So we regretably had to move on from Pippie's in the beautiful Rainbow Beach and next stop on our Southward journey was Noosa, one of Australia's most popular tourist attractions with prices to match. We checked into the Halse Lodge, a colonial building that has been converted into a backpackers, before heading out into town. We wandered around the boutiques on the main drag, before retracing our steps and heading up into the Noosa National forest, choosing the coastal walk and being rewarded with another wild Koala... not much marine life though. On our way back Mel insisted we settle by some rock pools to watch a wedding on the beach, and then we picked up some fish from the local market for tea. After complimentary drinks in the hostel bar and some mingling with fellow travelers, Stu set out to make use of the 2-4-1 vouchers we had for a local ice creamery, unfortunately a lot of it had melted by the time he got Mel's back to her!

Our brief stop in Noosa over we headed to Caloundra to meet Mels and Chris, and later Sarah who is to look after us for the next few days. Had a lovely lunch at Mels and went on the beach for some watersports - which entailed Stu falling off a Surf Ski a lot!

We met Josh and a couple of Sarah's friends joined us for a trip to Maroochydore Lifesaving Club for dinner - mainly on the urging of Stu who remembered Maroochydore from the world championships a couple of years ago. Good food and incredibly good value as well in beautiful building - they have too much money!

Back at home, it was the finale of Australian Idol, bizarelly won by an Irishman!

Today was the long awaited trip to Australia Zoo, and along with lots of Steve Irwin tributes we saw Giant Tortoises (which Mel fell in love with), Mel fed an elephant, we all fed kangeroos and wallabys, saw lots of venemous snakes, big pythons and lethargic crocs as well as a very cool tiger demonstation, and otter feeding (which the girls thought was very cute). No trip would be complete without a trip to the crocisseum to see some croc acrobatics and a bird show. All in an excellent day and on our return we walked the dog to the beach where it decided to be a st bernard and rescue us from te water whenever we got 'too deep'. Unfortunately it decided this to be knee depth!

We had pizzas for tea!

Lots of love from the country that has so much beach they dedicate some purely for dog walking.

Stu and Mel x