December 6th to December 11th

Day 20 Noosa to Coolum beach and then back to Noosa (40km)

So we woke and went pottering around Noosa. It's a very wealthy town and we felt slightly out of place being scruffy travellers. After much deliberation we decided to avoid the tours and activities on offer and make our way around the National Park. We forever seem to be in National Parks but in Oz there really pleasant places to go walking round. We parked up and selected the route we were most likely going to find Koalas on! After literally walking for 40 seconds we found one!!! Nestled halfway up a tree the sleeping koala was firmly placed so he wouldn't fall out. No point making noises to get them to do something as they have to sleep for 18 hours a day just to digest their food. We carried on walking through the forest along the coast until we came to the lookout point called, Dolphin head. Prizes for guessing what we saw there! Yes a pod of wild dolphins!!!! Luckily they were swimming the same route we were walking so we saw them a few more times along the way. We finally got to the end of our walking track after walking for an hour to a place called Devils Point!! Prizes for guessing what we saw here!! No not the obvious, it was a cliff head with terrible waters that kill people, we did spot a turtle though. We headed down to sit on the beach for a rest. The beach was long and had a handful of people on it. Nowhere on the beach did it say it was for nudists. So imagine our surprise when a couple just stripped off in front of us and scampered off into the ocean!!! With our random event out of the way we headed back to the van.

Ah the Van. Never one to give us an easy day. Key in the ignition......nothing. We waited and tried again, still nothing. Phone out, RAC rang. "We'll be there within an hour" Now that line is the international standard for being made to wait 2+ hours. Let's make some lunch we thought. "Got a problem with your van?" The RAC man was there, honestly within 6 minutes of the call. Mel had hardly finished buttering the bread! We were utterly amazed he was in the middle of nowhere so fast. He was more amazed that in Britain it takes our lot so long when it's such a small place. Van fixed, RAC man leaves, Mel continues making sandwiches.

After lunch we head off down the coast to a string of beaches along the Sunshine coast. We stopped off and milled about a few before heading back to Noosa to stock up and go to the pictures. First time in an Aussie cinema and it was slightly odd. They only eat salted popcorn!!!! Also the cinema itself was like a conference room with slightly comfier chairs. Went to bed after that on a hillside and kept rolling to one side of the van haha.

Day 21-Noosa to Brisbane (135km )

The day did not start off well people. It was raining when we woke up and the sky was awash with clouds as far as the eye could see. This did not make for happy travellers but knowing it was time to move on we hoped we could drive out of the rain. We did!! After we left Noosa we avoided the highway and took the coastal roads down towards Brisbane. We did this because we were looking for 1 road in particular. The Steve Irwin Way!!!!!! Ahh we found it. A large metal silhouette of Steve feeding a croc right at the start of the road is a tribute to the Legend that was Steve Irwin. Driving along the road we obviously came across Australia Zoo. Sod it we thought its Irwin's zoo we've got to have a look.

The zoo was mainly full of Aussie animals and crocs as you would have guessed. However it did also have an African and Asian section complete with tigers and elephants and the such. What makes the zoo different from most though is 'The Crocoseum'. It is large open air stadium where Steve used to battle those pesky crocodiles. The stadium now hosts a similar show just sadly without The Crocodile Hunter. In the show the hosts demonstrate to the crowd just how deadly crocs can be. Before that though there is a bird's show that kind of steals the limelight. Dozens of birds swoop inches away from the audience at crazy speeds for about 5 minutes. Seriously if you were an unlucky fellow you could easily be hit. Right at the end of the bird show a giant albatross the size of a mini with wings 15ft wide comes flying in and gobbles up a carcass of meat! The crocodile show teaches people about the saltwater crocodile and how deadly it can be. Two guys get close, but not too close to the beasts and feed them without losing their arms.

After the croc show we headed into the Steve Irwin museum. Full of photos, stories and videos about Steve the museum shows how liked he really was. A tribute wall full of signed khaki shirts worn by Steve fills 1 entire side of the 'Crocoseum' with messages written by fans after he died. The zoo honours his memory and thankfully doesn't go over the top with it. We continued around the zoo and on into the kangaroo walkthrough. This area of the zoo gives people the chance to interact with kanga's in their natural home. We happened upon a kangaroo and gave him some of the special food we had bought.'Roo Food' From the kangaroos we went to see some koalas lazing around. After a very informative presentation a lady came around and let us stroke one. We them headed through the koala walkthrough where most of them were sleeping. One of the little critters did however decide to jump down from a tree and run along the floor into another tree. We kind of got a video of that but the fatheaded park keeper kept moving in the way.

Last stop on the tour was the snake den. Australia zoo is home to all the native snakes of Australia and that includes the deadliest snakes on earth. Surprisingly the most venomous snake on earth is only about 70cm long. One bite from this snake though has enough venom to kill 100 men. We noted down all the key areas these deadly snakes occur in Oz and we've been close to all of them. What was a little more worrying thought was that at most zoos the snakes just sit there and sleep. Every one of these snakes were moving around and looking deadly. As with most areas of the zoo there was a telly showing Steve interacting with them in the wild and if he says to avoid snakes..... Then that's what we'll do.

As we left the zoo we waved a fond farewell to the 'Crocodile Hunter' and noted down the 15th November as its Steve Irwin day. Pop it on your calendars so you don't forget. We continued on towards Brisbane and were shocked when we arrived. It's been so long since we have driven through a big city we were worried we'd get lost. Thankfully though with Griffin on the maps we arrived with no fuss at all at our campsite.

Day 22 Brisbane to Brisbane burbs' (40km)

Another not so nice morning. But as the day got better, so did the weather. We left our site and headed straight for the city centre. After some more business with our van people we now have a brand new fridge. Turned out it wasn't just the battery it was our defunct fridge aswell. New fridge + colder milk = Happy Deccy. We dropped the van off in a car park and went for a stroll around Brisbane southbank. It's a lovely outdoorsy city that really does have everything. Even though there isn't a beach in Brisbane that didn't stop them, they just built their own one. Being a Saturday the place was filled with kids and families all setting up barbies and enjoying the weather. We walked up along the river to the Brisbane cliffs to get a better view of the city. After a lovely day walking around it was time to head south to find some friends who were cooking us curry!!

After randomly meeting our hosts in the supermarket by their house we were welcomed into the home of Mel's friend Fay and her husband and kids. We were treated to an amazing dinner and drank and chatted for most of the night. We then evicted their son Jake from his room and stole his bed.

Day 23-Brisbane to the Tambourine mountains then back to Brisbane (unknown we didn't drive..yay)

We woke up in a comfy bed to the familiar smells of bacon and tea. Fay wasn't the only friend we met in the house, Tetley tea bags were also embraced with open arms. After inhaling the bacon butties we enjoyed all the comforts of their home, shower, washing machine we even used the phone! Sending the kids off to the cinema gave us all the chance to head out of the city and into the mountains. We ventured high up into the hills to a strange town called Tambourine. God only knows how this town survives. All the shops in this little village were niche, quaint and downright bizarre. Apart from the fudge shop they were all strange and the owners even stranger. The fairy shop was staffed by a fairy; it only sold fairy type things and arranged for people to walk around dressed as fairies!!! That though wasn't as out of place as the German cuckoo clock shop. Mel actually saw the sign and asked what they sold!!!! Walking around inside there was just weird. Everything in there was a German souvenir which would have been ok if we were on holiday in Germany!! We left the mountains after the clouds had cleared and we finally saw the excellent view from the top. We drove all the way south of Brisbane to the top of the Gold Coast. Here we had a lovely large lunch at a surfers shack. After a stop off at the butchers to get supplies for dinner we headed back to the house for a swim in the pool. After battling the kids in Marco polo and generally just messing around we jumped out and enjoyed an excellent BBQ cooked by Adam. The evening was rounded off by a game of Star Wars monopoly in which most people agreed that Declan had won. We drank the night away and then turned in for the night.

Day 24- Brisbane to Surfers Paradise to Burleigh Heads (80km)

We fully enjoyed a lie in and some more tea at Fays, everyone had gone to work or school so we slowly got ready before waving goodbye to Brisbane. Halfway down to Surfers we realised we had forgotten some things so enjoyed going back and leaving again!!! Haha, silly us. Down in Surfers we swaggered along the esplanade and enjoyed our lunch by the sea. We generally had a 'do little' day after a lovely weekend. We sun baked abit then treated ourselves to an ice-cream. The ice cream was from Maccys and cost 20p!! Can you believe that? We might start living on them! Back in the van we drove further along the coast before deciding to stop off at Burleigh heads. By then the weather had turned a bit cloudy and wet. It was still warm but we decided against getting in the sea as it was full of surfers enjoying the really rough waves. We watched on as they all crashed about and then went to sort ourselves out somewhere to sleep.

Day 25- Burleigh heads to Kingscliff (60km)

We've done a fair amount of driving today considering we haven't gone very far. After waking up went ventured up the road to the Burleigh heads National Park to view the entire Gold coast, all 60km of it. The view was nice and the cloudy day didn't ruin it. The whole length of the beach still looked amazing and was teeming with surfers. We left Burleigh heads and went looking for Koala Park. We found it and it was an actually park called koala; it didn't actually have koalas in it!! Oh dear, silly us again. We then drove down to Danger Point. Spider-Griff then decided to go climbing the cliffs as someone had painted one of the boulders to look like a frog. The entire walk along the coast was a windy one, the waves were crashing in and the day had smatterings of rain. People were still out and about though and many of the surfers loved the stormy type conditions. We carried on again down the coast until we finally lost an hour of time. No we didn't get lost. We crossed the state boundary and entered New South Wales!! We left the main roads and took the coastal streets down to a place called the Tweed Coasts. Around the tweed coast we stopped off at a number of places to see different things. One of our stops Fingal, included the smallest lighthouse in the world where we also encountered a tour group of Chinese people!!! Down along the coast we ventured on to Dreamtime beach and ended up staying right on the beach front at a place called Kingscliff.

We are now finally in New South Wales. We have left Queensland behind and have driven 2648 kms!

10 days till Sydney!!!!!!!!!