We said a sad farewell to Phil and to our 'Wizard of Oz' campervan and picked up our new van...the much smaller and much ruder 'Wicked' van (it has graffiti on the sides - you'll see from the photo's!)

Heading down to Byron Bay we stopped briefly at Surfers Paradise, a high-rise beach resort, to admire the stunning views from the Q Tower, the tallest building in Australia. In our effort to save money we spent the night parked up in a carpark overlooking the beach....an idyllic and tranquil (and free) location it seemed until the loud music started and we realised we had parked up next to a nightclub...typical!

The following day we made a detour to the Crystal Castle... a supposedly 'must-see' attraction. It was a pretty garden with a few random blocks of crystal and Hindu statues scattered about with tarot readings and aura photos on offer at a scandalous price.

Eventually getting to Byron Bay we booked to go snorkelling with turtles and excitedly arrived at the Dive Club early -or so we thought! We hadn't realised that New South Wales operates on a different time zone to Queensland and we had gone forward an hour. Oops we had missed our trip. Thankfully they managed to fit us in later in the day and we spent a fantastic hour in the middle of the ocean swimming alongside a turtle who didn't seem to mind that we shadowed him everywhere! He even put a show on for us doing somersaults in the currents.

We visited Cape Byron, the most easterly point of mainland Australia and enjoyed the backpacker vibe of the town, nodding at fellow Wicked van comrades (Kim coveted a Black Sabbath Wicked van parked in the High Street).