G'day everyone and welcome to the next installment of the Kenzie and Toby blog! Last time we updated you (which to be fair was ages ago) we had just arrived in Cairns from Singapore. We were told immediately that we were in for 10 days of rain...luckily for us it was completely the opposite, hitting 35 degrees regularly. Most days were spent down at the lagoon on the seafront chilling out and nights out at the Woolshed/Gilligans. We stayed at a backpackers called 'Asylum' which was pretty/incredibly basic but real cheap and had a group of people, especially Matt Cardle aka 'Matt' and the VIP hero Fitzy! On the third day we ventured out to the barrier reef for some more shark fighting and as it was the nicest day they've had all year we could go out as far as the boat would go near the continental shelf. The 7am wake up call was totally worth it - the barrier reef is one of the most incredible places I've ever been. We snorkelled around and saw among other things a white tip shark, stingray and a massive Mauri Wras called 'Wally' (he's famous on the barrier reef apparently). That night we went to an awesome hip hop night at Gilligan's and Toby started some beef with the MC's after accidentally slagging them off...to one of their cousins! Nandos and goon was consumed copiously every day until we had a timely 9 hour Greyhound bus journey to Airlie Beach.

In Airlie Beach we took a 3 day trip on the Whitsunday islands. We were lucky again with the weather and headed out on our luxurious yacht called Mandrake (and when I say 'luxurious' I mean sweaty, small and sandy)! The rubbish boat was instantly forgotting after meeting the awesome people that were on our boat including Team Taiwan! The Whitsundays were yet another incredible place (as most places we visit seem to be!) - we saw Whitehaven beach and Toby even rode a Turtle while we were snorkelling. When we returned to dry land we were walking past MacDonald's on the main street and we literally ran into Jonny and Hannah who we could only see for an hour or so as they were off on their Whitsundays trip in the afternoon. It was awesome to see some similar faces but wish we could have seen them for a few days instead of a few hours. We had our boat social that evening at Beaches hostel and many free jugs of beer were had!

The next day we headed down to Rainbow Beach in anticipation for 4x4ing around the biggest sand island in the world, Fraser Island. We were put in a group with a bunch of irish people and a token Israeli! Needless to say the 'Goon Platoon' destroyed Fraser Island! Despite the horredous weather it was easily one of the best things we've done so far! We were given our car on the first day that was nicknamed 'The Pig' by the guys who showed us round the island for the fact that it was terrible! Tobes got us stuck in the sand at one point and we spent a good half an hour trying to get him out, which was hilarious. We saw the world famous Lake MacKenzie on the last morning and had a swim using our goon bags as floating devices! After 3 great days we had to say our goodbyes to everyone (including 'the fridge' or 'the second esky') which was sad and headed off to Brisbane.

We met up with the legendary Sam and Gaz who we made friends with in Laos. Brisbane was a massive city compared to everywhere we've been in Aus so far. We did a bit of culture here too (suprisingly) when we went to the contemporary art museum which was super interesting. We saw exhibits on a man seeing how long he could hold his mum for, a fat man dancing to 'Keep on Movin' by 5ive and a wierd tribute to MJ! We also visited KFC and Toby had the 'Double Down' burger, which is the basically a normal burger but instead of bread it has more chicken! Taste sensation!

Surfers Paradise was the next stop on the east coast which we only had 1 night at due to time constraints but I wish we could have stayed longer. Such an awesome place and much bigger than we thought - it was wierd to see a picturesque beach and then a few feet across the road were ginormous skyscrapers. We had a memorable night out there and reluctantly got on the bus to Byron Bay the next day. We'd heard people raving about Byron Bay all the way down the east coast and we weren't disappointed. We indulged in a bit of bodyboarding in the huge waves, went to Cheeky Monkeys bar, tried to find the famous lighthouse and failed, and did the standard trip to the tiny village of Nimbin - the oddest place I think I've ever been. The main draw of Nimbin is that it is drug central of Australia - everyone either smokes marajuana or sells marajuana! Seriously everyone! We met the famous 'Jonny Ganja' who we had an interesting chat with and hopped back on the bus back to Byron.

Our last stop on our trip was Sydney which is my favourite place in Australia. We stayed with our friends Jazz and Kaz who we met in Koh Phangan and experienced some proper Australian nightlife in Erina on the outskirts of Sydney and then went to a house party the next day in Surrey Hills. We saw the Opera House and Harbour Bridge which was pretty breathtaking. We then stayed with Toby's brother Rich and his wife Lisa near Mona Vale for 3 days, which was awesome! We were treated to shrimps on the barby, a massive aussie steak and on our final night we had a proper outback adventure camping into the blue mountains with Rich's brand new 4x4 - 'The Beast'! We camped 10 kilometres away from any civilisation and had another successful BBQ except for the fact we forgot to bring any water (luckily we had had remebered beer). We also went to the national zoo and saw the token kangaroo, koala and the biggest gorilla I've ever seen. We also rode the steepest railway in the world while in the blue mountains that was 52 degrees.

And now we're here sitting in Jazz's house waiting for our flight to Buenos Aires early tomorrow morning and the start of our 45 day travel from Rio to Lima. We hope everyone at home is well and we miss you all.

Kenzie and Toby x