Continuing down the east coast we plan our trip to Fraser Island via Hervey Bay. Instead of driving on Fraser ourselves, we decide to go on a fully guided and fully inclusive 3 day/2 night tour. This costs us about £300 in total but we save £150 from our budget because we don't need to spend anything!

Hervey Bay has the pleasure of our company for 1 night and the hostel served up a delicious all you can eat Mexican buffet for under $10 of which we took full advantage, of course!!

Heading over to Fraser Island first thing in the morning we meet our group and crazy driver/guide and our tour promptly starts. First stop is the peaceful Basin Lake where we eat fruit and relax for half an hour before a 1-1.5hr trek through the rainforest back to the tour bus. It's worth mentioning at this point that Fraser Island is the worlds largest sand island. Which means, believe it or not, it's made up completely of sand. This makes driving a real challenge and part of me is grateful for not having to worry about driving. Dora certainly wouldn't cope and a 4x4 is essential. It really does feel great not having to worry about driving for a few days and that our whole itinerary is all set out for us. As well as that, all the food is free, cooked for us where applicable and in abundance! Another worry free part of the trip! It almost feels like we're in Asia again i.e. not driving or cooking!

Our driver took us to Lake Mackenzie for a buffet lunch but the heavens opened right on cue! After lunch it was time to swim in the glass-like waters and fully appreciate the beauty of the island. What a wonderful place. In between checking in and having dinner Sam and I went for a walk to enjoy the sunset but it was too cloudy on the horizon but when walking back, we were confronted by a fairly small dingo. We were told to walk slowly towards it and it would scarper. This worked! They can be dangerous and if you run from it they think that their dinner is running away so they run after you until they catch you! Our dinner was 'all you can eat' pasta and pizza.

Day two on Fraser island and we enjoy a breakfast buffet before going over to the amazing 75 mile beach. Halfway up the beach is the Maheno shipwreck that is slowly rusting away. It's quite an unusual sight and a great photo opportunity except when more people arrive and spoil the view!

We then went to champaigne pools where the waves of the sea come crashing over the rocks into natural rockpools. A great place to sit and admire and we came as the tide was going out so it was safe enough to sit on the rocks and take a hit or two as the waves came over!

After lunch we had a short climb up onto Indian Head and were blessed with superb views around the beaches, rainforest and out to sea. We were also lucky enough to have dolphins pointed out to us in the distance, although i couldn't make them out, see mantarays swimming to and fro in front of the rocks and even a couple of big sharks came up quite close. Dinner tonight was another Mexican buffet, just as good and even more appreciated than the first!!!

Day three included the shimmering Lake Wabby for more swimming, a walk over a sand dune and the secluded and perfect Lake Birrabeen. Just as good as the other two days if a little similar. Fraser Island is such an amazing place to visit and we're glad we did it this way because we saw so much more than if we'd driven ourselves and definitely got excellent value for money. I think we may have stretched our stomachs a little too because of all the food we've consumed!

Just before leaving Fraser, we were waiting for our boat when three Dingo's strolled around the beach below us. Most of the group hadn't seen any yet so it was a perfect end to the trip.

Noosa is our next destination and is one of the northernmost surf beaches in Queensland. We went there to spot Koalas in the national park and we were lucky enough to see one whilst walking around the park with our necks bent upwards!! Spent some time watching the surfers too and will certainly have another go at it soon enough. Noosa is possibly one of the nicest towns we've visited in Oz but is a little pricey. We stayed in a townhouse for 2 nights which was quite surreal. We were the only 2 there from a possible 6 so it was peaceful and we had the whole house to ourselves! Couldn't ask for more for something the same price as two dorm beds.

On the way to Brisbane, we paid a visit to Australia Zoo. I'm not a big fan zoos and i'd much rather see animals in the wild and in their natural habitat - as we've been lucky enough to do quite a lot of so far - but the former home of the late Steve Irwin was really good and i'm glad we went. We got to see the Cassowary which is rather like an Emu but more aggresive and is close to extinction. They live in north queensland but we never saw them in the wild.

Also, there are many many koalas dotted around in trees all over the zoo which we (sam) didn't mind much at all.. "so cute!!". Even though the animals are in captivity, they seem to have fairly decent homes and are definately well looked after.

Arriving in Brisbane we booked 3 nights to make sure we saw all the sights of a big city....... we went out for one day and that was more than enough!! It's an "O.K" place. There isn't that much to do and doesn't have much to separate it from any other city but we've enjoyed the facilities of our hostel - internet and dvd's - and taken the time to relax.

The strange thing about our trip right now is that we really don't know what we can do as we head from Brisbane to Sydney. When travelling in North Queensland, we've known what there is to see and do and there has been so much that we've struggled to fit everything in but now we feel a bit lost!! There are nice places to go i'm sure but i think we need to look into it and plan our trip down south! We've given ourselves 3 weeks max to get as far round to Melbourne as we can before we're due back in Adelaide on xmas eve (or before). Everything is getting very built up now and is more suited to the partying travellers so either we spend all our money partying or we skip merrily down the coast as we have been doing thus far!