Hey guys - as we have been very very very slack with the blog and u have probably given up on checking it now, but this our very brief outline of our time in Queensland (internet time here is just to costly to keep an everyday blog going).

Here goes:

1. Cairns

First stop Cairns - duration one week.
In Cairns we did alot of chilling by the pool, a few nights at the casion and few nights drinking on a very tight budget and most importantly we had fun in the reef. We did our first intro scuba dive which was awsome - and saw lots of pretty fish and was so amazing to scuba for the first time in the Great Barrier Reef.

2. Mission Beach - duration 3 nights

Short stay here but was such a nice little hostel - and a free bbq (free great word in backpacker world like being a student all over again for me). Anyway lovely quite massive beach here - beautiful. Good night out with some girls we met in Cairns in a local little place and free champas which was also brill. But the main thing we did here was White Water Rafting in Tully River - amazing - bit scarey but sooooo much fun. Nearly drowned when we had the chance to go down one of the rapids solo (no raft) - that was the most scarey part thought i was gonna crash into the rocks. But overall great day out.

3. Magnetic Island - 3 nights

Little island from a place called Townsville. Here was cool stayed in a place right by an amazing beach could see the sea from our hostel door (hostel rooms like wooden tents - but I (Jem) had a very annoying squeaky bed - that made noise if u tip toed by it). Here we did kayaking and got s*** scared as there was a tiger breeding bait near by, also went to a Koala Sanctury - and obviously held a koala, and also a baby crocodile, a bird (kockatuu cant spell sorry), and enchidna (looks like a hedgehod), blue tongue lizard and snake (me scared again thought it was gonna strangle me) and saw a few other things like a baby wallaby which was so cute and bounced around sitting on everybodies laps and being spoilt.

4. Airlie Beach and Whitsundays

Airlie was a nice place (beautiful sun set and nice lagoon) only got one night here and spent the other nights sailing around the stunning whitsunday islands. This is a common trip to do on the east coast and was brilliant - and on one of the islands is a place called Whitehaven beach - which was like paradise, the island was beautiful, white very soft sand that u could polish your silver of (if u had any) and clean and polish ur teeth) and it worked lol, waters crystal clear and calm. Saw a beautiful sun set and sun rise (yes i said sunrise we wer up at 5am - but the good bit of this was waking up to the sun, view of islands and turtles coming up to surface for air. We also snorkled around here in the not so stunning or flattering stinger suits - but was bit scarey as loads of stingers.

5. 1770 - 1 night

This was suprisingly a good stop - quiet little place but did a really cool trip - called scooteroo which was basicly riding a scooter around the area looking at wild kangeroos and seeing the sunset. Was so much fun driving the scooter and a bit nervous at the start - as we were scared we would fall off.

6. Rainbow Beach - Fraser Island - 4 nights

Great beach here - but the main point of visiting this place was to go on the Fraser Island (the worlds biggest sand island) where u go in groups of on your own on a 4wd driving around for 2 nights and camp on the beach and the island is pure paradise - clear water and soft white sands, beautiful lakes - stunning. Loved it here. Lucy and I had a go at driving the massive 4wd along the sand - was alot of fun.

7. Brisbane - (Jem 1night, Lucy 7 nights)
I (jem) was not overly impressed with Brisbane - not much to it but only had a short visit to judge (as this is the period I unfortunately had to go home for my lovely nan), we did a river cruise and climbed up the tower clock. Lucy: Visited Morton Island for a day which is third largest sand island and has ship wrecks (man made for wildlife), really beautiful fun day did snorkling, sand surfing, feed the fish and had the runner up for the Oz biggest loser (reality TV program) as our tour guide lol. Night life in Bris was quite studentyfied went to Regatta bar and Downunder bar.

8. Surfers Paradise (Jem 2 nights, Lucy7 nights)

Lucy: Loved the beach very windy and sand went everywhere, did jet sking (loved the high speeds of jet skiing and now want to purchase one - another thing for my list) and parasailing. Both: Nightlife excellent here, Lucy went out on both Back Packers Big Night Outs (much to her resistance) and many other nights, I only had one night out here but loved it the bar crawl - good atmosphere and lots of free drinkies). We went to Movie World which was good as not many queues but not the best themepark (and Jem thought it was over priced for what they have to offer there) (although the best ride: Superman was not operating), but the log flume ride, batman ride, Scooby doo ride and the Shrek 3D were good rides, Lethal Weapon was well lethal - damaged necks :-(