Hello all!

Have been terrible at bloggin again with news but internet is rather pricey down under and there never seems to be enough hours in the day. How is everyone? I will work backwards and see how much of our travels I can cover since Laos.

We are now in Cairns and have mainly been partying with a group of people that we met. There has been 4 of us Sam, Ceri and Anna in a group since Sydney heading up the East coast but we always seem to be with others too. Tonight we are on a party bus which sounds messy. Not sure how much more my liver can take. Before Cairns we were in Mission Beach which was gorgeous although rained a bit (I know, rain in Oz!) and the others did a skydive. Looks awesome! Think I am going to brave it at some point. Perhaps in NZ.

We were in Airlie before that which is a gateway to sailing in the Whitsundays. This was the best thing so far in Oz. We had pefect weather, lovely people and it was just tonnes of fun. We dived the reef as well which made it even better. Hopefully doing another dive in the next few days provided the credit card allows it.

We stayed in Hervey Bay for a few nights which we ended up getting for free as each room we went in was completely infested with bed bugs. The rhyme 'night night, don't let the bed bugs bite' has taken on a completely different meaning! We went to Fraser Island from there which involved 9 of us in a 4x4 braving the sand dunes to see the sights Fraser has to offer. The first day was hot and sunny and we managed to visit a viewpoint, have a dip in a lake and set up camp. Sam was not and is still not a happy camper! We had bbq for dinner and drank until the rain came down which then didn't stop for a good few days. There were frequent visits from dingoes and when you needed the toilet you had to firstly dig a hole to go in. Not the most dignified experience. We stayed for another 2 days there where we visited another beautiful lake and got back in one piece despite getting a flat tyre and discovering that we had been given the worng jack!

We went to a bush camp in Noosa, again a camping experience but with slightly better toilet facilities and we even had showers. Luxury! We did 2 days of canoeing 7km the first day and about 15km the next. Each destination had a pub to visit upon arrival so despite the heat we had a lot of motivation to get there. We celebrated Australia day with drinks and met some fun people who we're still with now.

We had been in Mooloolaba to visit the crocs at the Steve Irwin zoo. We got to cuddle koalas and feed an elephant. Definately worth a visit.

Brisbane was a great city and we actually did quite a bit there including visiting Southbank; a man made beach in the middle of the city, we did a city tour, visited the Southbank museum, the art gallery and solved crimes at the police museum where we met the commisioner of the police. Exciting times! Of course there was lots of drinking involved too. We mat some Aussies who invited us to theirs for a bbq and showed us a spot where there were tonnes of kangaroos hoping around in the wild.

In Surfer's paradise we visited a theme park which was great fun. We watched a tiger show and stroked the kangaroos. Had a couple of lazy days there also exploring the city and visiting night markets.

We spent a while in Byron Bay, one of the most relaxed places we have been to in Oz where we stayed at a very lively hostel and had a few more nights out. We visited a lighthouse which was Australia's most Easterly point and had stunning views. A very pretty place and most people agreed it would be a good place to live.

In Coff's harbour we explored the town and again more nights out. Seems to be a lot of that in Oz! Hit the beach for a few days and I shade bathed whilst the others soaked up the good weather.

Newcastle was good fun and we went on coastal walks in the rain to admire the views. We went on a day trip to the vineyards and got to sample the wine, fun times! We also had some very questionable shots including dragon's breath which contained an obscene amount of chilli.

Port macqurie was great. Again we went on some walks and spotted wild koalas. Adorable! There were also hundreds of bats around like there are in a lot of places out here. We visited koala hospital which cared for all the poorly bears found in the wild. We tried to take one home with us but the staff weren't too keen on that idea.

Sydney is one of my favourite cities so far. Is just so much to do there and the people are amazing. The Sydney opera house was as impressive as I expected and we managed to grab a spot by it in the Botanical Gardens for new years eve with a lovely group of people we had met in Asia. Australians make a day of it so we arrived there by midday and sat around with plenty of food and drink having fun all day before the fireworks at 9pm and 12pm which were amazing.

The funds have been going quickly but we've never passed up an opportunity to try out new things and I've now got a workign visa for NZ so will hopefully be able to save up a bit more cash there before continuing our travels.

In the next few days we are taking a boat to the outer reef to dive, I can't wait! The plan is to then go to Melbourne although we've yet to book flights...

Sorry for the very boring blog but at least it gives some idea of what we've been up to in Australia. Will finish off Asia another time.

Hope to hear back from everyone soon with news!

Miss you all.

Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxx