Hello all. Apologies for the lack of updates recently! I guess I have alot to fill you all in on.

So I think I finished off in my last blog in Brisbane, so from there I headed up the coast again aiming for cairns this time. I had a brief stop off in Noosa (alittle beach town) which was very nice, a pretty well off area as all the shops and resaurants were pretty expensive.

After this the real fun started. I went to Hervey Bay and did a Self drive 4x4 safari to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is this huge natural sand island (its the largest in the world apparently and has the worlds purest breed of dingos!) so there are no 'roads' on it, just sand tracks, hence the 4x4. Yes I did drive, no I didnt crash/flip the car/kill anyone or get stuck in the sand!! So my driving was pretty damn successful if you ask me, and i loved it. We saw soooo much here. We camped for 2nights on the island and explored during the day. There are lots of beautiful lakes and view points (look at my pics if you wanna see) so we did alot of driving, swimming and taking pics. We saw some of the infamous dingoes, the cheeky things came into our camp to look for food, luvkily we had all put everything away (as instructed by the very informative video at our briefing session!)

Once I got back from Fraser, well i was knackered to say the least, so I spent a few day recovering and doing pretty much nothing except preparing myself for some big ole bus rides. I stayed briefly at a town called Rockhampton. Not alot to say about that place, except they had alot of statues of cows everwhere and the women seemed to resemble them alot (there were alot of overweight people there!)

After this I headed up to Airlie Beach to meet up with my friend from Uni, Dave so we could go and do a sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands. This was amazing. The weather was beautiful the whole time and we spent 3days/2nights being driven (do you get driven on a sail boat....) around these beautiful, seemly untouched tropical islands, getting fed amazing food, snorkelling around some great corals and having a few beers in the evening! Bliss. Unfortunately it had to end. Which although it ws amazing was abit of a relief as the living quarters were cramped to say the least and we were limited to 30second showers...YES 30 SECONDS!!

So then came the mamouth Bus journey up to Cairns. We did it on the same day we left the boat, so we were both smelly, tired and in need of a good shower and sleep, alas it wasnt to be. Our bus was at 8pm that evening so we mooched around Airlie bay with our stench following close behind, then jumped on a greyhound bus for a 10hour journey with an extremely moody bus driver up to Cairns. We made it though, just. I almost killed dave.

Then It was Christmas time in Cairns with my good Friend Tamsin and her family and friends. Marie-Jo and Patrick looked after us all, cooking lovely food for us all week. Christmas day was spent up in Kuranda with some friends of the family, lots of beautiful seafood and games and drinks. It was a great day!

On Boxing day we took the Skyride down from Kuranda back to Cairns going over all the rainforests, stopping off to check out waterfalls, etc.

The rest of my time in Cairns was spent exploring the surround areas, we went upto Port Douglas (and got sucked in by the post xmas sales.... whoops). We did a little trip out to green island and snorkelled on the reef where we saw Nemo fish, Turtles, parrotfish, and reef sharks. We had an underwater camera, however when we went to get it developed it hadnt worked. Very upset about that, but you'll just have to believe me when I say it was beautiful.

(almost up to date now, promise)

Ok so, then it was time to leave Cairns, so on NYE we jumped on a flight back to Brisbane where we picked up tamsins boyfriends car and I drove us down to New south wales to where we would be spending the night celebrating NYE 'camping' by a river with some friends and a few strangers (well they were strangers to me!)

My driving got us through, and so did the car (its older than tamsin and has a leak in the radiator....), the kids (Tams and dave) were suitably occupied with a funm wholesome alphabet car game for the duration of the journey.

So NYE was spent alittle differently for me this year. We camped on some land owned my the parents of a friend of tamsin (confusing i know), it was right by the river where they had some jetskiis (which we played with the next dy of course)

On New Years Day night we had the most beautiful electrical storm I've ever seen! It was amazing, completely silent but lighting up the whole sky. It came right over us (luckily we were sleeping inside this night) We had some trouble convincing dave to come inside, who i think might have a future as a storm chaser, crazy boy.

After this we headed back to Brisbane where I spent a few days then, it was time to say goodbye to everyone and head down to Melbourne. I've been here for about a week and a half now. Its a lovely city, though I had a few issues with my hostel, so I moved out of there and in with some friends of a friend (temporarily) which has made me much happier. So for the moment I am on the Job and house hunt while trying to make a few friends and see the sights, so things are abit hectic.

Today I got my offical certificate to say i can pour a pint (bloody rip off) and tomorrow i have an interview with a hospitality agency, so fingerscrossed they can get me some work. I've also been applying for everything i can!!

So that should be me all upto date for now. I'm sure I have missed so much out, but I will add to this if i remember anything else.

Love you all Xxx