Hey everyone! Sorry for the major delay in Australian updates! So here we go...

So after Melbourne we flew back into New South Wales; to Newcastle! With only a population of 500,00, we were told the town was known for it's apparent laid back feel and personal touch, unlike Sydney which is so busy and impersonal. It town continues to be the largest coal export harbour in the world! The town itself is covered by wharf rejuvenation projects-waiting for a breath of life, colour and much needed modern design! It actually reminded me a lot of early Manchester (obviously on a smaller scale!) The Lonely Planet promised us 'don't just pass through, it's well worth a few days'... well Lonely Planet we sack you on this one! After not even 12 hours in the town we decided they were defiantly wrong or were looking somewhere we obviously weren't! Our hostel was run down and unclean and even after a free city bus, we saw nothing of interest.. in fact our biggest excitement was Coles and supermarket!! So needless to say we left early the next morning...

We headed North to a place called Port Macquarie, population 40,000, a small but pretty town consisting of rows of palm trees, rolling parklands, plenty of beautiful beach coves and a hefty koala population. This is defiantly one of those pretty quite costal towns that is the ideal Aussie family holiday stop away from the tourist hub. We stayed in a lovely personal hostel and enjoyed the beaches, pools and even a visit for feeding time at the local Koala Hospital.

After a few days we continued North and entered Coffs Harbour, population 65,000. The city was slightly biggest than the previous, boasting a string of fabulous beaches, water based activities and wildlife reserves- again an area popular with the locals. We stayed in a lovely YHA and enjoyed St Patrick's night dressed in green at the local Irish Bar; The Coffs Hotel, rammed with bands, several bands and traditional Irish music! It was packed! Obviously the only place the entire population comes at that time of year!

Continuing North we excitingly arrived in Byron Bay- population only 19,000. Byron Bay's population proceeds it's self all over Australia- for backpackers and fellow Aussies. The gorgeous laid back life style, embracing new age living, organic life choices, stunning headlands, amazing surf and it's sunshine weather all year round makes Byron Bay one of the best and busiest town's on the East Coast! The endless beaches, huge variety of food and awesome night kept us here for 10 days!

Whilst we were there we took a walk through to the Cape Byron Lighthouse- Australia's most easterly point and looked back at the bays below us. The top of the cliff has spectacular views of the town and the surrounding headlands.

We also joined in with a trip to Nimbin, population only just over 1000! Lonely Planet quotes tiny Nimbin as 'a hangover from an experimental 'Aquarius Festival' in the 70's... today it still feels like a social experiment where anything goes!' We visited a great wacky and wonderful 3D museum, shops and bars and the erm... back streets where cookies and smokes can be found! I'll let your imagination figure out the rest! ;)

After we managed to physically drag ourselves away from Byron Bay we got on a very packed bus and continued up the East Coast until we crossed over into Queensland- Australia's North East territory and entered Surfers Paradise. Yes there is actually a town called that! You'll never guess what the town is famous for?! With a population of 19,000, it is the place to party for all the flashpackers with tonnes of money to spend at the various bar crawls! The city maybe a little wild and trashy but it attracts phenomenal visitor numbers all year round. We only spent a few days here and spent a whole day at 'Wet & Wild' a massive water park which was so much fun! I so wish England was warmer so we could have these!

After a brief visit to Surfers we continued North to Australia's third biggest city, Brisbane. We were told over 900 people move there every week and we can certainly see why. It had a totally different feeling from Sydney or Melbourne. We spent our time there sightseeing, visiting the array of shops, Southbank area where they have a beautiful lagoon and I managed to catch up with an old friend from New Zealand!

We spent the next week enjoyed Noosa and Rainbow Beach (population only 1000) where we visited the Australia Zoo- or should I say 'Steve Irwin' Zoo! Steve's wife and two children continue to run the Zoo in Steve's legacy and they've certainly done a good job! It was the best Zoo I've ever been too- feeding elephants, kangaroos, watched an amazing show in the 'Crocosuem' and watch guided shows in the tiger temple and managed to pat a Koala's bum!

Next we travelled a few hours north and excitingly arrived at Hervey Bay- our gateway to Fraser Island! We decided against a Fraser Island self drive trip and opted for a guided tour. We spent 3 days visiting world famous sights such as Lake McKenzie, Basin Lake, Central Station, Wanggoolba Creek, Pine Valley, Rainforest Walks, Hammerstone Sandblow, Champagne Pools, Coloured Sands, Lake Wabby, Eli Creek, Indian Head, Maheno Shipwreck, Lake Birrabeen and Seventy-five Mile Beach. We had a fantastic group of about 25 people, an amazing guide Damien, buffet breakfast lunch and dinner, with muffin and cookie snacks throughout the day and a great rainforest lodge to sleep in! Check out; http://www.cooldingotour.com if your interested to find out more. I loved every second and although it rained at some points, it didn't stop us doing anything and it will be one of my best memories from Australia.

After a few days chilling we got a overnight bus from Hervey Bay to Airlie Beach, home of the Whitsunday Islands! The bus journey took a long 13 hours but at least we saved accommodation money that night!

Our Whitsunday Sailing Trip was booked with a company called OZ Sail and we'd booked onto a boat named the Avatar, for a 2 day 2 night sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands! Well when we arrived at Airlie Beach we had already heard mixed reviews about the trip, some people loved it, others complained about the boat and the trip itself. Anyway we decided to give it the benefit out the doubt and checked in..when OZ Sail arrived at the marina that morning, they informed us Avatar would not be running due to a breakdown last week and we were all being transferred over to another boat in their collection, known as 'Spank Me'- great name hey! They told us we were 'very lucky' and should be grateful we got to go on a bigger better boat! Well we should have realized from this first moment everything was going to go wrong! Basically to cut a long story short, the boat was terrible! We were really unlucky with the weather; it ended up raining for like the whole 2 days we were on the boat! Ok so we can't blame that on the company, however we can blame the leaking boat for our wet beds and possessions, so we basically slept on a wet bed for 2 nights! The crew were nice and did their best in a bad situation but you could tell they weren't confident on the boat themselves and seemed to know every little about the Whitsundays! We did see some 'briefly' some lovely places but it wasn't worth the money we paid- even the crew said we were really unlucky with the weather and they didn't think it was even worth doing a trip at this time of year! We have complained to the company, as have the other guests on our boat and several others on similar boats, so it's now just a waiting game to see if anything will happen! It was certainly a shame we didn't see more but tried to make the most of it as will probably never make it back here!

So we are leaving Airlie Beach tomorrow and continue our trip up the Cairns! One month to go til I'm home!

Love you All! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx