G'day everyone,

Wow well where do we start, we have both agreed that the past weekend has probably been the best so far but also the seen some amazing sights. We worked 3 long days last week so that we had a long weekend to go away. Claire spent 2 days in the intensive care unit and charlotte spent a day on surf ward which specialises mainly in burns, both of us thouroghly enjoyed our week at placement as we achieved many new skills and both experienced working in a different speciality. On friday we went into the city and picked up a few bits for the weekend we also had our first lot of rain, in the evening we packed our things so we were ready to leave early the next morning. On saturday we caught the 6.30 train to cleveland where we met the bus that took us to catch our ferry over to stradbroke island. Already the sun was shining and we knew we were in for a day of great weather. We arrived on North Stradbroke island at 8.00 where we caught the bus to Manta Lodge a backpackers hostel which was to be our accomodation for the weekend. It was a great place with loads of character, had a huge common room with comfy sofas, big creen tv, ping pong table and a pool table, also had a big communal kitchen and outdoor eating area. Our room was pretty basic but comfortable. After dropping of our backpacks we planned our itinery for the day with Paul one of the lodge staff. We then set off on our way. We walked a minute down the track and we stepped foot onto Home Beach, neither of us could believe what we saw we dropped our things and just ran screamin like children along the beach, the sand was the whitest sand we had ever seen and the sea was so blue and clear, don't think we could describe the feeling we got was just amazing and to top it all off we were the only 2 people on this huge stretch of beach. After going a lil crazy we began our long walk, after home beach we came across adder rock which jutted out into the sea, we walked around this and then set foot onto cylinder beach which again was so nice, we walked over some more rocks and came to a massive sand dune, claire ran up first and charlotte followed behind, the view from the top was breathtaking could see along the whole coastline, we then slid back down the dune on cardboard for sale signs lol!!! we then trekked through what seemed like a rainforest and came to frenchmans beach. We walked up through the hills to the centre of pointlookout. There was a cafe and a couple of shops, we ate our brekky from the bakery overlooking the pacific ocean. Once our energy levels were restored we started the gorge walk, this took us around the coastline and through the rainforest, at certain points you were able to step of the wooden track onto huge rockfaces, once on one of these we were able to see dolphins, turtles and whales, was nice seeing them in the wild bouncing over the waves. We carried walking along the gorge walk till we reached main beach, this was the furthest point we could go. We decided to make our way back along the main road where we stopped off for real Italian ice-cream. We decided to spend what was left of the day on Home beach. On saturday evening we went for dinner at the local bowls club, we both had thai red fish curry it was so nice. We recognised a few people from the lodge so had drinks with them, an hour later we had ended up speaking to about 20 people all of which were staying at manta lodge, after the club closed we headed to the beach for a fire and a few more drinks. We got up sunday and both agreed that we didnt want to leave so we paid for another night in the lodge. During the day we walked back up to the main area on point lookout and had a lovely brunch in a seafood restaurant. Claire had salt and pepper calamari and charlotte had king prawns, was the nicest and freshest food ever. We spent the rest of the day on cylinder and home beach. In the evening we cooked for ourselves in the lodge and ate outside. After dinner we sat with the other people we had met and played a few games. Our favouite being squeak, one person was blind folded whilst everybody else took there positions in the common room, the blind folded person had to find each person was so much fun easier to play than explain!! On both saturday and sunday evening we sat and watched the sun set was so pretty couldnt of had a better view. One of the girls we met in the lodge went to hertfordshire uni, that was pretty crazy couldn't be much further away and on such a lil island yet we still met someone from home was so strange. We got up Monday morning really not wanting to leave but knew we had to, we got a lift with 2 girls we met in there wicky camper to the ferry crossing. Was so sad to leave but we sat in the sun on the ferry and enjoyed the ride back. The island was the most amazing place and we both had such a great time. We got back to brisbane where we went straight to bed ready to get up and do our night shift monday evening. Our niht shift went well both felt really tired this morning but had a long lie in, once we finally got up we took the dogs down into bulimba and got a few bits, this evening we just chilled and had dinner with the family. We are now working our last 2 days so shall write again at the end of the week.

Take care everybody, lots of love Claire and Charlottie xxxxxxxx