Hello again guys! We are just about to board the Solway Lass for our pirate adventures, DVDs anyone - oh arrrr!

Before leaving Hong Kong Baz felt it necessary to sample more Chinese delicacies, but being a true Brit opted for Peking Duck... Peking Duck pizza that is. However, he thought the chilli garnish was part of the meal and chomped it down, needless to say, his mouth, tongue and shortly after, bottom, regretted it.

With our bellies full we boarded our Quantas flight, soon to become our favourite airline (proper pillows and chicken hot pot- yum!). The landing on the other hand was the worst in history! They decided to land using Auto-Pilot, but after almost swerving off the runway had second thoughts. No wonder their engines are failing!!

We arrived at the Travellers Oasis in Cairns in preparation for our snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Being one for a bargain we headed to the Green Ant for $5 roo burgers for dinner...who says we can't slum it! And a $10 jug of beer, which Baz actually helped drink. Probably the worst lager in the world (no not Carlsberg) and Baz liked it-go figure.

The Great Barrier Reef is exactly that-great! We visited two reefs and went on a glass bottom boat before sunbathing on the front (bonnet in my language) aren't we just la de da! The sexy stinger/smurf/condom suits were everything but sexy. So much so, that we vowed photographic evidence was not necessary. Eiffle 65 eat your heart out...I'm blue dab a dee a da. With wine and cheese in hand we headed back to the singing talents of Elvis, a guy that looked and sang more like Bob Marley, very entertaining.

We then boarded the greyhound to Townsville. Having a strict rule of never board a plane if the pilot is wearing white socks, you can imagine our horror to see the bus driver was an old boy in shorts and long grey socks argh!

After a short ferry ride and a bus journey with every school kid on the East Coast we arrived at Base on Magnetic Island in search of Julies Rattle snake fence- a chipped and rather shabby looking affair, think you need to come back and repaint it JB. We were upgraded to a beach front bungalow, to the horror of Sally who thought that she'd either be eaten alive or washed out to sea.

We hired what we thought was going to be a moke, but it turned out to be a purple Nissan Micra with the roof chopped off and Barbie seat covers...right up Baz's street, you know how much he likes his girlie stuff. However, he was gutted to see a bright pink option that he had missed out on, no Paula not salmon pink!

We cruised around the island, which took about 20 mins because it's only 12k and ended up at a koala reserve, where Baz hoped it was kick a koala day. Being a total wuss I freaked as the ranger handed me a turtle and I didn't know whether to frisby it or scream. It quickly became worse with birds, lizzards, snakes and crocs. Yes we had to hold a croc! Granted it was only a metre long and its mouth was taped shut, but we did it and got out of there snappy. We did get to cuddle a koala though, which was awesome.

Therefore, here we are packed and ready for the next chapter in our adventure.