We reached our first destination in New South Wales by late afternoon - our only stop being in Surfers Paradise which was as tacky and full of 'surfer' types as promised. NSW greeted us with rain which stopped us from seeing much of Byron Bay - we drove around to get our bearings, stopped at the beach and drove to have a peak by the light house, then the weather got the better of us so we just went out for dinner. Next day the sky was very moody but at least it...

We drove to Brisbane via the coast as we wanted to see some more resort towns on the Sunshine Coast apart from just Noosa. The first few beaches and towns were very sweet and resembled Noosa itself but very soon the prettiness was replaced by high-rise buildings and the towns lost their subtle charm, of which fortunately Brisbane had plenty. We walked around the centre of this lively city then crossed the bridge to the South Bank, which was beautifully developed ...

We were looking forward to getting to Noosa as we had heard lots of nice stuff about this resort town. We arrived in late afternoon and immediately went to explore the nearby beach and then the busy Hastings Street, where restaurants and bars were bustling with people celebrating the Melbourne Cup. Next day we were planning to do a Camel safari and rent a boat for few hours, but to our disappointment we awoke to torrential rain which didn't ease till late afterno...

After another long drive we arrived at Hervey Bay. We had a little walk on the beach and some dinner before getting an early night as next day we had our Fraser Island day tour. We boarded the bus a 7.30am to be taken to the ferry terminal where after a fairly short journey we set our feet on the biggest sand island in the world. We got on our big and funny looking 4WD bus - and the 'big shaking' started. We knew that the roads on Fraser Island were unsealed - b...

It took us more than 6 hours to get to the 'beef capital of Australia'. It was one exhausting drive - the road was covered with army trucks which were travelling annoyingly slow and creating big queues behind them. But at least Vicky got some much needed experience in overtakingJ. Rockhampton was much nicer than we imagined - still a bit dead, but it had some very beautiful buildings and subtle charm. We were tired from the long drive - so we just had a little wa...