I finally got round to writing this! Been back almost a week now. The aussie trip was absolutely brilliant! We spent the first week in Tauranga at training camp where we all got to know each other. We where coached by various 'name' NZ coaches including the NZ mens coach (who went to the olympics with the china Vball team in 1984). It wasn't all that interesting up there seeing as we pretty much ate slept and trained for 4 days. Then we flew over to australia for the U21 state champs. The competition over there was just awesome. Quite a few of the teams had guys from the aussie mens team in them who train full time at the Australian Institute of Sport AIS). We played awesomely and managed to come 3rd which was good (we weren't allowed to get the bronze medal cause we arn't an Aussie state, but we got a 'special' one instead =P) From there we moved to a hotel outside the AIS and ate trained and played our 1st 3 test matches there. Some of the Aussie U19 guys live at the AIS training volley 7 - 8 hours a day so needless to say they where pretty good (in comparison the very best players in NZ train only 6 - 8 hours a week). The training courts there are just awesome, easily the best i've ever played on, and they had a serving machine. So we had plenty of fun cranking it up to full power (about 110km/h). Unfortunately we lost the 1st two tests there but we came back to win the third. Another interesting thing happening there was having tour groups come in ever 30mins to take a look at our trainings which was pretty cool. After 3 days there we headed out to Narra in NSW to play our final 2 tests (in front of a paying crowd I might add). It was on the way there that we discovered a massive spider living in our team van (it was huge). We only ever saw it once but no-one ever felt comfortable in that van again. We lost the last two tests but we played really well and it was pretty close. Then it was final goodbyes and back home, by which stage i'd picked up a shoulder injury from overuse but it was well worth it. Then on the second night after I got back I got an infection in my elbow and spent the next 5 days being hooked up to an IV machine. It just goes to show that God does have a sense of humour! I've got nothing left to say Just take me away