Hi all,

We have been a couple of busy travellers recently, working our way down the east coast at a speedy rate! We started in Cairns where we celebrated christmas, it was a bit of a strange experience really, as we found ourselves on the beach xmas afternoon, surrounded by lots of families cooking their dinners on the bbq's! We were pleased to see that they really do have shrimps on the barbie for xmas lunch!

We had the best christmas eve though as we decided to take a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef and did a bit of snorkelling, it was so impressive, there were so many beautiful fish and coral. We went on 2 dives, the first was spectacular but the 2nd had to be cut short as Hayley managed to get stung about 20 times by jellyfish (not the deadly ones though!). We did see 6 sharks though!

We spent quite a while in Cairns by our standards, (about 4 nights!) before we hired a car and drove ourselves up to Cape Tribulation and to the Daintree Rainforest. We stopped at various places along the way, including Lake Placid, luckily there were no crocs around that day! We also stopped at Mossman Gorge, and Port Douglas which was a really pretty town.

We spent the first day walking around the rainforest taking photos and trying to do a bit of wildlife spotting, the most we saw was a rather large spider! But the rainforest was amazing. That night we stayed in a tent style cabin, located in the heart of the rainforest. This turned out to be quite an experience as the heavens opened and rain like we have never seen before started to fall, at one point Hayley was convinced the roof was going to cave in! The rain didn't stop after that so we decided to make a quick exit from the rainforest the next morning.

The next part of our trip was spent driving through the Atherton Tablelands where we drove through Mount Molloy which Mike was proud of as it turned out that the town was named after an Irish Guy called Pat Molloy. Now we want to know why Patrick didn't tell us he is such a celebrity!! Our hours of driving along the straighest roads allowed us to pass through endless amounts of 50's style towns containing absolutely nothing but pubs! We eventually reached a nature park which was home to the people friendly Rock Wallabies who were happy to eat our food. This simple walk through the apparently safe park turned into a bit of an adventure!!! We decided that the walk was not exciting enough so we hopped over a rock or 2, and before i knew it i was hauling hayley up from mini rapids! Even in her hour of distress as she hurtled down the stream at break neck speed she managed to utter the words, 'Mike, save the camera', and with hayley's whole body submerged i could see just one arm above water holding the dry camera high into the sky! No life threatening injuries were sustained just a couple of cuts and bruises. We soon made a quick exit from the park back to the safety of our car!

That night we stayed in Yungaburra, a really small twenties style English Village. After a quick lesson in chess and a good nights sleep we set of again this time along the waterfall trail. We saw 3 spectacular waterfalls.

After dropping off the car back in Cairns, we boarded the Greyhound bus to Townsville and got the boat over to Magnetic Island for a very uneventful night. The next day we were back on the Greyhound headed for Airlie Beach where we spent New Year. Due to our lack of preparation we could not find a bed to stay in any of the hostels so we had to check into one of the nicer hotels in Airlie Beach, oh well!!!

New Years day we headed for Harvey Bay which is basically just a launching point to the famous Fraser Island however due to the torrential rain and reduced visability we were unable to go on the tour of Fraser Island. With nothing of real interest in Hervey Bay we were off to Brisbane where we stayed for 3 nights.

Brisbane was a really modern city, we were grateful to be back in a place with things to do in the rain! We spent our first day exploring and getting to grips with the city. The next day we visited the gallery of moden art where we went to see the Andy Warhol exhibition which was interesting and then spent the rest of the day visiting all of Brisbanes tourist sights such as the Town Hall, Casino and of course the bars! After much persuasion from Mike that evening we went to an original art deco cinema (The Regent), it was actually really impressive, and the film wasn't too bad either! The next day we got the train to Australia Zoo aka The Steve Irwin Zoo where we were treated to a crocodile show (mike's highlight!) and lots of other ozzy wildlife! That evening we went to China Town for some yummy dinner. The final day was a real joy mostly spent running through the rain but before that we were treated to a rare morning of sunshine which we took full advantage of and headed over to the southbank to wander through the street markets, cafes and bars. Mike managed to get himself involved in a street performance aiding one of the buskers and then it was 2 hours of solid rain!

Surfers Paradise was our next stop and it was exactly what we expected, bright lights, million dollar apartments and loads of surfers just what we're about. The first night was spent drinking in various bars in preparation for the next days surf lesson in which we both managed to stand upright on the board after a LOT of falling and wipouts! Surfing really isn't as easy as it looks!

Then it was a short hour and a half drive to Byron Bay which was a hippie version of Surfers Paradise.

We are now in Sydney and are planning on seeing the sights so will update you again soon.

Lots of Love Hayley and Mike xxx