Hello! I have so much to update everyone with and so little time. It doesn't help that I'm using one of the free computers and it means it's rather rubbish!

Anyway, we were lucky enough to get a one dollar campervan to drive up to Sydney from Melbourne and that worked out quite well! We stopped off in some good places, met bikers on the side of the road and made it to Sydney in one piece. It was an experience driving it ourselves though!

Sydney was lovely. We explored on our first day and the Harbour Bridge is gorgeous. We took lots of pictures and later in the week discovered what a wet t-shirt competition really is (don't worry parents, we watched and did not participate). Unfortunately we were both ill and this required rest and emergency dental treatment. We made it to manly beach as well, which was lovely and there were lots of surfers to watch, although I kept an eye out for those pesky sharks. That over and done with, we took a last minute decision to fly over to the whitsundays for work but not without promising to cover more of Sydney on our way back down.

The journey itself was eventful. We flew to Hamilton Island airport and then got on a ferry to hopefully reach the mainland. The deck hands found it rather amusing when they discovered we'd missed our stop and were doing another lap of the whitsunday islands, but they are beautiful, so who really cares? We got drenched sitting on the top of the boat and it was a rough day and even I started to feel a little seasick after the third hour. However, we made it to Airlie beach and South Molle Island resort paid for us to get on another ferry over to the island where they put us up for the night and fed us. The next day we had interviews and got jobs on the island. Claire is currently working as a boat host, which means she entertains and feeds those on tours to whitehaven and she gets to go every week!

I was working on reception, which was an experience in itself, as not many receptionists I know have to go to the end of a jetty and meet ferrys arriving on the island and get mercilessly teased by the boat crew. We went trekking on the island and walked over reef only to be circled by reef sharks! They were fairly interested in us and got rather close, which frightend Claire away, however me (the one with the infamous fear of sharks) stayed a bit longer. Fact of the day though: sea slugs exist, ewww (they look like wet socks).

After a few days I got major Island fever and decided living and working on an Island wasn't for me, so I'm in Airlie beach! Claire is backwards and forwards, so I see her often and I have infact just left her and will be seeing her again Monday. I've booked myself into a lovely hostel and have some crazy roommates and have sorted out a job interview for next week, so it's going well and we're both happy with the arrangement.

So much has happened that I feel I have left loads of events out. I can't describe how beautiful it is here. The Islands are perfect, it's sunny pretty much all the time and there is so much to do. We've spoken about which activities we would love to do while we're here, but as Claire gets to go to Whitehaven every week, I think I'm going to book myself a tour there for Monday.

We will keep you updated and let you know when we've been snorkelling, diving, jetskiing and sea kayaking, just to make sure you're all jealous. We do kind of wish everyone was here with us!

Love you all

Lisa and Claire xxx