We eventually dragged ourselves away from the easy life with Lyn and Lyle and continued our journey up the coast our first stop was in Airlie Beach where we went sailing on a 80 foot bright purple catamarran and as has become the tradition with us it rained! However it was grat fun and all the food and drink was included! On the way up we stopped at mission beach whick is supposedly beautiful, but due to thew rain and wind we didn't stop for long! Our next st...

From Noosa Heads we decided to go to the Australian Zoo (the one that used to contain Steve Irwin and his crocs). Unfortunately Steve had died a few weeks ago swimming with the sting ray (Crikey- someone should have mentioned that they were scary before we swam with them, everyday for about two months in the south pacific, we must have swam with the friendly ones- eh?!!!!). The zoo was fantastic. We managed to stroke koala and wallabies, feed elephants and watch ...

We collect the car late in the afternoon and after driving around in circles for a couple of hours (I’m sure I recognise that airport) we finally get on tract and make our way to Newcastle. Newcastle was a nice beachy peninsula, but really just a much needed rest stop for our journey up to Coffs harbour.We felt brave in Coffs harbour and got out our tent. I told Ben that I wouldn’t camp if we didn’t keep the tent closed at all times though just ...

We have arrived in Sydney, Australia and the first thing I do is make sure there are no spiders or snakes anywhere near me. That is, I checked every chair and table that I sat on or near and wouldn’t go to sleep until checking that there are no snakes under the bed. Luckily this lasted just a couple of days on realisation that I hadn’t seen anything remotely threatening (phew).We went for a guided walk around Sydney and all was going well, that was un...

Invercargil to Bay of Islands Ok did I say Invercargil was the most southernly point on our trip around the south Island and therefore absolutley freezing! Well, the next stop was in Dunedin and again, absolutely freezing. The trip there was amazing though, as we got to see two yellow eyed penguins in the wild (there are only 3000 of these in the world!). We stopped in Dunedin for a few days, feeling it nessecary to visit both the chocolate factory and th...