On the 12th we arrived in Byron Bay, our first stop in New South Wales. We were staying at the Arts Factory - more of a hippie commune than a hostel! This is typical of Byron though, everyone in the town is so laid back. The relaxed atmosphere is partly down to the people that live here but we think the smell of cannabis (EVERYWHERE!) may have had some part to play too! There is live music on every street corner (some of it just weird old men banging drums wi...

We arrived in a rainy Brisbane after several hours on the Greyhound with no air conditioning! After peeling ourselves from the coach seats we headed to Bunk, the hostel that we had been recommended by every travel desk on the East coast. It was a stinker! The first 2 rooms we stayed in were repulsive (one was full of 18 year olds who had lived there for 2 weeks without washing!) Our third room was much better despite a weird French guy who took a banana into t...

We arrived in Noosa on the 3rd December - another small beach town on the East coast. From here we visited Australia Zoo where Jo got to fulfil an ambition of holding a Koala. They are a lot smellier than you'd expect but she loved it anyway. We saw one of the shows at the crocoseum, which was good but nowhere near as entertaining as it would have been with Steve Irwin dangling his children over the crocodiles! We also got to feed an elephant and see tigers p...

After an overnight Greyhound journey on the 27th we arrived in Hervey Bay. After a good night's sleep we woke early and met at the hostel's bar to go to Fraser Island. We were split into groups of 9 for each 4x4 vehicle so we met our group and the first job was to write our shopping list for the 3 day trip. Whilst Jo and another couple went to the shops to pick up the food the rest of us went to the 4x4 garage to pack our car and watch instructional videos on ...

On the 23rd we arrived in Airlie Beach and set up for our next few days on the boat. As soon as we saw our boat we knew we'd picked a good one. There are literally hundreds to choose from and we've since heard nightmare stories about overcrowded boats with boiling sleeping quarters. Ours (Wings) on the other hand was perfect. A modern catamaran with air con, excellent beds and most of all a really good group of people on board. Over the three days we did loa...