Everyone thought we were crazy flying to Queensland then Victoria and flying back to Queensland but the point was we wanted to get the cold parts out of the way first and have a warm holiday at the end of our trip and the warmest place we could get to at this time was Cairns. We boarded the flight after a huge rush. We stopped off to say goodbye to Ranna and filled up on cheap sushi at her place and ended up catching the wrong train to the airport. I seemed to have inherited my mom's late gene of attracting chaos and stress at moments that really don't need to be that stressful. Maybe it's the exhilaration of that adrenaline rush high of running to the catch the plane, train, bus.

We arrived at night in Cairns not knowing what we were in for. We found what looked like an English seaside town in a tropical setting. Think Blackpool crossed with Khosan road in Bangkok but Down Under. Thumping night clubs over flowing with drunken English people, some passed out by 9, police patrolling the place, tourist shops crowded with Japanese, Chinese girls pulling you in for a massage; it was hectic.

We arrived at our hostel which was no bigger than a prison cell and I swear I've stayed in better hooker motel rooms in African border towns. The only bathroom down stairs was usually covered in sick by the morning and we were woken in the middle of the night by drunken couples having a domestic. We planned our escape to get out of there but actually Cairns ended up growing on me. Once you look past all of the s*** on the surface, it's actually not that bad. We had a wonderful kangaroo dinner on the esplanade and spent far too much money on cocktails at the marina. We went on a boat trip out the Great Barrier Reef, the tropical zoo to see koalas and kangaroos and went on a fabulous tour of the Atherton Tableland region.

The latter had to be one of my favourite days of this year. We were picked up by our driver Billy with about 10 other backpackers and toured us round the rainforest for the day. He was the funniest and most interactive guide I've ever met. It was like we were on a show. He made up bacon and eggs for breakfast and took us swimming in a creek. We went rock sliding down on smooth mossy rock into a pool under a waterfall and showed us all the best trees to jump off of into Lake Etcham. The tour finished with him taking us down a windy narrow mountain road back to the coast and called everyone up to the centre on the bus and timed each person how long they could "bus surf" standing up in the bus isle round this twists and turns without falling over. One of us had a stopwatch and whoever lasted the longest as he sped up around the bends, he would buy a drink for winner. It was hilarious; we couldn't believe all the health and safety crap he was getting away with. He stopped off at the pub on the way home and bought a carton of goon and plastic cups, blasted the party music and drove us back into Cairns while still sipping wine from plastic cups. The mood was so high it was unbelievable how pumped up he got everyone, it was hilarious.

We went to a Mexican joint for burritos and met up with the group and Billy in a bar later that night. We had all been having a great time already and everyone acting like best friends. It was ridiculous. We started dancing and having a whale of a time. My new German friend Johan and I practiced some energetic gymnastics which ended up in strains and nearly dislocated shoulders. We all got up on the stage dancing to cheesy chart songs and just behaved like all the idiotic drunk people I had scathed at the first night. If you can't beat them join them. Although I really dislike seeing drunken English people staggering about the place I have to admit that I have probably been one of them in quite a few places in the world. I really should either stop scowling at drunken Brits or stop being one myself!

We started the mammoth drive down to Cairns with terrible hangovers and not much sleep. We had 10 hours of driving on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a long, hard, arduous trip but wouldn't have done it any other way. Although some people tried to sway us against the idea by telling us "you won't see anything" that was counteracted by my mom encouraging us saying "you'll see the whole of Australian countryside for 2000km". And we did. It was beautiful. Endless sky, land, fields, ocean and beautiful clouds that could compete for beauty with the clouds over African Savannah. It is so vast I feel like on this trip I have barely skimmed the surface of Australia.

We stayed in Arlie beach the first night and Agnes Water the second. We picked up a hitchhiker called Cohen on the way to Agnes Water and we couldn't have had better luck. He has to hitch to work 2 hours there and back every day and seemed to totally understand his role of a hitch hiker being the provider of entertainment on otherwise dull drives. It was sunset and he told us to drive straight to the headland at the town 1770 and watch the sunset at one of the only places in Queensland to watch the sunset over the water. It was so memorable running over the hill and just catching a glimpse of the sun setting with a small group of locals sitting on the rocks with the birds equipped with wineglasses and bottles of white.

We were to leave early the next day but we arrived at the beach to have a look and stayed for 2 hours sunbathing and swimming. It was a beautiful beach; about 2km and we were sharing it with only 10 other people. It was so hard to get back in the car again and keep going. We stopped at Bundaberg for lovely lunch in a little café. Bundaberg is the home of the famous Bundaberg rum which he bogens (Australia's red necks) seem to love. "Bundy n Coke" seems to have the same connotations as Klipdrift brandy, Klippies n Coke which is the drink that comes to mind when thinking of Afrikaans people in South Africa. Both having the description that there is "a fight in every bottle".

We stayed at Tom's house again in Brisbane. We stopped at Woolworths where Tom works and picked up some instant noodles for dinner and popped into see the brother Pete at his pizza place. But when we got home, starving and eager to eat our crappy instant noodles, the parents had cooked us a huge steak meal with mash potatoes. Oh it was so wonderful after eating petrol station food for 3 days! We had the best sleep in our own room and nice clean bathroom. It felt like a five star hotel.

The next day we walked around Brisbane to see the very few sites it has but it's still pretty. We had a fantastic Mexican lunch then met Tom in the dodgier area of the West End, walked through the botanical gardens and caught the City Cat while the sun was setting on the way home. It was a big family night as the eldest brother Dan was leaving for Bali the next day, so Sue made a big roast dinner for all of us, we couldn't have spent our last night together in Australia anywhere better. Soran and I knew that after this trip we wouldn't see each other for several months so instead of moping on our own we spent the last night drunk with the family having a great time which is just what we wanted. Good people, good vibes and good times.