Intermittent Internet...

Grrr... It's hard to go back to life without internet. These days I'm restricted to sporadic visits to McDonald's to use their free WiFi.

It's not that big a deal but it definitely makes it more difficult to keep in touch with people. I've been out and about every day since I arrived in Gold Coast but just haven't been able to update my blog much or check Facebook.

So I'll give you a brief recount of the past few days.

The day after arriving back from Lake Moogerah I took a drive into New South-Wales to climb Mount Warning (sounds ominous doesn't it). The trip began by instantly regaining an hour of my life- The state of Queensland is one of the few places in the world that still hasn't accepted the logic of Daylight Savings. Hense I could drive due south and still change time zones. Weird! Mount Warning is a dormant/deceased/dead/no-longer-gonna-erupt volcano situated in a rain forest just an hour drive from the Gold Coast.  I think the summit is about 1,000 metres high so it was a pretty strenuous hike, but I was told that the view from the top was worth seeing.  You can imagine my joy as clouds started rolling in when I was about half way up. They kept coming and it wasn't long before the mountain was completely surrounded. As for the view... just imagine pressing cotton balls against your eyes and you'll get the picture. It had taken me a few hours to get to the top and I was gutted!

I waited at the top for over an hour and a half before there was a brief break in the clouds. Finally we got a glimpse and the chance to take a few snaps. By that point I was sweaty and tired so it was time to climb back down. The mountains I'm planning to climb in New Zealand rise to three or four thousand metres so I guess I'll have to do some more training!

Yikes this entry is getting long so I better speed up.

Then next night a group of us went to the drive-in to watch The Green Hornet and Unstoppable. It was a good laugh and another opportunity to meet new people.

Yesterday we took a trip to Brisbane to watch the cricket. It was a great day's fun, especially because there were a few England fans sitting near us.

Today I'm making plans to go to Byron Bay for a few days. This is supposed to be a pretty cool location full of hippies and surfers. Then I'll start looking into heading down to Sydney before flying to NZ. Busy busy busy.

Sorry there are no pics, but this connection can't handle it.

Hope you're all well. Please send me a little e-mail and let me know what you're up to.