Dear Chloe

Thank you very much for your generous wedding gift to us. Rather than buy us a present, you wisely spent the money on gracing us with your presence in Australia and it was the best gift you could have given.

As we checked into our last hostel in Brisbane without you for the first time, a large concrete monstrosity with no heart or soul, where you are treated as a number rather than a person and where you need a keycard to open any door, including the bathroom (although it does have a rather nice rooftop swimming pool), we realised how much we miss you, to have someone to moan and grumble about the hostel to. Donna just isn't the same. She just tells me to shut up.

Remember the Southern Cross hostel in 1770 where there wasn't even a lock on the bedroom door and they double booked us so we had to have a sleepover together. Remember Backpackers By The Bay hostel in Airlie beach with its cute little bar and informal quiz night which we should have won if we'd stuck with my original answer, not that I am still bitter. Remember Halse Lodge in Noosa. Yes I know I still don't like the hostel but the welcome drinks were a nice touch and the bar grew on me. Remember Northern Greenhouse in Cairns with its strict no drinking laws which meant we spent so much time in our little apartment drinking duty free vodka or sitting in the pool having a good wee. Remember all those places and you remember quite how much we have done and seen in the last three weeks with you.

Remember our New Year's Eve where despite having to get up ridiculously early on New Year's Day, we still went to the Casino night at the bar, with you and Donna in your matching dresses, where I got far too addicted to Blackjack and you and Donna got far too addicted to the free drink cocktail, where we ended up winning the raffles three times and had to spend our last night drinking a bottle of wine, thirty dollar bar tab, swapping a night's accommodation for free internet and a meal for two when you really just wanted to go to bed so you wouldn't be hungover for your flight.

Remember our first meal together in PJ's in Cairns where we were all so excited to see each other and our last drink in the posh bar by BRisbane coach station where we were so sad to be leaving you.

Remember Christmas Day where we spent the afternoon drinking illegally brought in alcohol less and less subtly as the afternoon wore on and listening to an American girl's deep and meaningful troubled life story.

Remember arguing over who was more annoying; the bloke with no teeth or the young English girl in your room he was sleeping with (allegedly). i still say I was right and the girl was more annoying.

Remember discovering how much you liked Yellow sparkling wine when we went to the small backward pub on Matty's tour and you asking the bemused barman if he had any prosecco and he hadn't heard of it so gave you Yellow instead.

Remember losing the keys to your room when you and Donna went out in Noosa one night. It took the two of you an hour and a half to come up with the ideal solution of sharing our bed with us. It took me one minute to come up with the better solution that you should knock on your door and wake up one of your roommates. The correct solution would have been to try the door because it was unlocked the whole time but no one thought of that.

Remember you healthy addition to Banana Buzz smoothies from Boost and your less healthy addition to Diet Coke, both of which you managed to rub off on me.

Remember the hours and hours of greyhound bus riding, the lottery of whether the aircon was going to work or not, thereby rendering the bus either unbearably hot or unbearably cold.

Remember coming to see Star Wars with me because I was 'small child' excited even though you hadn't seen any of the previous ones and were suffering from a lack of sleep. You may have fallen asleep five times in the cinema but never complained once.

Remember how much you helped me out piggybacking Donna up every hill, either sharing the load or being a packhorse and carrying all the bags for us.

Remember how kind and thoughtful you were the whole time, how chilled out and easy to be around you were, remember how your catchphrase was 'I don't mind what we do, I am just happy to be here spending time with you too'.

Remember all these things and all the other fun and funny moments we have had and remember that this was the best holiday ever (FACT).

And so in the spirit of previous blogs, I leave you with you, CHloe our faithful sidekick throughout Australia, your very own poem.

All our love

Jim and Donna

ODE TO CHLOE

Oh Chloe!

Off to Australia we will go, we

Will hang out with you which will make us glow, we

Took the Greyhound bus which was quite slow, we

Did the Scooteroos when the wind was quite blowy

Avoided backpacker stereotypes by not having a GoPro, we

Almost won a quiz which would have meant we could crow, we

got stuck in the sand on Fraser but didn't need a tow, we

Saw kangaroos, whose eyes are all doe-y

And whose kids are called joey

After Chloe leaving, we felt quite low, we

Didn't like the look of the Castaway tour so we

Stayed in 1770 instead where we know we

Could have a better time though we

spent most of the time in the Tavern getting drunk