My, my, my, we have so much tell in the short time we've been travelling, theres so much to fit in its unbelievable, and we still feel like we've missed things that we would like to have seen - oh well i guess we'll just have to come back for round 2 some day - he he!

well last time i wrote i believe we were in sydney so we've had a little more time to master the aussie accent since then and i think we're getting quite good to be fair. we just need to stop pretending we're steve irwin when we're in the bush - both turning into wildlife spotters! so i will give a lil' run down for ya's.

Byron Bay - this place was really cool. had a great beach town, laid back, surfer feel about it. weather was good here and we managed to see the first signs of whales migrating up the east coast to have their babies - so cool! also saw a group of about 20 dolphins and a turtle we got really excited! had a bit of a party here too and ended up dancing on the tables in a bar called 'cheeky monkeys' (oh dear)! we generally lazed about here, soaking up the atmosphere and this place also had a great live music scene so we enjoyed this side too! we could use the boogy boards and bikes for free at our hostel so made use of this. on our bike ride we sped up in the area that warned us that there may be brown snakes in the area. you've never seen legs peddle so fast!

Surfers Paradise - This place was quite bizzare as if you stood on the main road and looked to your left there wdere huge high risers and a bustling city feel and if you looked to your right there was a beautiful beach. The weather changed a bit here and we had some rain so we ended up going to a place called 'Infinity'. We had so much fun here, theres about twenty different rooms/worlds, filled with 'trippy' dance music, and the rooms were pitch black but filled with mirrors, neon and illuminous lights making some rooms look like they went on forever. It's hard to explain but we will show pictures when we get back. you had to navigate your way through the mazes and reach the end crossing a bridge which looked like the fall below was never ending, but was an illusion! we even ended up going to crazy golf which had dinosaur lands, egyptian worlds and all sorts!

Brisbane - This place didnt have an awful lot to offer but had some interesting parts. This is where we decided to 'culture' ourselves and we visited some museums, which were really cool to learn about the culture and ways of life here. we even learnt about how captain cook discovered the many places in oz and all around the world as he is somewhat of an icon here and the tour guides seem to babble on about him now and again! we visited the cricket ground but couldnt actually get in which was a let down so we will save this for melbourne.

Rainbow Beach - unfortunately we had rain pretty much the whole time here and we were gutted because its a really small town, but having said that i think it felt like the most true aussie town we'd been to yet. backpackers have only been allowed through in the last 2 years so its not 'spoilt' yet! However, signs were showing as a huge hotel was being built over the road from our hostel and the local pub was handing out certificates for its last drinking day, on our last day there, as they were knocking it down to rebuild it makin it into more of a complex! We bummed around here really and took a great walk to a huge sand blow, where an aussie guy explained the history of the place and showed us all the different types of coloured sand in the area, which was pretty cool.

Hervey Bay/Fraser Island - We arrived in Hervey Bay at night time, due to start our 3 day, 2 night 4x4 self drive adventure camping trip round fraser island at 6 in the morning the next day! the trip was absolutely awesome ram packed with amazing scenic spots and fresh water lakes, one which was like swimming in evian! there are so many stories to tell from camping, to drinking, to dingo spotting/hunting/being dingo safe (as the safety video we had to watch said). we shared our van with 5 others and had great fun driving about the sometimes terrifying sand tracks and seeing the sights on offer. again we saw whales, this time we also saw some sharks and eagle rays. the major dramatic moment however was when we tipped our van - never fear we live unscathed to tell the tale and ed luckily was not driving so we didnt lose our deposits yay! we had some bad weather which meant sleeping in tents/pools of water and on our 2nd night me and ed opted for the dry option and slept in the vehicle. But, it also meant some bad roads and this was why our kerfufel happened. We hit some wet, muddy tracks, which were like hills and the driver (female i can add), lost control and we tipped on to the side and blocked the whole road. the sand banks at the side were so high that we only struck the left top side of the van and they were so top heavy as they had overhead luggage and camping gear storage! so it wasnt to be helped really. but the high banks meant that we were balanced at an angle. very surreal moment in our lives we can tell you, but the group were in shock that we couldnt help but burst into hysterics (apart from the driver who was in tears). however we were rescued and literally just got up and drove back to the barge point pretty much without a scratch on it! really made the trip something to remember and we honestly had an amazing time (even when we had to dig a hole for the toilet)

will put up photos of all this soon, got some crackers of the tipped car!

lots of love

mums please dont worry we are fine!

hayley and ed x x x x x