Who knew backpacking meant having to lug your rucksack around for 4 hours getting from Brisbane to Coolangatta via the train, wrong bus (full of teenage surfers!), lots of walking around Surfers Paradise only to be told it's the wrong place, and another bus ride?! I did not! Eventually made it to my hostel, impressive considering their address was down as in Surfers Paradise, but they were actually 20km down the road in Coolanagatta! Still, made it in one piece ...

Finally made it to the East Coast! Even though the airlines did try and scare me by delaying the plane due to 'engineering difficulties': yikes! Arrived in dark Brisbane after sitting in awe on the flight for 4 hours as I watched nothing but Australian outback fly past my window. 4 hours and that's all I saw! Crazy! Got my airport transfer to the hostel, after 2 men asked me if I my name was Philip - no, I assured them, I'm pretty sure I'm a girl! One cheeky begg...