Hi all,

Huge apologies for not keeping the blog entries up to date but we've had loads of problems with internet and just generally having too much fun but hope you've enjoyed our photos and here are the start of the blogs for Australia.

We arrived in Brisbane in the early hours from catching our flight from Singapore so we were very tired when we arrived to find our hostel. We stayed in the southbank area just 10 mins walk from the city. The hostel was cool as it had a pool so we made use of this to help get ouver our jet lag.

Our first proper day of exploring the city we hired some bikes to make seeing the sights that bit easier. This was so much fun except having to wear the compulsory bike helmet! Yes i know you are all laughing at the pictures of helen and her wonky helmet! Definately not a fashion statement! We cycled around the city and each sides of the river which was brilliant. We then went to Brisbane's man-made beach. Although it was man-made it was really good with great views of the city and river.

As we were in Brisbane during the week the nightlife wasn't much to speak of so we went out to a couple of the backpacker bars which were just as good (Jugs of beer for $7! - 3.50) and Helen finally had some wine to drink from being deprived of it in Thailand.

The next day Helen dragged Dave to the zoo ... not any old zoo like your average Chester zoo though as this was the famous Steve Irwin zoo - aka the crocodile hunter! A brilliant day as you can tell by our million photos where we explored the whole park of australian animals. Highlights included holding a koala bear, feeding and playing with kangaroos and the tiger and crocodile shows. HElen thinks she has converted Dave into liking zoo's! The zoo was an hr out of brisbane so our tour included the coach there and the driver used to work at the zoo and wokred with Steve and the rest of the family. So the journey was spernt hearing stories about them all.

Our last day in brisbane we took a bus to Mt Cootha for a spot of bush walking - much to Helen's delight - and a magnificant view over the city. Again see the photos we posted from Brisbane.

Hope you are all well and we'll carry on posting our blogs xx