A very soggy hello from Rainbow Beach today guys! After quite a hot and gorgeous day yesterday it has been raining non-stop today, on the day that we booked to go to Fraser Island! However, after waking up in a slightly miserable mood because we imagined it would ruin our trip, actually we've had a fantastic day and are still smiling. Fraser Island is gorgeous. I'm sure it's more gorgeous when you can spend more than 2 minutes at a time outside the bus and bake in the sun on the beaches and go swimming etc but, not many people get to walk through a rainforest in the rain! So HA!
I'll go back a few days because seeing as my last blog entry was so long and I only managed to talk about a couple of things I'm really behind! But I promise I'll try and be as brief as I possibly can.
So I got up to the Blue Mountains and my terrifying steep train journey last time right? Well after that we headed north towards Byron Bay. Very much like Newquay in that it's a touristy town famous for it's surfing beaches, and it does have a certain amount of charm and appeal to it but it wasnt really for us. Firstly, we dont surf, secondly, we're not 21 and with a huge group of backpackers and thirdly, I was desperate to get on our way (so that we would get closer to the theme parks!!) so we stayed for the day, found a lovely secluded beach called Tallow Beach, had some lunch I'd made, caught some rays and got back in the caravan to find a park for the night.
The next couple of days we decided to have lots of fun and visit a couple of theme parks, well you've got to haven't you?! And me being the kid that I am I could barely contain my excitement the night before and was up before the alarm in the morning, making sure we were there before it opened and were the first in the ticket line. As it happens, we did get there before the park opened - an hour and a half before because we hadnt realised there was a time difference between New South Wales and Queensland! I am so impatient when it comes to queue's, especially for theme parks etc and I was not happy about waiting for them to open up. What were we queueing for I hear you ask?? Warner Bros Movie World!!!!!!!! OMG!!
Although it was relvatively small it still had a few good rides (which annoyingly didnt open til half an hour after the park, so I had another wait!!). First we went on the Superman ride. Not as good as the American ones so I've heard but you still rocket out of the station and physically feel like you are going to come out of the train because it goes as 4G's and has incredible drops and turns - really good one to start on! Then we headed to the Batwing ride which I'm not keen on but tried anyway. It's basically a long pole but instead of being dropped from the top, you're meant to feel like you are in the Batwingmobile thing and you shoot upwards then bounce back down to earth. It did get quite high - we could see our monstroscity of a caravan in the car park (although it does stick out like a sore thumb everywhere!!), and I did feel quite sick, but we went on again and again. There was a leathal weapon ride, which stood by it's name! It was very leathal and both Kav and I both nearly lost movement in our necks because it was so joulty and had very little protection (suffice it to say we didnt repeat that one!), and then we went on the Scooby Doo Spookycoaster! It was in a haunted, dark house and was actually really good fun with tons of quick dips and turns and lots of surprises, but I'm now in serious need of a visit to my osteopath because this one was also very hard on the neck and back! After that we went to the 4D Shrek spectacular. Now that was awesome!! It's a 3D short movie which follows on from Shrek 1 but you get a bit wet and have air blown at you etc - really good fun and very funny!! Then we watched the parade with the Scooby Doo gang, Austin Powers, Batman, Shrek etc with an ice-cream and headed back to the van and found a caravan park for the night.
Just a quick interjection, I'm really very proud of myself for how well I'm coping with this whole caravan and park thing. No longer will you hear the words "I want to stay at a 5* hotel", but "Hang on, it would be SO much cheaper to just stay in a caravan"!! I'm getting so good at map reading and finding us towns to stop in and caravan parks to park up in, and I just hop out of the van, pop into the office, ask for a powered site for the night, ask all the right questions (is there laundry, how much?, do we need codes for the boom gate and amenities, can you refill gas canisters), and I back before you know it with all the info, codes, keys etc and off we go. Kav then is in charge of hooking up the electricity, turning on the gas and making sure we have eater and a clean loo!! Very fair I think!!
So, the next day we headed to DreamWorld - kinda like Thorpe Park but the rides weren't as good. They had some OK ones but nothing that would leave lasting memories. I think the most unique one there was the MotoCoaster which was a rollercoaster but instead of getting into a train/car to ride it you hopped on a train made of pretend moto motorbikes. There were 2 next to each other and about 12 per ride, and you acually feel like you're riding a motobike - really cool!! You just hop on, lean forward to hold the handles and a bar comes from behind to keep you secure - brilliant! Kav and I have now come up with our own rating system for parks and rollercoasters and may one day write a book or website about them. We plan to visit a lot while on this trip and then as many afterwards as we both adore themeparks and coasters!
Thursday we spend in Brisbane city, but to be honest, although it's a nice enough city there just isnt that much to do. The city is full of highway and roads with a qutie complicated train and bus system, and not many interesting sights for tourists. So we went to the Game On exhibition that was on, which was showcasing the history of videogames with lots you could play, then we took a walk to the botanical gardens to eat our homemade sandwiches and sit in the sun. We jsut about managed to take one bite and we felt droplets of rain! We just about managed to get out and to an internet cafe before the heavens opened and it was torrential for about an hour. Not a great day! And the rain continued into the next day (Friday) where we were completely confined to our caravan all day. I'm now completely and utterly bored still of rummy, s***head, Ludo and all the other games we played time after time on that day and dont think I could spend another full day in such a small space! Kav hates rain and hate being bored so we were quite moody and relieved when it was time for bed!
The next day was Valentine's day, and the rain just about held off enough for us to take a drive to Redcliffe and try to cross on a ferry to Moreton Island. Unfortunately, the ferry has ceased to travel from Redcliffe so we stopped on the side of a road in a cute harbour town and had some lunch in the van, then headed to a Westfield shopping centre to look at prices of portable DVD players. I begged Kav to buy one because I was worried I was going to seriously lose it soon if I didnt have some kind of visual entertainment apart from playing cards! Seeing as it was Valentines Day and he hadnt bought me anything, and we found one for $99 (fifty quid!) we got one, and a few DVD's we found on special offer in Target! God I love that man!! I was the happiest I'd been for days, and still am!! I in turn for Valentine's Day had written him a very cute poem about how we met and the last 7 months. He was very touched, but I explained it was only because he's had the money and cards for the last 2 months so I had no money even if I wanted to buy him something!
On Sunday we went to the Australian Zoo, the one that was started by Steve Irwin who sadly died a couple of years ago by a sting ray. I dont have time to tell you about this today as we're being chucked out of our internet place so I'll tell you next time.
As always, here's another couple of tit bits for you...
We've seen a few kangaroos while driving which is both very strange and exciting.
Australia to me still really is just an incredible place. The people are just so friendly. It's remarkable how English it feels so much of the time. The national parks and mountains are just amazing, and there is just so much to see and do. You really could spend years travelling up and down because you just want to see everything and stop at every town. Unfortunately none of us have time for that!

I hope you are all well and happy. Please dont forget to send any news my way, even if it comes in a very short email, I love to hear from you as much as telling you what I'm up to.

Lots of love,
Sally xxx

PS - sorry if there are tons of spelling and grammar mistakes in my blogs, but I never get time to really read them over!