On what was supposed to be our last night in Airlie, the guys from Cairns we'd bumped into earlier, persuaded us to have a few drinks with them before we left. So first we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and using our girly magic managed to swindle free drinks from the barman and 2 sombreros from the manager! Which we wore for the rest of the night. We met up with the others and moved onto a few bars, by this point in was pouring down with rain and continued to do so for days. Sadly (for Nikki) the karaoke bar Leanna was going to sing in closed just as we arrived, but she's still just as determined to get Leanna behind a mic in the coming weeks! We didn't get home until half 4 in the morning (soaking wet), giving us an hour and half sleep before catching our bus to Cattle Station. On our way back to our room, we were stopped in our tracks when a massive snake slid out from the bushes, crossed the path and snuck under the fence! Needless to say we didn't move again for a few minutes! Our plan was to catch up on a few Z's along the way, but when we arrived at a service station just before Mackay, the roads up ahead were closed and the city was totally underwater. We had to turn back to Airlie and wait out the floods.

The next morning we gather around for an update from Oz Experience on the state of the roads and whether or not we would actually be leaving anytime soon... The answer was no of course, and with everyone panicking and stressing about missed flights etc, we managed to book ourselves onto the Premier bus which apparently was going to attempt driving through Mackay in the night when the tide was out. This didn't happen however and we ended staying yet another night. The driver told us the roads would be closed for at least 2 days, possibly 5! Preparing for the worst we booked ourselves into a nearby hostel for 2 nights, the whole town was completely fully booked! Boats were being recalled, airports were closed, cyclones were on their way and we were trapped in our room! To make matters worse we had been too trusting of our fellow travellers and as a result both of our rain jackets were stolen when they were hanging out to dry and our umbrellas were broken! The following day, thinking we were wasting our time, we headed down to the bus stop anyway in hope that the bus would miraculously turn up and attempt the dangerous drive straight down to Brisbane. Lady luck must've been on our side as it actually did turn up and we were soon on our merry way! During the 19 hour drive it turned from cloudy and stormy to sunny and clear, reassuring us the added expense we incurred to escape Airlie Beach had been worth it. Six hours into the journey it became Leanna's birthday and Nikki had decorated Leanna's seat with birthday banners and surprised her with card and pressies. It certainly made the rest of the bus ride more enjoyable!

We didn't manage to get ourselves the backpacker apartments in Brisbane we had hoped for, but checked into a cosy hostel instead. We headed straight out to begin the birthday celebrations and ordered some sparkling wine in the quaint Italian restaurant we had chosen for dinner. With the bubbles successfully gone to our heads, we quickly changed our outfits, had a few drinks and hit the town. Leanna decorated in a Birthday Girl badge, tiara and new earrings Nikki had bought her. We ended up in Down Under bar, as that seemed the only 'happening' place on a Monday night. We spent the evening dancing to some good tunes and chatting to the locals and other backpackers. Michael and Dan, 2 Aussie guys supplied us with drinks throughout the night and neither of us spent a penny. Sadly we didn't win the dance competition we entered to earn a hundred bucks but we had a boogie with a sweet Rik Waller lookalike, who could seriously chuck out some moves! We added to our long list of things to do in Sydney when we met some guys, Riley and co, who had boats there and offered to take us sailing. On the way back Leanna made some very drunken (and very costly) phone calls home!! But it was certainly a birthday the remember!

Feeling rough the next day we planned to explore the city and take it easy, in fact this was actually quite physically challenging and tiring but we managed to cover every area of Brisbane and had some pleasant walks through parks and gardens, along piers, through Southbank (man made beach), and over Story Bridge (3rd largest bridge climb in the world), which we didn't climb as we have Sydney Harbour bridge to look forward to instead. It has to be said that there are a hell of a lot of giant spiders in Brisbane!!