Arrived in a very wet and cold Brisbane on Saturday the 2nd April. Quickly checked into ou hotel and then decided the only thing to do would beto go to the cinema...there is nothing to do around here if the weather isnt good and it was due to stay that way for the next week, which meant we would have awful weather in byron and surfers paradise as well. Not good!

We checked out the mall and went to see the new Julie Roberts and Clive Owen film, then we went for some food and bac to the hostel for a couple of drinks!

Our dorm room is disguisting. there is me and gem, a guy from northwich who is nice, then a German guy who is always staring at Gemma, and older guy who sleeps above me and has the worst snoring in the world and a chinese girl who leaves the room at 8am and doesnt come back till 6. Its also a tiny room and has no ventelation. It is on the same floor as all the showers which create a ridiculous amount of steam and just make it impossible to do anything without getting a sweat on! The hostel isnt very nice either. You have to pay for your crockery, meaning if you lose it you have to pay, so everyone keeps it in their room incase it is stolen. The kitchen is dirty and under equipped. only about 3 of the hobs work and there are not enough pans etc to go round, and then once you have made you tea there is nowhere to eat it apart from standing up in the kitchen or the tv room.

The next day the weather was still awful so we decided to go and book all our tours for when helen arrives, including whitsunday islands and fraser island! This ending up taking all day but we have got it sorted and got a good deal. si and ste have decided not to do the trips at the moment as funds are low so its just the girls. me helen and gem are doing them all and danni (another friend from uni who has been in australia since christmas) is doing the Whitsunday islands with us as she has just got a job supervising fruit picking.

We went out on Friday night but the weather was awful so we stuk to 2 bars. was a good night though.

On sunday we visited Australia Zoo which is owned by Steve Irwin's family. Our bus driver is actually one of Steve's friends and used to work at the zoo so he gave us a lot of nice stories and background on the trip there and back. The zoo is absolutely amazing. You can touch most of the animals and we went to a really good but scary crocodile show. Me and Gem both wanted to cuddle a Koala, so we queued up and had our picture taken with Millie. She was the cutest thing ever and i want one now. We also went into the Kangaroo pen and fed and cuddled the roos, and you get to walk in with all the birs and more Koalas. It was just a fantatstic day! On the way home, Chris the driver took us to a fruit and veg shop which sold the nicest pineapple, so we stocked up on veg for dinner that night. Coincidentally 2 of our friends from Ko Tao who were dive masters during our course are now living in Brisbane so on Sunday night we met them for a couple of drinks. One thing led to another and it resulted in a very hungover Gemma and Sarah getting up at 8am to get a 9am bus to Byron Bay.