We arrived in Airlie beach at some unknown hour of the morning, We had a little brekkey then went to check-in for our sail the next day, we were sailing on a Catamaran called Wings, the owner is a total boat nut and just spent AUD $2 million on there newest boat. Wings takes 24 people and 3 crew, there were 23 in our group.

The next day we packed up and bought some pink goon before heading to the boat. We met everyone and did the awquad hellos before boarding and getting our rooms sorted out. Rach and I ended up with a quality double bunk with curtains, very comfy.

We set sail... well, motored for a few hours out and around some of the islands, we stopped in Blue haven bay and did our first dive, we went down in a group of 4 and saw some cool stuff, to be honest I think the snorkelling would be just as good as we didn't dive much deeper than 7m. There were these huge fish that live in the bay and would swim right up and kiss you, the leader was called precilla and she was going through a sex change at the time.. crazy things.

We then headed further south and did some more snorkelling before stopping for the night. Our cook CJ was Canadian and she fed us so well, loads of food and it was all really tasty. The evening was spent drinking cheap wine, playing guitar and chatting.

The 2nd day was an early start with us being dropped on the beach around 7:30, we spent a few hours messing on the beach taking stupid photos then headed up to a lookout where you could see this crystal clear bay with little sand islands, it was quite a sight. I'm starting to think we may become beach snobs as we've seen some of the worlds best, Felixstowe just won't be the same.

Once back on the boat we headed north and found Mackerel bay where we did our next snorkel / dive. I was minding my own business as this shark swam up from behind me and passed beneath me! It was over 1m and shocked me a bit, they're harmless White tip reef sharks but you are still a little cautious. That evening as we were sitting around waiting for dinner, the under boat lights were on and attracting loads of fish, then a dolphin showed up and started splashin around and chasing the fishicles, it was pretty crazy as he arced out of the water for air then dived back down, they are really agile and the little fishies had to work hard to avoid being eaten. The stars that night were amazing too, with very little land in sight and no clouds the sky was a mass of dense stars, a sight you can't believe until you have seen it yourself.

The 3rd and last day we were up early again, this time diving before breakfast, unfortunately the snorkelling was pants and I still haven't swam with a turtle which I am desperate to do! It seems like everyone but me saw them.

On return to dry land most of the group met up that evening and had a lil party with some drinking games at a bar. We did our goodbyes but we'll bump in to them again at some point on the trip.

Next day was a fabulous bus / ferry up to Magnetic Island.

We arrived in Agnes just after 6pm and made our way to Beachside Backpackers hostel, it's about 200m from the beach and is a brand new hostel built by some people that own the yuppy resort next door. This hostel is definitely the nicest we've stayed in, we had a double with ensuite and aircon - check us out!

Everyone we have spoken to about 1770 said you have to do the Scooteroo tour so we booked ourselves on to that for the next day and settled down for an evening of Scrabble and Masterchef.

Next day we took a stroll along the beautiful beach and into Agnes for some food shopping and a lil explore. It was a very little explore as Agnes and 1770 are tiny tiny places consisting of about 10 shops.

We got picked up for the Scooteroo tour in the afternoon and it was awesome fun, this old biker dude takes everyone out on mini Harley Davidsons and you cruise around,, going 80km/h on a little bike is exhilerating to say the least! Although I did feel a little fat as we went up hills and my bike was spluttering to do 40. During our drive we stopped at the side of the road to see a load of Kangaroos. We rode up to 1770 and sat at a pub eating wedges as we watched the sun go down.

The next day we borrowed some push bikes and headed to 1770, there's a national park atop a cliff and it looks pretty cool, although the journey wasn't far it took us probably over an hour, a mixture of laziness, hot sun and bikes with broken gears slowed us down. When we eventually arrived the view was pretty amazing, you can go out on the cliff and view up and down the coast, Rachel and I jumped off the path and climbed down to this rocky area that would have looked more at home on Mars. There was a little beach there too that we had a short chillax on before heading back, pushing our bikes half the way (apparently that's why they are called push bikes).

Our 3rd and final day we spent lazing around on the beach and generally being bummy before a had to catch the overnight coach up to Airlie beach to go sailing.

As always the overnight bus was heaving and this time had a lovely aroma of piss and dampness the whole journey, our driver was a yank with an odd sense of humour, such fun!

Our self drive tour to Fraser island was our next point of call and we headed up the coast to Hervey Bay for a night where you get organized into your groups and go shopping for eveything you need. We stayed at beaches as they organize most of the trip for you.

To be able to drive the truck you have to be over 21 and it turned out in our group that there were 3 people able to drive, me, Rach and another girl, Louise, being the man and hating women drivers I voted myself in to be the main driver and we were soon on our way driving.

There were 9 of us in our truck, 3 guys, me, Jonny and Harry, then Louise and Rach and 4 Swiss girls. The guys were so funny and we all had a right laugh.

The cars we were in were Toyota Land Cruisers all kitted out for off roading with a big roof rack, huge wheels and some fat suspension. There were 2 bench seats in the back for the others to clamber on to. We drove to the 4x4 hire place from our hostel where we packed up everyones bags and our food, tents etc on the roof, we had to watch some safety videos and have some mean looking guy scare us with all the stories of people dieing recently from flipping their trucks on the sand. After being thoroughly scared the 2 groups got our itineraries for the next 3 days and set off for the ferry.

We arrived on the island about 10am and it was pissing it down. Fraser island is the largest sand island in the world and the wet tracks leading over the island were an interesting first experience of off roading, I'm pleased to say that in all 3 days I didn't manage to get us stuck once (the other group did) there was one point where everyone had to get out while I floored it at a sand bank and bounced up over some rocks, it was so much fun and I can see why people do it as a hobby.
The truck was so top heavy that it's really unstable going along the beach in the soft sand at 60km/h and we had a few fun tail slides as we went along. It was really the inland tracks that were the hardest with huge holes and some big grooves in the road to negotiate, but like I said it was good fun and nobody came back with any bump induced injuries.

The first day on the island was pretty miserable and our first stop was a lake 40 minute walk from the beach, we got out and started walking in the rain and half way Rachel decided she wanted to turn back and I was not impressed. The others carried on so we got to see the pictures at least.

We carried on up the beach and stopped for lunch on the way, 9 people in the back of a truck trying to make sandwiches is well funny.

Further up the beach was the rusting shipwrek of an old army ship that crashed in the 30s, it's a pretty impressive sight to see and we took some cool photos, check them out on Flickr.

By the time we made it up to camp the rain had stopped and we were able to put our tents up, there was a bit of a divide forming as the 4 Swiss vegetarian girls did the shopping, went massively over budget and bought stupid food. Some people made a bigger deal of it but it really wasn't that much of a problem and we all got along fine really.

The 2nd day we had an early start and were up by 6am, we had a long drive up the beach to our first stop Indian head, a decent spot on the coast to walk up and check out some pretty amazing views of the island and a big drop off a cliff. From there we walked along the beach to Champagne Pools, a series of rock pools that waves crash on and create a giant natural jacuzzi effect, the sun was out and it was a gorgeous place to sun it up a bit and chillax for a while.

We drove back to base camp and took a few beers and the frisbee down to the beach to watch the sun go down. You could look in both directions as far as you could see and there was nothing but beach, sea and you, it's a pretty amazing sight.

The next day was our last and we were up early again and heading back inland along some extremely bumpy tracks to get to central station, an old logging camp with some nice walks through the forest. We then continued on to lake Mackenzie, now this lake is amazing, totally enclosed by hills with a gorgeous white beach with the softest whitest sand and crystal clear water that was just amazing, I swear this water was clearer than tap water, colder too! We stayed here for a few hours sunning it up before we had to head back and get some lunch, I think we all wanted to stay longer but we had to get back for the ferry, boo!

On returning back to the hostel we were all in a big dorm room together and cooked up the leftover food, drank beer and played cards, the 3 days had been amazing but we were all going our seperate ways the next day.

So now i'm typing this up as we wait for our bus up to 1770, we're staying up there for 3 nights before we do our sailing tour around the Whitsundays, hopefully the weathe will hold out as some peoplebwe spoke to said there's was ruined by nonstop rain for 3 days.

Laters peeps!

After a short bus ride to Surfers paradise we met Rachels friend Andrea, she took us back to her place in Coomera Springs, she and her family moved out here about a year ago and have settled in really well, her husband Steve is a bigwig at Coles (like Sainsburys) and they have a nice big house with Spa, outdoor pool, 4 bedrooms and the largest ensuite I have ever seen. There 2 kids, Jack and Callum were funny, we went and picked them up from school and they are all Australian.
Staying here was a bit of a luxury for us smelly backpackers and we really appreciated the decent shower and quiet bed for the night.

We couldn't stay long so next day we were back on the bus and heading for Noosa heads, Noosa is a town on the coast with a load of rivers running through the middle of it, the area is really quiet and small and quite spread out. We booked ourselves into a hostel by the river, got a double room which is nice. We met a couple that night and they were doing a surf lesson the next day. That sounded like a good idea so we booked ourselves in too.

$40 for a 2hr lesson is pretty good and it turned out to just be the 4 of us and was good fun, The "instructor" Sarah took us through the basics and hazards and we were out. I managed to catch a few waves but it's a lot harder than it looks, you need a lot of upper body strength to get yourself up and my arms soon began to tyre.
I don't think Rachel was too impressed with surfing and halfway through she got up and went and sat on the beach, preferring to sun herself and watch me fall off instead.

The next day we went to Australia Zoo which is owned by Steve Irwins family, the zoo was an hour or so away by oach and we had some discount vouchers too and thought it was worth going to as we were yet to see and real Aussie wildlife.

The zoo was pretty good, we watched a few feeding shows and visited the "Crocoseum" to watch a crocodile being fed. Crocodiles get ginormous and you would not want to see one any closer, this 5m long thing got out of the water an it was just amazing, there jaws have up to 6000lbs of force which is what they reckon T-Rex would have had, it's mental. There were load of other cool animals about, we strokes Kanaroos and Koala bears but my favourites were probably the Otters that were sisters and did everything together, they were great fun to watch.

I found the zoo to be a tad creepy as it's like a big memorial of Steve and his photos and videos are used everywhere, I guess it's all for a good cause though.

We didn't do much else in Noosa, just chilled out and lazed on the beach mostly, we watched the sunset over the river one day and had a little walk around some of the yuppier areas

Arg, that bus journey sucked. 13 hours up from Sydney, luckily we managed to get a few hours sleep. When we arrived in Byron it was like stepping back in time, it's a small town with a hippy surfer vibe to it. There are loads of little shops, only a few chain stores, all the buidlings are 2 story or less, it's nice.

We went for a walk and found ourselves a decent hostel called the backpacker inn, it's right on the beach and we managed to get a double bed in a 4 person dorm which is also nice, sharing with 2 Swedish guys. The first day we went for a little walk and got some shopping along with some Mexican fast food (such a good idea). We visited the beach which is just huge, it's golden sands and rolling waves stretch as far as you can see in both directions.

That night we got chatting to a guy and he recommended the walk up to the lighthouse, it's about 3km and the weather was nice the next day so we set out, we eventually got to the lighthouse and also visited the most easterly point of Australia whilst we were there (it's very exciting) - then the heavens opened, we were stranded up this cliff in the pouring rain and cold wind with nothing but shorts and tshirts. It was rather funny and so we settled down and waited for the rain to calm, we got talking to the guy that ran the ice cream stand and fortunately he was heading back to town and offered us a lift, we were obviously very grateful, his name was Adam and worked for "In the pink" ice cream shop so well done that man!

Next day we thought we would just chill out on the beach and as our hostel had free bodyboards to use we thought we should make the most and have a go, the waves aren't huge but big enough to have a little splash around in, I was surprised how well Rachel managed to get on, only complaining a little bit about getting dunked.
In the evening we decided to head to the cinema as the weather wasn't great, we watched "The boat that rocked" as we had been wanting to see it since we heard of the release back in the uk. It was very good and I enjoyed seeing a decent British film.

So now we're on the bus heading north to surfers paradise. we are meeting a friend of Rachels who moved out here last year, think we'll just be spending the night there and then moving on again up to Noosa Heads in the morning where hopefully there will be less rain :-)