Well sorry it has been a while with the update. We seemed to have been to busy to get to a computer. From Melbourne we headed back upto Sydney for just 1 night. We had a lazy day, and caught up on some sleep to prepare for the Gold Coast parties! Our 1st stop was Port Macquarie, which we loved as it was out of the city. It was nice to go somewhere away from it all. We arrived in the early afternoon, and went to a Koala Hospital that afternoon. Oh my god it was so cute. These poor Koalas had injures, like burns from bush fires,road accidents, and old age. It was so good, but it is only funded by donations, so me and Gem emptied our pockets for the loves! The next day we hired some bikes from our Hostel, and as you can see from the photo's we were looking pretty fine with out helmets on. We planned to cycle to the Rainforest which was 6km away. Now it may sound easy, but I can assure you it wasn't. Now there was loads of hills, and we were knakered just after 1 hill! WE nearly didn't carry on, but always determined we struggled on. We finally made it to the Rainforest. We walked through the board walks, and for a tour which was meant to take an hour, we wizzed round in 10 mins! WE then had to cycle all the waqy back again, Boooooooooo! By the end of the evening our bums were hurting from the sadle. Ouch! The next day we were back on the Greyhound bus to Byron Bay. This is such a hippie place, all the weed and tie die was mad! We arrived in the evening of the Engalnd game, so had a couple of drinks, headed over to the Cinema to watch it at 1am. Well if i am honest I tried my hardest, but I think the drink had taken over, and I couldn't keep myself awake! I had sobered up by the end so it was all good! We booked ourselves on to the Whale watching tour for the next day in the afternoon. Thankfully it was the afternoon, I wouldn't have like to think what we would hva ebeen like any earlier!!!! It was amazing, we saw so many hump back whales migrating north. They got so close, you could see the barnicales! They were breaching, and you could see them blowing water out of their blow holes. I don't know what was better though, as on the way back to shore after 3hrs whale watching we had the funniest ride back! Now we thought we may get a little wet from the spray, but it was like the movies, where someone just kept chucking water at you! Through all out laughing, we ended up with so much salt water in there! In the evening we watched a Talent show at out hostel Arts Factory. It was so good. There where people singing with their guitars, and one guy beep boxed which blew us away. We headed into Town after and ended up chatting to some local girls. It was fun, we went with them to watch the Oz game, but left as out bellies had taken over, and needed o get pizza. On our last day in Byron we had some time to kill so walked all the way to the Lighthouse. On the way we passed the most easterly point of Australia. It took us what seemed lie forever, but it was worth it as we managed to see some more whales from up there, and turtles. We then got the bus at 3pm to go to Surfers Paradise. We arrived in the early evening and out hostel Sleeping inn surfers is great, It is more like a house with 10 girls. Our 1st night out we all played drinking games, which Kate & Charlotte from Birminham taught us. We had such a giggle, and don't even ask about the googles! We went to a club and had such a giggle. Unfortunatly the next day were feeling less than spritly so headed to the beach for an hour, but it was a little windy. We had a quiet night in with a box of 'Goon' ( cheap boxed wine). This morning we were up early to catch the surf! All dressed up in our wet suites our instructor showed us the basics on the sand 1st, and then it was time to head into the water. I was pants and only stood up twice, but Gem and Kate were really good. For the halarious pic of that log onto Gem site www.statraveljournals.com/gemma21 Hope everyone is ok, and enjoying all you summer weather. Love to all Mel x