Hi Everyone,

After two amazing weeks in Sydney, we made our way to Coffs Harbour for two nights. This was a lovely break from a busy city, and we relaxed there on the beach. We then travelled up to Ballina, where we met up with some friends we met in New Zealand, Matt, Mark and Jason who kindly let us stay in his unit for five nights, saving us lots of money. We also managed to meet up with Jami and Alex in Ballina, two of the girls from our New Zealand travels. We took a few day trips to Byron Bay, and really enjoyed our time there.

From Ballina our next stop was Surfers Paradise, where we only had one night, however we made the most of this brief visit by laying on the beach all day!

Brisbane was our next stop, where we stayed right in the city centre. We met up with Sam (another friend from New Zealand) who kindly drove us to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. We had an amazing day, taking lots and lots of pictures. We fed elephants and kangaroos, had our photo taken with a huge snake, watched otters being fed, a live crocodile show, stroked koalas and wombats and not forgetting Danny's favourite part the tiger show! We also had a lovely evening meal with Sam and her friends, which also included Kylie (another friend we met in New Zealand).

We then went upwards to Noosa and stayed in Gagaju Bush Camp, for one night. That evening we met our canoe group, who we were to spend the following three days with, Team Bush. Our tour started with four hours of canoeing over a rough lake and up long windy rivers. We then made camp, swam in the river and sang songs throughout the night, not forgetting plenty of alcohol.

Our second day took us to an amazing sand dune, however to get there we had to canoe for two hours and hike for a further two hours! The dune looked like a desert, in the middle of the bush, with beautiful views overlooking the sea and the lakes we had canoed over. It was a very exhausting day but definitely worth it.

On our final day we woke up in the most horrific thunderstorm at 5am, and we had to canoe back in the weather, to be back for 9am! We made it, but we were very wet! It was one of the toughest things we've ever done, but all the same really fun!

Our next stop was Hervey Bay, where we had two nights before one of the best things of our travels so far...Fraser Island. We met our group, Team Dora, the day before we started, which consisted of 11 people. We caught a ferry across to the island, then began our explorations. Some very bumpy off-road tracks, which Danny amazingly drove on (bearing in mind he hasn't driven at home for two years!). We saw some fantastic lakes, notably Lake Mackenzie, where we spent hours at, soaking up amazing sunshine and playing in the water. Danny and a few other lads managed to swim across the lake and back again. We also visited Indian Heads and Champagne Pools, and overlooked Lake Wabbi. The weather couldn't have been better over the past few days and this takes us to where we are now, in Hervey Bay. Later tonight, we're taking an overnight bus to Airlie Beach, where we will begin our Whitsundays tour!

Hope everyone's well, missing you all still.

Love Danny and Josie

xxxx