2 hammocks in the hostel to munch down on them....good times!! We cooked a slightly interesting version of a spanish tortilla...we really need to get to grips with cooking in hostels!
This finished off our adventures in Nicaragua and we were then going to be moving quickly on to Honduras....
Coming Up! The 3am wake up to get on a stinky chicken bus to the border (we use this term loosely!*
Lots of love from a currently rainy (so we are hiding in an internet cafe) Central America!!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
written by  coopsandbets on September 26, 2010 from Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
from the travel blog: We are off to find the wizard!

Hmmm...Honduras
Placencia, Belize
We have to say Honduras wasn't our favourite country in Central America...we seemed to spend our whole time there on bloody buses!! The roads weren't great and we never seemed to be able to get from A to B easily. This clearly doesn't seem to phase the locals but on our tight schedule we were starting to get rage.
The border crossing we mentioned was slightly scary, after getting the 4am chicken bus (filled with limes) from Leon we were thrown out at what can only be described as a slum with a million rickshaw drivers hassling us to get a ride with them. So we literally crossed the border into Honduras by means of a little man peddling his legs off with another running alongside to make sure we stayed upright!!! It was definitely a moment to remember. Especially when we came across some Honduran police and they stopped us and waved their guns around for a little while, before letting us go past!
The first town that we found ourselves dumped in had absolutely no other tourists so we found ourselves sat in a motel eating some of the lovely local delicacies (errr...fried chicken and chips) watching some amazing american cable tv (cougar town, the good wife, the american office, jay leno.....don't judge us, we've been without english/american contact for a while now!!!)
We did get to see some amazing caves that we explored all by ourselves, which was pretty scary! We kept freaking each other out by saying "what would happen if we got trapped in here?! Would anybody find us?!?" It was ok though...we had bat friends to look after us.
We also went to the quaint, cobble-streeted town of Copan Ruinas which was lovely to wander round and we had some delicious coffee from the nearby coffee plantation...yum yum! The hostel we stayed in here was really crazy fun, with teddy bears pinned to the walls and each of the beds named after famous people (ours was ken and barbie...oh yeh!) but it was quite fun because there were some other fun travellers there and so we had a night out with them. The claims of the main bar in town having funky music with a dj were slightly exaggerated, but we enjoyed our cheapo mojitos none the less and also met some LA lifeguards (yes they are real life baywatch people, how exciting!)
We decided to hold off visiting the ruins here as we are awaiting bigger and better things in Guatemala and Mejico!
When trying to book a bus onto Guatemala we were told "computer says no" so found the much more comfortable alternative of a shuttle which we shared with our new found lifeguard friends and a possibly German girl who Letty managed to insult by assuming she couldn't understand English....whoops. Lots of dodgy biscuits, crisps, icecreams, sweets and yet again, yes you guessed it, ham sandwiches later we arrived into the beautiful town of Antigua, Guatemala just as the sun was setting....
Coming up - the death of the digital camera and the sleeping bag tief!!!*
We are thinking of you all. Yes we know we need to put pictures up - this is at the top of our to do list, sorry!
Lots of love xxxxxxxxx
written by  coopsandbets on October 7, 2010 from Placencia, Belize
from the travel blog: We are off to find the wizard!

An action packed time in Guatemala
Caye Caulker, Belize
We enjoyed Antigua very much. It had lots of churches and old buildings that had been ruined by a number of earthquakes which made it interesting to explore. While we were here we decided to venture up another volcano 'Volcan Pacaya' - an active one! This time it wasn't so steep or hot, but it was definitely treacherous! It started raining before we had even got out of the minibus and there were thick clouds making the walk up quite spooky as you could barely see the person in front of you. However; even though we were soaked to the bone we really enjoyed it, as you could really tell you were climbing a volcano with all the lava rocks underfoot. It was especially cool when our guide took us to some spots where you could feel the heat and he could light twigs just by holding them near it. At the top we could see down in to one of the holes where lava was burning! Sadly the copious amouts of rain meant that BOTH our cameras died (Lettys is still yet to be resurrected, but Coops' has just pulled through without the use of the flash! Boo!)
Antigua was quite a tourist hub. We had a fun night out in a little bar where they all seemed to congregate, where tequila shots may have been forced upon us! :-S
There was however a dark side, in the shape of a sleeping bag thief. They sprung whilst we were out in town and we can't work out if they were a fellow traveller or a freaky local who decided they needed a comfy (expensive!) sleeping bag of Coops' to make their own! The next thing to go was Bets' bra, which clearly a laundry woman decided she liked the look of, as it sadly never returned from our washing! And then to top it off Lettys small ring was also swiped from our bedside table! Damn them!
Our next stop was Coban for the pupose of visiting Semuc Chempey. This was an amazing set of rainwater pools that were turquoise blue, with a boisterous muddy river flowing underneath. We had a really fun guide who took us, a nice Aussie girl and adorable Canadian man through the pools; diving, jumping and sometimes sliding between them all (we won't mention that the really pants weather made it slightly less appealing). We also visited some more caves in a nearby town called Lanquin; where we befriended more bats. The nice people who were on our tour (including an Israeli couple) took us out for a meal that night at the 'best restaurant in town' which happened to be at our hostel. There was much excitement over the mouth watering desert selection. Coops had difficulty containing her joy and even moreso making her decision on what to have! Good times!
We had then planned a fairly pleasant and straight forward journey to the next town - Flores! HOWEVER - this did not go to plan! Due to the immense amount of rain, we were once again told 'computer says no' when trying to leave Coban. After going back and forth to the bus station we decided to wing it without really knowing where the bus was headed. After 10 minutes we were forced to stop, get out and walk as there was a demonstration blocking the road. Clearly strikes in Guatemala only last til 12pm; as just as we were walking through they started peacefully clearing up. We thought that this might be the reason for the earlier confusion but how very wrong we were. It turns out that at a lot of points along the road we had to travel, the rivers had overflowed. So we spent the next 6 hours having frequent intervals where we had to get out of one bus and clamber aboard some make-shift raft that was then half carried, half floated across to the other side. We were terrified that our backpacks would not survive, especially when one man decided to carry both of them on his head! Our faces were truly a picture of sheer terror and this didnt go away when we also had to cross again with our leggings rolled up, being laughed at by locals. Or the time we had to walk over a single plank of wood whilst others were marching towards us in the other direction! You will pleased to hear that we made it through in one piece and we now look upon this as an amusing dinner-party story!
We eventually made it to Flores, which was a cute town (on an island in a lake). From here we visited Tikal (famous mayan ruins). The temples and pyramids were amazing, and we exhausted ourselves trying to climb them. Tikal is set in a jungle so lots of animal sightings were had. We saw: howler and spider monkeys, toucans, more agoutis and coatis, a miniature guatemalan squirrel, a giant colourful bird (we don't know what it is!) and most horrendously a tarantula. Well Letty saw the devil's creature but Coops, at this point, was standing a safe distance away and banned Letty from taking any photos!
Coming up: Chilling on the beach.....it's a hard life!*
Lots of love, we are having some rum punches on your behalf! ;-)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
written by  coopsandbets on October 7, 2010 from Caye Caulker, Belize

"Wad de gwaan?"
San Cristobal, Mexico
As soon as we entered Belize we could really feel the difference from all the other Central American countries. Very excitingly, they speak-a-de-engleesh!! (woo woo!) Well, kind of anyway, as we still had difficulty understanding the crazy creole. The caribbean vibe was really refreshing and everyone was very relaxed - we kept being told to slow down when we were walking too fast!! There were pretty much rastas on every corner smoking de ganja and enjoying life doing sweet fa. So, from the start we knew we were going to have a blissful few days (hence our rushing through other places to get to paradise!!) Just to make you jealous...we essentially spent our time here lazing on beautiful white sandy beaches looking out at the turquoise blue caribbean sea with reggae music playing in the background and a rum punch in hand.
Our first glimpse of paradise was in Placencia (a peninsula on the South coast) It was a really tiny little town, but with lots of charm. Most houses were wooden and on stilts looking out over the beach and we pretty much had a guest house all to ourselves and enjoyed our hammocks on the veranda (apart from the freaking giant, green, flying insects!) We were glad to catch this place in time because it seems like lots of Americans are going to swoop in to build themselves nice beachside holiday homes. Bad times! We got involved with the Creole cuisine (lots of yummy chicken, shrimp, fresh lobster, and coconut rice) and were determined to find some fresh coconut....so we enlisted the help of a local who climbed up and picked us some good uns and we can now say that we are expert coconut openers, well kind of. This resulted in a new found cocktail called crazy coconut float (coconut water, coconut rum, vanilla ice cream and ice), very delicious!!!
Our next hardship was having to hop on the water taxi over to the beautiful island of Caye Caulker (just off the Belize coast). This was slightly more tourist-y but we wanted to come to do some snorkling on the Belize barrier reef. (We shall move quickly on from the near stay at a bed bug infested hostel!) We had an amazing day out on the 'Ragga Queen' sail boat and once again were forced to eat yummy food (FYI shrimp ceviche is a must-try!) and drink yet more rum punch...jeez! The highlight of the day, was shark and ray alley and guess what...there were lots of stingrays and SHARKS!!! These were not quite as scary as we had feared as they were reef sharks and actually had quite cute faces, but we did have to be very brave every time we got in the water! Very excitingly we got to touch the sharks tummy (Coops' squeal as she did so frightened everyone else!!) and the rays fin, making sure we didn't get Steve Irwin'd at the same time!! Bets also sneakily touched a sea turtle that everyone else was admiring from afar! There were oodles of other pretty fishes and coral for us to see. We returned slightly pink in places from our day in the sun, but very happy.
More drinking was done (this time daiquiris) at the local reggae bar, with swings for seats and the barman insisting on teaching us tricks and then giving us 40% proof rum (wow!) and then we had a good boogy too....trying to stay away from the local perve who had decided to latch on to us! (And if one more person asks us "sisters...you two sisters?!?!" we will scream!)
Our holiday in a holiday sadly had to come to an end when we waved goodbye to paradise and headed back to the mainland to cross the border to Mehico!!
Coming up - WOW where did all these Americans come from? A walmart by the beach?! Enough said.*
Lots of love from Central America (not for much longer, we can´t believe how quick its gone!!!)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
written by  coopsandbets on October 13, 2010 from San Cristobal, Mexico

Ay carumba....its Mehico!!!
Auckland, New Zealand
We arrived into Mehico with a bit of a bump and felt confused and a little scared by how Western it felt. The town of Tulum was pretty much a holiday strip full of restaurants, bars and souvenir shops and our hostel was full of irritating "gap yahhhhs." The American feel continued up to the next town up the coast of Playa del Carmen but we can't complain really as we were still enjoying the caribbean beaches! It actually felt good to be "on holiday" and we splashed out a little on some new purchases and a mojito or two. Coops introduced Bets to the amazing world of Walmart and there was slight hysteria at all the food options (including free tasters) and cheap clothes!!! It's like an American Primark...woooo!
We then faced our first overnight bus across to the state of Chiapas. Our first stop here was to visit another Mayan ruins, Palenque. The temples were not as big as Tikal, but it was a lot more interesting as a lot more had been excavated so you can really see the details and understand a bit more. Unfortunately, there was a bit less wildlife, boo hoo! We decided to go off the beaten track and stay in the jungle near the ruins. It was a crazy little village (El Panchan) amongst the trees, filled with hobos/hippies and howler monkeys (they sound like dying dinosaurs when calling - it was a little terrifying!) What was more terrifying was finding a cockroach in our shack that night before bed. What ensued was mild panic as we both ran around the room with only a bin, a vase and a flower (used as a poking device) whilst moving all furniture in our path to capture the little bugger. Bets finally succeeded in doing this but needless to say we slept in our sleeping bag liners with them over our heads! We did enjoy a fun night in the jungle though with some entertainment from the crazy hippies playing music and fire dancing!
We really liked the town of San Cristobal de las Casas, which was also in the Chiapas. We had been warned but weren't totally prepared for the chilly, mountain conditions though, causing us to need actual jeans and jumpers rather than sweating it up bikini stylee. We saw A LOT of churches and cathedrals and visited artesian markets and had more of a culture injection by visiting a historical house/museum where an explorer and journalist couple had lived. The town was also filled with what appeared to be European hippies and we couldn't quite work out where they had come from! Despite having to wrap up super warm, we really enjoyed this cobbled streeted town.
Our second overnight bus took us back to the Yucatan to the town of Merida, which had been recommended and sounded good in the guidebook, but it wasn't our favourite place as it was a bit hectic and grimey! We spent the whole day with sleazy mexican men blowing kisses at us and we have never seen so many churches in our lives. The highlight was definitely the free breakfast (fruit, cereal, toast, omelettes, pancakes, etc) and the second tiny black kitten of our trip at the hostel.
We decided to spend our last few days in Central America on the island just off Cancun, called Isla Mujeres. We had a super fun time here, the hostel was really lively and we met lots of fun people. The best bit was our new found friend Baptiste, who was a 4 seater golf buggy that we hired with another English guy and ventured around the island on. We visited a turtle sanctuary that was half cute and half traumatising as there was a tank of literally hundreds of baby turtles all squirming all over each other and we couldnt work out if one or two were dead or not?!?! On the island there were some beautiful houses and resorts looking out onto rugged coastline...it was like a postcard! Bets also enjoyed a freshly caught and cooked whole fishy. Our island stay also included the night of doom. We are not sure if this is due to the lack of food and drink in the day, but we should of read the signs when after the first mojito with dinner laura says "well thats definitely gone to my head." Back at the hostel the night continued with chatting to our fellow travellers, a fairly unsuccessful game of spanish simpsons cluedo, music, dancing and bonfire on the beach and MANY more drinks. It can only be said that the next day was not fun. We wasted a whole day of potential sun tanning as we could not move from our beds and Coops could not make it 5 metres down the beach without having to stop and throw up behind a wheelie bin. Nice. The two day hangover has left her with some serious scars and alcohol still fills her with fear. But, we can safely say that we really enjoyed our time here and in Central America in general. Its gone by super quick and it feels bizarre to be moving on to the next place, but also exciting.
New Zealand here we come............
P.S if we were coming home now...you'd be REALLY impressed with our tans!
written by  coopsandbets on December 6, 2010 from Auckland, New Zealand

Hollywood baby!
Wellington, New Zealand
On our journeys from Mejico to New Zealand, we had an LA stopover and we decided to use this time wisely....by hitting up Hollywood baby!!! Despite the rain (isn't California supposed to be the sunshine state!?!) we got involved in all the mandatory tourist attractions (Hollywood sign, Walk of Fame, Manns Chinese Theatre, blah blah blah) and then the real fun began. We don't quite know how it happened (we are blaming the jet lag) but we got lured into many a shop and our credit cards certainly took a battering! This was followed by the really fun exercise of trying to then fit all the new goodies into our backpacks at the airport, where Coops also had a freshly broken backpack zip and exploded shampoo to contend with. Good times!
All worked out fine, and we hopped on our super long flight to 'Noi Zoiland'!!!!
Woooo!
written by  coopsandbets on December 7, 2010 from Wellington, New Zealand

The north face
Melbourne, Australia
Our home for 6 weeks
It was like our first day of school as we anxiously stepped on to the big, orange bus waiting for us outside our hostel. With names ticked off and bags loaded underneath we set off on what felt even more like a school trip than we had imagined, when we had scheduled toilet and lunch breaks and plenty of 'photo opportunities!!' This took a little bit of getting used to as we are such seasoned travellers (even if we do say so ourselves!) especially when half an hour in, the driver forced us to do speed dating so everyone could get to know each other....CRINGE! We did forgive the driver, hilariously named Hoff, though as he turned out to be our favourite! The whole idea of stray was a whistle stop tour of the best spots in New Zealand and depending on your itinerary you can choose to stay longer in certain places, which we were luckily able to do a couple of times. So here is a quick run down.....
Hahei
Cathedral Cove
Pretty, coastal town from where we walked to Cathedral cove (with a slightly Laura infatuated Austrian named Michael in tow) and despite paying $10 for the pleasure, ended up cooking a BBQ for 25 people, whilst ordering the muppet foreigners around the kitchen!!! We also got involved in an All Blacks v Wallabies rugby match, where we did end up siding with our future homeland and contemplated who had the better looking players.
Raglan
Cool, surfer town where we wished we could of stayed longer. (Luckily we aren't surfers as the sea was apparently the flatest it has been in ages!) Instead we topped up some sexy knee tannage (good old leggings!) and checked out some of the surfers. Then (close your ears Mum) we hitchhiked back to the hostel with a man and his HUGE, over-friendly dog, when Coops was asked 'do you mind?' as he took a swig from his bottle of white wine - turns out he wasn't referring to the drink driving, but just wanted her to move out of the way of the brown paper bag! Good times!
Says it all....
Waitomo
Before the lights went out....
We visited the infamous Waitomo glow worm caves and definitely opted for the easy option of the 'Spellbound' tour (Who wants to wade around in pitch black caves in murky, eel-infested waters?!? Yes we saw an actual eel - gross!) The glow worms were amazing and it was like looking up into space. They only decided to tell us that the photos never come out after we had spent a good 10 minutes snapping away! At one point, we were told to turn off our head torches so that we could acclimatise our night vision, turns out this didn't work so well as Coops was supposed to be leading the group out of the caves and just kept squealing! Bets was also hit in the face by an old man who thought he was grabbing her shoulder (well thats what he said!) and more giggles ensued when Coops grabbed for the guide in the darkness and was told "thats not my shoulder" ahahaha -maybe you had to be there....
Maori cultural evening
Luckily we had been warned that despite this being worthwhile, it can be embarrassing unless intoxicated. Sadly we were not intoxicated. And yes it was embarrassing. We were greeted by our Maori chief in Adidas tracky b's and were hoarded into a canteen style room. He did tell us about the Maori culture and we had some yummy dinner. We then had to partake in the traditional Maori greeting, where us girls had to try our hardest not to laugh as we shook hands and touched faces/noses with 16 year old boys who had clearly been roped in for a bit of extra pocket money. Awkward!!! The aim of the evening was for the guys to learn the haka and the girls to learn how to dance with a poi (no, we didn't know what this was either!!!)
The scary haka
Sleepover for all!!
The night was topped off by the fact that we had to then all bed down in one massive room, including a fat American who snored like a freight train! Also please note at this point we were sharing our crazy fun travel activities with 2 old biddies from South Africa who were also on our bus! Random, but we did love them and wanted to put them in our pockets!
Rotorua
Looking sexy, waiting for death!!!
White water rafting baby!! We will let the pictures speak for themselves when we get them up here. We had a great time with our super fun guide Drax and luckily we didn't fall in and the boat didn't flip either. (We have since heard some traumatising stories an have realised that we got off quite lightly and won't be doing rafting again!)
Taupo
Fun town with lots of backpackers on the banks of beautiful lake Taupo with views of snow capped mountains (one of which is Mount doom, lord of the rings stylee!)
This was the place that Bets decided to throw herself out of a plane! After handing over half of her life savings she thought that the 7 WHOLE minutes were definitely worth it. Quote: it was fricking awesome! We shall bypass the fact that Coops was too scared and opted for a shopping spree instead and returned with some fun new leggings from a childrens shop...do we have pumpkin patch in england???
SKY DIVE - DONE. (You will have to wait until we get home to see the video!)
Napier
We decided to go crazy and venture off the stray route to the cool art deco town of Napier, where we enjoyed wandering around town with the striking buildings. From here, we embarked on our wine tour, as Coops insisted this was a must. Turns out after handing over your dollar you are pretty much in for a heavy afternoons drinking sesh, whilst occasionally saying words such as 'oaky' and 'strawberries' whilst looking off into the distance! We did find some fun new wines that we both liked but have since completely forgotten them due to memory loss. Totally worth the money don't you think?! ;-)
Don't mind if i do!
Enjoying wine time!
We think that this is enough to read for now - we know that you have been waiting a long time for this one, so we wouldn't want to spoil you now would we!? We best get back to our white wine in the early evening sunshine and our steak for dinner.
We won't mention that we just deleted this entire thing and have had to re-write it and Letty's fingers are about to drop off. So much internet rage right now!!!!!!!!! (Don't worry the wine is easing the pain!!)
Lots of love from the impending heat wave that is Australia. Enjoy the snow everyone.
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written by  coopsandbets on December 9, 2010 from Melbourne, Australia

The end is nigh!!
Sydney, Australia
View from top of cable car
Nearing the end of our trip we hopped back on the ferry to return to the North Island (entertained along the way by some Catherine Zeta Jones filems!) Our dropping off point was the lovely, ridiculously windy, city of Wellington. We spent a few days here exploring by venturing up the cable car to wander around the botanic gardens (we have made sure we have seen plenty of these!!), climbing Mount Victoria in totally inappropriate footware and clothesware (where the hell did that hot sun come from?!?), wandering around Te Papa, the National Museum, where we stumbled across a ridonculously huge preserved squid (it seriously looked the size of a bus!) and also made our own squid in the kiddies interactive zone and named him Sid. Funnily enough, then we met up with Gemma's friend Sid who joined us on our travels.
Botanic gardens
Sid the squid that we made at Te Papa museum
We really loved wellington and found lots of cool areas, like Cuba Street, with lots of vintage-y, second hand clothes shops and cafes and Thorndon which was a really beautiful suburb (but we found it impossible to find the NZ author's house that we had actually gone there to see and ended up walking up and down a dual carriageway!)
A naughty young un jumping off the bridge
When the sun came out, we made a bee-line for the Mac's Brewery bar and sat in the sunshine with cider and Coop's new favourite of sparkling wine. We sat and watched in amazement as some mentalist school children climbed up some metal structure in the harbour and took it in turns to jump off into a closed off sea pool (no one thought it necessary to stop them...the health and safety monsters of England would definitely of put a stop to it!!) We also found the most delicious ice cream we've ever had in our entire lives. We can report that on the whole New Zealand does have some delicious gelatarias with millions of flavours!! A group of us wandered around the harbour side market (and a Harvey Norman garage sale....random) where there was lots of scrummy food and free tasters!
Best ice creams EVER
As it was the final night with some of the people we'd been on the bus with, we decided to have a big night out Welling-on stylee! This ended up as a bit of a bar crawl, where we spent too much money as we were trying to live the lives of people who actually have jobs, until we ended up in the backpacker bar for boogeying with the rest of the crowd(despite getting rage at how often the DJ repeated songs!) The night ended up in Hungry Jack's (our new found name for Burger King as this is what the crazy aussie's call it!!)
Cow bum...hahaha
The ever classy Base bar
Our new BFF Gemma
Our last adventure of NZ was the mammouth climb that every backpacker apparently "has to do," however maybe not by choice...as we soon found out. We awoke early and loaded up on porridge and bananas and prepared our extensive list of foods and liquids for the expedition, before being picked up by the minibus to take us to the base camp of Tongariro. It was a 17km walk that crosses over all different types of terrain, from deserts to snow capped peaks to climbing steep mountains. We thought it was bad enough at first as we tried to keep up with Sid and Gems who had previously done the Tongariro Crossing (so were going to climb Mount Doom instead)...we have since realised that they are clearly mountain hikers in disguise and quickly left us behind puffing and panting (and Laura feeling a little pukey after being given an energy sweet by Bets, who told her it would make her feel better! NB. it didn't.) And then we were faced with what seemed like ENDLESS steps. Memories came flooding back of the sweat and pain we experienced when climbing Cerro Chatto in Costa Rica! Arrrrrggghhhh.....
However, once we were up and our heart rates had resumed to a normal pace, we could take in the spectacular views all around us.
Walking across the plain
Beautiful turquoise pools
Mount doom!
We stopped for lunch right on the edge of the red crater, which was literally bright red rock, and got invaded by lots of ladybirds (who knew ladybirds could live at the top of a volcano?!?)
Betty about to jump! The walk had got too hard!
Laura's first attempt of skiing (plenty of bum landings!!)
We then had to make our way down from the peak to the Turqouise pools, which we did in ultimate style as we skidded, skied and pretty much fell down. And we looked on in disgust as not only did kids get down without a problem, but some people were also running down (fell running stylee!) Looking back we're not too sure how we made it down without more cuts and bruises, but there were some hilarious falls! After taking time to observe the pools and the lakes, we were then on a mission to get down the other side, passing through snow and bush and a very stinky portaloo on the way.
See, we've had snow too!
We returned home feeling exhausted but it was "totally worth it!" (gap yaaah!) and to soften the blow we stayed at a really nice lodge (ski resort stylee) with a big log fire and comfy sofas and our friends Gems, Sid and Chris and enjoyed a relaxed movie night, courtesy of Gem's laptop. (If anyone hasn't seen Julie and Julia, it is definitely worth seeing!) The amazing views of Tongariro and Mount Doom will definitely always stay with us as typical memories of New Zealand.
Time for tea!
Arriving back into Auckland felt pretty strange because we had done so much in the last 5 weeks, but it was nice to be back somewhere familiar. We had one last day there stocking up on a few essentials before Oz, we took Lucy and Gems to an awesome German bangers and mash shop for luncheon and treated ourselves to another cinema excursion! (This time...Due Date!) We had a farewell drink with them (yes, there were more teapots involved!) as Lucy was going back to England, but excitingly we would be seeing Gems again in Oz!
We headed to the airport feeling excited about heading to our new home land, but strangely sad to be leaving this one of a kind place. We have had an incredible time here, not only the places that we have been and the activities that we have done (there were LOTS) but the really fun and interesting people that we got to share (and sometimes were forced to share!) our travels with. We already have a list of places that we want to come back to as we definitely didn't have enough time to fit everything in!
The only disappointment.....we didn't see a kiwi. (Obviously we're talking about the bird people!!!)
New Zealand....DONE.
Now for the adventure to really begin and our new life down under!!!
Lots of hot sunny kisses from Oz xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
written by  coopsandbets on February 12, 2011 from Sydney, Australia

Sweet as bro!
Wellington, New Zealand
We were a little dazed and confused at first to be in the big, modern city of Auckland but were overjoyed that we could actually understand people properly. We definitely made the most of our time here (despite lazy travellers telling us Auckland is boring) by venturing round the city (Sky Tower, the harbour, CBD) and further afield into the 'burbs where we were sussing out whether we could happily live here when married with sproglings....we quickly decided "yes, we bloody could!" We treated ourselves to some normal city life, which we have been missing a little, by checking out a comedy show and a cinema trip (we highly recommend all to see 'The Town' with Ben Affleck).
A lot of our time in Auckland was spent deliberating over the best way to spend our 6 weeks here. After getting about a million different opinions, we opted for the STRAY bus (for those not in-the-know, it's a hop-on hop-off tour bus that covers both islands). Our first excursion was up to the Northland, to visit the picturesque Bay of Islands. We stayed in a cute beach town called Paihia, which was nice to wonder round and we ventured to Haruru waterfall (you will get used to the c-razy Maoiri names for everything...we have had to!!!) Paihia is also the place where the famous 'Treaty of Waitangi' was signed between Maori chiefs and European settlers in 1840. We managed to sneak into the treaty house and meeting house to read up on it and we very much enjoyed this culture lesson as it is something that has since cropped up in lots of other places we've been to.
Our highlight here was a boat trip around the Bay, where we saw a 'school' (not too sure if this is the correct terminology) of Dolphins. There was about 15 of them (including babies) and we got right up close so we could take looooads of photos. Bets luckily got to see them jumping out of the water and rolling around. We were told that amazingly some of them were sleeping even as they moved (who knew dolphins slept!?!) It actually made us both feel a bit emotional as it was such a rare and amazing sight (cue the kleenex...) We also visited 'the whole in the rock', one of the Islands that has been eroded to have a tunnel going through it, which the boat could go all the way through. We also saw 3 seals lazing about chillaxing in the sun. The scenery was lush with bright turquoise water, really rugged coastline, but this was really weird when contrasted with farmland covered with sheep also on the islands. It was like some weird welsh parallel universe.
We also went to the Northern most point of NZ - Cape Reinga where we were seriously underwhelmed by the meeting of the 2 seas: Tasman and Pacific. Apparently it's normally very dramatic, but we had such nice weather, you could barely tell. From here we drove down 90-mile beach (does what it says on the tin) and went crazy by throwing ourselves off a sand dune on a boogie board type thing on our tummies...this ridiculous activity is known as Dune Boarding! It was very fun, but bloody hard work trying to climb it and resulted in sand everywhere!
This was our first taste of New Zealand's amazing hilly scenery, and we are loving it very much. But FYI there are definitely more cows than sheep, as dairy farming is now more prominent here....and did you know that NZ supplies a third of the worlds dairy produce?! "Amazing eh bru"!
We have also discovered some new NZ lingo:
Jandals = flip flops
Trundel = supermarket trolley
"growen" and "knowen" = grown and known
"sweet as" = that's cool
"bro" (said "bru") = mate
We have been overjoyed with the supermarkets here. Mostly because of:
- the huge supplies of Cadburys and Whittakers chocolate
- peanut butter (which appears to be a staple in every travellers
coldbag)
- normal cheese, that doesn't cost the earth
- actually having a choice of what we can make for dinner...pasta
sauce has never tasted so good.
So that's NZ so far...lots more fun to come....
Sweet as bro xxxx
written by  coopsandbets on December 8, 2010 from Wellington, New Zealand

D'aan S'aaf
Melbourne, Australia
After hopping on the surprisingly long ferry (4 hours people!!) we met our new Stray driver hilariously named Trouble (it wasn't hilarious, it's a rubbish story) and set off for our adventures on the South Island!! Woo! Here are the highs and lows!
Abel Tasman National Park
This was a beautiful spot and the best way to explore it was by sail boat (kayaking in the sea somehow just didn't appeal!) and we headed out with our crocodile dundee skipper on a catamaran. Even though it was a beautifully sunny day, we were little prepared for the gail force winds coming off the ocean once the boat had gained some knots!! By the end Coops was forced to wrap up in one of the giant waterproof blankets that were on board in case of emergency!! Nonetheless it was beautiful with turqouise blue sea and some much missed wildlife (seals, one blue penguin and lots of birds!) When we hit land for our lunch break we took the opportunity to get some sunbathing in, which after half hours kip resulted in some dodgy short tan lines (wow the sun is strong here!!) We stayed in a fun hostel/camp site where a group of our new found friends huddled on the floor amongst backpacks, foodbags and hiking boots to watch some of the much anticipated new episodes of inbetweeners (we will be forever grateful to you Kriss!!)
Barrytown
So whilst this place has a very cool name (obvo!) we can assure you it doesn't live up to much!!! Those of you who have been to New Zealand and are thinking "hmm...I don't know where that is?!" you can be forgiven. Most New Zealanders haven't even heard of it! The Stray itinerary claimed this stop off was a fun evening in an old miner's pub filled with fancy dress and getting to know your fellow travellers. In fact, we rocked up to a dodgy old man's pub where they led us to some portacabins classed as bedrooms and showed us to a mangey array of various items of other people's clothes! (Even charity shops would shudder!) However, we did manage to throw together some pretty awesome outfits and were deemed the party queens when we got all 30 people off their seats and joining in with our drinking games! Coops even won a free burger for her efforts!
Fun dressing up times
The next day lead to a hungover fuelled diversion to McDonalds in Greymouth, after blackmailing Trouble as he had overslept and someone had to go knock on his door while we all stood outside the bus like lost children!!!
Franz Josef Glacier
We opted for a full day's hike on the glacier.
Yaayyy....I'm so freaking cold!!!
It was amazing to see, but sadly this was not our favourite experience in NZ due to the rain that soaked our so-called waterproof attire right through, so that by the time we stopped for a lunch break, we were pretty much numb and turning into blocks of ice ourselves!! We did climb down through some caves that had been carved by streams through the ice, but this just felt like rubbing yourself up against a big ice cube! Brrrrrrrr!!!! We were provided with some laughs though, when a divvy girl in our group was not listening to the instructions of the guide and stepped right into a knee deep puddle of ice cold water...it was hilarious!! By this point, we had bonded with lots of people on our bus, so had another fun night here for one of the guys' birthdays. Please note at this point, said divvy girl managed to serve an actual birthday cake upside down with the candles pushed through the paper wrapper!!!!!
Wanaka
All that needs to be said.... Puzzling World = AMAZING!
The hilarity of puzzling world
But sadly no, we didn't get to explore the town!
Queenstown
It definitely lived up to expectations; really fun town in a pretty spot on the banks of the lake (I'm sure all you clever people can remember which one?!?) where we had a really fun night out drinking from tea pots in Worlds Bar! (Fear not, we haven't turned t-total, they were filled with yummy cocktails!!!) This is also the place to sample the delights of NZ famous FERG burger and we definitely gave it a fair test by comparing it to the other local burger joint Devil burger (thanks to Laura's free voucher!) We are undecided as to the official winner, but it was goooooooooooood!
We definitely opted for the tamer activity (as Queenstown is known as the adrenalin capital of NZ) of horse riding. Bets convinced Coops that getting up onto a horse for the first time would be fun and this was definitely proved right, as we spent the afternoon riding through the valley, surrounded by beautiful lupins and looking up at snow capped mountains. We also had to get our horses to wade across rivers and Coops' horse did seem to be the naughtiest one and kept stopping to eat!
Bets, ever the professional
We had such a fun day and it was really cool to see lots of Lord of the Rings film locations and lots of other films too (including the bridge that Wolverine runs over, woop!)
Milford Sound
This place is talked about a lot by visitors to New Zealand, with dramatic cliff faces dropping down into the sea and waterfalls flowing down them. On the day we visited, there had been heavy rain, so the falls were huge and really spectacular - the boat even put it's nose under a couple of them soaking some unsuspecting American women! However, also due to the rain it was very misty and it was difficult to appreciate the whole impact of it all. We decided that this is definitely on our to do list for when we come back on a sunny day!!
Wind and rain battered and abused!
This rainy day was topped off by having to stay in a weird camp alongside a river, where the water was heated by fire and the electricity was turned off at 10 o clock. It was ruddy cold!!!! We can safely say that this was a definite low point and we were very eager to leave in the morning!!!
Stewart Island (South of the South Island)
This place is well known for its wildlife, however we saw very little and resigned ourselves to the fact that we weren't going to see a kiwi. So instead, we had a super fun time here by hiring a car with Lucy and Mara (our new homies) so that we could explore this tiny island.
Checking out "Rat" (Stewart island)
The highlights included eating an entire 2 litre tub of Hokey Pokey ice cream (nyum nyum nyum nyum nyum!!!) and teaching Mara how to drive a manual car for the first time on the other side of the road (she's canadian!) with some very near misses causing a lot of squeals and giggles! Good times!
Stewart Island
Dunedin
We were sad to leave our homies as we decided to hop off the bus and stay longer here. But we had fun exploring this scottish influenced city (did you know Dunedin means Edinburgh in gallic?!?) in particular the World's steepest suburban street (no we did not walk up it!) the octagon shaped city centre and the botanic gardens with an adorable brass band of oldies and exciting aviary! Most importantly though, this was where we went to Cadbury's World!!! We put on our sexy hair nets and got eating some free samples of chocolate!! (We won't lie, there was some mild rage when there was turkish delight and marshmallow chocolates included in this. AND, when 2 small children were given WHOLE easter eggs to take home and we weren't!!! Outrageous!!!!)
Nyum nyum nyum
Sexy dinner ladies
From here, we also went to visit the Otago peninsula. We stopped off at Larnach castle to have a quick peek at the beautiful grounds and gardens.
Larnach castle
Then we went to the albatross centre (where Coops spotted Albatross, while Bets nearly got stuck in the toilets!) and saw hundreds of Cormorants (aka Shags!!) nesting in the cliffs.
We took a trip out on an "8-wheel Argo truck" to a penguin hideout and a big seal colony, where there was not only fur seals but also unusually an elephant seal!!
Scary, raged elephant seal
Mount Cook
We stayed at the base of Mount Cook where our room overlooked spectacular views of the mountain. From here, we did a big walk (totally unprepared with little water or sun cream supplies) to a glacial lake with hactual icebergs floating in it. It was definitely worth it though!
Mount Cook walk
Christchurch
We didn't have much time here, but we were determined to like this place after hearing everyone claim it was dull! And we did like it, especially the cambridge style punting along the river. Luckily, the aftershocks have now stopped from the earthquake in September, but there was still lots of damaged buildings and repair work being carried out. We had a really fun night out here, hitting the cool strip of bars in Lordship Lane (woop woop to our dulwich homies!) and ended up cutting some shapes on the light up dance floor in 'boogie nights!'
Kaikoura
As we arrived into this seaside town, we kept spotting dolphins and seals just off the coast, so we knew we were in for a good one! People come to kaikoura to see the huge array of sealife that is abundant in this area. We went out on a whale watching trip and luckily got to spot a sperm whale (well...you basically get to see some puffs of steam coming out of its back!!) and literally hundreds of dusky dolphins!!! It was so amazing to see them jumping out of the water and doing somersaults as far as the eye could see and some swimming right up and under the boat. The squeals on board as we all watched was pretty amusing too!
So close you can almost touch it!
This is also where we watched LoTR and spent half the time going "i'm sure we've been there?!?!?"
So, this just about sums up the South Island and we have tried to fill you in as much as we can but there were so many mini-stops along the way to see incredible scenery, we just can't get it all in (and to be honest, we would never remember the names anyway!) As many people say, the South island is really visually spectacular with potential photo stops around every corner of the very windy roads! Everyone should go to New Zealand!!!!!!
Big fat hugs and christmas kisses
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written by  coopsandbets on December 20, 2010 from Melbourne, Australia

'This is the road to noooowhere!!'
Melbourne, Australia
Touching down in 'the land down under' we were super excited and were met by our surrogate family for the christmas period, the Robsons. (Ted, Nanette, Claire and Luke, old friends of Letty's). It was so nice to be in a proper house, even though Coops was on the broken camp bed on the floor, it was like a dream to have our own room and a bathroom where we could actually leave toiletries! When we first got to Melbs, we were surprised that it wasn't as hot as we had expected - typical, we've arrived just as Australia's 30 year drought had ended!
With only a few weeks before Christmas, we decided to make the most of it, by embarking on an exciting road trip along the Great Ocean Road! Oh yeh baby!!
Introducing: Our man of Melbourne, Alain Sparey!!! The cheese connoisseur that he is, loaded us up with a wonderful array of delicacies (including the delicious-ness that is...dolmades and pumpkin pesto!!) from his award-winning cheese stall at the Queen Vic markets. Everybody must go - its amezzing! He also gave us some tips for our endeavours ahead!
We headed off in our little blue hire car, first having to navigate our way out of Melbourne city centre, but quickly making it to the freeway! It was really exciting to be cruising along by ourselves, listening to various different radio stations as we went. At first there were quite a few little coastal towns that we stopped off at on the way. One of these was Torquay, where Coops first took over the wheel and kangaroo hopped her way out of the carpark and couldnt really see the road through fits of laughter, and the windscreen wipers going off everytime she tried to indicate!! Damn australian upside-down-ness! She claimed "I just have to get used to it! I just have to get used to it!"
There were delightful views as we reached some of the more rugged coastal spots, where it was perfect surfer stalking conditions. We pulled up and ate our yummy posh Alain treats with cameras in hand and lots of "oooh...ahhh...did you see that one?!?"
We had to stop by the famous Anglesea golf course - to check out the resident skippy kangaroos!! Seriously, they just chill out there while there are balls flying everywhere (hehehe!)
Our most exciting discovery, which we had not been prepared for....was to see the most famous lighthouse of our childhoods. You all know it guys....
"Have you ever, ever felt like this? How strange things happen...Are you going round the twist?!?!" Woop woop!
Lorne was a tres cute beachside town, where we induldged in a Cold Rock icecream (they mix it up on a marble slab for you!) and loitered weirdly by a wedding on the beach, because we thought it looked pretty and they had champagne!
And the thing that, as you all know, we get most excited about...was an animal discovery. We were cruising on the last leg of our journey of day one through some really windy roads, surrounded by gum trees on either side, when a man with a camera caught our eye. After some slightly dangerous swerving u-turns, we pulled up to be informed there were 3 koalas up in the trees! Even though, they only move a milimetre an hour, Bets has never moved so fast to get her big camera out and get the paedo lens on it!!! We were so excited and stood there for way longer than was really necessary, taking copious amounts of pictures - "oh that one's sleeping! oh that one just twitched! oh that one just scratched it's ear!" you get the jist. So just one week in and we'd already seen wild kangaroos and koalas - we knew this was going to be a good year!!
Our first night was spent in the very quiet town of Apollo Bay, where our cheap accommodation was a little worse than expected, when we pulled up into a make-shift garage and literally just had to walk through a door into our dorm room that was actually the old garage. Inside was exposed brick walls and a green glowing fire exit sign above Coops' bed (don't worry it was covered by a jumper!) and a token chinese man living there for good measure?!?!
Day two was a busy day filled with some well known spots along the 'Shipwreck' coast - 12 apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge (an arc formed by the sea that when it collapsed left two people ((who were apparently having an affair)) deserted on the stack, only to be rescued by helicopter, haha!) We read this on our surprisingly long trek around the different sites of this bay, where Letty learnt her one fundamental lesson of Australia 'slip, slap, slop!' and Coops hasn't let her forget it!
This was our most sight-filled day as everytime we set off to our next designated stop, we would see one of the little brown tourist signs telling us there was "500m to a....waterfall/scenic lookout/beach or any kind of rock formation" and obviously we didn't hesitate to pull in at every opportunity!
Our second night's accommodation, in Port Fairy, was one that we hoped would be better than the previous due to it being a YHA. Turns out we were wrong. It was a bit like a prison cell, with children sized bunk beds attached to the (again exposed brick) wall and only a paper thin wall between us and the 'dorm' next to us! It's fun listening to Swedish music. We did venture out to the local pub, where we had a bevvie with the locals staring at us!
We started off the third day along the coast still, spotting a variety of different amazingly-coloured and loud birds (Laura's new favrit!) and then started heading inland towards the Grampian Mountains. The landscape was a really nice change from beach and farmland, to real rugged Australian scenery in just one day! Yet more animal adventures occured when we took a wrong turn down a very bumpy track, but as a result spotted a wallaby amongst the trees! (Queue squeals and scurrying for cameras!)
We were amazed at the grandeur of the landscape and the two Mountains that appeared out of nowhere (Mount Sturgeon and Mount Abrupt). There was one lookout in particular that literally took our breath away. I don't think we can properly explain to you what it actually felt like to be able to see so far.
It was also as we were leaving this lookout, that Laura still hadn't quite got used to the rental car, and whilst attempting to reverse up a slight incline, nearly killed a family of chinese tourists. They were alarmed, Coops was raged why the car was so retarded and Bets was just a little terrified!!! Whilst driving through the plains we saw what can only be sensibly described as 'a dinosaur' running in front of the car! Obviously, we later discovered, these are in fact emus! Even later Coops' dweeby research told us that they were in fact females due to the blue colouring on their heads. Also, lots of kangaroo spots as they grazed by the sides of the roads.
Our most disgusting discovery of driving a hire car into the Grampians was the swarms of locusts that we had to drive through (Bets took quite a lot of pleasure from speeding up into them!) However, the car bore the brunt of this, with an absolute shed-load of half dead, half squished locusts stuck to the front grill and windscreen!Windscreen wipers and wash does sweet fa! Clearly the newspaper warnings about what to do in a locust swarm situation, had not fully prepared us!
On route to our abode for the night, with many wrong turns due to us not really knowing where we were going and Bets saying "oh, let's try up here!" we drove through the quaint mountain town of Hall's Gap, where all the other tourists sensibly decided to spend their night. But no no no...not for us, we like to live it up, off the beaten track! So we found ourselves a lodge in Brimpean. Well...what an experience. Firstly, we pulled up to a working farm, with quad bike tracks (naturally they go together) and a completely deserted set of lodges. Coops was sent to find the farmer and accidentally stumbled across his 18 year old son's work out session in one of the barns.....sounds awkward...it was. He was shirtless....enough said! We finally got into our lodge, which, even though there was noone else staying there, he still put us in the one furthest away from the main building, which is a treat when it is dark and there is only Bets' head-torch for guidance! Not scary at all! Due to our roughing-it, we spent a good half an hour checking behind doors and in our beds for any creepy crawlies...luckily none to be found there! However, there was a whole array of spiders in the outdoor kitchen, which essentially was a couple of camp stoves in an army style mess. Gross! We were glad to survive the night there but were happy to have our free breakfast and head off onto our voyage to Adelaide!
After a pretty hot, and far longer than we had realised, drive, we arrived at Betty Robson's (no this isn't a cute b&b, but the Grandma of afore mentioned family!) We had a delightful stay with Betty, with home cooked food, Lemon and Lime Bitters and a room each. And of course her wonderful company and hilarious conversations - you've got to love a Betty!
After people telling us there was nothing to do in Adelaide, we actually enjoyed wandering around this nice city. There's lots of old school parliament buildings and we went to visit Ayer's House, where we learnt lots about Australia's history. The sun was shining, the shops were good and we visited another large market for lunchtime!
Betty offered to lend us her little car (we had ditched the rental by this point) so that we could explore a bit further afield and the South Australian hills. We had a lovely road trip around the Fleurieu Peninsula - lots more beautiful beaches and then a cheeky stop at the renowned vineyards!
Hahndorf was a crazy old German settlement, where we stopped for a look around the weirdy-beardy German shops and ate German cake. Yum yum! It was a delight. A quick look out over the city from Mount Lofty and then home to Betty for tea!
We finished off with an overnight bus trip back to Melbs where we experienced the incredible Greyhound, filled with bogan families readily dressed in their pyjamas at 5pm! Oh what a joy!
Christmas in Australia...here we come! (Ho ho ho!!!)
Thinking of you all, as always
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written by  coopsandbets on May 6, 2011 from Melbourne, Australia

Neighbours...everybody needs good neighbours!!
We spent the run up to Christmas back with the Robsons, who live in Hampton - nice suburb by the beach in Melbs, where apparently lots of celbs, like Eric Bana and Shane Warne reside! Well probably not anymore for Warney.... This was our time to mooch around after our fast paced few months of travelling - it was lush! Days were spent doing clothes-washing, lots of lie-ins and you won't believe it...a couple of gyms sessions (because New Zealand makes people fat FYI!) and far too much time was spent on this tossing website uploading just these few pictures for your viewing pleasure - hence why we have since not updated this for yonks, due to the traumatic memories! Think yourself lucky people!!!
But don't worry, we made sure that we explored lots of Melbourne too! In particular one rainy day was spent on a hop on hop off sightseeing bus, that we couldn't be bothered to get off, so happily went around all the main sights and looked at them all from a distance!!! At a later time, we did go and look a bit closer up, for example the Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens.
Our main Melbourne tour-guide was Alain (please make sure you say this in a french accent) who is Coops' English friend who has shacked up with an aussie sheila so that he can stay here forever (Bastard!) He took us to all the cool places, like all of the amazing 'laneways' which are filled with super cool little cafes, shops and bars.
He also introduced us to the wonderous place known as Max Brenner's, where we had delicious real chocolate frappucinos (and to this day Alain won't let Coops forget the fact that she asked for her mocha to be de-caff! The waiter was very confused and just replied "erm...it's just syrup!") We have also since had the hot chocolate version, which is just as amazing!
Alain also took us to his place of work - the Queen Victoria Markets. Imagine Borough market, but on a much bigger scale. In the daytimes it sells all kinds of fresh food, from cheese and ham, to vegetables, meat, bread and pastries.
But come Wednesday night, it changes into more of a Greenwich style market, with a whole load of clothes and accessories as well as cooked food stalls, for your munching pleasure! It was quite a military operation on our first visitation, to make sure that we made an informed decision on what to eat! After walking the entire length of the available stall options, only then could we decide what we would have! You may be interested to know Coops went for an African Style curry and Bets had some delicious noodles out of a giant wok! Coops made a rash decision on the dessert front, with a homemade cupcake, only to get food envy when Bets rolled up with her crepe filled with banana, icecream and chocolate sauce! So naturally, she thought 'to hell with it' and got one too! (Mixed berries, icecream and chocolate!) Again, she has not quite lived down Alain's abuse about her being a fat pie!
We were also very pleased that some of our New Zealand homies (Gemma, Mara and Kriss) were in Australia at this time as well...so we made sure that we met up with all of them for fun times! Gemma's b'day was the highlight with us all going to the market and then a fun night out on the tiles!
There were more investigations of other cool areas around Melbourne. Like Richmond, where Claire (on our second night in Australia) kindly took us on a night out with some her friends and she introduced us to the delights of crust pizza!! (It's like Fire&Stone in London). Brunswick street was another cool area, where we wandered around some of the charity shops by day and then picked up a bottle of wine from the 'liquor store' to drink it at the bar next door, by night. And unknowingly, an aussie celeb was sat next to us with her friends, who we later found out was Ruby Rose, a 'celesbian!' (Celebrity lesbian, obviously!)
St kilda is very popular with the backpackers, so we went for a mosey around the shops and the beach side market, where we both bought new rings made of cutlery! And on a windy walk out along the pier we discovered a little pinguino! There are also some nice restaurants, which we sampled a couple of and wandered through the nearby streets with Alain, checking out the cute little terraced houses, wondering which one we could live in! We tapped some amazing cake places for dessert too!
Chapel street is the place to be seen, with half cool little 'op shops' and the other some pretty swanky places like Louis Vuitton! (Sadly our budget restricted us to one end!) We had a nice, sunny, shopping day here helping Gems look for a pretty dress for her bday!
Also, whilst living it up in our cushty suburban lifestyle, we took to going for strolls along the nearby beach (because apparently we're retired?!?!) But it was lovely and we liked the multi-coloured Brighton beach huts a lot! (Brighton is the next suburb just along from Hampton).
It was on one of these occasions that Letty spotted a blowfish that had been washed up onto the beach and attempted to rescue it, by tentatively kicking it back it into the sea! Sadly, it did not pull through and Coops still claims that Bets killed it! We also saw a hilarious game of football on the beach by 3 santas!
As Christmas quickly approached, we decided we needed to make some preparations to get ourselves into the Christmas mood (due to the lack of festive spirit in Australia...unimpressed!) We decided to go to the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere, Chadstone, for our secret santas! We had a 'supermarket sweep' style dash around after we had set a budget and wished each other good luck (amongst the heaving crowds!) We also indulged ourselves in a cheeky mince pie! We then keenly wrapped up our goodies and put them under the tree....aka, Laura's backpack!
It really didn't feel like Christmas, particularly because of the hot weather and being away from home, so needless to say it was interesting! Especially when Christmas dinner consisted of a huge seafood platter instead of turkey! We were brave enough to try an oyster for the first time, but...let's just say it didn't go down well!
Christmas went past very quickly and we were soon frantically making arrangements for our long awaited New Year's in Sydney! We couldn't wait!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS everybody!!! (It's only 5 months late!!!)
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written by  coopsandbets on May 7, 2011 from Melbourne, Australia

"baby you're a fireworrrrk!!!"
Sydney, Australia
The plan was always to spend New Year in Sydney. But we never quite managed to factor in the actual need of somewhere to stay, so with just a couple of days before the big day approached, we suddenly realised that all of our spongeing options had fallen seriously by the wayside (yes, Martin we're looking at you!) With a mad panic of contacting every possible friend/relation to see if they knew ANYONE in the Sydney area, we started to worry that our dream of watching fireworks over the harbour would soon be dashed! But the gods shined down upon us as one glorious morning, when Coops woke up to a text message from the best sister in the world, Miss Wendy Cooper, to say that she had found us a place to stay!! Hallelulah!!!!
Our last day in Melbs was spent with Alain in the glorious sunshine with a lovely luncheon overlooking Brighton beach and then some explorations around the city in the car to see a few places we'd missed off the list - like driving along the Formula 1 track!! Sweeeet! Then in the evening we met his lovely fiance (now wife) Kerry for drinks and the most anxious and rushed dinner as all of a sudden we realised that we actually had very little time to catch our very important overnight bus. Once we had inhaled our food, and sent Kerry to go pick up the car that we'd left all our worldy belongings in, we headed there separately so that we could at least make sure we were checked in in-time and stop the bus from leaving without us. Whilst waiting for a tram, the reality actually sunk in and Coops' words "are we getting to the stage where we should really be thinking about getting a taxi??" were followed by an incredibly speedy agreement from Alain as he threw himself in front of the nearest taxshi-keb! Our panic was not over, when we then arrived at the bus station (the bus was still there thank god!) but Kerry and our bags were nowhere to be seen! We all stood in complete silence on the street corner, before Alain started running up and down the street trying to call her and flagging down any car that could possibly resemble theirs! With minutes to spare she did a swerving u-turn up to the kerb and we grabbed everything ("make sure you don't forget the cookies!!!!!!") and ran (more like hobbled!) inside blowing kisses and thank yous as we went! Only to find out we had been given a seat number that didn't actual exist - clearly they employ very intelligent bus drivers - luckily this meant that we did have a seat, but it was the ones that don't recline and are next to the stinky toilet - great. Adding to this, at about midnight Coops discovered cockroaches down the side of her seat and definitely couldn't get comfortable after that!!
We arrived into Sydney feeling very dazed and confused, but excited! Especially when we got the train to circular quay and saw the opera house in the sunshine through the windows - it was amazing. We hopped on the Manly ferry and soon found ourselves at our new pad. Our flatmate for the week was to be Paula...and we've never had such a tenuous link- Wendy's work colleague had an old friend (from about 20 years ago) who had just moved back to Manly and her flatmate was away over new year! So amazingly, we landed ourselves a lush double bed in an apartment overlooking Manly harbour - jammy....we think so!
Paula was super lovely and for the first few days we actually didn't see that much of her so kept communicating by a series of notes left out on the kitchen table. After we had bonded, she kindly offered to take us on a day trip up through the Northern Beaches...finishing in the most famous beach of all.....SUMMER BAY!!!!
Sadly they were not filming that day, so we will have to wait and see if we meet our future husbands later on.... But we had all the necessary photo opportunities in front of the surfclub and the lifesavers buggy (and slightly unfortunately picked up a parking ticket whilst we were doing so....Sorry Paula!) All of the beaches are really lush with really golden sand and there are some pretty swanky houses up there, looking out over the sea. Manly itself is really lovely and Bets remembered lots of happy memories from being here before. (Even though she took quite a while to work out why the beach looked so different - turns out theres a beach on both sides!!)
So the end of 2010 was nigh and we awoke on New Years Eve to a beautiful, hot day and obviously had to stock up on all the necessary picnic delights to take down to the harbour to watch the fireworks. Our initial plans were to meet up with Gemma and her friends, (yes Gems is now in Sydney too!) in a spot they had bagsied near Luna Park on the north shore! However, after the nightmares of public transport, NYE road closures and the threat of having our alcohol taken off us, we got sidetracked and found our own little spot.
We settled down with our picnic in a very cute little bay, with lots of other families and young peeps and tucked in to our goodies and poured ourselves some goon goodness from its very subtle hiding spot inside the cold bag!! Every time a policeman walked past we pooed ourselves slightly and tried unsuccessfully to 'play it cool!' After drinking games for two and getting rid of some of the weight in the food bag, we ventured around the bay to try and meet Gems. We then got side-tracked again by some Swedish guys and girls we had met earlier on in our bus adventures and were lured into their party pack. This was the beginning of the end as we managed to finish a 5 litre box of wine and nearly a whole bottle of vodka - eek! Whilst mingling, we managed to lose each other on more than one occasion, but had a great time anyway and met lots of fun people! And luckily we managed to re-convene with only minutes to spare before the countdown!
All of a sudden the sky was lit up and we turned to each other with huge grins on our faces, squealing "oh my god....we're actually here!!" The next fifteen minutes was spent, faces upwards, necks aching, but completely mesmerised by all the different types of fireworks and the typical ooohhs and ahhhhs that accompanied them! It was awesome. The night continued into the small hours with lots of joviality. We did meet up with Gems eventually - turns out she had only been about 10 metres away from us the whole time - after we found a ridiculous number of missed calls and drunken voicemails on our phones, oops! There was a very long bus journey back to Manly and you could say we were a little inebriated when we got off the bus and walked in completely the wrong direction home!!!
2011 was definitely off to a good start - we couldn't believe we were actually living in Australia - WOOOOOOO!!! Lots of exciting adventures ahead.....
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written by  coopsandbets on May 14, 2011 from Sydney, Australia

January blues
Sydney, Australia
Sadly our time in our luxurious pad in Manly was up....so we had to wave a fond farewell to Paula and get the ferry back to circular quay and make our way to the inner west suburbs and our new abode in Glebe. We felt very sorry for ourselves as we checked back into a hostel for the first time in quite a while, but we managed to find quite a good spot by the windows in one of the ridiculously huge rooms.
Over the month that we actually ended up staying here we saw plenty of people come and go - one of them, Chanty (said in an Essex trying to be posh accent!) had us mesmerised by her sheer lack of general knowledge about the world and were stunned when she told us that she'd just climbed kilimanjaro!!! Her best "friend" was, in the nicest possible way, an annoying skanky ho...who didn't put sheets on her bed the whole time she was there and left all her crap all over the floor!
We blame her for the trauma that was.....one morning when Laura was in the shower one of the German girls in our dorm threw herself off her top bunk screaming....Bets turned around to see what can only be described as a saucer sized mother of a spider (think tarantula thick legs) crawling its way around the ceiling above this poor girls bed. Needless to say chaos ensued! Coops was instructed to not look anywhere so as to be able to continue getting dressed whilst Bets kept an eye on its movements. We thought it had gone away to its hiding hole when all of a sudden it moved at lightning speed across the ceiling and then without warning dropped to the floor (who knew spiders would just drop for no apparent reason...little bastard!) and headed straight towards us sending a room full of screaming girls jumping onto anything elevated and Coops dashing out the door to yells of "GO AND GET HELP!!!!!" She returned with the receptionist armed with some killer bug spray and after much moving of bags and beds the poor spider was no more. (Coops does not agree with this last statement - she says "god intended it to die.")
Other characters in the dorm included...the girl who felt the need to sleep naked, the 18 year old private school girl who kept talking about her "gap yaaaa" in india, the annoying dutch girl who literally hated laura after she finished the communal cornflakes at breakfast time and various other annoying travellers (not to stereotype at all, but Germans are really not the best room mates!) So it goes without saying that we were desperate to escape!! Especially considering every time we cooked dinner, we emerged feeling lucky to be alive after the death trap of the kitchen. Literally, pots and pans precariously piled to the ceiling in the sinks, saucepans with no handles full of boiling water being carried around using teatowels and far too many people in one space. Oh and there were no forks. Ever. You will be surprised to hear that there was actually a cleaner, Mark, but he was weird and kept trying to be our friend and cook our meals for us as he thought he was an amazing chef. We think he was a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic!
Glebe however was a really nice area in the studenty part of town (altho there weren't actually any students because of the holidays) filled with lots of cute cafes and charity shops where we discovered the amazing vinnies and stocked up on lots of cheap books!
Job and flat hunting ensued in earnest through the month of January and we probably spent a small fortune on using the internet. It was a weird reality hit to be doing up our CVs and emailing all the agencies around Sydney. Days were then spent going in and out of the city, registering with them and being told "there's not much work available at the moment!" We did not appreciate this advice. Inteviews happened....we were actually placed against each other for more than one position (we hate agencies) but it felt like things kept falling through and we started to get a bit annoyed and down as we watched our savings dwindle away (apparently Sydney is the most expensive place to live in Australia!!! Great!)
And typically, if we had of been working we would of got an extra days holiday as it was their national bank holiday, Australia Day - an excuse for a big piss up!! Do not fear, we made sure we made the most of this and headed to The Rocks where there was a fun music festival happening to cheer ourselves up! It was a scorcher of a day and we enjoyed sitting in the sun and moving between the many different stages and discovering some totally cool new bands! Gemma and her fun new house mates joined us - yay we have friends!
By the end of January things were starting to look up. After hours scrolling through GumTree and going to visit some 'interesting' places we finally found our new home near Darling Harbour....Unit 98/336 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000!!! It's very teeny but a really good location right in the city and we can see the sky tower from our balcony (yes we have a balcony) that looks out over our swimming (yes we have a swimming pool)!! We were lucky to be living with a really sweet spanish couple (who try their hardest to speak English, despite living in England for a year they can barely managed a sentence without dropping back into Spanish, hilarious!) and oh yes did we mention...theres a chinese man in the lounge?!?! No he didn't just get lost on his way to the local chinese restaurant (we're essentially in china town) but this is actually the norm here where landlords try to bundle as many students and travellers into one place as physically possible! He has a sheet separating him from the lounge, so that makes it totally normal right?!?!
We were so excited to move in and actually be able to unpack. We've made it our own little place with pictures of all you lovely people and our Australian flags on the wall of our bedroom! (Because we now consider ourselves Australian citizens!) With the pillows that we had stolen from the hostel (do you know how expensive household things are here?!?) we made a delightful double bed for the both of us (yes we are sharing!) with a sleeping bag for a doona! We are poor :-( Please send money to address above :-)
After the hell that is recruitment agencies (did we mention we hate them?) we both managed to find some work. Bets found herself not so glamorously in a call centre for a month, luckily not actually making sales calls but just putting stroppy businessmen through to their conference calls. The only redeeming factor of this was the free dominos lunches and finding a new bestie from New Zealand, Hannah. Luckily whilst here, Bets found out that, through some good contacts, she had got a marketing job in a charity (old habits die hard!) Soon she was tottering off to work in the cool area of Paddington where it turns out she actually has quite a bit of responsibility as Direct Marketing Coordinator at The Benevolent Society!
Coops on the other hand started off changing the future of contraception, in the most full on temp job she's ever had. When the offer of an actual events job came through she jumped at the chance, even though it was an hours train ride away in South West Sydney! This was to be the best job ever, as she got to meet a home and away hottie whilst organising a community festival day in her new role as Events Officer for Campbelltown City Council! Just an fyi, Campbelltown is slightly less glamorous than Paddington because of the terrifying bogans, tramps and teenage mums who reside there, which makes Peckham look like Notting Hill.
It was great to be settled down and working, but the reality of the 9-5 was a bit of a shocker!!! This wasn't supposed to be part of "living the dream!!!!!!!" Here's to our new life in Sydney......
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written by  coopsandbets on May 20, 2011 from Sydney, Australia

"i want to be somebody, i want to go somewhere...."
Even though we are now busy, important, working girls...we make sure we spend our hard-earned cash on doing fun activities in and around Sydney. To give you a bit of a run-down, here are some of the good bits..... (Yes, this is going to be brief, we are hanging!!)
Taronga Zoo: pretty much the first thing on our list to do (obvo!) and it definitely didn't disappoint. Seal displays, snoozing koalas, weird and wonderful native creatures (especially the ones in the dark!) and lush views down over the harbour! It was also during this excursion that we saw the wonder that is 'monkey poo dinner.' At first we were amazed to see two chimps hugging, just like real people, but then started to get a little confused as they then proceeded to pick poo out of their own and each other's bums. Well, the rest you can guess. Bets gagged and had to walk away, but Coops stared on in amazement and thought it was hilarious!!!!
Sky tower: After a traumatising simulated information ride where Coops thought she was going to throw up everywhere, we went up like a bejillion floors to check out the views and spent a long time working out where everything was on the streets below saying "they look like ants from up here!!!!" (Said in Russian accent please!) Including looking for our flat and just checking that people wouldn't be able to see us if we were naked!
Markets: So many delights to be found at the super cool vintage weekend markets! Glebe is our fave of course, but also Paddington, Balmain and Rozelle! Good times, but also bad as we had to sadly walk away from things that our backpacker budgets would not allow!
Festivals: All through the summer there was loads of fun free festivals happening in various locations around Sydney, in particular Hyde Park. We enjoyed sitting out on the grass and getting some tasters of new filems, music and comedy. One of the best was Tropfest, a short film festival, where Joseph Fiennes was skyping in to be a judge and Coops pretty much jizzed in her pants!!! There was also the craziness that is Sydney Mardi Gras, with roads closed everywhere and everyone and his wife getting dressed up for the occasion...mental! (Did we mention there are a lot of gays here?!?!)
Good vibrations: Possibly the wettest day in Sydney, ever, so we decided to spend it outside at this music festival. We macked up and got our rave on!
Trots: Some of you maybe thinking this is some kind of stomach condition...it was in fact the chariot racing that we went to watch with Coops' work peeps! It was hilarious, with horses only being allowed to trot (hence the name) to pull along these little flimsy chariots where the jockey is about a centimetre off the ground. We didn't win any of our bets (clearly we're not cut out for this gambling malarky!) but we did have a ruddy marvelous evening and discovered the delights of good seafood, with an enormous platter of tasty things and Coops going "eat the octopus!!!!" Think: smoked salmon, crab, scallops, prawns, octopus and sushi - did we tell you we now like sushi?!?!? (We are officially grown up!)
Beach time: Making the most of the true aussie way of life, enjoying many a day spent roasting on the beaches of Bondi, Coogee and Manly and of course checking out the resident life guards at each of them. Standard. Bondi Rescue is our new found favourite tv show...and we think every beach should have this drama!
Blue mountains: A very spontaneous trip was taken with Letty's friend Hannah on the train to Katoomba, where we went to the lookout point, Echo Point, and Coops' grumpily saying "well they don't bloody look blue." But we were all amazed by the vastness - its like a bushy grand canyon (coops' words fyi!!!!) We also found the weirdest, morman cafe where we ate dinner and took delicious cake, ice cream and coffee for the train ride home. Ahhhhh...
Aquarium: We don't quite understand why Australians feel the need to re-name animals but we saw some really cute 'Dugongs' aka mannatees, loads of fishies (they're all pretty ugly really!), seahorses, jellyfish, sharks, turtles and the biggest stingrays you've ever seen!
Wildlife world: The biggest croc in Australia (Rex) was what lured us into this place, but to be fair he looked dead - Rex is very lazy. He was big though!! Bets had to guide Coops through an entire insect section with her eyes closed to avoid any spider sightings. And this was the first time we got to see a wombat...they are so squidgey!!!!
Cinema tuesdays: We always make sure we have some 'couple time' for our regular date night, good uns have included Barney's version, Thor, Hangover 2, Arthur, Water for Elephants. Bad ones: red riding hood. (It's wank).
Nights out: We have had to truely immerse ourselves in the way of living out here, which has meant a lot of nights in gay bars and befriending hairdressers. In our early days of ignorance, we ended up stumbling across a strip club in Kings Cross - awkward!!! Plenty of fun times have been had in Paddington pubs and bars and a couple of swanky bars in the city. Including going for bevvies in the Shangri-La hotel with Emma (Coops's sister Wendy's friend!)
Booze cruise: We started the Paddy's day weekend with a booze cruise filled with a load of irish football players, drinking yet more goon and clinging on to the ceiling as we struggled to stand on the rocking boat!!! A couple of glimpses outside to check that we were still in the harbour, but we may as well of been in a pub!!!!
Gigs: Even though the music scene isn't great here (and gigs are frigging expensive), we were missing our London gig nights, so indulged in some smaller gigs on Oxford Street. One crazy night involved a chinese girl called Rainbow Chan playing the glochenspiel!! Genius!
Bondi to coogee and Manly to spit walks: Both of these were very nice wanders along the beautiful coastline on lovely sunny days! Once again, we turned up dressed inappropriately when Emma, our tour guide, was dressed in head to toe lycra and trainers and said "this isn't fun, it's exercise!!!!"
Roller derby: This really was a case of having to be seen to be believed. This popular 'girl on girl' sport has randomly taken off in Australia. We watched in amazement as unattractive lesbians circled around a small basketball court and dooshed each other out their way as they went!!! Hilarious!!!
Travel information continued.... Some areas of interest.
Surry hills: So many cafes and restaurants, which are delightful for sunday brunch time and delicious cupcakes. And we finally got to go to the infamous 'Winery', when we were treated by a family friend. Dessert...don't mind if I do!!
Darling Harbour: A place also very close to our hearts is Darling Harbour, as we pretty much live there!! Although the restaurants are a bit pricey for all the tourists, we like walking around and feeling like we're on holiday again with all of the restaurants, street entertainment and shwanky yachts!
Inner West: Lots of cool, quirky suburbs like Glebe, Rozelle, Leichardt which are nice for window shopping, cwaffee and general wanders.
Watson's bay: Beautiful bay on the harbour with lots of houses looking out over the water and a very cute chish and fips place on the wharf (we are yet to sample this) and Coops discovered an amazing icecream with chopped nuts from the ice cream van!
North shore: Neutral bay, Mosman, Cremorne...essentially where 'the other half live.'
Cronulla: Even though it was pissing down and we had to walk through the town with no shoes on due to serious slipping, Bets wanted to take a walk down memory lane as this is where Mummy Barry resided when she lived in Australia. Yummy italian food and vino whilst watching the surfers out in the sea and a quick walk along the beach where Bets collected some pink shells. (Coops isn't sure quite what she is planning on doing with them, but apparently she just needs more!)
Needless to say there has been plenty of food sampling going on all the while. As we have realised the theme to our trip is....food. With some cuddley animals on the side!
Please can we go now? We are still hungover. Over and out xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
written by  coopsandbets on June 3, 2011 from Sydney, Australia

holidaaay, celebraaate!!
As you should all know there were two very special dates in April and May that needed to be celebrated......our 25th birthdays of course!!! Dear God...when did we hit mid-twenties?!? (Yes Alain, we are only JUST into our mid-twenties, FACT).
Laura set the standard, with a lot of 'secret plannings' for Bets b'day weekend, in order to account for all missing family and friends! Due to our new found love of sushi, we had a group outing with Lauren and Gemma to the Ivy (a ridiculously swanky club here) where they have a really cool sushi train restaurant as well. There was a lot of looking and smelling the different dishes to try and figure out what the ingredients were and some were swiftly put back on the conveyor belt!! The dumplings were the favourite, but it was deeelish and we left feeling sushi-stuffed!! This was followed by cheers with bubbly at the Opera bar looking at the harbour bridge and Gemma and Laura saying 'WHEN have you ever had your birthday...." followed by....in australia/looking at the harbour bridge/next to the opera house etc!!
The rest of the weekend was a mixed bag of joyful activities, including a sunny day spent at the Surry Hills festival listening to music and chomping down on tasty foods with Hannah and (her sister) Olivia and the evening was spent at Mags and Ross's warehouse/caravan park of a house. This can't really be explained, but think at least 5 caravans inside a warehouse with Ross sleeping in a harry potter style room under the stairs and Mags in the loft with a ladder for a staircase. It's mental, but somehow for them, it works. We had a hilarious eve drinking, dancing and general tomfoolery with all the random articles they have accumulated (ahem...stolen) around the place, including kermit the frog!!! The move onto the nightclub/bar wasn't quite so successful, when we found ourselves in a slightly terrifying, hardcore gay bar!!!!
On the actual day, (which was a Monday) Bets awoke to find balloons all over the flat, including next to her on the pillow, and hundreds of post it notes hidden in every possible hiding place, including the one later found in her lunch box!!! Sadly to say, the day was spent at work as usual (we are responsible adults now of course) but they did provide a $50 birthday cake, which gave Coops food envy!! A very exciting evening was to come, when Coops met her date from work for an amazing 'love supreme' pizza and present time!!! Then Coops had to hail a taxi while Bets covered her ears as the destination was given to the driver....it was only as we started to pull up outside the Opera House that Bets worked out where we were going! At the top of the stairs, Coops revealed the big birthday surprise was...going to see Madame Butterfly, the ballet!!! AMAZING. It was definitely a birthday never to be forgotten and we both left wanting to be ballet dancers. The night wasn't over though, as then Coops sat Bets down for a singsong and a birthday cupcake looking out over the harbour - deelightful!!!
The next day, we very excitedly had a holiday to go on!!!! We packed up a ridiculously large amount of stuff and met each other at the check in desks of Sydney domestic airport!!! We were going to Noosa - where we had been kindly invited to the beachside wedding of Alain and Kerry!
Noosa is a gorgeous holiday spot in Queesland and we were delighted to find that it was still super warm up there! Day one was spent being boys for the day on Alain's stag do!!! This involved a hilarious surf lesson with all the guys and needless to say lots of messing around, but it was much fun and we both managed to "catch a few waves man!!!!" whilst swallowing copious amounts of sea water and exposing far too much of ourselves as we clambered over those damn boards!!! Despite being provided with the 'rashy' vests (to protect you from rub-bage from the board) Coops' delicate thighs definitely suffered the brunt of her exercions and returned home with red raw scabbiness!!! Bleurrrghh!!
The evening was where it all really kicked off. It started with a nice sophisticated dinner, as Alain insisted it was going to be low key evening. But he was soon told to man up and strap on a pair - "its your bloody stag do!!!" This resulted in a lot of abuse written on his 'STAG' t-shirt and soon followed with tequila shots that we may have provided him (just as someone goes, "whatever you do, don't get him tequila!") The rest is a blur of very silly antics....including the decision to draw on peoples faces instead of just the boring t-shirt, and Coops unfortunately ending up with an expletive all over her back, jaegerbombs, running man on the dance floor, be-friending the dj, Letty getting lost for at least an hour, people falling asleep on club sofas and sadly at the end of the night there may have been some puking! We can only blame ourselves for trying to be boys and get the stag wasted (we succeeded) but also took ourselves down in the mean time!!!
Day two: Hangover from hell circa October 2010, Isla Mujeres. We made it out of bed to venture to the local chicken shop at around 7pm. It was a dark day for both of us.
The rest of the trip was spent with days on the beach and enjoying lush coastal rainforest walks. The town is really cute and we kept bumping into our new found wedding friends for iced coffees, breakfasts and lunches! Spiffing. We also ventured to the nearby ridonculously huge Eumundi markets!
The big day soon rolled around and we were excited to get ourselves spruced up. But, just as we were leaving, it started to spit with rain!! At the spot on the beach, guests like us huddled under the trees to try and stay dry and there was a bit of frantic decision making going on whether to change to the indoor venue!! But Kerry was determined and someone was obviously smiling down on them because, just as she arrived, the rain stopped and stayed off for the whole of the lovely, intimate ceremony! It was gorgeous and the pictures will definitely look even better with the stormy clouds in the distance! We then all made our way down the beach to the bistro overlooking the water for lots of delicious canapes, free-flowing champagne and pimms and a deelish 3 course meal! And the piece de resistance was a cheese wedding cake - think 3 tiers of the finest australian brie, blue cheese and one hard cheese! Bets nearly jizzed in her pants and got cheese drunk! Speeches were funny, company was great and dancing was hilarious (including a really weird version of bohemian rhapsody!!)
We love Noosa and hope Alain and Kerry have many a happy year together. Looking forward to Melbs times!!
Just the other weekend (yes people we're up to date) it was the little ones turn for an Australian birthday too! The birthday weekend commenced with drinks and a yummy meal at the winery (again) with Emma.
Coops was then woken at 7am on the actual day with Bets dancing to Stevie Wonders' Happy birthday in her pjs and hoodie and balloons flailing around in her hands....for the entire 3:50 mins of the song! The big reveal came when an orange spaceship (campervan) named Max, covered in balloons, sat in the carpark that our flat overlooks! After a lot of unexpected confusion "what...I don't understand!?!?" Bets spelt out to Coops that she had hired the campervan for a road trip around New South Wales!!
Setting off out of Sydney, with Coops donning her birthday tiara and eating the chocolates sent by special delivery from Wenners, Bets had to swiftly cut the balloons off the aerial whilst leaning out the window when stopped at traffic lights (yes, she was the one driving!) We headed South and quickly made our way out of the city, stopping for a picnic lunch (Bets had secretly packed a lot of foodly goods for the weekend) sat overlooking a beautiful lake within the Royal National Park.
Then the day was spent with lots of nice views looking out over the sea (we tried but didn't spot any whales!) and stopped off in cute bays and some pretty little spots (like Garie beach!) We arrived into our home for the night - the National Park at Jervis Bay - just as it was dark and we started to feel a little concerned that we would essentially be in the middle of nowhere! We quickly changed pre-dinner into some sexy (NOT) warm attire so that we didn't freeze our balls off but then just as we ventured out, we were greeted by a guy from the nearby roaring fire who invited us over. We swiftly then scrapped the unattractive warm clothes and donned something a bit more presentable! We joined the 4 lovely guys (think Dads on a boys kayaking weekend) in their ridiculsouly huge "area" where they had set up everything including an actual kitchen sink! They fed us spag bol and red wine and we had a delightul evening around the fire playing word association games! Coops was even treated to a cupcake with a lit match for a candle and a beautiful rendition of happy birthday from our new happy camper friends! We also went for a little night time safari with the David Attenborough of the group and found Kangaroos and wallabies just a short distance away from us! It was a completely random way for Coops to spend her 25th birthday, but was so fun and won't be forgotten!
The next morning after our coco pops and chocolate milk and a sighting of about 4 kookaburras that had been lured in by bacon, we went for a walk along the beach which had the whitest sand in the world! We couldn't believe it! We couldn't stay there forever though as we headed off to see more amazing landscapes, like Kangaroo Valley, with lunch spent looking out over some oldies playing bowls with a dramatic, hilly backdrop. We're not going to lie, some wrong turns were taken, but this was all part of the adventure of course! Including one diversion into a National Park that time had forgotten!
Our second night was spent in Kiama - a very cute seaside town with its star attraction, a blowhole! We slept pretty much on the beach so breakfast was spent watching some boogey boarders in our pjs on some beachside grass! The nearby area of Jamberoo randomly has a rainforest, so we went for a walk amongst the seriously huge trees!
We were very sad when we had to return to Sydney and give Max back, as the beautiful countryside of New South Wales had given us itchy feet for more adventures..........
Luckily, we are planning our next phase of travels!! We are leaving Sydney in t- minus 5 days to venture up the East coast!!! Woooooo!!!
So long Sydney, it's been emotional!!!!! We'll be writing again from warmer Northern climes.....(We bloody hope, Sydneys turned arctic!!!!)
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written by  coopsandbets on June 10, 2011 from Sydney, Australia

7m waterfall drop! we are hardcore!

Which way is up?! Am I still alive?!?! Do I need to swim?!?

yes...that little yellow blob is somebody's helmet!!!

Everyone smile for the camera!

Big smiles!

Us "surfing" in the rapid!

"Paddle, hold on, get DOWN!"

Totally fun rafting times

Still getting drowned!!

The ever supportive best friend, as Coops gets drowned!

The super cool instructor thought it would be HILARIOUS to repeatedly soak Coops under the rapid, whilst Bets points and laughs!!!

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream....

You look like aants from up heaar!!!

"again, again, again!"

Bets looking totally cool before her 'fall of death'!

Can we stay here please?!

Just in time for rum and coke!

A quick stroll around the main square

5 second photo opportunity when the mist cleared!

Being rainy, wet and about to jump in freezing pools! wooooooo!

Spider monkey at Rincon de la vieja national park

too cool for school!

Just before being told to strip down and jump in the rapids!

the rather rickety ferry service

slightly disappointing toucan! rubbish!

agouti.....just before it attacked Bets as she chowed down noisily on a large packet of crisps whilst the guide was trying to educate us on the mayan ruins! haha!

WENDY.....look........she's weaving!!!

Vibrant street life and mexican mans bum!

breakfast time overlooking the sea

Pretty flowers

Market time

The crazy contrasting scenery

A really authentic tour guide....NOT

Gum boots

Sand dunes in the distance

Which way to go?!?

People getting naked when it was frigging freezing (we opted out!!)

Says it all....

Sunset over the lake

Mount Tongariro

ahahaha.....the wine tour definitely took its toll on Bets

Don't mind if i do!

View from top of cable car

Best ice creams EVER

Coops pondering life

Split apple rock

WTF!!! Lazy kayakers cheating on the way home

I don't smoke de reefa!

Cormorants chilling on the rocks

So traumatising

Yaayyy....I'm so freaking cold!!!

Letty and phil, the birthday boy

Even if you're drowning, make sure you're dancing!!

Our little hut where movie night with the girlies took place

The hilarious and very serious instructions at the maze

Coops couldn't get enough of these fun toilets

The hilarity of puzzling world

Hugging for warmth!

The views en route to horse riding (lots of filem locations!!!)

Our home for 6 weeks

I'll take that one pleash

Bets, ever the professional

Horseriding times!!

Our cool matching macs!!

Beautiful valley for horse riding

Wind and rain battered and abused!

Crazy restaurant bathroom water feature!!!

Nyum nyum nyum

The beautiful train station

Larnach castle

Sexy dinner ladies

This van was actually used back in the day!!

Sunbathing sealy

More fun seals

Just going cruising in our argo truck!

Scary, raged elephant seal

Lush views

It's feeding time!

Dinosaur egg boulders....FACT

So close you can almost touch it!

How cool are we?

Walking across the plain

Mount doom!

The long way up!

The red crater

Beautiful turquoise pools

See, we've had snow too!

Betty about to jump! The walk had got too hard!

Sleepy times after a hard days hike

See....you can't see anything! :-(

On route stop off, somewhere between wanaka and queenstown!

Albatross spotting

Larnach castle grounds

This beach hasn't been walked on for 10 years (Can you spot the penguin?!)

Random bird on Otago peninsula

National geographic would be proud

He looked like a dinosaur

Sperm whale

I believe I can fly!

Amazing dolphins :-)

Hmmm....there seems to be a lake in my way!!!

Laura's first attempt of skiing (plenty of bum landings!!)

Otago peninsula

The BEST fish and chips

Random old car rally through the streets

Before the lights went out....

Looking sexy, waiting for death!!!

The view of Mount Doom and Tongariro in the distance!

Cathedral Cove

Enjoying wine time!

Wendy and pesh.....this is for you!

Coops turned deck hand

Don't mess with her

The fairy godmother gone wong

Coops preparing for a messy dinner

Coops having it out with trouble, the driver

We forced the coach to stop for this photo opportunity!

The intrepid explorers

You want me to go down where?!

We made it!

Phil's birthday plus one upside down cake

Kriss decided this was a comfy place to sleep right before we bundled him!!!

Bets and Lucy

Getting ready in our hu-age hostel room

The girlies

Homies Gemma and Kriss

One of many hilarious tea pot shots!

Will we make it to the other side?!?

Looking cool, calm and collected on her first pony

Everybody loves the ferg burger

Letty got annoying, so she found a new travel buddy!

Ferrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!!!

WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING ME?!?!?!

Give it to me!!!!

Sooo cute!

Some earthquake damaged buildings

Just like cambridge

YMCA....obvo!

Cow bum...hahaha

Our new BFF Gemma

The ever classy Base bar

Meh meh meh meh

A naughty young un jumping off the bridge

Time for tea!

I am having fun in the rainy cold...i am honestly!!! :-S

Main square

Alone in the caves

Hilarious hostel decorations!!

Hilarious hostel rules!!

Tuk tuk time!

This was only for photographic effect....of course we didnt actually climb this street!!

Artistic shot after the rainy walk on Volcan Pacaya

Coops new business venture

Waiting for the bus out of town

Sun rise

Friendly sharks!

Snorkling on the reef

Yummy wobster

Just chilling with my parrot homie

Beautious

Dinner time!!

Trying to not fall over!

Tan time on the beach

I carried a watermelon?!

Skull carving

More ruins!

Mayan ruins

Noisy howler monkeys

Festive decorations up the church steps

There were beetles everywhere

Random outside gym equipment by the church

Our lovely hostel

Exploring the city

Palm tree right next to the cathedral!

A proper looking toucan, but sadly in a cage :-(

Night of ultimate doom

Number 1...drunk. Number 2....armless?!?!

The drunken cluedo commences

Baptiste working his magic

Do we look tanned yet?!

A perfect sunny day

Coops, Dylan and Baptiste!

Errr....is that one dead?!?!

Woop woop....its a golf cart!!!!!

GIANT turtle!

Pelicans

Another fantastic hostel and Bets trashing the joint!

We're not too sure where Laura's facial hair came from....

Letty's idol