Hey all! After several complaints of 'no updates' we're back... We have had a fantasticly busy month and are now in Cairns, but I will head back to the begining of July and let you know what we have been up too! We'll on the 2nd we picked up our camper van and headed off on the open road from Brisbane. First stop Austalia Zoo at Beerwah (great name for a town!) the home of the late, great Stevo! We had a great day, patting Koala's and watching the croc demo's in the 5000 seater Crocoseum. From there we headed north for our first night in the town of Gympie (not a great name for a town!). Day 2 we drove up past Rainbow Beach and camped on the beach at Inskip Point, camp fire's galore and a stone's throw from Fraser Island (basically our view for 2 days) sadly our little van did not have 4 wheel drive and our budjet not that forgiving we settled for a view of Fraser instead (we could see loads of traffic on the beaches which was a bit off putting anyway). Spent a couple of days lounging on the beach and BBQ-ing. Bliss. Next stop the town of 1770 (weird town names...this was the year it was discoverd!!! by Captin Cook) and almost the start of the Great Barrier Reef so weather and excitement levels hotting up!!! Splitting the driving with Jay we drive through miles and miles of sugarcane fields, at times the driving can be quite monotonus and so can agreeing on which music to play! Arrive in Airle Beach, Whitsundays on the 8th after visiting Rockhampton, home of Contry and Western and the best beef in Aus and the Capricorn Caves with the Catherdral Cave having a resanance (cant spell) of 1.9, amazing to hear.  Around this area we saw big tides, for example we walked from the beach for 20 minutes until we reached the sea at low tide! lucky for us a stingray swam right by us so the walk through the boggy sand was worth it!  Airlie Beach was really lively for such a small town, as the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands we had plent of options.  Spent about a week here (including 3 days out on the reef and the islands) topping up tans and visiting the police! (Emma dropped her wallet with everyting and $450 in it, she was of course flavour of the week and still isnt allowed to carry more than $20!!!).

We went out on the islands on the 11th aboard the Pacific Star.  We had a great few days and obtained our Advanced Padi whilst we were there which was awesome.  We spent some time moored at Tonge Bay, the year round Turtle breading area (saw lots of big turtles) Whitsunday Island and visited the perfect white sands of Whitehaven Beach so beatuiful.  Sailed over to Cook Island for another dive, then after dinner that night we did our first night dive...very cool.  Swiming around with torches and not being able to see much at all (in fact nothing) other than what's in the torch light and shining the torch light and seeing two little red shark eyes staring back...hmmmm!  The next day we headed out to the Great Barrier Reef and moored for the night at Bait Reef.  Pac Star is only one of a small number of boats that are allowed in the Marine Park so we were the only ones there the whole time other than some migrating whales, knowing you are the only humans underwater for such a large distance is amazing.  Had a couple of dives at the reef including a 36 meter dive and a couple of cave dives.  We saw a 2 mtr Manta Ray, small Reef Sharks, Lion Fish, Wrasses, turtles etc etc oh yes and a 3 mtr, thats 9ft, shark.  Used some air then, to be honest it was far more scared of us and could not wait to swim away from us.  Sailed to Hayman Island with it's 6* resort, only we were banished to moorings on the other side of the island and watched the sun set with sea eagles floating above.  Spent our 3rd day sunbathing and chilling out on the beatiful and small Bali Hi Island about 0.5 of a km long, paradise.  Leave Airlie Beach and head for Townsville to catch the ferry to magnetic Island, so called because it interfered with Cooks compass when he was sailing by.  A couple of Whitsunday trivia bits about Cook, he called them the Whitsundays as it was on this day that cook sailed through, only thing was he forgot to take into account the time lapse and it was actually Monday!!!  Jack Island is so named after Jack, Cooks beloved little dog.  He sadly died sailing through the islands, Cook wanted to bury him at sea but the much afronted sailors rejected this idea, after much wine the night before Cook agreed with his second in comand that they would put Jack in a cannon and blast him out to sea, keeping the sailors and Cook happy.  Unfortunatly they misadministered the gun powder quantity and blasted the poor little doggy onto an island!!!    Anyway enough of that...as we are about to board the last ferry to Maggie Island the van dies!!! Spend 20 odd hours on the side of the road until a clever mechanic discovers that a fuse has blown and sends us on our way.  Maggie Island is a lovely little island with a population of less than 3000 and an array of bays and wildlife.  We stayed at Bungalow Bay Koala Village for a week with our van and spent idle days on the beach, horse riding in the pacific, chugging around in one of the islands hundred odd Mini Mokes and generally having a lovely time.  We went cane toad racing one night which was hilarious.  The Ugly little b*****s are auctioned off before a race and if you win you get a share of the takings.  The money goes to charity so it's all good.  We brought 2 toads which seemed to go from spritely to dead as soon as the race started!!!  The island is filled with wildlfe and every night we had possums and 1ft wide bats around the camp.  On our last night Jay the Pin King!!!  won the bar's cocount bowling which basically involved throwing an old sack at a load of water bottles, very tricky!  anyway he won a 5* Bushtucker Bruch which Emma had wanted to go on but was a bit out of budget.  Any way, whilst the van was being packed up with hangovers and cornflakes, Emma was tucking into the most sumptious breakfast ever (apart from the green ant tea!) drinking champagne cocktails, cuddling koala's and corcodiles and generally having a lovely start to the day!