After Lucy's birthday in Byron Bay, it was time to move on again.

We got our stuff sorted out and had a quick breakfast before hitting the road, heading west back to the Pacific Highway before turning north and carrying on up the main road.

We didn't really stop until we crossed the state border and entered Queensland, and even then we weren't keen to stop as we entered a world of flashy highrises bordering the long golden beaches as we cruised up the Gold Coast on the Gold Coast Highway.

We did make a stop for a few minutes in Surfers Paradise, the hub of the Gold Coast, but it lived up to our expectations which is to say it was a rather soulless feeling place with the aforementioned highrises stretching along the beach and not much going on.

From Surfers Paradise we continued on the Gold Coast Highway which then transformed into the M1 motorway. This was another rather nondescript major road which we followed north, past Brisbane which we'd decided not to bother visiting, and onwards, becoming the Bruce Highway which would carry us north for many many miles.

However, we turned off the main road a bit north of Brisbane, to head up the Steve Irwin Way which took us through some attractive woodland with views off to our left of the Glass House Mountains, some incredible looking peaks of volcanic rock in the distance.

However, we soon reached our main reason for taking the Steve Irwin Way: Australia Zoo. We hadn't been sure when we set off in the morning if we'd have time to or want to stop at this zoo, the legacy of Steve Irwin, the 'Crocodile Hunter' but as soon as we saw the 10x life size billboards of the late khaki-wearing conservationist exclaming 'Crikey!' and wrestling a crocodile, we knew we had to stop.

We arrived at the zoo just before lunchtime, got parked and got our tickets before making our way in. Just inside the entrance we passed displays with Komodo Dragons and huge Australian lizards, but our path was taking us to the food court. We couldn't help stopping however at one of the numerous Koala enclosures to get our first glimpse of the fluffy grey critters. We watched them crawling around on branches munching on eucalyptus leaves and snoozing in the trees before heading to the food court for some grub.

After lunch there was a scheduled talk back at the Koala enclosure so we headed down there for an informative presentation about the cute not-bears which finished up with us getting to pat one of them on its furry grey bottom.

After our koala encounter we wandered through some other areas of the zoo, including a huge paddock full of timid and sleepy kangaroos who were all sprawled in the sun or eating food (available from vending machines) from the hands of zoo patrons. We patted some of the kangaroos and got funny photos of them lounging around before making our way back for the afternoon crocodile feeding near the food court.

Here, we watched one of the massive saltwater crocodiles being fed. It was amazing to see a crocodile in the flesh and more amazing to see it leaping up and snapping to get at its food as the keeper fed it from the side of its pond and from above it.

After the croc feeding we spent another couple of hours walking around the other zoo exhibits. We saw loads of fantastic animals, most being native Australian animals, including dingos, wolverines, wombats, otters, loads of poisonous snakes, tons of birds (including the huge dinosaur-like cassowaries and emus), lots more kangaroos and koalas. We also saw some elephants and tigers in the South East Asia section, but our favourites were definitely the cute and cuddly koalas.

After spending most of the afternoon in the zoo it was time to move on, so we exited through the gift shop and got back on the road, following the Steve Irwin Way until it rejoined the Bruce Highway.

We followed the Bruce Highway north for a bit before turning east again out towards the coast, now called the Sunshine Coast. We drove up the smaller roads along the coast passing loads of amazing beaches and through small towns until we arrived in Peregian Beach, a small town south of Noosa.

Having been in touch with an old schoolmate, Ian Spence, we had arranged to meet up with him and stay at his place in Peregian Beach. We found our way to his and after a short wait for him to get home from work, got our stuff dropped off in his smart apartment. Ian had to nip out to coach a local ladies' football team so we arranged to meet at the local pub later. Lucy and I made our way to the pub and took advantage of a cheap pasta offer they had on, and passed the time listening in to a pub quiz and trying to play along in the bar until Ian arrived.

We all had a few beers and caught up before heading back to Ian's and watching some of the Tour de France coverage on the TV, discussing plans to cycle the length of Ireland the following year, before crashing out for the night.

The next day Ian had to work but gave us some tips of what to do in the area. We had a bite of breakfast before driving the few kilometres up to Noosa, the main town in the area.

A fairly well-to-do area, Noosa was much nicer than the overblown Gold Coast with its highrises with everything low-key and quite pretty even where commercialised.

We parked up the van in Noosa Heads and walked out onto yet another long, golden beach to have a look, before taking a fantastic track winding along the coast from the beach into Noosa National Park. The path took us through the bush behind the beaches and atop cliffs right out to a headland a few kilomtres away where the waves crashed against the rocks. With great views across the bay around Noosa and of the coastline to the south, we spent some time chilling out at the headland after our walk in the hot sunshine, before making our way back, stopping for a paddle at one of the beaches.

Once back in town, we went to a food court in a mall for a cheap bit of lunch, then re-parked the car and went back to the beach. On our way we stopped at an ice cream place called Massimo where we got the best ice cream I have ever had. Lucy had some passion fruit sorbet full of real passionfruit whilst I had a scoop of tiramisu flavour and a scoop of macadmia flavour ice cream, all of which were incredible. We took this out to the beach and sat enjoying the sunshine into the late afternoon.

We then drove back to Peregian Beach and decided to have a look at the beach there before meeting Ian back at his. We drove through the small but cute town centre and parked near the beach, then walked down a short path onto the beach. Not to break with tradition, this beach was also amazing, a wide strip of sand running straight up and down the coast for miles and miles in both directions.

Lucy resumed the neverending cowrie search while I strolled along the beach, enjoying the colours of the sunset as the sky turned incredible shades of purple and pink with the evening light.

Eventually we had to leave the beach (cowrie-less) and drove the short distance back to Ian's, pulling in at pretty much the exact same time as him.

Ian had picked up some sausages and chicken skewers from the butcher and barbecued these for us as well as making an awesome salad. We had brought a bottle of wine from town so we sat down and enjoyed the feast, then chatted for a while before all turning in for a pretty early night.

The next morning we decided to continue north. We got up early and drove with Ian to a local bakery and cafe which we'd heard was great, to try and get some breakfast. Unfortunately, it wasn't open that early so we drove down to the next town where Ian worked and had breakfast at a cafe near his work, which was pretty excellent.

After breakfast we thanked Ian for his hospitality and said cheerio as he headed off to work, before making our way back up the road. As it was still early, we decided to stop again at Peregian Beach for another walk and a look for cowries.

Even though it was early, the sun was up and it was a beautiful morning so we had a nice walk on the sand, this time finally finding some cowries! After the beach the cafe we'd planned to go to earlier was open so we stopped off for their famous iced coffee which was fantastic. It consisted of a glass filled with ice and a scoop of ice cream, over which we poured a hot shot of espresso, mixing it all together to create pure deliciousness.

We picked up some cake for the journey ahead and then set off. Our journey for the day wasn't a particularly long one but we'd had a route recommended to us by Ian, which we took. It took us along less major roads through smaller towns and more back-country areas as we headed generally north, before swinging a bit east and heading back out towards the coast along a fast, smooth road.

This road ended at Rainbow Beach, a small township atop sandy cliffs above yet another fantastic beach, and a gateway to Fraser Island, which we hoped to visit.

We originally planned to continue north from Rainbow Beach to Hervey Bay, another point of departure for Fraser Island, but after finding out the Fraser Island tours were cheaper from Rainbow Beach we decided to stay there that night and try to book a tour to Fraser Island the following morning.

We went into a travel agent in town to get an idea of accommodation, but somehow managed to stay in there for the best part of an hour and booked the next week or so of our trip without having any intention of doing so.

Once in the shop it had been too easy to get everything booked in one place and all our dates sorted for the next while. One of the things I wanted to do was to get another surf lesson and, with the only option being to have one right there and then, I left Lucy in the shop to finish up paying for our tours and so forth, and headed to the surf shop.

With just me getting a lesson, I headed with the surf instructor down onto the beach via the sand road in his Land Cruiser. We made our way up the sand and found some breaks before getting on with the lesson.

Unfortunately the conditions weren't great and the waves at the beach had a tendency to dump onto the sand which wasn't great for a beginner like me, but I still made a few decent attempts to catch some waves. However, my energy was soon sapped swimming out against the current and the frequent sets of bigger waves which would come in and pound us.

It was still fun to get out surfing but wasn't nearly as fun as my time in Byron. After the lesson it was just about getting dark so I got dropped off at the backpackers where we'd arranged to stay for the night, but couldn't find Lucy anywhere.

I dumped my wet gear at the van which Lucy had parked up in the garden/campsite area of the backpackers and wandered back into town, eventually finding her near the beach. We both went back to the travel agents as we needed to confirm our places on a tour the following morning, and at the same time managed to get some cheap pizzas through the girls at the travel agents, which we waited for whilst catching up on emails etc in the travel shop.

With our pizzas in hand we headed back to Pippies, the backpackers where we were staying, and sat outside with a beer to enjoy our dinner. After dinner a campfire was lit in the garden and we spent most of the evening there, chatting to fellow travellers and watching the flames before heading to bed, knowing we had an early start the following morning on our trip to Fraser Island.