G'day all you cold and wet POMEs! Greetings from the Gold Coast, sunny Australia.

Since our last update, as you may recall we were in the wetlands of Cairns, we have picked up a new van and travelled South in search of sunshine!

We had a bit of a nightmare picking up our van. Had a phone call on the morning of pick up saying that they were waiting for parts from Toyota so that they could fix it! Not a good start eh. Instead they gave us a real heap of s*** for a few days until ours was fixed. Not very happy but took it for a spin anyway, and within an hour took it back as the gears were stuck and the whole thing stank (Loz accused James but he assured me it was the clutch!) Had a bit of a row and trudged back to the motel to check-in again for another night. We were promised our van by the next morning or else we'd be getting a refund. Next morning we picked up our 'upgraded' van and left dreary Cairns behind us. It's not as luxurious as Alf but for what it cost us it'll do the job, thats why we named it Lou Carpenter - a bit haggered but will keep on going for years!

We headed to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands for our first stop. We booked a day on a boat around the islands and with a bit of snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. Our search for sunshine seemed to be doomed though as we were awoken on the morning of our trip by rain tapping on the roof! After boarding the boat with quite a few yips, typical James thought "at least it won't be a repeat of Pearl Harbour with these onboard!", luckily enough none of them spoke any English! Mind you they did manage to ask if there was an interpretor onboard, our typical Aussie skipper replied "Nah mate, you're on the wrong trip, you're gonna have fun today!" So they all sat downstairs in their kagools and umbrellas keeping their cameras dry! We sat up top with the skipper in the spray so we could see as many of the 74 islands that Captain Cook discovered as possible. He even got one named after him for his achievements. After an hour an a half of choppy sea (James was soaked!) we arrived at a little bay where we climbed up through muddy rainforest to a lookout for a spectacular view of the islands. Just like the postcards show, but not quite so sunny unfortunately. Just as we were being transferred to the bay in the dinghy we heard some familiar voices shouting at us - 2 lap Kenny and Co. from the Ayers Rock tour! What a small world eh! Back on the boat for another hour riding the waves, looked like we were in the middle of the English Channel with the waves and weather as it was! Arrived at Whitehaven Beach for lunch - picture crystal clear water, powdery white sand and dark green forest, probably the best beach we'll ever see! To James' delight we had a huge BBQ and an esky full of beer. He was even more thrilled when the yips left loads of food (there were no noodles for them to enjoy and all the meat was cooked!) so once James cleared up he waddled back down to the beach for a well-deserved rest! It looked like a whale had beach itself on the sand! His latest weigh-in is a whopping 104.3kgs and he seems to be growing outwards by the day! He'll need two seats on our next flight! Anyway, back on the boat for a choppy ride to our snorkelling area on the barrier reef. Had a couple of hours looking at the reef and the many tropical fish, still haven't a clue what they all are (no, i didn't find Nemo!) and luckily for them James was full up (but the yips were thinking ah! Sushi). Really good but pretty similar to the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia. Great day, shame the weather wasn't a bit kinder but you can't have it all!

Spent the next week on the Sunshine Coast, 100kms North of Brisbane. Crikey Loz, this is the home of Australia Zoo! Had a couple of days on the beach topping our tans up as at last we'd caught up with the sun! We're the brownest we've ever been, people keep mistaking us for Germans or Swedes (think its James golden locks!). We had to pay tribute to the great croc hunter, Steve Irwin, what a fantastic zoo him and his family have set up. Even managed a glimpse of Terri as she wandered around the park. Saw the croc show, lots of snakes, tiger show, fed the elephants, patted a koala and stroked a baby alligator, snap! Probably the best zoo we've ever been to, really well done and expanding to three times the size over the next five years. Great day out! As a tribute, the Government have even changed the road name to Steve Irwin Way, CRIKEY!

We arrived at the Gold Coast on Saturday after bypassing Brisbane, just another city so we thought we'd skip it as we couldn't wait to hit the neon lights and skyscrapers, not to mention the theme parks here at the Gold Coast! We've bought a pass to the theme parks Wet n Wild, DreamWorld, MovieWorld and SeaWorld and we get unlimited access for two weeks, we've only had it two days and we've been twice already! We plan to go back to Wet n Wild a few times, great fun! Big kids huh! It's a bit like a concrete jungle here but we love it, it's good to be back amongst holidaymakers doing touristy things. James reckons its like LA and i agree its very American. Gonna stay here for about a fortnight, think it'll be a good place to celebrate Paddies day seeing as weren't in the liveliest of places for Christmas, New Year or Aussie Day!

Then we plan to head down towards New South Wales but haven't thought about that much yet as we're having too much fun here!

We're starting to think about New Zealand though so Kiwi, Zooma and anyone else that can give us any suggestions, get your fingers tapping!

Anyway, time for dinner so lots of love to you all, take care.

The Travellers xxx