Jocelyn's View: We got into Oz a couple of days ago and we've made a lot of progress. We bought and paid for our car today in cold hard cash ($2,500 Oz dollars = $1,200 US dollars). It's so awesome. It's exactly what we pictured living in for the rest of our trip. We looked around at some other places, but we found the best deal right across the street. It's got a portable gas stove and it's got 2 big coolers that we can keep our sandwich meat and cold stuff with ice. It's got a new engine, and 4 brand new tires. It's had its safety inspection and the only thing that it's really missing is a working heater. Which sucks because it's cold down here in Sydney (50 degrees and rainy), but it comes with a portable heater that we can plug into the car lighter. It also doubles as a fan. But friends tell us it's warm up north, where we're heading so we're not too worried.

We've been staying in King's Cross in Sydney and have seen some crazy stuf! For starters, it's packed full of sex shops, strip shows, freak shows and heroine addicts. But if that's not enough to keep ya busy worrying about us, today, on our way back from buying our car we went by this homeless shelter to get our laundry and there were all these heroine addicts outside. They starting talking to us and saw that we had a video camera and asked if we wanted to film them shooting up. We politely declined, but I know we'll lose much sleep over the thought of missing that quality material (yeah right, pretty sketchy). He was heating dog food up on a portable stove and sharing it with the dog. To tell you honestly, I don't know who needed it more the dog, or the dude.

Anyhow, tonight we're off to downtown Sydney to meet some guys from our boat trip, and then we're heading over to the Harbor tomorrow to sight see (the Zoo, Aquarium, Museum, China town, and maybe if we're feeling gentile and demur enough, we may even see an opera.) We figure, we'll spend all our money on sight seeing now, since we'll be saving heaps on transportation (because we're selling the van back for what we bought it for) and we'll be sleeping in the back on the bed for the rest of the trip. Anyway, it'll be a little harder to email everyone on this part of my trip, because we won't be staying right next door to an internet cafe like in Bali. But I'll get one out at least once a week, maybe more. We'll be staying in the parking lots of beaches a lot, so we won't be right in the town.

Katie's View: Sydney is much different from Indo but it's been a trip. Yesterday we did some sightseeing mostly watching Vagrants, Transvestites, Schitzos and some run of the mill perverts. No place is complete w/o them. Since we've been on vacation we have learned most importantly to listen to our instincts. As luck and fate would have it, we found the exact van both of us had envisioned complete w/ bed, cooler, supplies comfort and rust. It is soooo cool. I have to shift on the steering wheel. Driving on the opposite side of the road is strange but not that difficult. Unfortunately, the roof racks did have a disagreement with the ceiling of the Kings Cross Parking Garage earlier today. Thank goodness they both came out unscathed. The funniest part is that it's all on videotape. I'd just finished saying "Wow this thing is really easy to drive!" and then Wham!

Yes we did hang with some street kids earlier. They were very interesting in deed. It was especially memorable when the guy shared pal (canned dog food) with his dog after he so kindly offered to shoot up for us on videotape. Unfortunately, a concerned Schitzo started freaking out about us being there after 20 min. So, we thanked them for their time and openness and headed on down the road. Tomorrow we are going to sightsee and then head on out to Manly.

Tonight is my last night in Oz. Having the opportunity to come to the other side of the world has been a true blessing in my life. I have had the privilege of meeting some wonderful people that I will never forget, Dave in Sydney, Greg and his family in Old Bar, Luke and his Family in Ballina, and Brad and his crazy roommates in Mermaid beach on the Gold Coast. All of these people barely new Jocelyn and I. They gladly took us in and treated us like family. There were no questions and no expectations.

Whenever somebody is in town and needs a place to stay my door will be wide open. Having a place to stay with local people made my holiday 10 times better. I have learned and lived the Aussie culture for a month now and it has been nothing less than the time of my life. Australia is beautiful and the people are wonderful. So, the next time you have the opportunity, open up your house and home, make the time, and take the effort to make a difference in a potential friend for life.

Okay enough of that mushy stuff. We went up to the Gold Coast for a week. It felt and looked like Jax Beach, lots of houses, apartments, and condos. There were tons of high-rise hotels and casinos. Surfer's Paradise was neat, lots of bars, clubs and shopping. Although it was much more crowed and busy than I like. It probably earned its name 30 years ago when nobody was there. We surfed Straddie's, an island North of Surfer's. It was a good wave, barreling beach break. Unfortunately, I had the worst session of my Oz trip. I could not get it together. Jocelyn on the other hand was killing it and definitely let me know about it. But I had my revenge when we surfed another other day at secret spot in Broad Beach and got shacked 3 times. We also got the privilege of surfing another world famous spot called Duranbah or D'bah. It was really fun too. It is just South of Kirra along a Jetty and reels off some really nice beach break waves. The swell just has not treated us very right in Oz but there are ALWAYS waves to be ridden. Burleigh Heads and Kirra just weren't breaking so we had to take what we could get. Brad and his roommates put us up in their garage for as long as we wanted. In fact, Jocelyn is still there.

We slept in the van and had total use of their sweet apartment 2 blocks from the beach. I left a couple of days ago to come back up to Ballina to stay with Luke and his family again. The surf has been small but fun. Lennox Head hasn't broke but we've had fun elsewhere. Yesterday I had the waves of my trip. It was during a 45-minute session right before dark at North Wall on the south side of Ballina. Another day Luke and I went fishing at this place called Boulders at high tide. I caught a couple of small fish and we had a few beers. The tide was up to 1.9m and when we left. It was pitch black. We had to walk in the Boulders and sharp rocks 100m back the car with the waves rolling in on our feet and legs. At one point a set came and pounded us when we were on a rock and all we could do was stand there and hold on to each other hoping we didn't fall victim to Boulder's. Luke also failed to show me the sign at boulders that said "WARNING many fishermen have died here!" before we went fishing. Earlier in the week I went horseback riding once again. This time it was at Luke's Grandpa's 80th birthday party at his Uncle Mac's. His uncle owns a 100-acre horse property with dozens of beautiful horses. His cousins took me for a trail ride galloping through fields and up hills, jumping ditches and logs. It was the most fun I've had riding since as long as I can remember.

Luke, his friend Teasha from Santa Barbara and I leave at 3 am on Monday for Bali. I will be there a week and then it is back to Jax by the 4th. I will be cruisin' the streets of Jax Beach and you can probably bet to see me at the Ritz.

More from Jocelyn:
It's Tuesday and I'm at my friend Brad's house on the Gold Coast, just finishing some really good pizza (I always underestimate how good pizza really is.) Anyway, I just got back a few days ago from visiting the reefs and Fraser Island, boy was that an experience: Car broke down, got lost in the brush, slept in my van in deserted parking lots fearing for my life (kind of, but not exactly....) Plenty of crazy stuff.

I left Monday and pulled into Noosa in the evening. I parked my van (not before a cop pulled me over and gave me a Breathalyzer because he thought I was driving I like I was drunk) by the beach and scoped the town out. It's very ritzy, but pretty also.

I met some really nice guys from England and had a beer or two with them before calling it a night. I slept in my van that night in neighborhood (and almost got caught peeing in this lady's yard--not good.) The next day I got up and hiked around the cliffs at Noosa, surfed the break on the side of the cliffs, saw a wild Koala Bear, and managed to back the car into a tree--in effect busting the tail light, all in the same morning. The car has never been the same ever since--poor Betsy.

I drove to Hervey Bay and camped in a camp ground (what a luxury, I only did that once this whole trip.) Caught the ferry to Fraser Island and saw heaps of cool stuff there. Beautiful Lake McKenzie--a 3 toned blue lake surrounded by pristine hills and mountains... Stunning. Everything else was pretty but didn't hold a candle to the lake. Met a couple of cool English guys who really knew how to party and hung out with them the whole trip.

I left after the 2 days at Fraser and headed up to Bundaberg to take a journey out to the reefs. Got lost once I got to the town of Bundaberg, while I looked for the port in Bundaberg. I drove around for at least an hour looking for the freakin' port. Finally some nice guy I flagged down had me follow him out there. Once I got there, I pretty much jumped in my van and quieted down with the lights out, because it was a desolate place, not a soul around and I was SCARED! I would have given anything for a friend or even my doggie. I heard tons of noises, enough stuff to scare me into saying a few extra prayers that night.

Woke up the next day to a beautiful sunset, and ate my cereal and milk on the back of my van to the tune of all the little birdies. Pretty cool. The ride out to the reef took about 2.5 hours, but I had to take seasick pills (yes, once again Katie and Noelle) so the 2.5-hour trip turned into what seemed like 20 minutes after I slept the rest of the time.

The reef was spectacular. It was so unimaginable and indescribable. Such a wide spectrum of vivid colors, you wouldn't believe it. So, halfway through my snorkeling my underwater camera filled up with water and ruined all my pictures (including the ones from the sessions in Indo girls, I know that sucks, I'm sorry.) So I got a few pictures on the glass bottom boat, but I'm sure it won't be the same.

We walked around a pretty cool island as well, but not too interesting. On the way back, the car broke down 4 hours away from home, and I had to call a mechanic to come fix it. Not too bad, $70 American dollars for the tow, the part and the labor. I made it home Saturday night, but by the time I'd gotten an hour away from home, the car started to make the thump thump noise again, and I started to freak out. I made it home, and now it's not doing it anymore, so that's good.

As far as everything else, I've just been staying with my friend the last month and a half on the gold coast. The waves have been pretty good over here. Sorry for all you Florida Cats, no waves eh? August is just around the corner, pray for swell.