Finally, a proper blog entry! It's an absolute monster! Enjoy.

Everything here is incredibly expensive so we've been limiting internet time a lot! We're at a free internet cafe now though so making the most of it.

So much to talk about, where to start! I'll give a good run down of everything we've been up to since we left Cairns.

We got the bus to Townsville, and then the ferry across to Magnetic island. very beautiful but we didnt get to see much of it as we only stayed one night! The hostel was right on the beach and really cool, no going in the sea though due to a large abundance of jellyfish. However, we met some guys fishing and they gave us a go, and i caught a huge butterbream fish, yay! Was especially good as the guys hadnt caught anything all day! We felt a bit homesick that night as everyone in the hostel had already been there for a while and it felt a bit clique-y, no one was very friendly, but we went for a walk on the beach and it was fineee in the end. Very different to Thailand when you talk to anyone and everyone around!

After leaving the island, we got the next greyhound down to Airlie Beach- which was really cool. Chilled out and very surfer-y! No going in the sea again but they have a man made lagoon/swimming pool which was awesome. We met loads of people that night luckily and went out to a bar, fun fun! I got some free corona flip flops, hooray.

The next day was our boat trip around the Whitsunday Islands! We were in a little sailing boat with 8 other people plus 3 crew so it was very cramped but really cool. We went snorkelling along some of the reefs which was amazing! So many different corals and fish, the colours were fantastic! We went right along to the edge of the reef where it dropped down and saw some really rare red coral, a reef shark apparently was swimming around, and i saw a few jellyfish but kept that quiet to avoid widespread panic! Theres a lot of hype about the box jellyfish and the irukandji but the captain of the boat says its really very rare to get stung.

Got a bit sunburnt through so much cloud which was really weird! Going back to Airlie was sad because we had such a great time, but loads more to do! We got an overnight bus which was awful (4.5 hour stop over in a service station at 3 in the morning) and arrived at Agnes Waters/town of 1770. It was a tiny place so we didnt do much, went dolphin kayaking which was just kayaking as no dolphins turned up, but the kayaking guide person goes to cornwall a lot and she knows north hill, weirdly! Small world.

Next stop was Rainbow Beach, which was lovely. The beaches themselves were really cool, nice sunny weather and we could go in the sea without stinger suits, yay! We stayed there for one night and had our introduction to our self-driven tour around Fraser Island, a video warning us about the dangers of dingoes etc (though they are as harmless as dogs really) and we packed up opur jeep and set off the next day. There were 3 jeeps in our group and each group there was 8 people so there was a really good mix of people, germans, swedish people, norwegians, swiss people, dutch, scottish, irish, and us! We had a brilliant time, the drives were really bumpy but we visited Lake Mackenzie and Lake Wabby which were really beautiful, we saw the sunrise each morning, and camping was so much fun. Lots and lots of goon was consumed (cheap wine in a box) and we ate a lot of sandy food (Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world) and it was pretty much the best thing we've done in Oz! Driving along the beach is fantastic and the scenery was unbeatable.

So we left Fraser yesterday, had one more night in the hostel (again, more goon) and then left this morning for Noosa! Tomorrow we go to Australia Zoo, (steve irwin's zoo) and stay for another night, then next stop is Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast!

Been an incredible 2 weeks so far, don't want to leave! Looking forward to New Zealand however and seeing Kate, Mercedes and Rox :)

Missing home less now we've been having way more fun, but miss families etc as usual! Hope everyone is all good and congrats on the weather we've heard there is actually some sun making an appearance....if it goes again borrow some of ours, we have loads :P

Lots of love as ever, Luce and Em xxxxxxxx