Hi people,

Sorry for not talking to you all for a while, we've been busy sunning ourselves, crossing borders and spotting wildlife. Oh and I had a cold for a few days...

Since Hervey Bay we've travelled down the coast, stopping to see Australia Zoo, home of late Steve Irwin, which was a great zoo. Loads of opportunities to get up close to the animals (lots of wombats for me and crocs and snakes for Roy), plus a really enthusiastic croc show. The rain came down there though, and we were caught up in Queensland's worst storms for20 years. We braved the nights in our campervan, rocking and rolling to the rain, wind, thunder and lightning outside!

We carried on south, had a great drive to a place on the beach called Noosa, had a big kangaroo bounce across the road right in front of us, saw the place Captain Cook first landed (Town of 1770) and found ourselves at Brisbane. Surviving another storm, we explored the city, toured the Castlemaine XXXX Beer brewery, drinking our 4 free beers at the end. Carried on down the coast, stopping at Surfer's Paradise for a couple of nights. We hit there at the beginning of 'Schoolies Week', when all the older school kids migrate to the Gold Coast to forget everything they had to learn in their exams.

Surfers Paradise was cool but so built up on the coast. Crossing over the Queensland/NSW border (and losing an hour due to daylight saving), we took a beautiful drive inland to the hippie/marijuana capital of Australia - Nimbin. Wasn't that impressive, just a few brightly coloured shops and cafes, and guys openly offering you drugs as you walk into the town. Weird. We stopped at Bagalow market, wandered amongst the hippies and made it here to Byron Bay. gorgeous beaches here (one of which we discovered today was a nudist mens beach) and loads of backpackers/schoolies. Have been to the most eastern point of Oz, spied turtles in the ocean and watched alot of surfers all along the coast.

Tonight we're FINALLY watching bond, then carrying on down towards Sydney. Thanks for all the messages - congrats again to Alistair and Charlotte on their engagement (sorry we won't make the party this weekend), well done Auntie Jill for finding the website, Roy's going to try and make the poker night DWW...and David, glad you like the van - it's like it's on fire! Have you really cut your hair??

thanks for reading this far, keep well wherever you are, and don't forget us! Lots of love, XxX PS. Hopefully there are more photos up now for you to all look at and feel jealous.