Hey, we are nearing the end of Austrailia only a few more places to visit before we head to New Zealand so just updating you all on the final part of our Aussie trip.

We headed to Noosa after our Fraser trip. Noosa is a really posh area down the East Coast with many houses/apartments on the river side with moarings and boats. I imagine a very nice place to live. We however were staying in a hostel dorm not quite the same but fine however! When we arrived in Noosa it was raining and there wasnt that much to do apart from a walk in the national park but seeing as we had no waterproofs we decided to go and chill out in the cinema...it was the smallest cinema ive ever sat in and the film wasnt that great either so we were slightly disapointed as we wanted a proper movie night! The next day we went to the Steve Irwin Zoo which was a good day as the weather picked up and the sun came out and it was boiling, the zoo is a total shrine to steve irwin its really cool and all in all a good day out. Thats all we really did in Noosa a short time there but we really wanted to get to Brisbane for some city action.

Brisbane was awesome!!! We had perfect weather the whole time. The first day we got there was on a sunday and down at the Southbank they had markets going on and everyone was out sat in the sun in the bars enjoying there sunday afternoon listening to live bands so we thought why not join them!!! We got ourselves sat in a nice bar overlooking the river with a cool jazz band playing and ordered a coffee each....we soon got distracted by our wimpy coffee and noticed everyone around us was sat with there chilled bottles of wine enjoying a nice sunday drink.....so we thought sod it lets get a bottle of wine! So amy sent me to the bar......and i ended up coming back with quite an expensive bottle of wine...which i might add i didnt mean to the bar man just opened it and gave it to me before Id had chance to ask how much it was. It was the best day tho and we sat there for once not feeling very backpackerish with our lovely wine watching the sunset over brisbane...it was bliss!!! We spent the rest of the time in brisbane sight seeing the city and we went to see mamma mia which was really good.

After our awesome time in beautiful Brisbane we moved onto surfers paradise....we were warned about the place as many people do not like it, but we thought it cant be that bad we will just go for 1 night and see the place for ourselves! think we wished we hadnt bothered coz its an awful tacky place! its just a concrete mess and they have ruined the place! its by no means paradise! We also stayed in the worst hostel ever, our room had rubbish all over the place, i had a very suspect brown stain on the mattress and stains on my sheet, and there were some stale boxers under the bed.....and i had to sleep in there! not good...hence we moved onto byron bay the following morning!

Byron bay is so cool! the only thing that has dampened our time here that it has just rained for 2 days none stop and its been freezing, me and amy have both realised its time we invested in some jumpers and warmer clothes! I didnt expect byron bay to be so hippy, the town is really nice but so hippy! We are staying in a hostel called the arts factory and we do stick out a bit because the place is the hippiest place ive ever seen. Its renowned for being hippy. Its proper funky though and def a cool experience. they have tippees/tents, a campsite or dorms to stay in, we are just in a dorm coz it was the cheapest, but the tippees look cool to stay in. Its a really eco friendly place and they have didgeredoo lessons, yoga and healing massages everyday. This is how much we stick out here...amy was in the bathroom straightening her hair and the girl next to her was platting dreadlocks in her hair, funny! Byron bay has been cool though and we have danced on the tables at cheeky monkeys and eaten pies from the well good bakery!

Today from byron bay we did a days trip to a little town called Nimbin...... now that was an experience!! For those who dont know...and i didnt know until i got to byron bay really...nimbin is the hippieiest place ever and many of the locals do...lets just say....they smoke, eat, whatever form its in things that may be frowned apon by the police. However because the whole town does this and it has now become a tourist attraction the police turn a blind eye to it! It is illegal obviously but the police cant do anything about it beacause all the locals do it. So anyway I am not experienced with these kinds of happenings so it was a definate eye opener when we got there with the locals offering you everything as you walk past! Lets just say when in Nimbin......!!! (I probs shouldnt say that in this blog but o well.)

Moving onwards....after our trip to Nimbin we came back to our hostel and they were having a talent competition, which we have just sat and listened to and they were all amazing, basically all the hippies just jammin away on their guitars and singing, most of them were so talented though and if they went on britains got talent they would get very far! So it was an enjoyable evening.

Tomorrow if the rain stops we are hopefully going to do the light house walk in byron bay as we havent managed to do it yet because its so cold at the moment. Tomorrow night we are catching an over night bus to Sydney which we are really looking forward to. And then we only have melbourne left before New Zealand!!

Love to everyone Hannah x x x