Been a while since an update, but a good reason for it! It's been a very action packed 2 or so weeks since I arrived in Aus! The price of the internet is another problem - I'm currently using free internet :) Had an amazing time so far but just going to highlight a few of the best bits.

When I arrived in Sydney it was the Mardi Gras festival and feeling pretty tired after quite a few hours flying I was soon woken up by the amazingly busy streets and lively clubs! Don't think I've ever seen streets so full of drunken people! Some of you may know Mardi Gras is a gay festival, but it seems to be an excuse for everyone (not just the gays) to go out and party hard! Yes I did get chatted up by a few guys, but they were soon swept aside, fear not Dad! The following day was a quick tour of Sydney visiting all the typical tourist sites. This was only a quick stop in Sydney as I had booked a flight up to Cairns to meet up with a few boys from back home who were a few days ahead of me. I was dropped at the station at 4.30am the next morining to catch a train to the airport. A train journey later I discovered I'd gone to the airport a day early - big error! My tiredness had clearly got the better of me, I guess it was just aswell I was a day early and not a day late! I was definately not going to pay a $400 excess to get on a flight that day, a $30 return train ticket had to suffice, back to Sydney it was.

Having eventually arrived in Cairns, which was incredibly humid and surrounded by rainforest, I caught up with the boys and it was great to see some familiar faces from back home. We journeyed down the coast on the Greyhound buses and stopped in all the usual backpacker stop-offs. First stop was Magnetic Island where we chilled by the beach for a few days. We saw most of the island by scooter, renting them out for 24hours and cruising up and down the 12km road that covered the island, swimming in waterfalls, visiting Horse Shoe Bay and finding wild koalas in the bush.

Further down the coast we arrived in Airlie Beach - the launch point for all cruises to the Whitsunday Islands. We left for the islands on our racing sail boat, Matador, sunbathing on the deck as we cruised through blue skies. We soon realised there was no real itinerary and rocked up at a nice bay where we dropped anchor for the evening and went for a snorkel on the reef, as well as diving off the diving board on the boat. The crew got inventive and using rope attached to the top of the mast and a small dingy, straightened out the rope whilst we hung onto it so that we could drop into the water from about 30ft in the air - great fun! That night I slept on the deck which was amazing. I've never seen so many stars in my life and until you're in such a remote location you don't realise how many stars there actually are up there! The next day involved more swimming in the sea - with our stinger suits on (protecting us from deadly jellyfish), scuba diving on the great barrier reef and visiting the only place on our itinerary, Whitehaven Beach, the whitest beach in the world! Scuba diving was unreal - I've never seen so many diffeent coloured fish in my life and Whitehaven beach (the picture next to this blog) was all it's made out to be. I thought the beaches in Fiji were white but this was a whole new level. We swam in the water and managed to get really close to stingrays - a lot more successful encounter than Mr Steve Irwin, who's zoo we're supposed to be visiting tomorrow :) The sail back home was probably the best bit - strong winds meant we sailed all the way back pretty fast! We literally had to put our legs over the high side of the boatto keep us from falling in the sea, as it was at about a 45degree angle! Although we had 2 amazing days on the boat, we were ready to hit dry land!

Next big adventure was Fraser Island - the biggest sand island in the world. This involved a 2night, 3day 4WD tour of the island where we camped on the beach, drove up and down the island via some of the most inaccessible roads I've ever seen in my life, as well as driving onthe beach, which was like the motorway of the island. Close encounters with wild dingoes scavenging our camp for food was an experience in itself, as well as seeing a huge iguana, a shipwreck on the beach, huge sandunes and swimming in freshwater lakes. It was a case of just accepting sand into our lives as it got literally everywhere. We were really lucky with weather aswell, because next week a cyclone is due to hit the island - this could have made our experience slightly ropey! Talking of ropey situations, one of the drivers (a woman I have to point out) managed to miss a big bump in the beach, meaning we took to the air at about 60km/h and very nearly tipped over! Mum you didn't hear that one. We were glad to hit sand free land and grab a shower, but this was an amazing couple of days. I just wish I had been 21 so that I could have driven the 4WD, although I did get a quick drive of it around the camp site :)

At the moment we're in Noosa Heads which is a really nice surfing town. Tried out surfing today - definately a lot harder than it looks! I can't believe how quickly time has gone, before I know it i'll be off to Thailand. Australia has definately lived up to all expectations so far though, just hope the sun carries on following us down the coast!