Ok, so we havnt updated our blog for about a month now so are going to try and condense a months worth of fun into a brief update! I think our last blog left off just before we went to Stradbroke Island so here goes.......

We spent 5 nights on Stradbroke island in a small rented house. The Island was idyllic white sand and turquoise sea which we swam in at least twice a day! We tried fishing, which we wern't very good at, i realised why I havn't really done it before I got bored after about 10 minutes! and all John kept catching were a load of crabs! We also went on a walk called the gorge walk which was beautiful and saw a pod of dolphins gliding and jumping in and out of the ocean.

The day after our lovely time on Stradbroke or 'straddie' as we learned the locals love to call it, we went into the city. We had previously been there for an evening meal but this time we spent the day there. First of we went up Mount Coot-tha, which I recomend to anyone going to Brisbane as you get a panoramic view of the entire city. Back down in the city we headed to Southbank, where there is a man made beach in the middle of the city which was pretty cool, then we headed to the shopping area- Queenstreet mall. We travelled around on the city cat- a catamaran which travels up and down the river which runs through the city.

The next day, we got up very early to catch a plane to Melbourne. I have relatives there which i have never met and it was really lovely to meet them. We both really liked Melbourne and only wish we could have stayed a bit longer. On the first day we were there we had a massive family bbq, and I mean massive, there was enough meat there to feed the 5000! We were lucky enough to go on the weekend of Melbournes annual Mumba festival so on the sunday after a lunch (of the the left over bbq meat!) at my aunties we headed into the city. The Yarra river runs through the middle of Melbourne and we got to watch a waterskiing show which was cool. There were parades and a big carnival, the atmosphere was buzzing and it was all rounded off by a fantastic evening firework display over the River.

The day after we flew back to Melbourne we were meant to head off to Lady Elliot Island on the great barrier reef but as I'm sure many of you have heard there was a cyclone in the north of queensland and they cancelled all flights. So we went to a place called O'reillys which is a treetop canopy walk through the rainforest- emphasis on RAINforest as it chucked it down! and some how stopped when we got out of it! It was slightly scary climbing up a vertical ladder to the top look out platform in the pouring rain! But the view was amazing! O'reillys is home to colourful parrots and we held a tray of bird seed and were soon swooped upon by about 10 parrots landing on my head, shoulders and arms if they wern't already in the bird seed tray! We had a picnic at the top of the mountain as o'reillys is nestled in a national park which i cant remember the name of.

The day after we went to Australia Zoo which has to be won of the highlights of our trip so far! Its not like an ordinary zoo as they let visitors interact with most of the animals. We fed elephants with carrot and sweet potato, we fed Kangaroos which was very cool as at one point we had about 8 kangaroos trying to eat out of the palm of our hands as they just swarmed around us, and had a cuddle with a gorgeous Koala! They are so soft and quite heavy and did you know that Koala sleep for on average about 20 hours a day?! This one was awake though when we had our photo taken with him, they smell a bit funny too but i asked a lady who worked there and she said its just the males with the funny smell! Anyway, we saw Tigers, crocodiles and stroked a few snakes, we had a fantastic day.

The next day my aunt took us to Seaworld on the Goldcoast which was a nice day out. sea world is next to surfers paradise so my aunt left us down there for the weekend so we could meet up with our friends Tara and Aileen. We met them in our hostel and cooked dinner the best we could in this gross kitchen! (Rach there was raw chicken juice dribbled on the work surface, you would have loved it! haha!) And then went out to a few bars for a few drinks. The next day we went for a morning surfing lesson which was very fun! We both managed to stand a few times. That night we went on an organised club crawl which was fun until we got hungry as it started at 5 so we went to Hard rock cafe! yum! The next day we went with Tara and Aileen to Byron Bay about an hr and a half south of surfers paradise. It was a lovely little town on the beach, and after spending a few hours on the beach and checking into our hostel we took a very hot walk up to the lighthouse. On the way we met up with a lovely Canadian girl called Jules who Tara and Aileen had met in Cairns, and John and I will hopefully meet up with her in a few days in Sydney. After a long, hot but fun walk for about 2 hours (it should only take us an hour but we kept stopping!) we reached the lighthouse- the most easterly point of mainland Australia. The next morning we woke up early and all took a taxi this time- up to the lighthouse to watch the sunrise which was beautiful. John and I then caught our bus back up to Surfers Paradise to be picked up by my Aunt.

The next day we went to a waterfall in a national park which again i have forgotton the name of! It was an enjoyable hour walk down to the waterfall and then an hour back up. We had a picnic afterwards where John realised he had been savaged by a leech in between his toes! The leech was still on his shoe which was a tiny thing considering the amount of blood it produced! We then packed our bags for a drive up to Hervey bay where were finally going to get to go to Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

It was about a 4 hour drive up to Hervey Bay but it went quite quickly and we passed through some lovely towns including Gympie and Maryborough. When we got to the airport we checked in- there was no security as it was pretty much a metal hut and we walked straight out onto the tarmac where this tiny 10 seater place sat! It was seriously tiny and an experience i will never forget as we flew across the sea for about thirty minutes and then landed on a strip of grass on the Island which runs the length of it. A guide showed the 10 of us around the resort and when dropping us at our reef unit said we had the best one on the island! It was located perfectly just 200metres from the lagoon. We went snorkelling pretty much as soon as we got there which was amazing, and again the next day a few times, we also went on a glass bottom boat which was pretty cool and saw some very large turtles- lady elliot Island is a haven for Turtles and that night we saw a big group of hatchlings up on the walking track next to the lights- hatchlings sometimes get lost as they follow the light so copying some of the other guest we picked the hatchlings up and put them in a bucket a resort worker had ready for them inside- then after about two buckets were full and no one could see anymore lost little hatchlings we walked to the otherside of the island and released them into the sea. We stayed for two nights on the Island and were all snorkelled out by the end of it! Both of us severly sunburnt on our backs as we didnt realise how hot the sun was, as we were underwater for so long!

Yesterday we went back into the city centre to browse the popular city markets and have lunch. Tomorrow we are going down to Sydney for about a week and then onto NZ. We will hopefully put up some photos sometime soon we have been having a few problems doing it and need to find a computer that is compatible for out card reader which is the reason for the delay!

Lots of love Alex and John xx