This is going to be quite a long blog I'm guessing as I've got to write about going up the coast from Byron Bay to Fraser Island so apologies in advance!

I left Sydney on the 3rd January, lucky to be able to get a coach out at all as there is a mass exodus of people leaving Sydney just after New Year. Had a lovely 14 hour coach journey up from Sydney to Byron Bay. It probably wouldn't have taken that long but an hour out of Port Macquarie the driver got a phonecall telling him he had to go back and pick up more people. They'd been booked on the coach after we left Sydney that morning and no-one had bothered to tell the driver. Also all the coaches for the next 3 days were fully booked up so we had to turn round and get them! Funnily enough, no-one was overly impressed. Finally arrived into Byron Bay at about 10pm and I staggered to my hostel with what seems to be an ever heavier backpack!

My first morning in Byron I spent organising my trips up the East Coast and getting all my coaches booked. I originally wasn't planning on doing everything so quickly but because its the busiest time of year and I want to get to NZ sooner especially because Oz is so expensive I decided to just book everything. This included my Fraser Island Tour and my Whistsundays Sailing trip. That afternoon I met up with Iris, who I'd originally met in Melbourne and two of her friends who she'd made along the way. We did the walk from Byron Bay out to the Lighthouse and the most Easterly point in Australia before heading back for a well earned drink (Non-Alcoholic!!). It was a really nice walk, although I don't think it was the best idea to walk over 3km in just my flip flops!! That night I went with Emily and Dani, 2 girls in my room at the hostel to the Mexican Night at Cheeky Monkeys. Ciara and Ryan recommended that to me when I saw them and I have to say thanks because the food was awesome! They have a $5 meal deal where you get food and a free margharita, can't complain with that!

Byron is a really nice place, very relaxed, but I think each place is made better by the people you meet. For awhile at the hostel I felt like a lone traveller again which I haven't at all really since I've been in Oz. The next couple of days I just spent chilling out and sunbathing at the beach. On the Wednesday I was booking a trip to Nimbin for my last day, just because I wanted to do something other than sitting around bored by myself for another day when I met Emma and Mary. I got chatting to them and was moaning about feeling a bit left out in my room so they invited me to come with them to the Rodeo just outside town that night. Over here its usually so easy to get chatting to people and everyone usually includes everyone else which has what its been like so far so it was wierd for that not to happen after Emily and Dani had left until I met Emma and Mary. The night at the Rodeo was AWESOME! Can't say I've ever been interested in watching grown men get thrown around on bulls before but it was a really good night. It reminded me slightly of the game show we sued to watch in France where the contestants had to carry out challenges and every now and again that included running around trying to do something in a ring full of bulls! After the Rodeo we got the 'Cheeky Bus' back into town and went for a couple of drinks at Cheeky Monkeys before heading back to bed.

The next day was out trip to Nimbin. Its pretty much a one street hippy town where you can buy Weed. Not quite sure why I decided to go when most of the people on the trip just wanted to go to buy magic cookies but it was nice to be doing something and to get out of Byron for the day! The rocks on the way into Nimbin which you can see in my pictures were an Aboriginal right of passage or age for the Bundjalung. I think it was when the boys were 13 they had to climb up the rocks and through the hole you can see in the side. Apparently when they got through to the other side they were then circumcised with 2 rocks. Ouch! As the tour guide pointed out it can't have done much harm because there are still Aborigines around today!! After the heavens opened in Nimbin we got back on the bus and got taken to a little pub where we had a BBQ lunch before heading out to a swimming pool. As the weather wasn't exactly brilliant not many of us actually went swimming but a brave few decided to take the plunge and jump off the waterfall into the water below. After what happened to my ear in Fiji I decided to give it a miss! After that we headed back to Byron where I found out it had been gloriously sunny all day. Bloody typical! That night I went to see It's Complicated, brilliant film, before having an early night ready for my coach to Noosa the next day.

I'd decided upon hearing other people talk about the places to avoid Surfer's Paradise and Brisbane and head straight to Noosa, which I had been reliably informed was a beautiful place. They weren't wrong there. It's not very big, and I think the rich Aussie's go there on their holidays but the beach is stunning and they have some nice walks through a National Park. I stayed in the YHA which was just across the road from the bus stop and it was such a lovely little hostel. I arrived in Noosa early afternoon on Friday and after getting chatting to a girl who had just got off the same coach and was also staying at the YHA we decided to dump our bags and head straight down to the beach.

On the Saturday Louise and I decided to go to Australia Zoo. Apparently its easier/quicker to get to from Noosa instead of Brisbane, I wasn't quite sure on that but there was a free coach from the bus station which took us there so I wasn't complaining! It was a really good day out and the zoo is amazing. As its the school holidays over here at the moment Bindi Irwin is performing at the Crocoseum during the morning show. She and her group of 'Jungle Girls' performed a few songs and dances about some of the Australia Zoo animals before the main show started. By the looks of the amount of Bindi Irwin stuff you can buy at the zoo she seems to have what looked to me like a fitness DVD out. And she's not even 12!! The main show had snakes and birds and then what everyone had come to see: CROCODILES!! Terri, Bindi and Bob Irwin were all involved as well as Steve's best friend who you always saw in The Crocodile Hunter with him, Wes. The show was really good and I got a really good action shot of Terri feeding the croc! It does seem sometimes while you were there that they might be taking advantage of the Irwin's slightly, but as Louise pointed out to me, they wouldn't be doing it all if they didn't want to. I can tell you all now that there is going to be a new Free Willy film. Bit of gossip if you didn't know! It's called Free Will: Escape from Pirates Cove. We got shown the trailer for it as Bindi Iriwin is making her acting debut in it. You have to give her credit for everything she does really! After the show we spent the rest of the day wandering round the zoo, catching various other keeper talks and getting to pet some of the animals. I apologise for the amount of Koala pictures I have but as you can see from the first few pictures all they normally do is sit in their trees. The last few pictures are a really active group! In the afternoon Louise got to hold a Koala and get her picture take with it and I got to feed an Elephant. So cool! The zoo was a really good day out, you get to learn a lot about the animals, but at the same time it's quite sad as you remember what they lost when Steve Irwin died. There are so many tributes to him around the zoo and a lot of people have written poems about it. I'm not sure whether you'll be able to read them but I tried to take pictures of a few of them.

After getting back from the zoo it was a quick dinner of noodles and then a few of us from the hostel had a few drinks and went out. In some ways I'm impressed that I lasted 2 months without eating packet noodles, in other ways I managed 3 years if Uni without ever touching a packet so its sad to have done so now! After a few drinks at our hostel we headed up a ridiculously long hill into Noosa Junction to one of the other hostels there. It's supposed to be THE party hostel but we weren't overly impressed with it and from what I saw I was glad I wasn't staying there! We stayed for a drink and then headed to an Irish pub for a drink before calling it a night and embarking on the trek home! My last day in Noosa was spent just chilling round the hostel reading before myself and my roomaate Kay took a walk along into the National Park and along the seafront where we sat and watched some surfers before heading back to the hostel for food and a couple of drinks.

Another day, another coach journey. This time to Hervey Bay where I was doing my Fraser Island tour from. This was possibly THE worst coach journey I've been on in Australia. The air con on the coach was broken, not good! We ended up stopping outside Gympie for an hour while they tried to fix the air con, it didn't help much. Now I know why they tell you not to leave dogs in hot cars!! I'd bumped into a couple of the guys who were in the same room as me in Melbourne and it turns out we were in the same group for Fraser Island. It's really strange how many people I've bumped into or recognise from earlier on in the trip, especially from Base St Kilda! For Fraser Island we had to be up for an early morning briefing where we met our group, got our booze and shopping and the drivers had talks about the car. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to drive as I haven't held my license for 2 years yet. I was disappointed at first, then again, when I say what the driving conditions were like I was quite pleased! I was one of the people in our group who had to go and get the groups shopping for the 3 days. Beaches gives you a recommendation of what to buy and how much but its still hard work shopping for 9 people and guessing how much you'll need. In the end we had slightly too much food but there wasn't too much that went to waste and it was better that we had too much than too little. After the cars were packed up we set off to get the barge across to Fraser Island. Somehow I'd been designated 'navigator', don't quite know how that happened, but it did mean I got to sit in the front for the 3 days, less bumpy than the back!!

After the Barge crossing to Fraser we stopped off at Central Station to fill up our water bottle before going through Eurong and out on to 75 mile beach. The beach is beautiful, but as you drive along it you have to be careful as it's used as a landing strip for small planes. Makes for interesting driving! There wasn't too much to do on the first day and our tour company, Beaches, had given us a map with an itinerary on it for the 3 days. We headed up 75 mile beach from Eurong and stopped at Eli Creek for lunch and a bit of a paddle where we got to know each other a bit better. After that we visited the Maheno Shipwreck and then headed for what we thought point 4 was, our campsite. Turns out point 4 was a place called 'The Pinnacles' which we drove past a fair few times but never stopped to look at them. It wasn't just us who thought 4 was the campsite, the other group did too! We arrived quite early at camp so we could set up our tents and get stuff sorted. One of the good things about doing the trip with Beaches was that they have a designated campsite with showers and toilets, which most of the other tour companies don't. I've met people who had to dig a hole for their toilet and who didn't shower for 3 days as they were all camping along the beach. That night we had a BBQ and played some drinking games to get to know each other a bit better before heading down to the beach to look at the stars. After the long day and early morning we all hit the sack to get some sleep. Everyone apart from me either had a sleeping bag or had rented one from Beaches. Not to sleep in, you don't really need it, but to lie on. Luckily, there were some pieces of foam lying around the campsite so I put one of them under the tent and the place where I was sleeping and got a comfy nights sleep!

Becuase of the heat you can't really stay asleep past 7am so it was another early start for us all on the second day. After grabbing breakfast we headed out for the day to Indian Head where we parked the car. We walked up to the top of Indian Head and got some amazing views across Fraser Island and down 75 mile beach. After that we weren't able to drive to our next stop, we had to walk. It was such a HOT day and the sand would burn your feet if you stood on it for too long. We had to walk a couple fo KM along a beach, which was a really nice walk along the wet sand, it was just the start and finish which were horrid. We had to walk across dry sand which you kept sinking in to, hard work! Luckily the spot we were going to meant we could all cool off with a dip in a rock pool. You can't swim in the ocean around Fraser beacuse of sharks, jellyfish and the currents so it was nice to be able to sit in a rock pool and cool of in the sea without having to worry about being eaten or getting swept out to sea. Unfortunately a girl from another group did get stung by a little jelly fish, at which point we all decided we wanted to leave! I think I'd spent a bit too much time in the sun that day and I had a bit of a headache so after grabbing some food we headed back to camp where the guys dropped me off before they headed a bit further up the road to a little lake they'd been told was really nice and where you can swim with turtles. I, in the meantime chilled out in the hammock at the campsite and read my book before going for a quick shower to wash all the sand off me before the others got back. When they got back I found out that I hadn't really missed much, the lake wasn't all that so I was glad I'd got dropped off and managed to get a bit of peace and quiet for awhile! That night we had our dinner and then had a bit of a quieter night, well some of us did at any rate!

Our last day on Fraser we woke up to find it cloudy and a bit overcast. Then it started to rain! We hid in our tents until it stopped enough for us to pack up and then headed back along the beach down to Eurong and then to Lake McKenzie which was our last stop before we caught the barge back to Hervey Bay. By the time we got up to Lake McKenzie it had stopped raining and was beginning to clear. The lake was STUNNING, even with it being overcast. It was so nice to get into the water and have a bit of a swim and a cheeky wash after being covered pretty much head to toe with sand for 3 days! Unfortunately after that it was time to brave the tracks again, which had been pretty treacherous and bumpy on the way up to the lake (or maybe that was just Andy's driving =P) and head back to get the ferry. I think we could say it was a successful trip, no-one got hurt, we had a good group of people and we didn't damage the car!

The next day I caught an afternoon coach from Hervey Bay to Agnes Waters/Town of 1770 where I was staying for one night. The place had been recommended to me by someone I met while I was down in Sydney and driving into town you can see it was a beautiful place. Alexa and Emily, a couple of girls I met through Louise in Noosa were also on the coach and we were all staying at the same hostel, Southern Cross Backpackers. The hostel was SO nice. There were 4 bed cabins which were named after different countries, a pool and a really nice TV and kitchen area where you could jsut chill out and relax. We got a lift down to the only tavern in town that night for a couple of drinks and some food, but upon seeing the prices we wandered down into 'town', if it can even be classed as that to try and find something cheaper. It's not exactly a 'happening' place, but thats not really why I wanted to go there, but it is such a nice place to visit. I wish I could hace spent more than one night there. The only thing that ruined what would have been a lovely nights sleep was this couple checking in at 1am, both taking showers and stomping round like nelly the blood elephant and waking me up! I had to check out the next day but my coach to Airlie Beach wasn't until 9pm so I got to spend the day chilling out around the hostel before doing the Scooteroo tour of Agnes Waters and 1770 in the evening. The Scooteroo tour was AWESOME. Such good fun! We spent 2 hours or so being taken round the area, before stopping in 1770 and getting some potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce then heading down on to the rocks to watch the sunset, beautiful! 1770 is one of the only places, or possibly the only places on the East Coast of Oz where you can watch both the sunrise and the sunset. It was amazing how everyone started off really worried on the Scooteroo's and by the end of the tour we were all zipping along at 80km/h! It was definitely worth the $50 to do it!

So that night I got on the overnight bus to Airlie Beach, luckily it wasn't freezing cold this time, and I'm now killing time before I can check into my hostel! I start my sailing trip tomorrow and after that I head up to Cairns so I guess I'll write more when I get there!