Hola!

Well....we seem to have done a fair bit since the last update so this may turn into a bit of an essay!

After Ayr I eventually managed to get rid of the mango rash luckily and we headed down to Byron Bay for Christmas and New Year with a group of friends. It was a pretty crazy couple of weeks, as you will see from the pictures, and we were definately ready for a detox at the end of it but I think it is safe to say we all had a good time. On Christmas day we all sat around in our santa hats and had some drinks and a BBQ which was good. Have to say though, it really didn't feel like Christmas. New Years Eve was spent at a big party on the beach where they had fire throwers etc....we were definately glad we went for that option rather than Sydney and a good night was had by all.

We decided, after saying a tearful goodbye to the guys we had been with for the last 2 months, we would head up the coast. The first stop was Surfers paradise which was nice, although it would have been better if we had good weather. We didn't know at this stage but bad weather became a common theme to the trip! After Surfers was Noosa which is a really nice little town with a really nice beach. I spent the days sun bathing while Adam went body boarding.....I did give it a bit of a go but was absolutely rubbish at it as I am sure Adam will tell you all. Oh yeh, and we also did a trip to Steve Irwin's zoo from Noosa which was really cool. I even got to cuddle a koala bear which I have been dying to do.

After Noosa it was time for our Fraser Island adventure. For those of you that don't know apparently Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. So we met the other 9 people who were doing the trip with us, got equiped with a 4X4, food, alcohol and set off onto the island. We had a really good couple of days driving along the beach and seeing the sights. We didn't manage to see any sharks though.....apparently there are loads of them in the sea around there so it is really dangerous to go in. The driving was a bit scarey at points though.....especially when Anna drove straight over a big drop, the cars are top heavy as it is so we nearly tipped over, not quite though. After 3 fun days and 2 nights of sleeping in very uncomfortable tents we were all ready for proper beds again so we all headed back to Hervey Bay for the night.

Next stop was Airlie Beach to do the whitsundays. We got the news as we headed up there that there was a big cyclone coming our way which was a bit worrying. The tour companies, who are all just out to make as much money as possible, send us off on this boat anyway. Basically to cut a long story short we saw absolutely nothing of the Whitsundays....not even Whitehaven beach which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world :( At one point the waves were actually bigger than the boat!

After the whitsundays disaster it was upto Cairns which we both really liked. We had an amazing day snorkling and scuba diving in the great barrier reef which was so cool. Saw so many colourful fish, giant clams and gorgeous reef....definately the highlight of our east coast trip. So that was the east coast pretty much over. After that we got our flight down to Melbourne and are staying with some friends for a few days before we move into a hostel next week. The job hunting has now officially started again, but I have to say it is not going too well so far. We are just going to have to keep our fingers crossed and hope something comes up. We are going to the Australian open tomorrow which should be fun and then there will be some celebrations for Australia day on Monday.

Hope everyone is ok back home. We will make sure we keep you all updated with the rest of our travels.

Lots of Love,

Lauren and Adam

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