So..., we've been in Australia just over a week now. Arrived on Thursday 5th after setting off from Heathrow on the Tuesday.

We started in a very warm (30c) Brisbane and stayed at a place called Valley Verandas. It sounded awesome on the website, ''a traditional 18th century Queensland house", but we got there and found it was a bit shabby. We stayed here for 2 nights and then booked into a Base hostel closer to the Central Business District. It was much bigger and busier but with that it wasnt as friendly, and in a hostel with around 800 people staying there, the kitchen only had 5 saucepans...so meal times were a bit of a scrap!!! Whilst we were in Brisbane, we went to both Museums and on Sunday we wanted to go to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, but our bank cards werent activated properly so we checked out the Southbank area. There's a man-made beach there. it's a bit strange, one minute you are walking along a busy street, you cross over onto a footpath and there in front of you are all these palm trees and a huge swimming pool with type thing with white sand around it! We got ourselves a 90 day buss pass which gives us unlimited travel between Brisbane to Sydney and we can get on and off wherever we like which is pretty cool, we also rekon its going to be the cheapeat option for getting from A-B.

On Monday we jumped on the bus to Byron Bay. It took 4 hours because we stopped at a few places to drop people off. The journey went pretty fast though, was really cool to see what the country looks like away from the commercial beachy towns and cities. You see houses on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere, and there are rainforrest areas all over the place. You drive past massive banana farms and it looks more like somewhere in Cambodia! Byron Bay is awesome! its so chilled out and the town had such a nice friendly vibe. You can walk down the street wearing whatever you want and no one bats an eye. There are people who sit on the greens jammin with their guitars and everyone will sit and watch them, its a proper hippie town! The main beach stretches further than you can see and the ocean is so clear and warm, its lush. Our hostel was on the outskirts of town and backed onto Arakwal rainforrest and Tallows beach. We literally stepped out of our room and the back garden was the rainforrest!The the owner was wicked. He gave us lifts to and from town whenever we wanted and everything was free when we were there:internet, washing facilities, bikes and some battered surfboards. We stayed 3 nights and on our last night me and Dan used the bikes to go up to the lighthouse...my god-what an expedition!! The bike I used must have been older than me and was so rusty and stiff i could barely steer it, and the noise, OMG, it squeaked so badly you could hear us comin from miles away! It was hilarious! We could only bike half way and had to walk up about a million steps through rainforrest before having to walk another 600 miles to get there. It was worth it though. Its on the most easterly point of Australia and we arrived as the sun was going down, i know...how romantic!!!

On Thursday we moved further down the coast to a place called Coffs Harbour, we werent sure what it was going to be like because last week it was so badly flooded that the buses couldn't get through. Apparently they measure their rainfall in meters instead of centermeters aswell, which we were told just before we arrived! Its fine though, the weathers not too great but its still 23.c. Alcohol is stupidly expensive in Oz, about 35pounds for a pack of 20 stubbies!! But we got some "goon"(a box of wine) last nite and were pretty smashed by the time the kitchen was free for us to make dinner! We moved to a different part of town today, havnt really checked it out yet because had sum food shopping to buy and...we couldnt be bothered! Anyways, take care everyone, we will! Alice and Dan xxxx