The last bit of Australia. Airlie Beach to Cairns. It's a long one...

So where were we? Oh yes the boat trip. Bloody hell that seems like ages ago. Must remember to write blog more often. This may take a while, bear with me…

We packed our small bags and bought a big crate of beer and headed down to the marina. Where a slightly mad woman fitted us with “stinger suits” - like wetsuits, only dead thin, they help to prevent death from jellyfish sting. Then a nice girl called Adina introduced herself as our hostess for the next few days and showed us to the boat. It was very small. Granted there were only 18 people plus 3 crew members, but we still felt a bit like “how the bloody hell will we all fit on there without falling off the edge?!”. Once we were all on the boat we were introduced to our captain - Kevin - an Australian gentleman who had no hair on his head but far too much of it on his body. He turned out to be slightly inappropriate.

Our boat.

Once we had set off from the marina we were shown our beds below decks. They too were very small. There were a load of single bunks around the edge of the kitchen and then a separate room with 2 double bunk beds which is where we were. As the only couple on the boat we didn’t mind sleeping in a double bed, I’m not sure the boys who ended up sharing were quite so pleased. On that first afternoon we sailed to a small reef… somewhere in the Whitsundays (really should have written it down at the time) and we did some snorkelling. It was pretty good but not AMAZING, the water was quite murky as they had a cyclone there a few weeks ago and it stirred up all the sand from the seabed. Apparently it takes ages to settle again. When we got back on the boat Adina served some snacks which we liked very much. Carrot sticks with dips and cheese and crackers. Mmmm snacks. For the rest of the afternoon we mostly just sailed around so we lay in the sunshine on the deck and it was all very nice. Captain Kev got some of the girls to drive the boat and looked on quite happily whilst Danish girls in bikinis pranced around in front of him.

That night Adina served us spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread for dinner - which we ate sitting on the deck of the boat as there were no seats - and we had a few beers and chatted to our fellow shipmates. Who all turned out to be very nice. Then Captain Kev made us all play a rather uncomfortable game along the lines of “If money was no object, and the laws of physics did not apply, what would be your perfect day? And what celebrity would you take with you?”. It was not fun. Especially when a French girl, who didn’t really understand the game said that she would like to spend the day with her Granddad who had just died, and then Captain Kev described a day which involved him riding a black stallion and rescuing a princess or something equally gross. Everyone was very pleased when it was all over. We had a few more beers but found that none of us were really in the mood to get shit-faced as it would be incredibly easy for someone to fall off the edge of our tiny boat. So we decided to go to bed. But we couldn’t as one of the toilets had broken and was completely full up with wee. It took Captain Kev and Greg (the other crew member) a few hours to sort it out. A few hours that smelt like wee.

When we were finally able to go to bed we had to crawl into it as we were on the lower bunk which felt a little bit like sleeping in a coffin. There was a hatch which led from the deck down into our cabin but once we were all in bed it started to rain so we had to close it. So it became like sleeping in a very hot & humid coffin. Which was a barrel of laughs. Also the rain dripped through the hatch anyway so Chris’s side of the bed became a bit like sleeping in a puddle.

Chris and our delightful bunk.

Jen got up at 5:30am, supposedly to watch the sunrise but mostly because it was the only way to cool down other than peeling off your own skin. Chris got up early too, just in time to see the grey clouds that were covering the sunrise. We stayed on deck with Captain Kev and Chris had a go at steering the boat which was fun. It started to rain. Just a little bit at first so we put on our anoraks and stayed on deck. Then it rained a shitload and we got absolutely drenched. Pyjamas and all. This was not fun.

Chris steering the boat in his anorak.

That morning they took us to Whitsunday island to see Whitehaven Beach. But when we got there it was still raining. They took us to the shore in a tiny little speedboat (which nearly sank) and then left us there in the rain. We all walked to the beach feeling disheartened and a bit cross. Thankfully when we arrived at the beach the sun came out and it looked very beautiful. We had a walk up to the lookout and sat on the beach for a bit. But we weren’t allowed to go swimming unless we put our stinger suits on, and they were all wet from the rain, so the idea didn’t really appeal.

Us on Whitehaven Beach.

When we went back to the boat we sailed for a few hours, mostly in the sunshine, and arrived at a sheltered little bay where they told us we would do our scuba dive. There was only us and one other guy who wanted to dive so it quickly became clear that there were only scheduling time for one dive. We didn’t really mind as we had got one dive for free and we hadn’t been that impressed with what we’d seen snorkelling. After lunch the 3 of us and the dive instructor Greg went out to the shore to put on our equipment and have a little bit of a refresher chat as it’s been nearly 2 years since we last dived (dived? dove? doved? Who knows…). It was a really easy dive which was nice as it was our first one this trip and it gave us a chance to remember what the hell we’re supposed to be doing before doing proper exciting dives. We didn’t see loads of crazy stuff but we still enjoyed ourselves.

When we got back to the boat Captain Kev took Jen to one side and said that, because we were the only couple on the boat he would take us in the little speedboat to a small beach where we could have a few beers together and watch the sunset. This seemed like a lovely idea so we happily accepted, despite having slight concerns that Kev would be watching us through binoculars hoping for some saucy beach action. Yuk. Little did we know that Kev was the least of our worries and that actually Jen would be completely ruined by evil bastard sandflies… but we’ll get to that later…

Enjoying the sunset on the boat.

We grabbed a few cans of beer (and a secret packet of Oreo cookies which we had kept hidden from our shipmates. They were nice people, but not Oreo nice.) and Kev took us to the beach and left us there with a torch. By the time we got there the sun had already gone down so we didn’t really watch the sunset so much as drink warm beers and eat cookies on a dark beach. As it got darker we were vaguely aware of flying things biting us so we flashed the torch and Kev came to fetch us. Then we ate dinner with everyone and ended up going to bed at 9:30. We are rock and roll. Luckily we were able to keep the hatch open for most of the night so it didn’t feel quite as melty as the first night.

The following morning Jen got up at 7:30 to do some snorkelling before we left, but Chris stayed in bed. Captain Kev was throwing small pieces of bread in the water and threw one right in front of Jen. Chris decided to get out of bed when he heard Jen scream and everyone laugh as a massive batfish swam right in front of her face and ate the bread. After a quick bit of snorkelling we started to head back to dry land, and Jen had a go at steering the boat, until it started to rain loads again and we decided we’d had enough of being wet so we hid below decks until the sun came back.

Jen and the batfish.

When we got back to Airlie Beach we walked back to our hostel and saw our friends from Fraser Island again. We swapped boat stories and their boat sounded much better than ours which made Chris feel particularly sad about his puddle-bed. But we were able to get beds in the same dorm room as them which was nice. We spent the rest of the day napping and washing everything that smelt like damp boat. That night there was an “after party” organised for us in the hostel bar which meant that everyone from our boat came and drank one pint of free beer, ate very small special offer $6 meals, and then buggered off back to the hostel where they were staying to drink their own booze for free. We had different vouchers so we had massive steaks for $10 and everyone was jealous. Come to think of it, maybe that had something to do with afore-mentioned buggering off… Never mind. We like nice steak more than people.

The next day we caught the bus to Townsville. Whilst we were waiting at the bus stop we got talking to some people who had been on other boats owned by the company we had gone with. One girl told us that their boat engine had broken down and their sails had ripped and they had been stuck in the middle of the ocean for 6 hours. A bloke told us that they ran out of time and ended up sailing in the dark with no lights and their boat was almost tipping over because the waves were so high. We started to feel glad that all we had to put up with was Captain Kev and his pervy ways. And the lingering smell of wee.

When we arrived in Townsville almost everyone who had come on our bus caught the ferry straight over to Magnetic Island, but we had decided we couldn’t really afford that so we headed to our hostel in Townsville. We changed to a private room because it was only $5 more and we were very happy to sleep on a proper bed, in an air-conditioned room, and watch a bit of telly.

The following day we went to the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville and a nice old man who worked there gave us a kind of accidental tour. There was almost nobody there and we think he was just pleased to talk to somebody about old boats and stuff. That night we cooked dinner and stayed in our room watching telly again. It was nice.

During our time in Townsville it became clear that Jen had been bitten more than just a few times on our jaunt in the Whitsundays. On closer inspection it appeared to be a combination of mosquito bites, sandfly bites and bedbug bites all over her back, shoulders, arms and legs. Yuk. Jen did a little bit of crying on more than one occasion but Chris was very nice and sympathetic. Although later revealed that he was storing up sympathy points for when he inevitably gets the shits in Fiji.

The trip from Townsville to Cairns was 6 hours on the coach and by the time we got there Jen felt ready to peel off her own skin to stop the itching. She had also become completely paranoid that there were insects in her clothes and felt the need to wash everything she’d ever owned. We decided it was time for a trip to the doctors.

Chris: I decided it was time for a trip to the doctors so you would stop bloody whinging.

One trip to the 24-hour medical centre and a few dollars later Jen felt much better, equipped with extra strong anti-histamine tablets and cream, and reassurance from the doctor that there weren’t insects living in her clothes.

On our first day in Cairns we didn’t do much, partly because Jen took one of her special new tablets and felt drunk for most of the morning. But that night we went to a Mexican restaurant where they were offering 2 for 1 on meals for backpackers and had some delicious enchiladas.

The next day we went on an awesome diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We had booked it ages ago back in Sydney, the nice lady at the travel desk there had recommended this company and she was not wrong. The boat was really nice, all of their diving equipment was nearly brand new and the lunch they gave us was delicious! Our diving instructor Paul was really nice too and he gave us a really thorough briefing before we set off on our first dive at a place called Hastings Reef. There were 6 of us who were certified divers so we went out as a group with Paul - we felt glad that we’d done one crappy dive in the Whitsundays because it meant that we didn’t embarrass ourselves. The same can’t be said for the other 4 in our group. They were flapping their arms and legs around all over the place which made us quite cross but it meant that they used up their air much quicker than we did and on the 2nd dive of the day they all got sent to the surface about 10 minutes before the end and had to swim on the surface back to the boat. Whilst we enjoyed a leisurely swim along the reef. Ha ha. We win at diving.
We saw loads of cool fish and on our 2nd and 3rd dives we saw white-tipped reef sharks which was very awesome and not as terrifying as we thought it might be. We also saw a white stingray and some MASSIVE bumphead parrotfish. It was a brilliant day and although it was a bit expensive it was totally worth it.

 Some pictures that Chris took with his fancy underwater camera housing.

Yesterday we went on a day tour to the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation - this was another trip that had been recommended to us in Sydney and it was also wicked. In the morning our guide, Katie, picked us up in a minibus and we went to a wildlife sanctuary where stroked a baby crocodile and a python and some people had their picture taken with koalas but we were like - DONE IT! Then she drove us to the Mossman Gorge where we had a short walk through the rainforest before swimming in the Mossman River which was very cold. But that meant there were no crocodiles there so we were quite glad it wasn’t any warmer. The water was really clear and we could see some perch swimming around us which was very cool. Also we had our only little bit of rain whilst we were there but we were already in the water so it didn’t matter. Next she drove us to the Daintree National Park where we stopped and she served us a picnic lunch which was yummy. Then a man called Bruce took us on a boat trip up the Daintree river where we did some croc-spotting and saw 3 adult crocodiles and some tiny baby ones - it was awesome, but we felt slightly concerned every time all the people on the boat ran to one side to take photos and the boat tipped a bit - luckily Bruce told them all to sit down.

Early start, sleepy faces.

Chris enjoying the Daintree river cruise.

Tiny baby crocs!

When we got off the boat trip we drove up to Cape Tribulation, with a brief stop at the Daintree Ice Cream Factory, where they offered 4 flavours for $5! Bargain! The flavours of the day were mango, raspberry, whattleseed and sour sop. We have no idea what those last two are but they were delicious.

Some people on our tour were staying overnight so we dropped them off before heading to our final stop of the day which was Cape Tribulation beach. We were the only ones there and it was very beautiful and peaceful. Also there were loads of tiny white crabs making cool little burrows so we spent a lot of time trying to photograph them but they were speedy little buggers. 

Chris on Cape Tribulation beach.

Chris attempting to photograph the speedy little crabs.

Just before we set off to drive back to Cairns, Katie was asking if anyone had an ipod that they wanted to plug in so we could listen to music on the bus. We were trying to watch Pulp Fiction on Chris’s ipod at the back of the bus so we tried to quickly hide the ipod but she saw us and said “oh hey you guys have got one, make us a play list” - there’s nothing like making a play list for strangers to make you quickly realise that all your music is a bit embarrassing and old. But we managed to put together a pretty sweet play list and some people on the bus thanked us as Katie’s music earlier in the day was a bit shit.

The drive back to Cairns took about 2 and a half hours so by the time we got back we were starving. We went to a pub where they did a $10 deal for a meal and drink, and had some tasty steaks.

This morning we had booked to go skydiving at 9am. Chris was shitting himself. We waited outside the hostel patiently but when the man came in the minibus he said that they were running late and asked if we could come to the office at 10:30 instead. At 10:30 we went back to the office and filled in lots of forms. Chris was still shitting himself. But then they said they were still running late and asked us if we could come back at 11:45. We came back to the hostel, did some laundry, watched some telly, ate some crisps. At 11:45 we went back and he said he wasn’t sure if we’d be able to jump today as there was rain at the drop zone and apparently skydiving through rain feels a bit like having your face sand-blasted. He said we might be able to jump at 2pm. So we came back to the hostel, ate sandwiches, had a sleep. At 2pm they said we couldn’t jump today. We were sad.

They’ve said that if the weather is better tomorrow we can do it then but we need to leave for the airport by around midday so if it’s still rainy in the morning there will be no skydiving for us. Boo.

Tomorrow we’re flying down to Brisbane, spending a night in the airport (joy) and the following morning we’re flying to Fiji. Yay! We’re only in Fiji for 2 days before we fly out to Vanuatu for 2 weeks, and then we come back to Fiji for about 3 weeks. We’re very excited.

If you’re still reading by this point you deserve a medal.

Fraser Island & Mackay. Fwends! Camping fwends!

When we arrived at the hostel for our early briefing on our Fraser Island trip we felt a little bit nervous. We didn’t really know what to expect - some people said Fraser Island was massively overrated, we’d heard stories of broken arms and legs from people who’d been sand-boarding on the dunes and worst of all, we were about to be stranded, in a tent, for 2 nights with a group of people who could potentially be massive douchebags. At the briefing we were hastily put into groups of 8 and shown a video warning us of death by dingoes and dangerous driving. This really helped to put our fears to rest.

They then gave us approximately 5 seconds to decide what food we wanted for the next 3 days and then Jen was sent to a tiny supermarket with another girl, Josefin, to buy provisions for this group of strangers. Chris stayed behind as he was one of our group’s designated drivers, and was told about the variety of ways in which we could die on Fraser Island - and how much it would cost us financially if we did.

When Jen and Josefin returned with food our whole group helped to pack all the stuff into our 4WD drive and we all set off for the barge crossing. There were 6 cars in total, all containing 8 people each, but 4 of the cars were full of Danish students who all knew each other and didn’t really want to talk to us; so our car quickly bonded with everyone in the other car and formed a group of 16 which worked out quite nicely for the whole trip.

Fraser Island is a sand island which has rainforest so driving there was eventful. Driving through the rainforest on sand tracks was really bumpy with loads of great big potholes which meant that everyone and everything in the back was sent flying every few minutes. Driving on the beach was really flat but quite slippy and slidey and sometimes a bit splashy. They had given us a map with numbered locations where there was interesting stuff for us to look at so we had a few stops on the beach on the way to the campsite to look at a ship wreck and a nice river. By the time we arrived at the campsite everyone was tired and hot and hungry but we needed to put the tents up before it got dark so we hastily had some lunch before making a start.

It quickly became apparent that most people had never put up a tent in their lives when they mostly just stood around looking at it with baffled looks on their faces. Luckily the tents they had given were larger versions of the tent we had in New Zealand so Chris swung into Scout Leader mode. Once they were up we decided to take a drive to a lake for a swim. But the drive was a lot longer than we had anticipated and very bumpy, and by the time we got to the lake it was about to get dark so a few people had a quick dip and then we had to drive back.

That night we had a BBQ and a few drinks which was really nice after our jam-packed day and it gave us a chance to get to know everyone and thankfully there was not a douchebag in sight. Everyone turned out to be really nice and we had a good laugh. Which made us pleased. The owner of the campsite, Nick, took a bit of a shine to one of the girls in our group and offered her a bed in a kind of permanent tent which was near to his house. She was slightly wary but the permanent tent had 2 airbeds and was nicer than the shit tents they had given us so she made the very smart decision to ask us to join her. We felt it would be rude to refuse. When it was time for bed, Jen realised that she’d had slightly more than a few drinks and so was extra pleased that we didn’t have to sleep on the floor.

The next morning Jen was the last one to get up and was very disappointed that there was no toast. Or coffee. But after a banana and a tin cup or two of milk she felt ready to face the day. We all piled into our trucks and drove down the beach to a place called Indian Head which had lovely views of the island and then we spent the afternoon on the sunbathing on the beach and swimming in a rock pool - but not in the sea because there are tiger sharks and jellyfish. Welcome to Fraser Island. You might die. That night we had a few more beers around the campfire and slept in the awesome tent again. We probably should have been nicer and offered it to someone else in our group but we like airbeds so we didn’t.

On our final day on Fraser Island we packed up the camp and drove to Lake McKenzie which was very beautiful and had turtles swimming in the water. We spent the day doing more swimming and sunbathing (or sun-burning if your name is Chris) before eating a picnic lunch and driving back to the barge back to the mainland.

After unloading the cars back at the hostel we all felt very tired and grubby - there were showers on Fraser but they were cold and dribbly so we’d spent most of our time there covered in dirt and sand. We had showers and steak at the hostel but then it was time to say goodbye to all of our new-found friends as we were getting the overnight bus to Mackay.

The bus ride was uncomfortable, not least because we were both completely covered in mozzie and sandfly bites from Fraser, and we arrived in Mackay at 7:40am. But it was nice and cool at that time of the morning so we walked to our hostel. We had cleverly booked a private room as it was only $5 more than both of us sleeping in dorms so it meant we were able to go straight into our room and have a bit of a sleep. After washing all of our grubby clothes from Fraser we headed out into Mackay which was very quiet as it was Sunday but also very hot. We had a Subway and went for a swim at the city lagoon. There is a river running through Mackay but you can’t swim there as there are crocodiles. Eeek!

We cooked dinner and went to bed early as it we were booked onto a “Platypus Safari” tour the next day which we found out left the hostel at 5am. So we had to get up at 4am. 4am for crying out loud! It was still dark! But the platypus is nocturnal so the best time to spot them is early in the morning before it gets too warm. Our guide, Keith, a nice old man, drove us out to Eungella National Park as the sun was coming up (and we were snoozing) and when we got there we were able to see about 5 or 6 platypus feeding and swimming which was fantastic. He also told us that David Attenborough had filmed there which made us rather excited because we love him. We also saw kingfisher birds and a small brown snake. Next he took us for a walk to something called the “Sky Window” which is basically a platform which gives lovely views of the valley below but it was very foggy as it was still so early so we couldn’t really see much.

Then he took us for a walk through the rainforest in the national park and told us about lots of the different plants and trees we saw there. The walk led us to Araluen Cascades, a waterfall in the middle of the rainforest where we went swimming. It was absolutely bloody freezing. But it was an amazing experience and there was nobody else there except for the 7 of us. And a couple who were there when we arrived and clearly were planning to do more than just swimming in the waterfall. But they quickly disappeared when we got there and ruined their plans for sexy time.

After swimming we walked back through the rainforest and then went for lunch at a nearby country hotel where they made their own fresh pies which they served with chips and mushy peas and gravy. Bloody delicious. We love pies. We got back to the hostel around 1pm which was really weird as it felt like we’d been awake for ages. Because we had. Did I mention we had to get up at 4am…? So of course we went straight for a sleep. But the rooms were not air-conditioned and it was fiercely hot so eventually we had to go out into the world. We retreated to the one place we knew would provide lovely air-conditioned protection from the heat of the afternoon - the shopping mall. We mooched around in there for the rest of the day and bought some nice strong anti-histamine tablets so that Jen wouldn‘t be forced to cut off her own legs to stop the itching from the bites. We had another early night as we got the coach to Airlie Beach this morning at 7:45 - it was pissing with rain but the lovely old lady who ran our hostel, Wanda, gave us a lift to the station in the minibus. We loved her and would have happily stayed another week in Mackay just so she could look after us.

It’s been very rainy today so we haven’t done much, although we did bump into some of the people we went to Fraser Island with which was a nice surprise. Tomorrow we’re catching a boat to go on a 2-day cruise around the Whitsundays which includes some diving and snorkelling so we’re really looking forward to it. Although we’re aware that we were very lucky with the Fraser Island trip so we’re bracing ourselves for a boatload of dickheads this time. Fingers crossed it stops raining at least.

Noosa & Rainbow Beach. Easter's revenge.

We had to catch the 7:45am bus to Australia Zoo so we were up and out of our hostel nice and early which we were thrilled about. But it did mean we had a full day at the zoo since we got there by about 9:30. We had an awesome time at the zoo - Jen fed an elephant, we watched a show in the “Crocoseum” which had birds and crocodiles and snakes and stuff, we watched some tigers being fed and saw loads of other wicked animals. And it was lovely and sunny all day which made a nice change from grey Brisbane.

Whilst we were waiting for our coach at the end of the day an old Australian man decided to befriend us and told us a number of stories which ranged from how he had once been a close personal friend of Steve Irwin to how him and his English wife had met. They were “internet lovers” he said. Yuk.

Also whilst we were waiting for the bus, we decided to ring our accommodation in Noosa (which is where we were headed) to confirm and check if someone would come to fetch us from the bus station. After a long conversation where the woman sounded very nervous and kept putting Jen on hold it was revealed to us that we did not have a booking with them and apparently they had emailed us to tell us so. This is lies. We don’t like Noosa YHA.

Now ordinarily this would not have been a problem, apart from the fact that it was the day before Good Friday. It seems that Australians take Easter very seriously (despite us hearing on the news that they are one of the least religious countries in the world) and this would prove to be a problem for us. We rang round some other hostels in Noosa, only to be laughed at as they were all full, before someone recommended calling the town information centre as they would have details of all rooms that were still available. The woman there told Jen in a very serious voice that there was one place left in town that had rooms available and that we should call them QUICKLY. It was a motel and their rooms were $90 a night which was a bit more than we were used to paying, but we didn’t really have any other options so we booked a room and got on the coach. Which was packed. It seems Noosa is a popular Easter destination.

The woman at the motel told us they would be completely closed for Good Friday, even the reception desk, so we decided we would stay for two nights just in case. The motel was by no means deluxe, the telly was broken but we found another one in the wardrobe (??) and there was a very slight smell of wee, but we were tired so we didn’t care. Also there was a MacDonald’s nearby so we went and had some inexpensive dinner to compensate for spending more money on the motel…! Also they had free wireless internet - which we couldn’t quite believe - so we stayed in there a good few hours pretending to drink drinks out of cups that were empty.

The following day it was Good Friday. And everything around us was closed. Everything. It was very bizarre. We rang around a few more hostels to see if anyone had any space for the following night but they were all completely full. We considered leaving Noosa and heading to Rainbow Beach a day early but everywhere there was full too. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would have to stay in the motel for 3 nights - but we agreed that it wasn’t too much more expensive than spending $30 each on dorm beds so we felt ok about it. We had a walk into the centre of the town where we actually saw people, and shops that were open! So we booked a table at a restaurant for dinner - I think we had just resigned ourselves to the fact that Noosa would be expensive. We also went to the information centre and booked a kayaking trip for the next day on the Noosa River. Dinner that night was really nice, even though Chris found a tiny piece of tin foil in his chocolate cake.

The next morning we were supposed to be checking out of the motel at 10am but as we had decided to stay another night Chris got up at 8am to go to reception to tell them we wanted to stay. It was still closed. Some helpful cleaning ladies told us that it would not open until 10am. They also told us that our room had now been booked but that there was one other room available that we would be able to move to. Chris went back round to reception at 9:50 and even though the woman was there opening up she shouted to him through the window that they were not open. Chris had to stand there and watch as the woman answered the phone and said to the person on the other end “oh yes, we’ve got one room available. Yes you can have it.” She then opened the doors to Chris and told him we would have to leave. Bastards. Chris told her that we wanted money off the room as the telly was broken and we had seen 2 cockroaches. Her response was essentially “cockroaches? No. Bye.” Chris came back to the room rather cross and shouted some swear words before we packed up and left. We went back to the MacDonald’s to use their free internet  to try and find somewhere else to stay, and to have some breakfast. Jen had a hot cross bun and a latte. Chris had a Quarter Pounder with chips. Traditional Easter fare.

First we tried lastminute.com - but all the rooms on there were around $350. We’d walked past quite a few hotels the day before that said they had vacancies so we rang them. The cheapest one we found was $210 a night. But by the time we had rang somewhere else and rung them back, the room was gone. We ended up booking a room for $220 for one night - despite knowing full well that this would normally get us about 4 nights in a hostel. We then walked for a couple of kilometres with all of our stuff and by the time we arrived at the hotel we were very sweaty and a bit sad. The woman there was really nice though and showed us to our room - which turned out to be a small house with 2 bedrooms and a patio. Whilst we had been ringing round hotels to try and find a room Chris had concocted a pretty good sob story, which was that we had booked 3 nights in the motel but that they had double-booked and then kicked us out. When we told her this terrible tale (of lies) she felt very sad for us and helped us carry our bags to the room/house. I think the true meaning of Easter may have been lost on us this year.

That afternoon a man from the kayaking company came to pick us up in a minibus. We had gotten so used to telling our sob story that we had almost begun to believe it was true so we told it to him too. The kayaking trip was very pretty but they were two-man kayaks and we discovered that we don’t work very well together as a kayaking team. Chris likes to do fast paddalling and splashing, whereas Jen likes to do shouting and is a bit puny. But we had fun and it was nice to actually do something in Noosa which didn’t involve looking for somewhere to stay.

That night we had fish and chips and watched a film, all in our super-deluxe new house. The following day we didn’t really want to leave the house but we were ready to say goodbye to Noosa and all of it’s Easter-y betrayal. On the coach to Rainbow Beach the coach driver played the movie “Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging” and Chris wanted to pluck out his own eyeballs.

That afternoon we arrived in Rainbow Beach, which is essentially a row of shops and a beach. We had booked two nights in a private room and one night in a dorm so it wasn’t too much of a crash back down to earth after our awesome Noosa house. Also, nobody really gave a shit about the fact that it was Easter Sunday which made us pleased. We spent the afternoon doing laundry and other jobs and then cooked Bolognese and watched some telly. Chris felt a bit poorly and went to bed around 8:30.

The next day we went down to the beach and lay around for a few hours which was really nice. One of the reasons we originally decided to go to Rainbow Beach was because we had heard that the scuba diving there was really good but since we had spent a small fortune in Noosa, doing very little, we decided to continue doing very little but try to do it cheaply.

That night we went to a free “party” at the local pub which was organised by our hostel. They advertised free food so we were quite excited but when we got there it was all a little bit uncomfortable. The pub was quite posh and everyone was stood around not really talking to one another. Then this quite old, rough-looking woman, who worked at our hostel did a quiz which was rubbish and essentially a chance for her to be all “woah kids, look how kerrrazy I am!”. But the drinks were cheap and the free food turned out to be little meat pies and sausage rolls. So we were very pleased. Especially Jen. She loves a pie.

After a limbo competition and an awkward game of “suck and blow” (yuk) they ran a talent competition to win a trip to Fraser Island. We had already booked our Fraser Island trip, as had most people, so there wasn’t a great deal of contestants. A group of boys made a human pyramid and then a guy sung “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” in a really serious growly voice with his eyes closed and his face scrunched up. He was feeling it. Hard. It was all a bit painful to watch. But as they were the only contestants, and they obviously didn’t want to fork out for Fraser Island trips for 6 boys - growly voice won it. Bless him. Then we decided it was time for bed.

Yesterday we decided we would do the walk up to Carlo sandblow. Not really knowing what a sandblow was, but having read it was very pretty, we went to the information centre to find out the route. We also asked if we would need to wear proper shoes but the woman said we would be fine in flip-flops. This was lies and we later both got splinters in our toes. But Carlo sandblow turned out to be beautiful and very peaceful. It’s high up on top of some cliffs where sand has been blown up there by the winds from the sea so it’s kind of like a small desert in the middle of the bush. It was bizarre but brilliant and we sat up there and ate our lunch and watched the birds.

That night we continued our quest to spend less cash and had noodles for dinner and went to bed early. This morning we got up early as our hostel was offering free breakfast, although it turned out to just be toast. But it was free. We had to check out of our room by 10 and our bus wasn’t till 3:30 but they let us keep our bags in the shed while we went and lay on the beach for a few hours. The coach to Hervey Bay was only a few hours long and the coach driver played the movie “Australia” which we quite liked.

Tomorrow we have to get up dead early to get on the 6:30am minibus to go for our Fraser Island briefing. We will then leave our big bags in storage and take smaller packs with us for a 3-day 2-night 4-wheel-drive safari on Fraser Island - which is a great big sand island where you do camping trips and generally fart-arse around for a few days. At least that’s what we think.

Byron Bay to Brisbane. Doing nothing is fun.

So after an afternoon at the Sydney Aquarium we prepared for our overnight bus trip to Byron Bay by packing a dinner of delicious rotisserie chicken and bread and salad. As soon as we sat down on the bus at 7pm the driver made an announcement that nobody was allowed to eat any food on the bus and that our first meal stop would be at 11:30pm. We were sad. The bus contained some of the hardest chairs we’ve ever sat on in our lives and we woke up at regular intervals with various numb limbs including feet, arms and bum cheeks. We ate our picnic sitting outside a petrol station in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. It was not as delicious as we had hoped by that point.

We arrived in Byron Bay at 8am feeling sleepy and achey but a nice man was there to pick us up in a minibus so we didn’t have to walk the 500m to our hostel. As we were so early they told us to wait in the TV room until 10:30, where we sat on more uncomfortable chairs and got bitten about a million times by mosquitoes so vicious that Jen ended up with massive blisters on her legs. When we got into our room our new roommates were fast asleep so we quickly showered and headed out to the supermarket. After packing some lunch we walked down to the beach, stopping on the way to buy some beach towels and get told by the woman in the shop that we would probably burn after 10 minutes on the beach. She wasn’t exaggerating - it was hellishly hot, but beautiful. We had a swim in the sea and did a bit of sunbathing and actually felt like we were on a real holiday! Then we went for a few beers at a bar next to the beach and headed back to the hostel to cook dinner.

That night we decide to see what Byron Bay had to offer but after walking round an empty town and having one beer in a bar that looked like it was closing we headed back to the hostel. As we arrived back we met with our roommates and some Canadians who said they were going to the beach, so we went with them, drank a few beers, saw some people skinny-dipping, got sung to by drunk Germans and had fun times.

The following day we went to the pharmacy for some anti-histamine tablets for Jen as you could see her heart beating in her massive blister bites and it was rank. We spent the rest of the morning mooching round the shops and then went back to the beach in the afternoon for more swimming and sunbathing. In the evening we went out for dinner at a Greek restaurant and then had an early night. As you can see we did very little in Byron and it was really nice.

The following day we caught the bus to Surfers Paradise which thankfully only took about an hour and a half. Again a man in a minibus came to fetch us from the bus station and drive us to our hostel. Straight away we could tell that Surfers was a party town as the first thing he told us about was a massive bar crawl that was taking place that night and said it was “the best night in town”. When we arrived at the hostel we were over the bloody moon when they told us that they’d double booked the dorm beds and they were upgrading us, at no extra cost, to a private apartment! So for only $29 a night we had our own apartment with a double bedroom, our own bathroom and our own kitchen. There was another bedroom in the apartment and they kept saying that more people were coming but nobody did! It wasn't super-deluxe and there was a dead cockroach in the wardrobe, but no live ones, and it had Sky TV!

Our little apartment - complete with servant boy.

We decided we would enter into the Surfers Paradise spirit and go on the bar crawl that the man told us about. It was called “Backpackers Big Night Out” and for $30 they said they would take us to 4 clubs along with people from 7 other hostels in Surfers. We don’t usually go clubbing (especially Chris!) and we were a bit terrified about the whole thing but we hadn’t really had any major nights out yet so we decided it was about bloody time. So that meant we spent the afternoon shopping as Jen was adamant that she would need a dress if we were going out on the town. As we were getting ready in the comfort of our private apartment, two of the hostel staff came round to sell us tickets. They also gave us cowboy hats, glowsticks to wear round our necks and told us to be at the pool by 8pm where they would be serving unlimited punch. We began to feel terrified again.

Still it was nice to get dressed up for once and the mystery punch wasn’t too bad. After a few plastic cups full they piled us all onto a coach and drove us to the first club, as we walked in they gave us a voucher for a free drink and all other drinks we bought had money off. We didn’t really do much dancing (Chris doesn’t dance) but we watched other people dancing like they really meant it and laughed at them. By the time we got to the third club, the free drinks, the mystery punch and the cheap drinks had all begun to take their toll. We never made it to the fourth club. We decided we’d had enough and stumbled home.

The next day we felt slightly rotten so ended up spending the morning watching loads of American cop shows on our big screen telly in our apartment. We’re now avid fans of NCIS and SVU. That afternoon Chris hired a surf board from the hostel and we headed back to the beach. The surf wasn’t great and once Chris had, had enough of being thrown about by the sea we headed back to our apartment, ate some dinner and watched a film.

Chris: For the record, I am awesome at surfing.

The next day we packed up early and after a short round trip in the minibus to collect Jen’s forgotten inhaler, we caught the coach to Brisbane.

When we left Surfers it was lovely and sunny, when we arrived in Brisbane it was grey and a bit rainy. But once again, a nice man in a minibus collected us and although there was no upgrade to a private room we got a special rate of $15 for our first night so we were pleased. We headed up to our room and discussed going to the koala sanctuary but decided to have a sleep instead which ended up lasting a few hours. We’ve had quite a sleepy time in Brisbane as it turns out. That night we had a few beers at the hostel bar and headed out for some delicious Greek food.

The next day we woke up to another grey day but decided to go to the koala sanctuary anyway. It wasn’t very far but it took us two hours to get there as we ended up waiting over an hour for the bus! Never would have happened in London…! We loved the koala sanctuary - we went there because we’d read that you could hold a koala and have your photo taken with it, which we did - but our favourite part was that you could walk straight into the kangaroo enclosure and hand feed them and stroke them! It was awesome. Jen was a bit nervous at first because they were a bit bitey and a bit scratchy but it was a lot of fun. We also got to hold some baby chicks and see a platypus, Tasmanian devils and wombats. It was a great day.

 A tiny chick!

Jen stroking a wallaby.

 Chris feeding a kangaroo.

Chris holding a koala.

Jen posing for her official koala photo. While the zoo keeper woman made a really weird growly noise.

Note. This is not a real platypus.

When we got back to the hostel we cooked some dinner and then went to our room to watch more cop shows. We love cop shows.

When we woke up this morning Jen was feeling very poorly. After trying to get up Jen did some sick so she went back to bed while Chris went off and made himself breakfast and went out to get a haircut. Jen woke up around 2pm and decided that the grotty dorm room was not making her feel better, and after doing a bit more sick and nearly fainting in the shower, managed to get herself together enough to leave the building.

We walked (very slowly) to the city beach where Jen ate some crisps and felt a bit better. Then we went to the cinema and watched Alice in Wonderland in 3D which we really liked and Jen felt even better after sitting down in the dark for a few hours. We walked back to our hostel where Jen felt well enough for steak and mashed potato with baked beans for tea.

Tomorrow we’re getting the coach to Australia Zoo which is the late Steve Irwin’s zoo so we’re really looking forward to it. Afterwards we will catch the coach to Noosa for a few days.

Our Australian blogs have been much shorter and less regular than our New Zealand blogs due to a lack of wireless internet and a lack of us actually doing exciting stuff. But it’s been very nice to just mooch around places, eat food and do some sleeping. In a few weeks we’ll be sailing round the Whitsundays, diving on the Great Barrier Reef and trekking through the rainforest in Cape Tribulation. Those blogs will be much more interesting.