We picked up the van on Monday morning and spent a few hours sorting all of our stuff out and making sure we had some food for the first couple of days. The van was a Toyota Hi-Ace that seats 3 in the front and also sleeps 3. It has a fridge, 2 gas hobs, a grill and a sink. The first afternoon we took it steady and headed a few hours up the coast for our first night in the van. It was surprisingly comfortable and a lot quieter than the 8 & 12 bed dorms we've become accustomed to!

That morning we drove to Port Macquarie where we visited a Koala Hospital for feeding time. The girls absolutely loved this place. From there we went to a lovely beach at Nambucca Heads for a spot of R & R. On our way to through Coffs Harbour we passed the "Big Banana" Australias most recognisable "big thing". These giant models are all over Australia and on the rest of our trip we would pass other such "big things" as: a big prawn and a big mango. There are many others to see and it does break up a sometimes monotonous drive.

From there we headed to Byron Bay, somewhere we were all looking forward to checking out. The only downside was that the Bluesfest was going on at the same time, but luckily it didn't affect us too much. We arrived in torrential rain and that was how it stayed for the next 36 hours. Not much fun in a tiny van with no money!! Luckily on our last day the sun shone and we hit the beach for a few hours and wandered around the town which is very cool.

We left Byron mid-afternoon to go to Nimbin for a couple of hours. Nimbin is a very very strange place where marijuana is readily available and the town is like a hippie comune. We then drove through the wilderness to find our camp spot for a good hour in the pitch dark. The girls were a little scared to say the least and when Vicky saw a kangaroo and Ali saw a "body" lying at the side of the road, they were almost hysterical!! The fact we saw not one car the entire journey didn't help me convince them we weren't going to "cark it" as they say over here.

We then headed for Brisbane where Vicky's friend lives so we caught up with them for a couple of hours and parked the van under Story Bridge on Kangaroo Point. We had a few drinks in the van and were meant to be heading into town but the rain was agin torrential so Ali and I stayed in the van while Vicky went to meet her friends.

The next day was Easter Sunday and Ali had arranged to meet Laura, a friend of hers from uni at Woorim beach on Bribie Island. We were only there for an hour or so before it was raining yet again. Laura is au pairing for a Yorkshire family whilst here and they had agreed to let us park the van on their grounds for the night. What we didn't know was that we were invited to stay for dinner. We had a sumptuous kangaroo roast with all the trimmings with pavlova for afters. We literally felt like we had died and gone to heaven. And if that wasn't enough, the next morning they let us have a hot shower (a rare treat seeing as we had previously only been showering on the beach!), and we had a full fry up with fried bread!! I literally had to be dragged from that house. Very, very kind people. After extracting the van from the mud and tracks we were on our way to Noosa.

The rain from Bribie Island to Noosa was incessant and it stayed that way for the next 36 hours. The streets literally turned into rivers, not exactly what we had expected. We parked the van in a car park right on the beach for the nights we were there which was perfect. When the rain cleared we had 2 beautiful days in Noosa which were mainly spent on the beach and surfing (as Vicky hired a board). The waves were packed with surfers, sometimes over 100 at one time and is very popular with longboarders. One of the most famous is a guy who stands and paddles on a longboard with his DOG perched on the front.

Whilst drinking in the van one night a car pulled up in the spot next to us and the lady that got out looked really familiar. When her husband got out I couldn't believe it. It was a couple named Pat & Sam Bowrey from Westward Ho! who I used to teach when working at RND, imagine their surprise at me jumping from the van to greet them! They were out visiting their son Jake who shapes boards for Malibu who we realised I went to school with. They invited us into the neighbouring surf club for a couple of beers and we caught up which was really nice. Jake is also in Bali when we are so we're going to catch up for my birthday. Talk about small world!!

Noosa was one of the nicest places we have stayed and we would definitely go back.

Really looking forward to heading off now though as we have Fraser Island and The Whitsundays in our sights......

xxxx