this is going to be a big update as i have just finished the whole of the east coast and havent really done any updates..

well, after mission beach we went to Arlie beach..which is where we left to sail the Whitsundays..which was one of my favourite times deffinately..there are 70-something islands making up the whitsundays and its so beautiful..the weather stayed sunny for us which was lucky as everyone we met who had just done it got so much rain.. we had 2 nights on this little tiny boat. no air con which made it unbearably hot.. but the scenery made up for it.. everyone did a lot of snorkling although i went out once and as you wernt allowed flippers as it damages the reef, i didnt realise how hard it would be and had a massive panic and im not the strongest swimmer so had a little episode and was pushing nat under the water to keep myself up so the boat had to come and rescue me...after that i didnt go out again and just read my book while everyone else went to swim with the fishies..

then we left for kroombit..a stop we had to make with our bus group as it was a 2 day drive to rainbow beach.. but this was a ranch in the middle of no-where..but it was fun as we got to go on one of those michanical bulls and everyone tried whip-cracking..with massive scary cattle whips..although i had an image of me taking an eye out so once again sat that out. In the morning we got woken up at 6 am..but not by an alarm clock or a gentle nudge..but by the crazy ranch owner riding his motorbike past our dorms and firing a shot gun...which if your wondering actually is a good way to wake up as there is no way you will fall back to sleep after that!

next was rainbow beach..which is where we left for Fraser island.. Fraser island is the largest sand island in the world..and we went in a group of 11..all squeezed into this big toyota land cruiser and went around driving around on it for 3 days.. we got to see some really nice lakes and i think they have the purest sand or something.. but it was amazing looking over the island..just seeing massive sand dunes etc in the middle surrounded by trees.. dingos tried to eat our lunch so we had to thretern them with spades..they just run about freely. we had to sleep in little tiny tents..must of been worth a couple of dollars each..and in the middle of the night you realised you had a face full of sand and could see the stars as the waterproof cover blew away. luckily the stars were amazing. But the next night we werent taking any chances and tied our tent to a nearby tree. as there are no showers when your camping on a random patch of the beach..we tried to creep into a campsite there and use theres but we got caught washing our dishes and the woman couldnt stop shouting at us to get out..so we thought it was best to just leave and wait the 2 days till we were back on the mainland.

ok next we left for..Noosa..which was such a quite town..there was a surf competition going on the week we were there, so we got to see a bit of that..it was a really nice place to have a good 4 days to recover after getting NO sleep in fraser island.. from noosa we got a bus to Australia zoo (Steve Erwin's zoo) which was amazing..got to see all the animals i wanted to and got to poke a koala in a tree and walk through the kangeroo enclosure..i got a bit obsessed with the kangerooos so ended up with about 10 pictures with them! also got to watch the crocadile show, jumping for meat..was really good. also got to feed an elephant..which is like feeding a horse, but with a trunk.

after noosa..we went to Brisbane..it was strange being back in a city as we wernt used to things being open after 8. but we only spent 2 nights here and didnt do a lot..just mainly caught up on sleep etc.. then the gold coast..surfers paradise..we went to a theme park called dream world..which was fun as we hadnt been to any theme parks yet.. had some scary rides..but i made myself go on them all.. i was in the frame of mind 'iv done a skydive i can do anything'.

then it was onto Byron bay which was very chilled out and had one of the nicest beaches weve been to i think as the water was so clear and we got to swim in it..in Queensland you cant swim in the sea at the moment as its stinger season..so it was nice to get into the sea without being all kitted out in a stinger suit.

then to break up the long drive back to sydney..we stopped off in a quite town for a 1 night surf camp..i managed to stand up a few times..but im not the most confident person in water and managed to drink another couple of gallons of the sea, and got covered in rashes and bruises..but it was worth it.. mostly i just hung in the shallow water getting hit by the waves with stinging eyes and cramp in my foot.

back in sydney now..leaving for singapore today.. we fly into bangkok..and have to wait in the airport for 9 hours..fun stuff.. well il update after singapore