Yesterday we had quite a leisurely morning and day in general. We didn't have to check-out until 9.30am, we stored our bags in the group storage room and chilled out for the rest of the day in the tv room and lazed by the pool, feasting on pineapple, apple and banana - very healthy for a change! 4.30pm soon came round and we headed to reception, collected our bags from storage and clambered onto the free hostel shuttle to the transit centre where we picked up our 5.00pm OZ Experience bus to the compulsary stopover of Rainbow Beach. We arrived in at our destination at 6.45pm, with our comedian bus driver (note to selves - "...as my old girl friend used to say - get off!"), checked into our hostel - Frasers on Rainbow Beach, made a typical traveller/student style dinner of soup and noodles avec bread - tasty yet wholesome! The rest of our evening was spent enjoying the Californian girl's drinking game and chatting to some local-to-Laura lads, from Dronny, who also know of, and have had the pleasure of visiting, beautiful Burton-on-Trent! Small world, eh!?!

This morning we got up at 7.00am had breakfast and were checked out of our room and chucked our stuff on the bus trailer by 7.40am. We set of for Noosa at 8.00am and made good time, arriving into Noosa at 10.00am. Robert and Sue, friends of Uncle John, picked us up from the transit centre at 10.30am and took us straight for a warm up cup of coffee and a muffin - the weather had decided to turn against us yet again, being dull and overcast with spots of rain, but not too much, so we were lucky in that respect. After coffee it was off to 'The Treetops' aka Robert and Sue's gorgeous house to settle in and enjoy a glass or two of bubbly, put some long overdue washing on and chats. Once settled we headed back to the main town enjoyed a leisurely wander down Hastings Road onto the beach where Sarah was allowed to climb onto a JCB digger for a photo to make Uncle John proud! Robert then took us on an energetic walk through the National Park, enjoying gorgeous views and watching in awe of the talented surfers in the waves below, who made it look so easy! We walked past Boiling Point, Dolphin Point and up to the exposed cliff overlooking Alexander Beach, where we had to hold to each other, in the gale-like winds, for a photo! We circled back round, walked past the beach and onto the main street, Hastings Road, where we stopped off for refreshments at a bar before meeting up with Sue and some of her friends. Back to The Treetops, Robert and Sue kindly let us enjoy their jacuzzi, with was so warm and relaxing, before showers and getting ready for dinner. We headed back to the town for 6.30pm and met with Robert and Sue's friends in a gorgeous Thai restaurant Krung Thep (Thai for 'Bangkok'). We enjoyed apetisers of veggie spring rolls, prawn parcels, chicken satay and prawn crackers before main courses of beef in oyster sauce (Sarah), spicy chicken and cashew nuts (Laura), sweet and sour chicken, phad thai, thai green chicken curry, seafood and veg and rice, which was shared round and washed down by bubbly and sauvignon blanc! Mmm-mmm! Very much spoilt! Back at The Treetops we enjoyed music, chat, coffee, juice and a fuss with the dogs (Ella and Denni) before retiring for the evening. Yep, even Laura liked these cuties and said that she wants her mum to get one! - Is Laura actually overcoming her dog-phobia!? - What this space!!