Taini Hi Nick: Thought I would jump on to see what you've been up to since January - great you are still posting and exciting to follow your travels. They say that you will find the best of the best and the worst of the worst in the US. Did you find that to be the case? If I ever have the chance to visit NY, the first place I will head to is the Diamond Exchange! We are still basking over here in the glorious sunshine. Take care and keep up the posts - Taini.

Andy Mate, you look bloody FREEZING!

nick hi neal, how are tricks. Bears sounds great i really wish i was still out there I would love to be able to get some good swell. NY was fantastic, its a little different to bunbery and duno. For one thing it was freezing and we got a foot of snow. Hats, scarves, gloves and about three jumpers at all times. Neil (the senior tutor) and i were taking a group of about 15 students around some of the museums up the edge of central park, which for some reason were all closed. I spoted a bridge off in the distance and said it might be fun to go check it out. we set off and after a few blocks realised that this wasn't the best of areas. Not only were we the only white folks, but we also looked like a large group of tourists just waiting to be mugged. The group split as half can't or wouldn't walk at any pace at all. The Police told the second group to hurry up and catch up with the rest, not to hang about and to get out before night fall (witch was approching in the next hour). I rush back to collect the second group, i mett them to find that they were taking their cameras out and happily snapping away. I was gob smacked, but after a few short words of warning hurried them along. I will post another story tomorrow n

neal Hey Paula - no worries. Glad you have a friend to stay with. Sunny and low thirties here ! Hope you have a great holiday, see ya if I see ya. neal. Hey nick - hope NY is/was fun, great surf at bears today and yesterday mamma's and babies going off!

neal Hey Paula - no worries. Glad you have a friend to stay with. Sunny and low thirties here ! Hope you have a great holiday, see ya if I see ya. neal.

Paula Hi Neal, Thanks for offering to play tour guide. I'm actually staying out with a friend in Freemantle (she is a thoroughbred Perth girl!) so should be OK, but will get your number off Nick and may give you a call anyway! Three weeks and counting. It has been sleeting/snowing on and off all day today and temperatures are set to drop below -14 in the next few days. It's not difficult to see why I'm so keen to visit! See you soon.

nick the quakkas have arrived and the underwater stuff should with any luck be here tomorrow!

neal Hey bike boy - have I recovered from Rotto? Oh no, I still can't sit down and fear I may be left with a permanent limp, but I consider myself lucky, if it wasn't for the quokkas I may not have got out of there alive ... What was I thinkin' taking him to Rottnest, an island with no cars, where everyone has to get around on bikes. Nick was in his element again and grinning like a big happy kid as we set off to try and get round the whole island in a few hours. There were no kayaks this time, and I had no golf clubs. I desperately kept the map to myself but its an island! you just ride in a big circle! The pride of Australia was on my shoulders - we couldn't let the poms - sorry britts - show us up. I decided that I must try and keep up. Big mistake! With a few too many ports the night before and alot to few hours on a bike in recent years the first hills brought my first near death experience ! As we looked over a nice piece of beach and reef I was panting too hard to speak but nick must have read the desperation in my eyes " shall we stop for a snorkel here neal ? " Oh thank God yes !! The water was beautiful so we used up the last shots on nicks disposable water camera taking photo's of him swimming through a hole under the reef but time was short and we soon had to get riding again. He was having a ball. A big group of cyclists pulled into the road ahead of us and he giggled with joy as he dodged between and past them all while daydreaming of a rottnest island time trial event or something. I was starting to struggle again and sent out a silent, desperate prayer " Somebody save me! I can't go on! " I needed no less than a divine intervention if I was to keep the ozzie flag flying high - or atleast off the ground! And I got it, Mother Nature had heard my plea and as she floated my broken body in her crystal waters at the next swimming beach she also sent the wild things of the forest to my aid - to Australia's aid ! A gang of cheeky little quokka's stole out from the trees and let my front tyre down. I was saved !! I had to limp back to the cafe at very slow speed - so as not to damage the wheel on the hire bike. Just as I was about to get my second wind (not), and start my legenday sprint to the finish line (NOT) equipment failure tragically ended it all. Maybe nick will put up a pic and you can see the friendly little furries that saved my life and salvaged the pride of a nation that fateful day on Rottnest Island. The end. Haha! Seriously though you're a good man nick. Its been a pleasure having you out here, your positivity and enthusiasm has been appreciated and enjoyed by us all and you will be welcome back any time. All the best for the meditation and any future endeavers. neal ps- sounds like some of you may be heading down under too ( hi paula - what the heck is blinkin blonkin ??!! ) you can get my number off nick and if you need anything while you're here don't hesitate.

nick Back in the UK now, dam its cold! the flight back was ok, it is my first day at my new job and as you can see i am using my time well. Neal I hope you have recovered from you days cycling on Roto. Here is my email address, so keep in touch you guys: [email protected] I am off to New York in about a month so there should be some new photos and stories for you all them. Keep in touch and i will see you all again soon nick

nick hi taini, it was a shame that i didn't get to meet you after i have hear so many nice things. It was brillient to meet mel and kym on Friday night. I really enjoyed the movie we went to see in Kings Park (I hope Kym's sunburn is better now!) I will definately meet up with you next time i am over, which i am hoping won't be too far in the future.

Taini Hi there Nick: Let me introduce myself - I'm Mel and Kym's Mum and Neal's 'second' Mum. Sorry I didn't get to meet you, but perhaps next time. Enjoyed having a look through all the photos, and it is quite obvious that you had a great time while you were here in Oz. Duns is just the best place, and of course you would have been treated to the best of the South (Duns) hospitality. Found out about the site from Neal after he had seen you off at the airport. Well Nick tomorrow (Sunday) we are expecting a temp of 38 in Perth, and you will arriving back in the UK to temps 'slightly' cooler no doubt. Take care - Taini.

nick hi there everyone this maybe my last post... maybe not depends what the airports have to offer... i feel like i should tell some equally amusing stories about neal... which if he wasn't sat next to me now i would do... till later. cheers everyone for keeping in touch it has been great... see you all soon n

Mel Haha very funny postings neal!!! glad to see you got your butt into gear and dragged Nick down the coast! very jealous tho!! Nick, hope he's not tiring you out... will definitely have to catch up -- i'll try and get to the outdoor surf movie in kings park on friday nite - sounds excellent!

neal Hi again - now where was I oh yeah, that lad is just too fit... Although we had walked about 20 km the day before I could see that nick was getting a bit twitchy cause he hadn't had a decent run or trip to the gym for a while so I took him to monkey rock, a giant granite rock on top of a hill with views over Denmark and the coastline for miles east and west. I pulled into the carpark at the bottom of the hill and kept him talking while casually putting on my shoes - I knew I would need a major headstart - then I threw him the keys and said there's the start of the track, lets have a run, race you to the top, lock up the car before you go and see if you can find a bottle of water behind the seat somewhere haha. I took off as fast as I could, expecting him to race past me at any moment. As I staggered panting to the base of the smooth vertical rock I knew the track kept going round the side to a place where you could easily get up on top, anyway it was plain to see so I dragged myself on and up. Standing at the top, trying to recover my breath I was wandering why nick hadn't flown past me so I went back searching for him. Sure enough there he was scrabbling around at the top of the ridiculously steep rock face - where no one else would even have considered trying to climb - wondering where I was! Crazy man. Reminds me of the first cave we went down. I spent ages organising to grab a nice piece of rope from my brothers place cause I knew we would need it to get down to the lower cavern with a little lake in it. Its a magic spot, the water is a dead still sheet of glass and the roof, just a foot or two above it is covered in stalagtites so when you shine your torches in the right way the scene(roof) is reflected under the water like some fantasy landscape - only need a little bit of imagination to see the pteradactly like birds flying round the spires and hobbits climbing all about. Anyway - after all my efforts to get the rope, tie it off etc he just shimmied down the the hole and hopped back up without using it at all !! Cheeky b*****. So for all of you fit nick friends back home I have come up with a few strategies should you ever want to take him on in a race. - try to organise a few vague spots with a way more difficult and challenging wrong way to go, he'll take it every time! - include a kayak leg in all races, he'll probably out paddle you but as long as you go in a straight line you'll beat him by miles. - if no water is available for kayaks just substitute a few holes of golf and again, hit straight to gain ground on Mr Zigzag - if all else fail you'll just have to go for a classic R-C-S triathalon ... no thats not run, cycle, swim; no matter how good a swimmer you are you'll probably still loose. This one is a run, cycle, SPELLING BEE !! HAHA sorry mate, just jokin' round. ;-} Happy new year to all neal.

neal Hi everyone !! Hope you are all well, this is neal. We have had a great time tripping around down south. Its great to have another visitor over to get me off into the trees and south coast beaches again. I love dem trees. Good to do it all rough this time too. We managed to spend a whole nothing on accom. staying in the hikers huts on the bibbulmun track ( 950 km walk track from perth to albany ) and in the tent...was fun. One problem though, nick is just way too fit and keen for any and everything !! I'm completely b*****ed !! haha but having fun ;-) Hi Maz, yes nealnmel became just neal and mel around the end of august but we're best of friends still and always. She's family to me after being together for almost 12 yrs and we see alot of eachother still. Hi mel if you see this, will catch you when we get to perth next...yes i'm showing nick all i can too, might try and do pinnacles/kalbarri gorges before the flight home if nanna hasn't organised too many things round bunbury...have to see. Hi to all of nicks mates...haven't actually read any of this noticeboard yet but i shall 'meet' you all soon when there's a free moment. Got to get the kayaks on the roofrack and go meet my brother with the windsurfer now...get nick out into the sun again...if you can't recognise him when he gets home he's the one with the suntan !! All thre best neal