Well, for those of you who feared that Chris may not have survived his first horseriding experience, since writing our last blog entry, he did! In fact, for those of you who know anything about riding he managed to walk, trot and do a brief canter! Not bad for your first try (although his horse was experiencing some flatulence issues for the whole ride so this kept him entertained for the 2 hour hack! Men! ;O)

As well as horseriding in Coffs Harbour, we went Kayaking, body boarding (great fun!), and visited a dolphin and sea lion sanctuary which was really nice where I received a lovely fishy kiss from a sea lion and a prod/kiss from a dolphin! Very cute! We really enjoyed our time in Coffs and ended up spending an extra few days there relaxing in the hostel and messing about in the pool. We met some great people at the hostel here and ended up in the pub with one of the managers who introduced me to Bundaberg rum! Great stuff, this has now become my Australian drink of choice whilst Chris is on the Tooheys Old.

BRISBANE

1) Nice walk by the river (Southbank area): not as good as Melbourne.
2) Nice botanical gardens: not as nice as Sydney
3) Clean, pleasant, but nothing spectacular to see
…so we moved on!

N.B We did leave from Brisbane to visit Australia Zoo- Home of the crocodile hunter! Had a fab day, watched the croc show which was spectacular, patted a koala bear and took 500 pictures of them as they are soooo cute! We also saw enough Kangaroos to last a life time (which did make us feel a tiny bit guilty having eaten kangaroo steak only days before…sorry skippy! :O(

NOOSA

After leaving Brisbane, we headed to Noosa (aka…the 20th nicest town in Oz according to some literature we read!). Very wealthy, and picturesque small town on the coast. Richard Branson has a house here. Its surrounded by National parks and beautiful lakes intertwine the houses. We spent two days here trekking through more forests and along sandy beaches as well as relaxing. Whilst we were walking we did happen to see a wild Koala bear about 30 foot up a tree balancing precariously on a branch which was a nice but rare site according to locals! Whilst in Noosa, in a bid to save money, Chris decided to attempt to cook us Kangaroo steak...a valient attempt was made, however the Kangaroo steak refused to cook and neither of us could face eating rare kangaroo- ahh well at least we tried to wacka kangaroo on the barbi in true oz style!

We caught the bus from Noosa to Rainbow beach yesterday and we have now arrived in Rainbow beach to begin our Fraser Island adventure! So for the next 3 days we will driving 4x4s over sandy beaches and camping!!!!! eek!! Next installment when we return from the island- bite free hopefully!