So before i even left the driveway of our flat in bondi a black cat stepped out in front of me, ran under a ladder and jumped around on the cracks on the pavements... not the signs i really wanted to be kicking around as i began my solo-milne travels but hey. Due to james' work schedule i had to leave bondi without him and head along to the sunshine coast. I did kind of kid on to myself that i was embarking on a challenging journey through the dangers of australia - in reality i took a 3hour plane journey to Mooloolaba where i was greeted by matt and gabi at the airport who drove me straight to their stunning beach house where i stayed for 2 weeks. hardly columbus over here but its the little things!

I think I speak for both james and myself when i say that meeting matt's friends (gabi, ellis and galeo) was one hell of an experience. We had actually planned to stay with them for only a handful of days but our plans for further travel got superbly delayed by the fact that we just had so much fun. Whether we were daring james to launch himself down an entire flight of (carpeted) stairs, befriending a 33 year old fish called George, swimming in national parks, getting mauled by a psychotic parrot or telling james i would tan a big glass of wine if he swam the 'shark enfested' river and bring back a single blade of grass we had a ball (yes it was a crazy suggestion however an even more crazy realisation that he actually did it). We went to music gigs where one singer consumed about 13 bottles of water during his hour long set. no really thats not even exaggeration for comic effect.

Of course however all these antics are insanely overshadowed by The Day I Will Never Forget - our trip to Stever Irwin Zoo. What a special time was had, we took the Steve Irwin bus to the zoo in the morning which showed video clips of steve's adventures and documentaries of him tearing up while talking about the love of his life - his dog! i bet you can draw a lot of similarities in mr irwin's mentality eh dad! When we arrived at the zoo we were quite literally like little kids in a sweet shop, we spent an unnecessary amount of time feeding 'roo food' to the little skippies in kangaroo heaven and took an equally unecessary number of indentical kangaroo photos. Even the slightly eery obsession with mr irwin's kid daughter (she's 13 and has work out videos and they sell Bindi Burgers for pete's sake!) was overlooked to allow more time hero worshipping 'Agro' the godfather of all crocodiles who was about 80 years old and i genuinely believe even now hasnt moved an inch from when we left the zoo all those months ago.

When we left matt being the insanely generous man that he is bought pots of flowers to say thanks for having us; james and i wrote 'thank you poems'. hey, its all about that personal touch and considering our mooloolaba mates names (gabi, ellis and galeo) rhyme with a grand total of NOTHING i think we did a pretty kick ass job in the old poetic skills department. So, after we finally realised we couldnt drink goon and play juvinile games all day, james and i headed for brisbane to stay with a man so special, james' eyebrows actually twitch uncontrollably with excitement when he talks of this legend... yup, it was time to be reunited with the hero that is justin.

Joanne