Dear all

We have finally come to the end of our 2 week campervan adventure, and have reached Brisbane where we fly from tonight to Fiji.

The last two weeks seemed to have whizzed by, we feel like we have done and seen so much, and driven (well, Phil has driven and I've sat in the passenger seat looking pretty!) 3000 km, so it has been a pretty full 2 weeks!

We picked up the campervan from melbourne, and headed to Sydney via the coastal highway. It took longer than we thought it would to get to Sydney, and we had two nights enroute at different beaches along the way. The first beach we stopped at was called 'paradise beach', which turned out to be quite pretty, although I wouldn't go as far to describe it as paradise! The campsite at the beach was a very basic pull off from the road with some toilets, but it was free and directly on the beach which made it all the better! The second camp we stayed at along the way was again on the beach, but was also full of wildlife - we saw loads of kangaroos hopping between the tents, and we even managed to see possums, which was exciting at first, but then became annoying as they were really tame and not scared of us at all, so much so that they kept trying to pinch our dinner! We had to give in and eat our dinner in the van away from the possums, but even then they didn't give up, and started climbing over the tranja we had left outside, in search of some left over food!

Before reaching Sydney we called in at the blue mountains. We had a really nice few days in the mountains, did a hike to a waterfall and another to see the famous '3 sisters', and also drove to some different lookout points. the blue mountains were really stunning, but what we found strange was that all the towns were built on top of the mountains, and the walks we did descended into the valley, and then we had to walk bakc up to the top at the end - abit different to any mountain walks i've done in the UK! The walk we did to see the 3 sisters was particularly nice as it went through a valley with lots of streams and waterfalls, and then ended with a view of the three sisters. We had planned to do the walk as far as the 3 sisters and then get a cablecar to the top of the mountain, but unfortunatly we timed it wrong and reached the cable car just after it had shut, so had to climb to the top of the mountain after the 3 hour walk we had done to reach the sisters!!

A whistle stop tour to Sydney was next on our list after the blue mountains. We saw all the sights like the opera house, bridge, monorail which were impressive in their own right, but one of our favourite things which we did was get the ferry to manly beach. The ferry ride itself was worth the day trip as it went through the harbour, with impressive views of the opera house and harbour bridge and the city along the way. Manly itself was lovely and had a really nice beach, which we spent some time on as it was finally sunny! Whilst in Sydney we also climbed the Harbour bridge. I hadn't been too fussed about climbing it but Phil really wanted to do it so i agreed to go with him. I'm really glad that I did now - the views from the top were amazing, and our guide told us about Sydney and the building of the bridge as we were climbing. The climb wasn't as difficult as I had expected it to be - it was steep at first but then felt more like a walk than a climb! After our climb we went for a drink by the opera house - unfortunatly we didn't make it to a performance, but managed to soak up the atmosphere by having a pre show drink and watching everyone walk past in their dresses and suits! We spent our final day in Sydney visiting Bondi beach. We had been told that Bondi was really tacky and had prepared ourselves for Australias answer to blackpool, but it was no where near as bad as we thought it would be - in fact I secretly quite liked it! It had a really chilled out feel to it, and we managed to watch some surfers before leaving! We called in at palm beach, where Home and Away is filmed, when we left Sydney. The town and beach was really pretty, and as we drove further north we hit an area called lakes entrance which was full of, well, lakes, which were absolutly gorgeous. I was surprised as i had expected that our drive would be full of beaches, and it was a really plesant surprise to come accross the lakes!

Unfortunatly, as we drove north we hit lots of rain as there had been a storm in Brisbane. We arrived at Coffs harbour in the pouring rain, which did not make the town look attractive, and were so fed up that we ended up going to the cinema! When it was still raining the next morning, we decided we would go to the big banana - coffs main tourist attraction - which was literally a place which had a big model banana at the front, a cafe and gift shop which sold all things banana, and a tobaggon run, which was closed due to the rain. The place was so surreal - phil thought it was brilliant, I just couldn't understand why it was there!Needless to say we didn't spent too long at the banana, and started heading north the Byron Bay. We arrived in Byron bay to yet more rain, and decided that if it was going to rain we might aswell get wet in the water rather than out of it, and so booked ourselves some surfing lessons. The lessons were really fun, but Phil definetly took to it more than I did! It was cool to learn and the instructors made the lessons fun, but I don't think I'll be the next female surf champion! Phil took to it really well though. We both loved Byron Bay. The town had a brilliant vibe to it, was full of travelers and surfers, and by the third day there the sun was bakc out again!

We have spent the last few days with the campervan slowly making our way north to brisbane via the Gold coast. We stopped in a town called Nimbin near Byron bay which was famed to be a hippy town, nand it certianly was! It was such a surreal place, the main street was full of colour, people were openly smoking weed in the cafes and on the street, and there was a museum devoted to the history of trying to legalise canabis!

Before hitting brisbane we stopped at surfers paradise, which was a cool place to see, but not somewhere we'd want to stay - it really is like the costa del sol of oz! we decided that while we were there we should embrace the tackyness though and spent the day in one of the many theme parks the gold coast has to offer - which turned out to be really fun!

We're now in Brisbane, nad looking forward to flying to Fiji tonight, although it feels abit wierd to be leaving oz to then come bakc in a week!

Hope everyone is well, and looking forward to hearing from you soon

Love cat and Phil xxxxx