CAIRNSAs with Airlie Beach, the recollections of Cairns are somewhat hazy but as the last stop on the East Coast where everyone meets up with the mates they have met along the route it's always gonna be an interesting place. We have allowed ourselves 5 days here, supposedly to get some R&R before tackling the north and the Red centre, yeah right! Other than shopping, we spend our time drinking. We did manage to get out of Cairns for a day and scarily we d...

MISSION BEACH - RAIN RAIN RAIN We arrive around midnight and it is absolutely tipping it down! Doesn't look like we are going to get to see the amazing Mission beach here as it is still teeming down when we get up the next day. Thankfully we are staying at a great hostel Scotty's - can't say enough good things about this place and the guys that own/run it - and we have arrived for BBQ night, bonus! We also meet up with Karen who was on Fraser Isla...

TOWNSVILLE/MAGNETIC ISLAND Townville is weird, if you've heard of Eirie Indiana then this is the Aussie version, when we arrive it is a complete ghost town with not a soul in sight, which is very strange as it is full of shops etc and is the admin centre that serves the whole of Queenstown. We stay here a day and head straight to Magnetic Island. We had a brilliant couple of days on Maggie - again we were very fortunate with the weather (it's the wet s...

AIRLIE BEACH/THE WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS After a night on the very busy overnight bus we arrive in Airlie early in the morning to the sight of fabulous blue skys - we cannot believe our luck as it has been raining solidly here for the last 3 weeks so we thought our Whitsundays trip was going to be a total wash-out. The rest of our time in Airlie Beach is pretty hazy, as anyone who had every been will understand, it's a bit of a party place so it would be rud...

HERVEY BAY/FRASER ISLANDAfter a whole day on the bus up to Hervey Bay we are a more than a little underwhelmed on arrival. The hostel (Beaches) is fine but we have a complete nightmare over the trips that we have booked with them and end up having a massive row with one of the staff there (she's a total biatch) which is all a bit annoying. So we go out in search of dinner and realise that there is nothing here. There is literally one place open and we only ju...