Hello again!

We just can't keep away from these blogs now!

So, we eventually got back to dry land and headed towards the 4x4 rental place to give the car back all pristine! Along the way we dropped Ryan and Sam off at a hostel, and got our deposit and campervan back by 5. However...we found that our campervans had an infestitaion of mice, well a slight exageration there, but there was evidence of the little critters! Poop and chewed wires!!! I went to the office and asked a mechanic to check the van out as we'd found the chewed off wire just sitting under the steering wheel - not the best sight! So he checked it out, said it had probably fallen from his pocket when he drove our van around the back to keep it for us whilst we were on frasier. Chris gave it a dummy run on the carpark and everything worked...phew! Don't want any accidents now, do we! So me and Chris in our van and Hannah, Kirsty and Charlotte in theirs eventually set off south to a place called Noosa at around 6.30pm. We were all feeling a bit groggy after Fraiser but thought it would only be a 2 hour drive. Here comes the but....

But we got lost! Not just a little bit either! Fortunatley the further south you travel the better the roads get i.e. more like England, so we now had street lights and central reservations and overtaking lanes...and slip roads! Wowee! Unfortunately, the girls were leading and missed the slip road into noosa as the trees were covering the sign. As we had no credit on our mobiles to ring them, we flashed our lights (having previously decided that if one of us flashes, the other must pull in to find out what's up unless they understand, and so flash back) and they flashed back, so we thought oh, they must have realised and will turn around at the next town. Anyhow, we ploughed on for 20minutes and passed the next town, so we flashed again and they pulled over - turns out they only flashed us cos they were laughing at a sign with a stupid town name on it and thought we were laughing at it too! Southeners.

So loooooooooooooooong story short, we finally got to Noosa. The 2 hour drive ended up taking 7 hours!! Turns out Noosa wasn't a tiny haven as we thought, but a MASSIVE place! It's made up of 3 places, all big, called Noosa Ville, Noosa Heads and Noosa! We of course visited them all, including the Noosa industrial estate, spent half an hour there actually as Kirsty reversed down a ditch and we had to work out how to get them out! See Chris, not just me who reverses off the road and needs towing! Hehe!!!

So, at around 1.30am we pulled into a hotel carpark by the beach and set up camp! Couldn't find any campsites and it was getting dangerous to drive being this tired and this hungover! We had a packet of crisps for tea and fell into a deep sleep!!!

The next morning we were up at 9 because kirsty and charlotte had gone on a run down the beach (weirdos) and got lost and hannah was fretting! Not to worry though, they found their way back after two hours, turned out they were chatting and not noticed they'd ran past the vans. Ha, they only meant to run for 20 mins, they were shattered! After a cuppa we set off to find a campsite. We decided we'd give it one hour and if we didn't find anywhere we'd just go back to the hotel car park cos we were fed up driving and wanted to relax!!

3 hours later...we found a campsite! We got lost trying to get back to the hotel and got refused from one campsite in town cos the woman was shirty as her tenants were all o.a.p's, but luckily stumbled on an ideal spot near the national park. It was in a small woodland area, next to the beach, with a lake on one side, and only 3 quid each! Ha! Get in. So we set hammock up, got a beer out...and the phone rang! " Hiya Debs its Ryan and Sam, our coach trip has brought us to Noosa so we thought we'd meet up with u again...can u pick us up from town please?!" So off me and Chris went to get them and my expertise navigational skills got us back to camp within the hour!

That night the fantastic 7 ate corn on the cob for starters, mum are u impressed, i love it! and fajita's, again! After that we made OUR VERY FIRST CAMPFIRE ON THE BEACH AUSSIE STYLE!!!!!!!! yeah!!! The boys collected wood, the girls ate marshmellows, and we all had a wonderful time telling stories!

The next morning we got up early and set off for Steve Irwin Zoo!!!! Not got any pics of Noosa really, but we hate the place - the god damn maze! So off we went at 8.30 to drive 2hours south to see the Great Crocodile Hunter's animals! However, we had a bit of a blip.

This was very serious but all okay now so don't worry....the girls almost died! Seriously. The really expensive campervan they'd hired just dropped to bits in the middle of driving down a 4lane motorway! Couldn't believe it! We were following them, fortunately, when a puff of smoke blew out of the bottom of their van and somehow Kirsty got onto the hard shoulder. When we pulled over to see what had happened, the 'drive shaft' fell from under the van. Two really sound aussie men pulled over to see if they could help - they were mechanics - and said that the girls were very lucky as they'd never seen anything like it and that the shaft could have pole-vaulted them in the air!!!! Scarey!!

So, everyone was okay and their van got towed to a randam town to be fixed, and the van hire company got much needed abuse over the phone off the girls...and then we all found a swimming pool to play in 'till the van was ready! The sun was coming out so we were all quite relieved to relax for the afternoon...it'd had been all go for many days!!! By about 4, the girls found out their van wouldn't be ready for days, so Chris drove Kirsty and Hannah to Brisbane, big city, to collect a new van. Whilst they were away, the storms came, so me, Charlotte, Ryan and Sam just had to go to a chinese restaurant to share a couple of starters as we had no home and no food! After that, they still wernt back so we just had to go into a pub for a pint because we were thirsty. This was a great find, not, as once we'd ordered our pints we found out that a couple of days previously there had been a drive-by shooting in that pub. Great.

Anyway, we left there still alive when Chris and the girls turned up at 8, also still alive, but moaning about traffic jams at rush hour and just making it in time to the van shop..so we kept stum about our meal and pints! hehe! We then headed towards a campsite in this crazy random town but found out on the way that it was where all the ex-convicts lived...skip that then...so we found another one! Couple of glasses of goon and to bed we went!!!! What a crazy few days!!

So, that was Noosa. Can't wait to give the van back, stop driving, and get off the roads!!!

Lots of love, us xxx

ps. parents, please don't worry about us - 'life is a journey', hehe!