Well.... again its taken me ages to update this thing! I'm terrible i know! Ok so after Brisbane we headed up to Noosa, we only had two nights there but it was a really lovely place. On the first day we went to Noosa National Park and walked one of the routes that they have. The first thing we saw was a gorgeous little koala up in one of the trees, it was really exciting to see one that wasn't in a zoo. This cuddly creature gathered quite a crowd! The walk took us along a lot of the coast line on quite a hilly route!! Quite a good work out for the old gluteous maximus! (not sure how you spell that!) Due the cyclone and the really bad storms up north the surf was really good so we saw some amazing surfers! It amazes me how they manage to stay stood on that one little board for so long as the sea crashes around them!! We even saw police and ambulances around the beach... not due to accidents but because surfers actually fight over the good waves! That night we just had a few drinks... well one or two... i was being rather good though as the surfers had spurred me on to my mission of becoming a surf champion! Yes thats right, i had myself booked on to a surf lesson the next morning! Well that was an experience! There were about 6 kids in a group of 15 of us and rest were teens and adults. It was hilarious watching all these kids putting us to shame as they managed to stand and ride waves in what seemed like about 5 minutes into the lesson!! I leanr that I'm a goofy surfer and not a natural! This is apparantly due to the way i stand and what leg i lead with (left as always of course!) And no... it doesn't mean I'm crap... some of the biggest surf pro's have been goofies... so naturally I'm on my way to being up there with the elite! That afternoon we got on yet another bus!!! This one to take us to Airlie Beach... however a supposedly 16 hour bus journey turned into a 19hr one!! We stopped to pick up another group in the absolute middle of no where at about 10pm at night. Of course after which the driver had broek some air suspensiony thingy on the way up the 'gravel' path to the middle of nowhere! And there we stayed for 2 hours until we were rescued by another greyhound bus! We obviously got into a conversation in the middle of nowhere with a group of 3 brits who we strangely happened to be in our hostel when we arrived in Auckland! Its scary how many people you see again even if different countries who you've met before. It seems all travellers are on the same route! Airlie beach was so pretty but we only had one night there (due to the ridiculous but amazing amount of time we spent in byron bay) but we took a look around etc before leaving for Townsville the next morning! When we arrived in Townsville after a mere 4 hour bus journey we had to get the ferry across of Magnetic Island. Now this was possibly the most gorgeous place we'd ever been. We stayed in one of the Base hostels, it was literally right on the beach! It was stunning! We stayed in dorms but there were like little camping huts... small but cute! Chris, who we met in Melbourne came to meet us here so we had a pretty good 3 days there. Lots of sunbathing and swimming. Though we did take a trip of the island which just further persuaded me I am definately living in the wrong country! We actually stopped off to feed these rock wallabies (kind of like little kangeroos).... aww and they were so cute. One of them had a little baby in here pouch and everything and you kept seeing it poke out to get some lettuce and then it would take it back in!! It was quite funny it just looked like her stomach was absorbing lettuce!! Very cute! Mum... I asked why it was called Magnetic Island.... and its nothing to do with any magnetic fields or anything! This captain cook apparantly when he went there was trying to go north or south.. or whatever! But his compass kept pointing in the same direction wherever he went (obvioudsy it was broken and he should have asked for his money back!) but he thought it had something to do with the magnetic fields on the island and therefore it was named Magnetic Island! After this it was our last stop in Oz and onwards and upwards to Cairns! Well that was a fun three nights... it rained constantly and all we managed to do really cos of this was shop, go on the internet , have a quick look round and generally not see a great deal of cairns. Bit gutted but we were really looking forward to getting to New Zealand at this point anyway! So that brings me up to yesterday... phew! Well yesterday was Danni's birthday... quite an exciting day really considering... she got to spend it in Oz, in the air and then in New Zealand!! We arrived in Auckland... at yet another Base hostel.. at about 7pm! Being the jammy sods we are, we managed to geting dinner, find 4 people we had already met before, add another friend to the group, get ready and go out! Well minus two who stayed back and didn't actually come out but still danni and i and 3 guys! It was such a good night in the end... we were really tired and weren't really up for it at first! But i was having none of that as I wanted to make sure Danni celebrated her birthday well and truly! And that we did, with only slight headaches today!! Tomorrow we fly to Christchurch .... and i'm sure you'll all be glad to know that the campervan idea has gone out the window. We went to book it today in the travel agents here in hostel only to find out that there were none available! We were gutted at first as the bus passes are really expensive and we would have had to spend double with one of those each plus accomodation! However i had a mini brainwave did have to lie down for a bit after!) and together with the best travel consultant in the world ever, Maya, we came up with the Maya Plan. We have decided to hire a car which is about $NZ440 as opposed to $NZ600+ each for the bus pass! This means we can afford to stay in hostels around new zealand, but still take a car only for a little bit more than the campervan would have cost. So i suppose its worked out better as we have our little home comforts but the luxury and independance of a car! Maya was fantastic and she planned us a whole intinary for the 2 weeks we have in NZ which we are really happy with and includes things we might not have seen or done with a bus tour! There's going to be white water rafting it Rotorua, Sky diving (maybe... dont worry!!!) in Taepo and even a glacier hike plus lots more! I'm so so excited about all of this, although Oz was fantastic and gorgeous, there weren't as many activites like this on offer and if they were they were very expensive and not in as beautiful a setting as they will be here! So after a night in Christchurch tomorrow we pick up the car and head down to Queenstown for a few days. Danni is hoping to see some of the Lord of the Rings stuff too which should be really exciting for her as she is a big fan!! Anyway... I should really tell you all about this AFTER i've done it... i better go and get some beauty sleep as we have to be up at 5am for our flight at 7.50am!! Missing you all lots!!! Much love, Evey xxxxx PS more photos coming soon... ish!!! xxxxxxxx