Ok so I set off for the US tomorrow, then its onto Australia and back to the US before coming home in September. Im traveling with my mate Matt Hamer and I will be using this blog as my online diary so keep coming back.

quick update. Arrived in NY and its a heat wave here! Hostel was pretty good location but no air con and its like 95 degrees! Managed to do some sight seeing to gound zero, statue of liberty, empire state. Then spent night crawling round the Irish bars! Met up with friends that i made last year at camp, they showed us the sights and then took us back to Philly where im currently at. ok gotta rush, having an awesome time! mike

Next update, so thanks to Jen for letting us stay at her house last night, we are now in Philly and had a philly cheese stake today - also did the rocky steps

Picking up the local language, awesome, trash, etc. Weird thing, today came to the hostel in Philadelphia and bumped into a friend from university back in england, its a small travelling world.

Keeping a video diary that has so far had some funny stories, robbing matts shoes while he is passed out on the subway, trying to find our way from Brooklyn back to our hostel.

Anyway running outta time, gotta go, come back soon to see updates from either NYC or Australia.

Im back in New York, and its hot here - supposed to be 42 degrees today!! Could do with going back to Rachels house and dipping in the pool again! Yesterday we went to Central Park to try and avoid the heat, watched a softball game.

Planning on going up the Empire State Building today and going to Rockafella Centre, Madison Sq Gardens and Time Square. Then its meeting up with Hayley to go to a comedy show tonight.

Not looking forward to the flight to Australia on Sat, its about 5/6 hours to San Francisco then another 13 to Sydney! eeks! Planning on meeting up with Matts friends and travelling in their car down the East coast, so wait and see.

Im up nice and early today, Matts still in bed, lazy bugger! The hostel we are in is nice, but pretty cramped - 12 in our room and you can literally get to your bed and thats it! But hey its New York baby!

Ok so im gonna try find a place to post my pics so far, stay tuned.

Been up the Empire State Building today, smart arses we are thought it would be cheaper to print tickets off the net and use them, but we actually paid more for them!! but got to skip the queue at least! Views from the top were amazing, and since it was a nice day could see a long way!

Then we met up with Hayley again, she works in the MTV building in Time Square - how cool!! Then it was time for a comedy show, and that it was - just 5 in the audience, but it was a laugh!!

Only one full day left here now, think we have managed to see everywhere we want to, just a few things left to do, then its off to Australia! Its gonna be such a change in climate, from 40 degrees and summer to 16 degrees and winter!! Hoping to walk the Sydney Harbour bridge and do a few things in Sydney before heading to meet Matts friends in their car.

So we are off to Oz today, last night went out with two guys I knew from uni at home. They have been touring the states and are at the end of their trip, we are just at the beginning of ours!

Have pulled all the cold weather clothes to the top of my bag now as when we hit Oz will be a bit of a climate change!

Not sure when will write back again, depends if Matt can hack the machines again and get the net for free! haha!

See ya!

Well we have arrived in Australia, so tired after something like 30 hours travelling! The hostel we are staying in is ace, its huge and dead modern. We went to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House yesterday before heading to bed for an early one. Things over here are so cheap, the exchange rate is like 2.5 Australia Dollars to the pound.

Today we are off to the beach, the weather isnt that hot but we need to go check it out at some point! Then we are off to explore the rest of Sydney. Then its time to climb the bridge, its gonna be so good but you cant take camera and unlike everything else, its actually really expensive! But worth it im sure!

Following that we are off down the East coast to Canberra and Melbourne before flying to Brisbane to join 3 of Matts friends to complete a road trip back to Sydney. Supposed to be warmer up there too so looking forward to it!

Went to the beach today, its winter here yet there was no clouds in the sky and it was perfect sun. beach was ace and i got to go swimming too! we are heading north end of the week to Brisbane to meet up with peeps for a road trip, stay tuned!

Its the day of the climb - takes 3.5 hours to do it! Looking forward to it, but earlier this week we checked out the best day for weather and it wasd today, but having looked outside it certainly is not! Its cloudy, but maybe later on it will be ok - thats if we even get up since you have to take a breathaliser and we were out last night!

Then we are off to the Blue mountains tomorrow and to a wildlife park. And then we are off to Brisbane to meet the roadtrip boys.

Wow ive had a really busy last few days, the day we climbed the bridge turned out to be absolutely gorgeous, and its one of the best things ive ever done - took 3 and a half hours to climb it but the views were stunning just as the sun was about to set. Will have to show you the pictures at some point. We were proper kitted up with every scenario of weather planned!

Next day we went to a wildlife reserve and held some koolas (cant spell that) and fed some kangaroos - was great, the kangaroos kept trying to pinch the food! Got some cool videos of it. Then we headed into the Blue Mountains, similar to the Grand Canyon cept a little smaller and covered in trees, views were amazing! Went to the floor of the mountains via the steepest railway in the world, 52degrees angle, which is like a rollercoaster, cept this was a train! no seatbelts, just on tracks! From there visited the Sydney Olympic Park, where they held the Olympic Games in 2000, a city within a city that was.

Went on a night river cruise through Sydney Harbour, saw all the sights - the bridge, city skyline and Opera house at night - beautiful!

Visited an ice bar, it was minus 15 degrees in there and everything bar the tills and bar staff was ice - all nicely shapped with tables and chairs and everything. We even drank out of ice glasses, was very 'cool'. Got some fantastic photos from inside!

We ate dinner that night with a family from Birmingham, grans, parents, the lot. Funny.

Ok so on to today, we are off to Manly Beach since its a nice day again, we havent had any bad weather yet here. Then tomorrow we head off to Brisbane, woohoo!

Its supposed to be winter here yet yesterday we went to the beach and it was as hot as you ever have it in Spain or whatever. Chilled out on Manly beach - the other of Sydneys beaches - the water wasnt cold so ive been having a dip as well as making sandcastles - so grown up!!

Then last night we went out to the bar, its quite cheap to drink over here so had a fair few and before we knew it Matt was getting chucked out! haha! Apparently he was too drunk, yet he acted no different to me and this Welsh guy we were sitting with. Anyway we moved bars and chatted to some strange Aussies - all over our travels we bump into the weirdos!!

Anyway while im on this Matt is nursing a hangover on the sofa behind me. We fly to Brisbane today for our road trip adventure.

Read all about the stuff going on back home yesterday - sounds really bad! and it has impacted us here with no carry on luggage or liquids allowed - thats gonna be a harsh 13hour flight to the US later this month.

So we made it to Brisbane and met up with our fellow road trippers - 2guys Matt knows from uni and one of their girldfriends. Found a cockroach in the hostel we stayed at - nice! Brisbane had its own man made beach, if you could call it that.

We went to a car place to sort out a roofrack - the guy recommended this and that but we ended up with an option 10times cheaper - a surfboard rack and some rope!! Wait for the pictures of how we secured the luggage!

Anyway moved on to the Gold Coast now, a place called Byron Bay - gonna do some surfing and make the most of the warm weather before we head south again.

The plan as it stands is to drive all the way down the east coast through sydney then around the south coast to melbourne, up to adelaide and then if time go to ayers rock - but they might be pushing it for me with 12days left over here!

So we made it back to Sydney, after a 13hour drive down from Byron Bay - luckily there are four of us that can drive so we took it in turns.

We checked in to a nice place, its an appartment for four so we snuck in an extra one. Weve now sorted outwhat we are doing in my last 9 days in Australia - Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide. We are probably going to a Neighbours night in Melbourne, and to see The All American Rejects, before i leave the rest of them to go back to Sydney. They are all going to Ayers rock but its a two day drive and ive run out of days :-( gutted!

Just finished a four day driving trip going from Sydney to Canberra to Melbourne and stopping at places on the way!! Now we have 3days off, phew as Im knackered! Stopped off at some nice wineries on the way tho so did a spot of wine tasting.

Tomorrow night im off to the Neighbours night, so looking forward to that! Only have 8days left in this country, i cant believe how big it is - when i was in the states there were little places in between cities but not here, nothing but kangaroos!!

Yesterday was a Neighbours Day and we had so much fun! First off we went to the street they film on, its not actually called Ramsey Street and is in fact just a normal street! Whilst there we recorded a little amateur episode so stay tuned for that one, very funny!

Following that we prepared for the evening - a night out with some of the cast! Started on the drink early, a bag of goon in true Australian style (a bag of goon is basically a bag of wine that you have to slap each time you wanna drink, and you drink it from the bag!). On way out of hostel bumped into Laura from uni (Nicolas flatmate), thats the second time that has happened on this holiday so far! crazy.

Anyway headed to the Neighbours bar, met Boyd, Stingray, Toadie then rocked on to Karls band. Fantastic night!

So ive put my photos on a yahoo album site - http://photos.yahoo.com/mikemoreton777

Back on the road for two days, heading to Adelaide along the scenic coast road. Weather has turned and we had the first rain of our trip today! Not bad considering it should be like that everyday, and its only just changed.

Currently staying in a hostel that is actually a jail. So we are in cell 1 tonight, kinda freaky as its all dark! Moving on to Adelaide tomorrow, 6hour drive in the White Dragon (which has so far travelled a couple of thousand miles whilst ive been inside it - to put that in perspective, thats a couple of times the size of the UK). Then I leave the rest of the crew and head back to Sydney, im gonna miss travelling with them, its been fun - the goon drinking nights, the meal cooking, the crammed car. But its time to head back to the UK to earn the money Ive spent back, and also to get a nice car!

Before i reach the UK tho, i have 1day in Sydney and 3days in San Francisco, so will enjoy them last days.

Well reached Adelaide and had a farewell night out with the travellers before heading on my home trip. Ive now left the others and headed back to Sydney before I fly on to the US. Kinda sad leaving people youve spent 24/7 with for the last two weeks, but hopefully will see them again seen as they come from Leicester which is where im moving to!

Well im just wandering round the city tonight, may go to the IMAX tomorrow then over to the city that launched the hippies (and the gay capital). All fun.

Last night in Australia, went to the IMAX tonight, love those places. Anyway just a quick one...checked the weather forecast for San Francisco - high 20s and sunshine, but the thing im most looking forward to is the sun going down later, you dont realise that it makes all the difference being 5pm over here!

It feels like groundhog day today, i set off this morning and flew all through the night, only to arrive back at the same morning again! Very weird! Anyway flight was a killer and im now so tired but its still the afternoon here in the US! Im gonna try stick it out for a bit then head to bed earlyish.

Gonna cycle over the golden gate bridge tomorrow i think, its nice and sunny here so should get some good photos. This hostel isnt as good as its made out to be, but still im only here for 3nights.

Some general comments, i prefer to go travelling across the US, people are nicer, busier cities but Australia is definetly more geared up for tourists, everything is aimed at them and its good as there is loads to do. One thing i did notice loads was how racist the Australians are, you couldnt say the stuff they do back home!

Well so much for an early night when i arrived over here. I ran into someone id met last year in Las Vegas - a guy from Blackburn who worked at a camp. Anyway he invited me out with the rest of his bunch and after several drinking games I was completely gone. Woke up the next morning with the worst hangover of the holiday so far!

When i managed to get out of bed I headed to the Museum of Modern Art, i never used to like that sort of stuff but i think Kelly made me appreciate it more. Talked to some random guys in the park and headed back to the hostel for a beer pong tournamount...but when it came to it, i couldnt manage any more alcohol so i watched with a coke instead!

And finally my last day of the holiday I rented a bike and headed off to the national park on the other side of the Golden Gate bridge. The weather was gorgeous, bright sunshine , and the views I saw were amazing. The ride up into the hills has completely exhausted me out and tonight I think im just gonna collapse!

Well thats me done now, no more updates as i leave tomorrow morning, starting out on another epic journey some 13 hours on two planes, 3 hours on a train. Cant wait!

Im back home, and i gotta say Heathrow airport is the worst airport i have ever been to without a doubt! Delays, slow bagage, queues, long walking distances, plus the passport control queue was huge, id hate to be a foreigner coming in!

But at least im home, back to a nice bed and food. The site will be returning to normal soon so say bye to the blog.