The evening before we left brisbane we played games in the bar including kareoke and the limbo, we were good but not good enough to win the cash prizes! In the morning we said goodbye to brisbane, which despite other peoples negative views we rally enjoyed 9some backpackers seem to judge places on how many bars and clubs there is but gem and i prefer to see the actual place- im getting old now im 23!) The morning after we said goodbye to the city exiting it over 'story bridge'- great name for a bridge in my opinion and went on to surfers paradise. On the way we stopped to do an activity called zorbing which involves getting inside a massive inflatable ball filled with 40l of water and rolling down a steep grass hill. It was so funny we were going so fast and sliding all over the place and screaming! It exceded my expectations i loved it- crazy concept but really fun!

Surfers paradise is the centre of the gold coast. The gold coast is virtually 3.5km of high rise buildings and commercial development fronted by 42km of golden sandy beaches, waterways and canals. It is the most commerical resort town in oz and is popular for its theme parks, casinos and of course surfing. A 16 year old boy was killed near here yesterday by a shark a, his friend risjked his life trying to save him but it was too late- very sad his family are distraught. Our driver told us how surfers paradise is the plastic surgery capital of the world so there is lots of identical bimbos walking around looking for wealthy old men to gold-dig! Maybe i should have got my boobs done whilst here! haha.

We stayed in a humble little place on the outskirts of town where we stumbled across a bingo hall and ended up in a 2 hour session with all the ozzie chavs and grannies! It was fun and even though i only won ten dollars i was still excited and too shell shocked to shout bingo so gem had to do it for me. Everyone was so nice to us, the bingo callers were really rooting for us to win and one old lady bought us both a hot pink dabber pen as she saw us debating whter they were too expensive or not and she knew that backpacking on a budget is hard- i love old people!! We went back to the hostel and cooked scrambled eggs and tomatoes. Had a couple of great girlie days, when most backpackers are out clubbing and getting sloshed gem and i prefer to play bingo with the locals but its all fun!!

In the morning today we went shopping in the rain, looks like we have come to the end of the glorious nweather now that we are heading south as all we have had is rain and monsoons since noosa- oh well roll on 10 days in fiji later next month!! Our next bus took us on to byron bay crossing the border from the state of wueensland to the state of new south wales. We went through the town who's main street is on the exact border so at one side of the street the shops are classed as being in queensland and at the other they are classed as being in new south wales. This proves popular on new years eve as there is an hours time difference between the 2 states whic means partyers can celebrate first in queensland then cross the road an hour later and celebrate again in new south wales- clever!

I will tell you about byron bay soon as i only just got here but it is meant to be peoples favourite stop off point along the east coast so looking forward to it. Hope everyone is ok at home i am really home sick but not ready to come home just yet!