Well hello there friends and family

I'm in a jolly mood this afternoon as the sun has finally bloody come out!! You would not believe the weather we have experienced the past few days here in what is supposed to be the sunshine state!!

So then, Bundaberg…it wasn't somewhere we had planned to go but as it happens I'm glad we did as it was a cool little town. We checked into the closest hostel - a place called Cellblock which believe it or not is a converted prison and courthouse and apparently haunted. This freaked me out big time! I decided no matter how desperate I was I would not be making middle of the night trips to the toilets and every time I was in there on my own I swear I could hear what sounded like someone cleaning their teeth!!

Anyway, we went for breakie in a lovely bakery whilst we waited until we could check in and the girls and I mooched round the shops. When we did eventually check in we were shocked to find the rooms were actually like prison cells!! And they were so cramped; you couldn't swing a cat in there!

As it was Valentines Day the girls and I decided to celebrate and go out for a romantic dinner! We found a small place doing a 4 course dinner for just $10 (less than a fiver!) and it was yummy! We had garlic bread, followed by nachos, spicy chicken with rice and then a pancake and icecream followed by a pot of tea! It was a very pleasant evening.

The next day the five of us took a walk to the Bundaberg Rum Factory, we didn't want to pay out for the tour but decided we'd sample the rum at the bar. Only we were told this wasn't allowed unless you did a tour so instead we bought some rum ice-cream and an 8 pack of mixed rum and coke! The ice cream was lovely, however we had a problem when it came to deciding where to enjoy the rum..Drinking in public in Australia is an offence, and drinking alcohol in the hostel was forbidden as it is licensed. Due to the CCTV videos in every room of the hostel (it literally was like being in prison having our every move watched!) we decided this too wasn't an option. As we walked past Subway I had the bright idea of asking if we could have some empty cups and ice! Alex was so embarrassed that we even asked and stood there cringing but to our complete surprise they said yes! Classy as ever we emptied the bottles or rum into the subway drink cartons on the side of the road and continued our walk back to the hostel sipping at our rum!!

Nadine and I were feeling quite tipsy by the time we arrived back, we had just enough time for spaghetti on toast before being picked up at 6pm to go to Mon Repos.Here we watched baby loggerhead turtles hatching and running down to the sea, it truly was an amazing experience. Even the boys loved it!

The next day we left Bundaberg and after a five hour bus drive arrived in Kroombit Cattle Station.'Kroombit' is located on Lochenbar Station, which is a 10,000 acre working cattle station that was once part of the now protected Kroombit Tops National Park.We also learned that a World War II, B24 Liberater bomber, crashed into the escarpment one rainy night in 1945 with the loss of all on board. So dense and rough is the country, "Beautiful Betsy" was not discovered until 1994.

We had steak for lunch which was lovely and had a free afternoon with the option of horse riding.Now I haven't been on a horse for 15 years, the reason being that my first and only experience on a horse was horrible! I cried the entire time and my horse kept bending down to eat grass at every opportunity so it wasn't exactly a smooth journey! Regardless of this I thought I'd give it another go! The horse I was allocated was called 'waitress' and to my horror she was also a grass lover!! Not only that she decided to have an extremely long and smelly wee in the first five minutes and I was instructed to stand up throughout to ease off her bladder!! I was absolutely petrified for the first twenty minutes or so, we didn't have a guide so we were 100% in control of the horses. We had to kick them to make them move, steer them and stop them!

Waitress was extremely lazy and kept stopping so I was given a stick to use on her bottom to get her moving! Going in a straight line was one thing but then we had to muster up hundreds of goats and get them into their pen.I kept getting told off as I was in amongst the goats on my horse instead of being behind them and rounding them up! We had to shout 'a a a bub bub bub' to get the goats to move! Was a very funny experience and we successfully completed the task! Woo hoo!

At 5pm (bar o clock) as the cowboys called it we began drinking and watched some of the guys do clay pigeon shooting. I was surprised to learn that this doesn't actually involve shooting what looks like clay pigeons and instead the target is just bright orange disks! Where's the fun in that!!

We then had to get into teams of three and see which team was the quickest at grabbing a goat, taking it out of the pen and into the arena, and then one of us had to pick it up and flip it over and the other brand it (although the brand wasn't actually hot..) Of course our team names had to be naughty so Nadine, Lucy and I called ourselves the goat blowers, and our time was 2 minutes 59… we came last!! It took both Lucy and I to drag our goat out of the pen, I did feel a bit sorry for it but we were assured it wasn't cruel to the goat!Before setting off back to the bar we had to stand in circle hold hands and between two people was a stun gun so we all got an electric shock at the same time! It bloody hurt but there is a really good action shot (which I will eventually put on truprint) of me and the lads just as we've got the shock!

We were delighted to have soup followed by a roast dinner as our evening meal and we proceeded to drink the bar dry! During the night there was an announcement. We knew there would be a very high chance of getting stuck at the cattle station for more than one night due to the bad weather, so we sat there and were told the good and bad news. The good being that Australia is no longer in drought and the bad news that there was just a 15% chance of the roads being open which would take us through to Airlie beach. The decision on whether we'd stay or go would be made in the morning so we'd still need to be up at 6am.

Despite the news everyone continued to have a great night and we all had a go at riding the mechanical bucking bull!! My attempt was shocking, I was on there all of 1 second and trying to get up off the inflatable padding was a nightmare in my drunken state! You had to be on there over 8 seconds to get to the next round and sadly, nor Nadine, Lucy, Alex and Elliot made it past 2 seconds either! Was a good laugh though and afterwards Nadine and I tried some whip cracking! Shortly afterwards we called it a night and got tucked up in our very comfy beds! We had duvets which was such a treat, and the beds were so cosy!!

The next day we got up early were told we would not be going anywhere and so after some breakfast we went back to bed!! We spent the day chilling out, reading books and writing our journals. We also sat in the oz bus and watched wedding crashers on the DVD player which was a treat, I'd forgotten how funny that film is!

At bar o clock we got back on it and were excited to be told the news that bush dancing had been arranged to keep us entertained! Dinner was yummy as always, this time we had corned beef, mash and peas followed by chocolate sponge and ice-cream! Top tucker!! The bush dancing was really good fun but very tiring, we had a relatively early night in preparation for our departure the next day at 6.45am.

I was first up and checked out (which the bus driver Beaver couldn't believe due to the amount of booze I had consumed!) We then had a ten hour bus ride to Airlie Beach. It was quite entertaining though. We had a great group and the guys sat at the back of the bus were particularly funny. They were traditional English boys when together in a group, showing off, farting, (which when you're in a bus with ac sending the flavour round over and over again is very unpleasant) giving abuse to the girl passengers, and they also decorated the bus with posters of glamour models from their Zoo magazines!! When we overtook the other Oz bus they mooned out the window! Was very funny, you may have had to have been there though!

Beaver organized a quiz for the afternoon and although it was touch and go as we approached Airlie beach we made it through! One of the towns we travelled through - Mackay, was declared a national disaster zone last week…

http://www.abc.net.au/tropic/stories/s2164622.htm

seriously check out these photos if you don't believe me just how bad the weather in Australia has been!Beaver gave us a quick tour of the town and warned the girls not on the pill to avoid going in the lagoon before midday as its like a sest pit and you're likely to get pregnant!! Apparently all the backpackers have sex in there at night! ;-)

We all met up at a local bar for dinner and drinks at 8pm and danced the night away! I say we, I was in bed by 11pm and have been nicknamed Cinderella due always being in bed by midnight!! I woke up at 5am this morning in Nadine's bed and didn't have a clue where I was! Don't panic though people, Lucy had walked me back to the hostel, I obviously just couldn't be arsed to climb up the ladder to my bunk bed and so passed out in the lower bunk!

As I said the sun has got his hat on and we are due to go on the Whitsunday sailing 3 day tour on Saturday so fingers crossed the weather will remain good. The boys are on a tighter schedule than us girls so they have chosen to go tomorrow as spaces have become available.It will be a sad day, splitting up the dream team but I'm having a great time with the girls, and have pushed my flight to NZ back so may as well enjoy chilling out for a few days here in Airlie.

Check out this news story, one of the Whitsunday boats full of backpackers crashed last week in the storms and they had to be rescued by helicopter…like I said keep your fingers and everything else crossed for me for good weather!http://www.abc.net.au/tropic/stories/s2160657.htm?queensland

Lots of love to everyone, missing you all loads. Until next time take care of yourself and each other! xxx