Me Pete and Lindsey(girl we met through work) flew from Sydney to Cairns at the start of June. We had hired a car and we had 19 days to get from Cairns back down to Sydney.

We only spent 1 night in Cairns. Had a walk round Cairns centre and had some food. Thats about as exciting as our 1st night got. The next day we went to get our car. We thought we were getting a really small 4 door Hyundai Gets but thankfully we ended up with a five door Toyota. Pete was a bit unsure about driving the car out of the rental place and I have to admit I was not to keen on him doing it either. It was down to Linds to drive us confidently away(I was unable to drive due to leaving my licence in the UK). As we had 18 days to get south to Sydney the 1st thing we did was to drive north up to Cape Tribulation!!!

Cape Tribulation is a rainforest North of Cairns and its amazing. The drive up to Cape Tribulation consisted of windy mountain roads, amazing views across the rainforest and out to the ocean. Oh yeah and we also had to get a rather dodgy 'ferry' across crocodile infested water on the way to and from Cape Tribulation. Whilst we waited for the ferry we saw something in the water just down from us. There are loads of signs saying don't get close to the waters edge due to crocs but that didn't stop about 5 people, including Linds, going for a look. They thought they had seen a crocodile so me and Pete stood back next to the car and waited while they took there photos, in the end it turned out to be a bit of wood haha. We were staying in dense rainforest but yet you could walk out to the ocean and the beach in about 5 minutes. We also went on a walk through the rainforest that showed you all the different types of vegetation and animals that you could find in the rainforest. On the way back south from Cape Tribulation we stopped off at a typical Ozzie bar for some lunch. The guy who owned the bar and all the locals were really friendly and they were your stereotypical Ozzies. We headed back down through Cairns and on to Townsville.

On the way to Townsville Pete was now driving and within a couple of hours he had been pulled over and breathalysed and flashed by a speed camera!! We drove through a town that was like a ghost town there was literally nothing there, no people walking around nothing going on at all. We arrived into Townsville late at night which meant we had to sleep in the car, not the best nights sleep I have ever had. The next day we checked into a hostel and went for a walk round Townsville. It was quite a nice place. We went for a strenous walk up a huge hill that had a panaromic view of Townsville and over to Magnetic Island. Pete also bet us that he could run up the hill, he never did! That night we watched the state of origin game(state of origin is a rugby league game where Queensland play New South Wales) in a bar full of ozzies with painted faces and flags draped over them. It was really good fun until I got really ill andf had to leave early. Pete and Lindsey stayed and watched the whole game. The next day we were suppose to head over to Magnetic Island but I was feeling unwell so we decided to head down to Airlie beach.

Airle beach is the place you go to if you want to go sailing round the Whitsundays. We arrived there and I was still feeling unwell so I went to bed Pete and Lindsey went for a walk round town. In our dorm were 2 girls from Canada. Pete, Lindsey and the Canadians played drinking games with a cask of wine called Goon. It only costs ten dollars and you can tell by the taste and the hangover you get from it. The 4 of them headed out into the night while I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. We did not get up to much in Airlie beach as it rained the entire time we were there and we could not afford the sailing trip round the Whitsundays. We went out to 1 of the Whitsunday Islands by ferry just for the day. The Island we went to was lovely. It was a resort but the beach and the actual Island were picture perfect.

On the way down to Hervey bay we stopped off at a place called Mackay for the night. Nothing exciting happened here apart from us sneaking Pete into a motel room as we had only payed for 2 people. Left the next day and headed to Hervey bay.

Due to me being ill I still had not had a big night out since we started the trip. We decided Hervey bay was the place this was going to change. We went to a B.Y.O Chinese for some tea and then headed into town. The food at the chinese was horrible and town was dead I think we got back to the hostel at about 11! The next day I went on a day trip to Fraser Island while Pete and Lindsey made there own way over to Fraser Island. The day trip was really good. Fraser Island is a sand Island but yet it still has a dense forest and a lot of dingoes(I saw 3). The day trip took in a ship wreck on the beach, sand dunes as big as hills and a lake which has water that is 3 different shades. Most backpackers who go to fraser Island hire a 4x4 and stay a few days on the Island. Due to our lack of time we were unable to do this.

Noosa was our next port of call. Noosa is more of an uupmarket town. Its a lovely town but a bit too pricey for the likes of us. A lot of people come to Noosa to surf. The hostel we stayed in was rubbish. The worst 1 we had all the way down the coast. The showers were cold, rooms were filthy and toilets were filthy. Don't have a lot to say about Noosa unfortunately.

Australia zoo was next. We arrived at Australia zoo on the coldest day of the year but yet I still walked round in flip flops!! Australia zoo is the zoo Steve Irwin used to own and the road leading up to the zoo is called Steve Irwin Highway. There is also a memorial section in the zoo where people have left poems, photos and messages on Khaki shirts saying how much Steve Irwin will be missed. 1 of the messages said that the crocodiles are crying. The zoo itself is quite small and because it was so cold we did not enjoy it as much as we would have had it been summer. Due to the cold the crocodiles were reluctant to come out and perform. We sat in the 'Crocoseum' and watched a live show that included reptiles, birds and lastly Crocodiles. The 1st croc refused to come out but they managed to coax a second croc out. We where shown how the crocs leap out the water and how they use there tails to gain better leverage for attacks. A guy would walk round with meat about a foot away from this 12 foot croc showing us different ways the croc goes for food He even told us that crocs can not outrun a human on land due to there weight and short legs, always good to know.

Brisbane is just like a normal city and because we had seen so many sights in the 1st week we had decided to dedicate more time to drinking. This started in Brisbane where we played drinking games and got hammered. Due to this we did nothing in Brisbane but had a great time anyways.

Surfers Paradise is a built up beach town. There are a lot of high rise buildings just off the beach which makes surfers look a bit like Benidorm. Surfers, like Brisbane, was dedicated to drinking. We had a bbq followed by lots of drinking and then on into town with people from our hostel. The main thing that happened in Surfers was Pete bought an Ozzie cork hat.

After Surfers we headed down to Byron Bay and stayed at a hippie style hostel called the Arts Factory. The hostel consisted of dorms, Teepees and 1 of the best cinemas I have ever been to. It was a really relaxed, easy going place to stay. From Byron we did a day trip to a town called Nimbin, where buying and smoking marijuina is legal. Nimbin is only really 1 street full of people trying to get you to buy marijuina or try there space cakes. The bus we took to Nimbin was called 'Jims alternative tours'. Jim would play music on the bus that coincided with what was happening on the trip i.e an area you where going through or a bit of history about an area. After he picked us up from Nimbin to take us back to Byron, Jim took us to his friends Pauls place. Now Paul is a recluse who lives in the middle of nowhere and has the basic of amenities. I don't even think his house had a bathroom. The point of us seeing paul was because a lot of people where not really with it after Nimbin so Paul would be a novelty. He took us for a walk around his garden and gave us a lecture on astrophysics, very weird. Again in bYrin we did not really do much as Byron is a seaside town that is geared for sunny weather and the weather was not really good enough for us to go and lie on the beach. We did go and see Byron Bay lighthouse and saw some dolphinhs when we were there.

Byron Bay was really the last stop on our trip down the East coast. We stayed a night in Newcastle, but only because it was too far to drive to Sydney from Byron. We handed the car back, said goodbye to Linds whio had to fly to San Diego, and waited in Sydney for our flight to Fiji. Now most people already know that we missed our 1st flight to Fiji as we got the dates wrong so we spent an extra 5 days in Sydney. These 5 days were really boring as we had seen all we wanted to see in Sydney and we really wanted to get to Fiji.