G'day you bladdy rippers!!!! Its Sara here, sorry its taken us so long to update this thing, we have actually been DOING things!!! You last found us on Phi Phi island, ready to leave for Phuket.

Phuket was absolutely craaazy. The main strip, Bangla Road, is chocked full of night clubs, bars and plenty of Lady boys!!! As its not as beautiful as the other islands we decided it was the perfect oportunity to actually get see some stuff, so off we went on a quad biking/elephant trekking trip which was actually really fun, although all of the elephants are all chained up and dont have much room to move around so we felt as if we were slightly taking advantage...but Kate has a new found obsession with them so we had to feed them and pet them etc etc..made her day when one put its trunk round her and 'hugged' her, although i couldn't tell you for sure it wasn't trying to strangle her...

The following day we went to Phuket Zoo which is less of a Zoo and more of a place to watch monkeys do situps and elephants play harmonicas... surprise suprise it rained the entire day and Kate managed to stack it down the stairs infront of an auditorium full of eager spectators, the funniest part being she said she heard everyone go 'oooooooooooooh' before she even slipped!

After Phuket we headed on a 5 hour flight over to Bali in Indonesia which is gen.u.ine party central! We spent 3 of the most fantastic days we've ever had in Bali, drinking cheap cocktails until 6am and taking full advantage of being English...(we were outnumberd by gorgeous Australian men about 100:1!) Bali is very coastal and we had a lovely long walk along Seminyak beach however we were really only there to party so before long we had to say our goodbyes (sniff sniff) and head off to Brisbane.

We arrived in Brisbane and were greeted with some sun hurrah! after weeks of practically solid rain we were craving a bit of vitamin D! Brisbane aparantly has over 900km of bike trails so we hired some and went cycling round the city, along the river and through botanical parks which were lovely. However you will all be very suprised and shocked to learn it started raining...

On our third day in Brisbane we headed off to Australia Zoo home of Steve Iriwn (RIP) and his infamous crocodiles!! The Zoo was amazing, they take really good care of the animals there (no elephants playing the piano, monkeys riding tricycles etc) but alas it was raining and cold, so we headed back to the hostel to nurse a pint of strongbow (our first since the trip and boy did it taste good!)

The following day we made a slight detour of our southbound trip and headed about 5 hours north to a little town called Rainbow Beach (named after the multi coloured sand dunes and cliffs) and stayed for two nights before heading off to Fraser Island, one of the biggest sand islands in the world. a big group of us went, and you all get divided into four groups and put in 4WD's in whats called a 'tag along' tour, our group was in the guide car so we didnt get to drive but we still had a great laugh with the 8 other girls in our group, the poor tour guide didnt know what had hit him when he had to spend 3 days with us! When we got there we pulled up just behind a sand dune on the beach and set up tents before heading off to Lake Wabby, about a 30 minute HIKE (he did not tell us this!) from the beach, which was lovely and surrounded by pure white sand dunes (which, for the record, were not fun to walk up no matter how white and fluffy they looked) where we all went for a little dip with the catfish! back to the camp, it was time to hit the GOON, a $12, 4&1/2 litre bag of 'wine' (well, it tasted sort of like wine if you closed your eyes and used your imagination) which is the backpackers choice of bevvy out here partly because its cheap and partly because whatever is in it gets you quite drunk quite quickly.. cooking in the dark, on a gas stove with 9 girls was an interesting experience under the influence!

the next morning was a rather excruciating 7am wake up call, followed by a little drive to 'hangover creek' a freshwater pool which definitely perks you up! followed by a very long drive over to 'champagne pools' which are basically rock pools which get the waves splashed over them and the surf creates almost a natural whirl pool for a few seconds..it was gorgeous but at one point a wave dragged me over some rather sharp rocks and i am sporting some lovely little scratches now..however i am going to tell people i got attacked by a Dingo (they roam Fraser quite freely) which is a much better story! after champagne pools we headed to Indian Head, a gorgeous view point at the top of a little climb and we spotted manta rays and sharks below us! after that we headed back to camp to get back on the goon. on our final day we headed to the beautiful lake mckenzie, which is another massive freshwater lake which was a great relief as we hadn't showered for a few days and had sand in places one should not have sand...

back to rainbow beach to the comfort of a shower and a bed and a meal on a plate which hadn't been washed in the sea, we headed off to Surfers Paradise which is where you find us now!

we have just signed up to a 12 hour bar crawl which could be very interesting.. and we are going to head off to Byron bay in a few days before cracking on down to Sydney and Melbourne.

missing everybody loads but the sun is finally coming out and we are having a wicked time!!!!!

will update again soon,

lots of love

Sar and Kate x