On Tuesday we got up early and got the greyhound bus to Brisbane. Chris stayed on the bus to Noosa so we had to say goodbye to him there, pretty sad we liked travelling with him.  We checked into Tinbillys hostel in the centre of Brisbane and then pretty much lazed around all day, had a quick walk to the shops etc.  That night we went to Tinbillys bar for tea (first meal out in a month - heaven!!) Our friend Greg who we met on the first week came down and we basically just sat and chatted all night. Greg is now living in the back of a lorry working at a fairground, we think he should leave it sounds pretty dodgy!  We also met 2 scousers in liverpool shirts, you've probably all seen the photo! they both found it hilarious that they'd come all the way to australia and found an evertonian. so we had to sit and listen to a load of crap about champions league blah blah for about an hour (haha sorry dave)

oh yeah i should mention about now about our adventure with the fire escape! the lifts in tinbillys were really really slow and we couldn't be bothered waiting so we decided to use the fire stairs.   So we open the door and go up the stairs only to find when we'd got there that the door was locked. so we went back down, to find that the door at the bottom locks up in from the inside.  Trying not to panic we made our way to the fire escape doors only to find a sign saying "This Door is alarmed, if opened when there is not a fire there will be a $5000 fine" hahaha well i'm sure you can all imagine our faces locked in this fire escape. we hammered on the door shouting help for a while until this little chinese lady eventually let us out. she couldn't speak english and we were trying to explain why we'd been in there - she just thought we were insane!!

Next day we got the bus to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. (getting the bus wasn't as simple as it sounds, it took us over an hour to find the bus stop!!!) The koala sanctuary was AWESOME. and no its not just me being biased, gem loved it too.  We both held a koala called Neon (who was actually gorgeous and i wanted to keep him forever and bring him home in my backpack but unfortunately i wasn't allowed) There were 130 koalas there (i was in heaven) they had a retirement centre for all the old koalas, a kindergarden for all the young ones, and a maternity unit for the mothers with joeys.. it was actually amazing. but thats enough about koalas because its only me thats really that interested in them!  We also went to see a birds of prey show where there was loads of huge birds. Gem paid to hold one of the huge eagles ... so brave! We then went into the kangaroo pen and fed the kangaroos and wallabies by hand. a bit like feeding a fluffy duck if that makes sense! some of the kangaroos were bigger than me and they have huuuuge feet! gem really loved the kangaroos she must have gone through 3 bags of the food. We also fed wild lorikeets. that was an experience. The ranger poured this food into beakers and we all got to hold one, suddenly all these crazy lorikeets just swarmed down from the trees! there was literally hundreds of them, and since they were wild they would just all fly off at once and nearly take ur head off as they went past, and then they'd all swoop down again!

That night we went to Tinbillys bar again with some girls from our dorm, a german girl called Tilly and 2 canadians called Lorren and Caitlin.  It was ladies night that night so between 9 and 9.30 every girl got unlimited champagne for free... just for being a girl! it was sweet. gem didnt like it so i got hers too! we danced the night away after that as all the music was pure girly pop music! you could spot the english, i am proud to say that me and gem were the only 2 in the whole bar who knew all the words to the spice girls! wahey.  Gem refound her love for southern comfort, i lost count of how many she'd had after 11... the barman started giving her them for free i think she was his favourite customer!  There was then an amateur male strip show which was one word ... hilarious!!!!

Next day we got the greyhound bus up to Noosa Heads, it took about 2 and a half hours but god it was worth it! We both think this is one of our favourite places in Oz so far, its so beautiful. its were all the rich australians buy holiday homes, and with it being bank holiday this weekend alot of them have come up for the weekend so its pretty busy about.  We checked into Halse Lodge YHA hostel which is right by the beach.  Our days so far have been about sunbathing on the beach and going in the sea. theres lots of red seaweed about which is a bit weird, but the weather makes up for it! its been 30 degrees + since we got here.  

Thats all for now, gem will update when we get to rainbow beach!

thanks for everyones messages x x x x