Howdy hey! How are you all? I've heard there have been gales and storms over in the UK, we've had to deal with sun and no clouds - it is tough!

So after Surfers Paradise we wizzed up to Brisbane, another big city, really enjoying the smaller quieter places, they have much more personality. Managed to get some culture in Brisbane though and Fran, Hannah and I went to watch the Crucible. Really great, and saw the city at night. Hostel wasn't that great though, really horrible kitchen so we ended up eating out all the time (no so good!).

After Brisbane we rocked on up to Noosa, an incredible town by the beach, reminded me of Byron Bay. We went to the Australian Zoo from Noosa, there is a free bus shuttle from there (yes!) It was childrens week and another charity day at the zoo so we were lucky enough to see Steve Irwins family make speeches and talk to everyone, not something everyone gets to do! Chilled out with the kangeroos for a while, and cuddled some Koalas, really great day out! Managed to find a cereal box in the supermarket with 2for1 voucher too, only cost us 12pounds to get in! Happy days. Went to Noosa national park as well, really great, didn't see any Koalas though, apparently there are loads.

We're at Rainbow beach now, after and incredible few days over at Fraser Island. 10 of us rented a 4x4 and drove around the island. This place is what I call paradise. Perfect beaches, perfect sand, we even saw turtles swimming around one of the points. Great group of people, from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, England and another token Welsh person! The danish guy was also a musician, so we got on well! We slept under the stars too on the second night at Fraser, surrounded by snakes, spiders, and kangerwallaoalas but we survived! And hey, who else has slept out in the bush?! We did managed to get the van stuck a number of times, very easy to get stuck with ten people and lots of beer weighing us down! Swimming in the fresh water lakes, and strolling around on the sands made up for it all though.

Tomorrow I am off to visit my nan's sister and her family Fri-Mon in Maryborough, and have a break from the hostels! Then back to Rainbow and meet up again with Robb and Ryan, and keep on going up!

Chilled day at Rainbow today though, walked up the sandblow this morning, there are 72 different colours of sand up in Rainbow, it looks amazing. 300 cars a year do get washed away by the sea though. Amazing, but slightly scary place!

Keep the updates coming from home, the text messages are getting slightly random now! Glad to hear Anne's wedding went well, and you are all studying hard! Almost a month into the trip now, time flies.

Speak to you soon! Happy haloween/bonfire night to all!

The (not so) tanned brit x