We should have took a short early morning bus journey to Noosa, but it was delayed for 2 hours! Although I did manage to find a bargain dress buy in the meantime, $12!

Noosa is a nice little town and one of the first stops for surfing if your heading South. We met up with some people from the Fraser tour, including the Germans and the two English girls, Gugs and Kat. It is amazing how many times you meet the same people. And there was me thinking Oz is a big country!

We headed out on the first night. I ended up partying all night with the Germans in a club on the front, near the main beach. Quite a stylish club, and I had flip flops on, or as they call them - thongs! James headed to bed earlier with the other guys. A great night!

We were up in the morning for the Steve Irwin Zoo. I was very very tired and walked around like a zombie all day - well 3 hours kip will do that! James went around the zoo with an Irishman and Englishman, and I went around with the two girls. It rained all day, so I was happy to hide away behind the lovely green poncho. The park was a lot smaller than I thought. We saw a croc show.. The bloke was no Steve Irwin, he was petrified when it slithered over and snatched the meat from him. They threw in some birds into the show too (obviously before the croc appearance!). We fed the elephants and kangaroos, and patted a koala. The koala looked like it was going to fall from the branch if you patted too hard.. It was funny watching them arouse after a sleep.. having a good old scratch! The kangaroos at the park are not timid at all.. They bounce over, and held onto your hand with it's two hands and happily ate away. We saw little joey's peeking their heads out too! James missed the tiger show which was pretty cool! The keepers were simply playing with them using various soft toys on the end of a plastic rod... We were sat in front of a huge window with a pool of water the other side and an island in the middle. The tigers launched themselves to the front of the tank to catch the toy. At one point two sister tigers jumped in tandem from the island into the pool to retrieve the toy. The second time this was going to happen.. both sisters ran over to the island, both were about to jump, but then looked at each other as if to say who's going to get it because I am not jumping with you again.. it was really funny seeing them look at each other and decide. The keepers had them climbing up the trees, and in the water holding onto the toy happily being dragged along by the keeper. James had his picture taken with a huge snake. He even bought a toy snake and hid it under my pillow hoping to scare me.. he failed miserably! He also saw a newbie keeper feeding an alligator.. he looked terrified and kept stumbling because he was that nervous.. Oo that could have been disastrous!

We went in a twin sea kayak the next day with two other guys in another twin kayak.. we were so out of sync and kept drifting all other the place.. I was at the front, and James was saying I was out of rhythm, but my argument was that I couldn't see so it was his responsibility to ensure he was in rhythm with me.. but he was having none of it. Apparently I was weaker on my left side.. Sorry teacher! Anyhow he decided to count 1,2 except he couldn't even time that! So I did it instead.. All you heard going around the river was '1,2,1,2!' Talk about Dumb and Dumber! After wading around the river passed all the beautiful million dollar pads with private jetties and boats, we came into the estuary, where the river meets the sea. Due to it being open, the current and the wind was strong.. We managed to get to a sand bank because the wind was behind us, helping us along. Getting back was more of an issue, and our lack of paddling skills did not help..so we focussed on the task ahead.. Within seconds the kayak was facing completely the other way, so we got back out of the kayak, turned it around and had a second attempt.. we were doing well.. all of a sudden Adam, the fellow Yorkshireman in the other kayak, thought it would be great fun to ram his kayak over the front of ours.. we capsized.. and much to James' annoyance because he had already told Adam to stay clear because he had his camera (I did warn James that it was risky to take his camera). So James fumbled to get his camera out of his pocket and above his head, aswell as retrieving the life jackets (which were put to good use as bum cushioning) and I grabbed the awes. I then was struggling to tread water with two awes and James' camera whilst he swam back to the sand bank with the jackets and kayak.. What a nightmare! So we had a third attempt.. this time we meant business... '1,2,1,2.. right only.. and now left.. left, right..' We did it! back in one piece with no equipment missing.. just a broken camera! We certainly won't be doing that again. Luckily we had managed to save the memory card with all the pics but the camera is knackered!

That evening we went for a free BBQ to an Irish pub. Adam kindly told us that he has been told that the estuary is full of bull sharks.. So we could have died! Great! Thanks Adam for capsizing us and then telling us that! Oh and James won a day trip for somewhere in Noosa at the pub.. but it was no good.. we were leaving the next morning and his lack of selling skills meant he didn't sell it either!