So, on leaving Fraser Island, we dropped off the van at the 4wd centre where they discovered we had left a saucepan lid on the island. Now, you wouldn't think this would be a great problem for them. After all, they send about three vans a day to the same campsite and get another three back. The operator however concluded that it would be impossible to retrieve and proceded to charge us $40, not a huge expense between 7 of us but still, his rudeness did slightly sour the end of the trip. Anyway, we made our money back in the evening by not checking into a campsite and instead sleeping in the van in carpark opposite the hostel, although splashed out on some pizza(yeah, some food that is neither peanut butter nor toast!).

We pushed off early the next morning and Heather and Alex had offered to drive me south as I had missed a big chunk of the east coust between Sydney and Harvey bay, so we drove to Maroochydore to meet their friend Bec, who they'd met in Cambodia. She had a unit (apartment) overlooking the beach, called Alexandra beach but abreviated to Alex beach, to Alex's amusement as he felt like he owned everything! Bec joined us shortly after we arrived and we went out in the evening for a few drinks. The following day Bec drove us to Noosa Heads (I think!), with a brief stop at the big pineapple and big macadamia nut, two in a series of 'big things' along the coast and I bought an Indiana Jones style hat in the pineapple shop. Once at the heads we walked around the main street and got lunch (mmm...pie...), walked along the beach and bumped into a some guys from Fraser Island before heading on the walk round the coast, where Alex spotted a couple of wild koalas in the trees. When we'd been there long enough for me to fall asleep on another beach, Heather took a picture and Alex woke me up by stealing my hat. Then we moved on, bought some kangaroo steaks for dinner and went for a drink at a local surf club before heading back to the Maroochydore flat to cook. Kangaroo, it turns out, is really tasty, like a really lean, rich steak. Inspired by my hat and the impending release of the fourth Indiana Jones movie, we also rented the first one to watch after dinner.

On Bec's last day with us in Maroochydore we first hired some sea kayaks for an hour in the morning which was good fun and then Bec drove us to a waterfall...I have no idea where, but it had a high swing from a tree into it which I did, only daring to jump into the freezing water on my third swing out, but glad I did. We stopped off in couple of little towns after that and got some hot chocolate and second hand books before heading back to the unit, via McDonalds, where we said goodbye to Bec.

The following day we went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Although they don'y have such a huge variety of creatures as some other zoos, the ones they have are fantastic and are kept and presented very well. The highlight for me was probably the show in the 'Crocoseum', showing off snakes, elephants, various birds and a croc. We drove to a lookout over the Glass house mountains on the way to Brisbane, where in the evening we met Heather's 4th cousin and stayed in here apartment after a night out in Down Under bar, where she works. It happended to be ladies night so the gents had to put on ladies clothes at the door. Alex and I happily obliged! Although I somehow managed not to get any photos of that. Shame!

We happened to end up heading to Bec's house in Brisbane in the morning and stayed with here for the next two nights with day trips into Brisbane visiting the City hall and South bank museum, which I enjoyed far more than the Powerhouse museum in Sydney. In fact I much prefered Brisbane in almost every way and the general attitude of the locals seemed much friendlier. For example I was able to get a stone I had collected from Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand made into a necklace by a jeweller...for free...in half an hour. Even the bus drivers were lively and jokey. Also, the South bank and the botanical gardens both looked great. We only walked through the gardens of the south bank long enough for Alex to stub his toe but were able to grab a 'bandaid' from the lifeguard watching over the lagoon, an artificial beach sitting on the banks of the river, which really didn't seem like it should be there but looked great anyway! Other notable achievements while in Brisbane were dragging Heather and Alex to see the Ironman movie, eating double our collective bodyweight in Krispy Kreme doughnuts and playing an epic game of Monopoly. I finally said goodbye to Heather and Alex after 2 nights at Bec's and waved them off in the campervan. Back on my own, next stop was Airlie beach.