Hello all!!!

We've had an amazing time travelling the East Coast of Australia in our campervan for the past 3 weeks. The trip started out with bad weather for the first few days which was a shame, but the the storms made for some great waves in the sea so we got to see some really cool surfing. The bad weather continued from Port Stephens to Port Maquarie and Coffs Harbour.

Luckily when we got to Byron Bay (in time for sunset) the rain clouds had cleared! We had lovely walks on the beach for the next few days, including the brilliant walk to the lighthouse. Unfortunately, one of our walks started out great and then the heavens opened and we got soaked on the walk back to the van! We had a great time relaxing in Byron which has a real chilled out traveller vibe and is full of other campervans.

Our next stop was the Sunshine Coast which was great. We stopped at loads of beaches, Miami beach, Mermaid beach and Surfers Paradise to name a few. This place is really built up, full of high rise buildings compared to most of Australia. A great place for Fish and chips on the beach and a night out.

Noosa, which is further north up the coast was probably my favorite mainland beach. It was so beautiful and we had perfect weather whilst we were there. There's a real 'holiday' vibe here. James managed to get some fishing in. Our drive up the coast also took us to the Glass House Mountains (names by Captain Cook) - great scenery to have breakfast by!

Our next stop was Rainbow beach, so called beacuse there is 72 shades of sand, we had a great walk across the sand dunes for a good view of the beach.

Then came probably our favorite part of the East Coast (if we can pick one!) - The Whitsunday Islands.. heaven! Arlie Beach is where you catch the boat to the island which is lovely and had the best Fish and chips I've had in Oz! The sea was so blue and calm which was really inviting but you can't get in without stinger suits! (Box jellyfish!) Luckily they have a giant pool for everyone to swim in. We booked an ocean rafting day trip around the islands which took us to Whitehaven Beach (so beautiful) and we did some snorkling around Hook Island (with stinger suits on). Brilliant fish spotting! We saw a fish half the size of me! The ocean rafting was such good fun - we were crashing over the waves at an amzing speed, it was like been on a roller coaster! I couldn't stop screamin/laughing!!

We also went to a zoo to see the Crocs, Wombats, snakes, dingos etc. which we hadn't seen in the wild yet! The crocs were huge and really scary! My favorite was the Wombat (imagine a giant Guinee Pig!!) We even got to hold a snake and baby crocodile!

Last stop was the Tropical Rainforest (Cape Tribulation) - 'where the rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef'. We had a great time camping in the rain forest and going on walks. We went crocodile hunting (didn't see any!) and then on one walk we saw a giant spider!! Eeek - it was as big as James's head and made me cry!! We also saw a 'Cassowary' - described as being like an Emu with Make up on! It was amazing to see it just walking through the forest! They say you're lucky if you see one!

Sadly came the time when we had to drop the campervan off in Cairns. We spent our last night in Australia with some friends we had met on the road, a perfect ending to a great time in Oz.

Next Desination... New Zealand....

Until next time, Love you lots

Paula and James x x