Alice Springs

As soon as we arrived in Adelaide, we dropped off the rental car at the airport and caught a plane to Alice Springs. Looking out of the aeroplane window, I was surprised to see so much lush green landscape in the Northern Territory - I assumed that the centre of the vast, hot country that is Australia would be more dried up and thirsty than the outback in Queensland. We later discovered that it usually is, but a freak four-week rain storm - which only happens twice a century - meant the trees, plants and shrubs were thriving.

We landed in Alice Springs and were greeted by such a brightly painted and carpeted airport that it could have been mistaken for a nursery school. The Aboriginal design of the airport matches the town centre itself; a densely Aborigine populated town, the pavements, lampposts and buildings aren't the usual greys and browns that town councils usually go for, but beautiful, happy primary colours.

It was raining when we arrived, which is ironic when I think that every time I'd watched a weather report in the last ten months, it was almost guaranteed that Alice Springs would be boasting a symbol of a shining yellow sun. We weren't worried about the weather at this stage though, as we were only in Alice Springs as an entry point to Uluru (Ayers Rock), which is a six-hour drive from Alice.

Toddy's hostel wasn't the best hostel we've ever stayed in, but it did provide a free shuttle bus to and from the airport and although the open, make-shift living room with its corrugated iron roof wasn't ideal in the pouring rain, I can imagine that in hot weather it would have provided a breezy place to chill out and make friends. Just as long as the mean, crazy old man who tells people to "shut up" talking while he's watching TV isn't staying there that is. Looking scarily like the DJ John '00' Fleming and far too old to be in a hostel, we were outraged at his unnecessary nastiness in a place where people go to chat to fellow travellers. We got our own back on him though by getting loudly drunk and purposefully doing things to annoy him. Ha. That'll teach him to live in a hostel with young, irresponsible backpackers.

The hostel's main problem was a common complaint with most guests: the cold showers. However, the guy at reception must have liked us as he told us where the one secret hot shower was, which, despite the sometimes humongous queues, made our stay there a bit more enjoyable.

Uluru (Ayers Rock)

We initially planned to hire a car and drive to Uluru as it seemed much cheaper than booking one of the over-priced tours. We got up early and went to pick up our pre-booked car from the rental company. The first hurdle of the day was discovering that our car deal didn't include unlimited kilometres, so it would cost us $200 on top of the rental fee to drive the extra distance to Uluru. The second hurdle was when they told us that this information was irrelevant as the road to Uluru was closed due to flooding. Yet to be disheartened, we went across the road to the tourist information centre to double-check the weather and get a better quote on a car, and we discovered that the road was in fact open, but Tash was really nervous about the drive after that (and rightly so - if the road was closed on the way back we'd have been stranded at Uluru with an insane amount of charges for the late return of the car, not to mention the safety factors involved in driving down desolate dirt tracks in the rain).

The woman in the information centre talked us into booking a day trip to the Rock for the next day for $199 each. The Emu Tour included park entry fees and food, and once we'd calculated petrol, rental fees, food and insurance, it worked out about the same as hiring a car; not to mention taking the hassle out of the trip.

However we still had problem of the rain - we wouldn't get to see the Rock change colour at sunset or stare up at the stars in the desert night sky. We were told by countless people that we would be part of the 'lucky' one per cent who got to see waterfalls cascading off Uluru and that's all very well, but we wanted a sunset! I can't imagine that traipsing around the Rock in the rain would be much fun either.

But the next morning, the tour bus collected us from the hostel (where we left the evil J00F look-a-like who took immense pleasure from our dreary weather situation and practically gave himself a hernia laughing at us) and as we drove to Uluru, the rain stopped and we saw breaks in the clouds which revealed patches of blue sky. I spent the whole journey praying for a visible sunset so that we could see the Rock change colour. Failing that, I'd make do with a storm - provided there was lightning! In the end, though, I'd decided to accept the weather. After all it was because of Mother Nature that we were compelled to come here in the first place, and besides the sun breaking through the clouds to cast its rays on the Rock was magical in itself. I realised that it's such a spiritual and almost holy place to be, that the weather - no matter what form it takes - can only ever enhance the experience of being there.

We stopped at the visitors centre just outside the national park where Uluru is situated so that we could read about Anangu culture. The Anangu are the Aboriginal tribe who live in the region, and what interests me the most is their rules on climbing Uluru. They say that as well as not entering or photographing Uluru's sacred sites, the Rock should not be climbed. Their words are: "Climbing isn't the real thing about the place. The real thing is listening to and understanding everything." But unfortunately one of the Australian government's conditions for allowing the Aboriginals to reclaim Uluru as their own once again was that visitors should retain the right to climb it. For this reason, tour operators like ours continue to offer their tourists the opportunity to climb Uluru, but I have trouble understanding this. The tour guides spend the whole tour going to great lengths to teach us to embrace Aboriginal culture, only to offend the Aborigines by permitting us to disrespect them in the greatest way possible.

That aside, credit where credit is due and it has to be said that our guides were fantastic. Informative without being boring, they had a great sense of humour and it's lucky that I can laugh at myself as I was often the butt of their jokes. For example, when I was the last back from a toilet stop, they drove the bus away, pretending to leave me behind and when I volunteered to taste some bush tucker they waited until I'd swallowed the berry before warning me to expect a severe case of the runs!

While we drove around the Rock in the bus, they taught us some of the moral stories that Anangu tell to their children to teach them right from wrong, told us facts about nature and even showed a video of Todd's and Stuart's expedition in the 19th Century across central Australia to erect a telegraph pole which would enable Australia to be connected with the rest of the world. It also helped that one of our tour guides was a 'real man' and absolutely gorgeous.

It's been said many times before, but nothing can prepare you for the enormity of Uluru. The world's largest monolith, with four fifths of its size concealed underground, it's one of the seven wonders of the natural world. There are a number of theories as to how and why it exists. Some examples that our tour guides gave us are:

• It's a dinosaur egg that will hatch one day (I certainly hope not!)
• It was a sand dune found by two little boys who climbed and slid over it until eventually it hardened in the hot sun (this Aboriginal theory would explain the foot-hole and skid-like markings on the surface of the Rock)
• It's a meteorite that landed from outer space
• Millions of years ago, when Australia was under water, the current pushed some sand into piles which eventually compressed and turned to rock (the lease exciting theory, but this is probably the most plausible explanation)

I was under the impression that it was the slow erosion of a mountain range, but I couldn't understand why Uluru was the only part that had stayed. But to be honest, I'd rather not know why the Rock is there; I accept that it just is and I love the idea of Uluru being an unexplainable sacred place which is on the same spiritual plane as Stonehenge and the Pyramid of Giza.

As part of our tour we also took a trip to the nearby Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) - a group of oddly-shaped rocks which are even higher than Uluru in places. We walked through the rock formations and despite being accompanied by other tourists, the place, with its glistening stream and flourishing plants is beautiful, serene and peaceful. It's as though Uluru and its surrounding area exists to remind us of the awe-inspiring, wonderfulness of nature.

We made our way back to Uluru for a sunset barbeque and we were very lucky with the weather in the end. Before we left Toddy's hostel that morning, we had spoken to some girls who had just got back from a three-day expedition to Uluru and said it constantly rained the whole time they were there. It didn't rain for us and thanks to the clouds clearing just in time, we managed to see half a sunset (a great deal more than we thought we'd get). Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Rock change colour, but as our first glimpses of Uluru sometimes made it appear red, sometimes purple and sometimes even glowing pink, it was possible to at least imagine the effect.
I really do believe that everything happens for a reason - with the risk of the road closure, the treacherous weather and the car hire costing more than we'd anticipated, it seemed as though someone or something was telling us not to drive ourselves and because we went on a tour the next day, we ended up having a much more enjoyable trip with better weather and learnt much more than we would have done originally. It just goes to show that tours are not always a con to encourage you to part with your cash and can be well worth the money.

Adelaide

We spent a couple of days in Adelaide on our return from Alice Springs. Usually a quiet place, Adelaide has a reputation in Australia for being a bit boring, but we were lucky to be there for the Fringe Festival - a month long festival celebrating the arts. We were disappointed that we didn't have more money so that we could see one of the many plays or shows.

We liked the city on first impression as it has a really nice feel to it, but when we went for an evening meal on the first night, we found ourselves in the red light district surrounded by boguns (Australian chavs) and lecherous men. To make matters worse, we were unable to find a reasonably priced restaurant, with a good atmosphere that served decent food, so we opted for fast food pizza and sat on plastic chairs on the street with no wine. It wasn't the perfect last night together that we had envisioned, and it's no wonder our spirits weren't particularly high. In hindsight we should have gone to Gougher Street with its large array of restaurants and bars.

The next day we explored the Adelaide on foot, visiting Central Market (the largest undercover market in Southern Hemisphere) and chilling out on the grass in the sun, which rekindled our love for the city again. And it helped that our hostel was fantastic. 'Backpack Oz' on Wakefield Street boasts extremely comfortable mattresses and they even put a mint on the pillows! On top of that they offer free Internet, free breakfast, free bike hire, free washing powder, free umbrella hire, free use of the pool table, free luggage storage and free tea and coffee. Phew!

I was really sad to be leaving Tash in Australia while I made my way to New Zealand for the next stage of my trip, but I was glad to be finally leaving Australia and the same old conversation with travellers I'd met about how long I'd been there, which places I'd visited and where in the country I was off to next. On the flight to New Zealand I was delighted to look out of the window to see a birds-eye view of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I couldn't have wished for a better farewell image of Australia.