Wednesday the 2nd of July and following a heavy night of goodbye drinks with John and Madeline, our Canadian friends, we drove north heading for the Hunter Valley and thinking of the sunshine that would greet us further up the east coast. The three hour drive seemed to last an eternity as we were both in a serious state of sleep deprivation. We stayed the night in a vineyard that belongs to friends of Liane and Julian. They said we could sleep in the car park and use the out side dunny, (check out the lingo!). At 9am the following morning we attended the Hunter Valley Wine School, and after a short tour of the vines we got down to business and tasted every wine available. Did we spit or swallow I hear you ask. I've never spat out wine in my life. Vicki often unintentionally sprays wine out of her mouth in uncontrollable bursts of screams and laughter, But today it all went south. We did actually learn quite a lot of new stuff like wine from the first run will age better and when tasting wine if you put your hand over the top of the glass and shake the wine up it releases more flavour. After a master class in white, red and dessert wines we headed for the smelly cheese shop and then drove to Nelson Bay. We had a picnic on the beach and watched a fantastic deep red sun set. In the morning we explored the town then drove the short distance to Stockton Bight which is the largest moving sand dune system in the world outside of a dessert. This was amazing, we were expecting beach dunes with grasses but these ones are completely bare and stretched for miles in all directions. It was a long slog to climb the dunes. The sand was white and so fine you sink up to your knees on the slopes. There were people sledging down the dunes and 4x4 tours available. Needless to say we snapped a fair few shoots here. We also got Shiela stuck in the sand and she started to bury herself and decided to go up on three wheels as we were stuck in a ditch. With a small digging dance, a hefty push and some help from an old gaffa of about 70 we reversed her through the ditch over a drive way and back onto the road. We headed further north and the heavens opened. It rains heavily for the next couple of hours and we find that the sliding doors on the side of the van leak quite a bit and the driver gets dripped on. We noticed a sign saying free tea in 2km so we pulled in and have now started to notice on most of the highways they have "driver revivers" which offer free tea and biscuits to all motorists. We now stop at every one we see and are thinking of asking the next one if we can fill up our flask and maybe even our hot water bottle! Their motto is STOP, REVIVE, SERVIVE. We slept in a place called "Forster" and ate fish and chips from a shop with a woman that kept going on about the cost of oil for frying, as people are now using it to run their cars on. Sleeping in Shiela is so easy as she doesn't look like a camper. She has business stickers all over her so we just brush our teeth, drive to a posh residential area and pull in by some other parked cars and hop in the back and go to sleep, people just think it's a works van. The next day 5th July we drove to Port Macquirie and watched the surfers while eating lunch. All along the breakwater there are huge sea defence rocks and each one is individually painted. Most are with love messages or graffiti but it looks very colourful and effective. We moseyed on to Coffs Harbour and after observing many boy racers skidding round the beach car park, a giant supposedly famous not so big 'Big Banana' and some dodgy looking locals we decided to f…Coff.(haha, get it?). We continued north and as the sun was setting we saw lots of Kangaroo's with Joeys, in the fields lining the road. We slept in "Grafton" after calling home, a town that seemed to have no people in. The next day we drove to Byron Bay the home of hippies, surfers and old guys with long hair that went travelling fifty years ago and never got any further. Walking through the streets with the waft of dope in the air it seems quite surreal to see that many grown men on skateboards or BMX bikes but some how in Byron it just fits. Both Vicki and I feel that Rob and Anna would just love this place. There are hoards of 'wicked' campervans, a company that sells and rents sheds of a van covered in bright spray paint with pictures ranging from porn to Doctor Who. We sleep and read the whole of the following day as it was chucking it down with rain. We also lazed in bed for most of the next day as the weather was still bad. In the afternoon it brightened up a bit so we went for a walk in the hippy town and drove up to Byron lighthouse, where we were walking up to the following day. When we awoke the following morning the sun was blazing so we put our walking boots on and headed out on the walking track up to the lighthouse. We had our bino's with us as our lonely planet book or bible as we call it had said humpback whales migrate north at this time of year. Walking through the wooded tracks we saw lots of wild turkeys running around, smaller than the ones we're used to with red heads, black bodies and less of the floppy loose skin bit under its chin. We reached the top and not long after focusing my sand filled binoculars and thinking I wish I had a monocular I heard Vicki scream very excitedly and on looking up saw a lot of white wave but no whale. A few minutes later a mother and a calf both came up for air not far from the rocks below us, then another further out and another. It was amazing, in about half an hour we saw about twenty whales. We saw two dolphins playing around in the shallows below us as we stood on the cliff. The lighthouse in Byron is the most easterly point in Australia. We left Byron that day on a real high and drove up to Brisbane. Brisbane hasn't got a huge amount going on considering its one of the largest cities in Oz so we didn't stay for long just two days, but to us we will remember it for FREE stuff. We arrived in great need of a shower as 8 days is pushing it a bit. We often go to swimming pools and shower and are normally charged two or three bucks but at the Brisbane Olympic size pool we were let in for FREE by a lovely young lass. We went to fill shiela up with petrol and asked the lady in the garage if we could have some boiling water from the coffee machine. She gave us it for FREE, enough to do two pot noodles and two cups of tea (what cheapskates). In the evening we took some night shots of the city and went to a jazz club which was FREE and in the party hub of Brisbane called Fortitude Valley. The next day after our FREE camping we managed to find a little slip road a five minute walk from the city centre with no parking signs so we had all day FREE parking. We went to the Brisbane museum which was FREE and took the FREE guided tour. We then went on a FREE tour of the town hall clock tower which gives great views across the city. Vicki then stood on her phone and broke the screen so the FREEness ended as we found the nearest vodafone outlet. We left expensive Brisbane! and drove three or four hours north to the home of Steve Irwin - Australia zoo. We arrived quite late so camped in a free site listed in our camps 4 book. We met a Canadian couple there called Carolin and Shawn who were strawberry picking close by. We stayed up late chatting and drinking and I was so exited to have some new friends I ended up drinking two bottles of wine, breaking our camping light, a glass, not being capable of putting clothing on for bed then being sick at night half in the van half out side the van then ending up on the ground outside in my birthday suit. I can tell you, I've looked better. I sheepishly awoke the next morning very hung over, apologised profusely to Vicki, cleared the red stuff from the footwell of the van and we went off to the zoo. Being the school holidays the zoo was packed with kids. We made our way to the crocoseum to watch the croc show but had to endure 25 minutes of Bindi (Steve Irwins 9 year old daughter) and four dancing crocmen sing ridiculous songs first. The show was pretty impressive afterwards though. First they got a volunteer from the audience, a teenage girl, freaked her out with snakes for a bit then done a demonstration on how to treat a snake bite then put her on a stretcher. As they walked off they tipped the stretcher into the water and the girl freaked out because she thought the crocodiles were there. Very cruel but funny. The crocs came out and the zoo keepers fed them and got them to chase them around, one keeper jumped into the water holding some meat and only just got out in time, foolishness is a quality admired for this job. We walked through kangaroo heaven and could stroke huge tame kangaroos. Their fur is like a fluffy cats, we both thought it would be course. We saw tiger cubs playing with a keeper. They were jumping in the water and the viewing area had a glass quarter under water so you could see them swimming. We don't really agree with zoo's but this one definitely educates youngsters on the importance of nature. That night we slept at the free camp again with Carolin and Shawn. Everybody we have met has recommended Noosa for its beaches and chilled out atmosphere so as this was not far up the coast we decided to stop there next. We had heard about a food and wine festival that was happening near Noosa in a town called Eumundi so we planned to take that in also. On the drive to Noosa we saw signs for 'The Big Pineapple' so we took the exit and came upon a café/juice bar with an enormous pineapple on the roof. This was a lot more impressive than the not so big 'Big Banana' of f..Coffs Harbour. There was a market here selling lots of fresh produce so we had a wander round. The stalls were great. Most had tastings so we did. One Indian stall was dishing out free madras, it was so tasty we bought a jar of spices that you just add all your veg, meat and some coconut milk. Suitable stuffed we left the market and a couple of hours later we were in Noosa. Noosa has hundreds of roundabouts and lots of bridges. It feels as if you are crossing lots of little islands. We went to the tourist information centre to enquire about Fraser Island trips as that was the next destination. We ended up booking a deal for a self drive 4x4 three day tour with eight other backpackers and a WhitSundays three day cruise for the following week. We then bought some yummy itty bits from the local deli and sat watching people fishing on the beach whilst feeding a turkey some spicy chilli chorizo. After our feed we walked the beach just as the sun was setting casting a brilliant deep red reflection off of the retreating surf. At the end of the beach a guy was doing a photo shoot with a very big busted young lady. Groups of lads were popping up from behind the rocks with their digital compact cameras trying to grab a shot, giggling to each other and egging each other on with testosterone fuelled horniness. That evening we went for a beer in a bar where a guy was playing swinging jazz on a baby grand piano then chopping and changing between sax and an electric guitar. The next day, bright and early we went to the food festival in Eumundi. At 8.30am we ate paella for breakfast followed soon after by donut stix and chocolate sauce. We had a go on a didgeridoo and Vicki could produce quite a good sound, mine sounded like a wet fart. Apparently the way to play is to mimic the sound of a horse with your lips but loosely. It does take practise. And is not as easy as it sounds. At around lunchtime the heavens opened so we decided to do laundry then slept in Noosa again. We woke up very excited in the morning as today we would be driving to Hervey Bay for our meeting and instructions for the self drive 4x4 tour of Fraser Island. We filled Sheila up and headed north.