Sorry haven't been updating, been quite busy as we are constantly on the move! This will be a quick update of what we have done and are doing.

When we arrived in Sydney we picked up the campervan, it was disappointing to say the least but it would have to do for the month as we'd already paid for it! Although it gets worse, more to follow...

We stayed in a campsite in the Royal National park for 4 nights. It was right on the beach and about 30 mins from any main roads. It was beautiful. We spent the days hiking and looking for waterfalls until we had to pick Sam up from the airport, he was 2 days behind us. The campsite wasn't far from the city so that was our next stop. We visited the Opera house and walked around the park before trying to find a Sizzler, unsuccessfully but we did see a lot of the city trying to find it!

Bondi beach was cool, just like it looks in the TV show "Bondi Rescue", except at this time of year it was very quite! The days weren't the warmest and at night it got down to 4C. We were still in shorts and tshirts whilst others were in thick coats and jeans. The walk along the coastline reminded of North Cornwall but obviously much better... Hehe. There were loads of surfers and body boarders, it probably the most famous beach in Aus for this reason.

Driving north we stopped in Port Macquarie and saw dolphins playing in the river mouth, cool! We stayed the night in South West Rocks before heading to Valla beach, a great day doing nothing on an awesome beach. The water temp is a little cold though so we didn't swim very much, Australia shouldn't get cold!

Byron bay was next on the list and we stayed for a few nights, another good beach. One night that we were in the campsite someone came up to us claiming to be the "Steve Irwin" of surfing and offered cheap surf lessons. We had to do it, and the next day we spent the day learning to surf. It turned out to be quite straight forward. The two instructors were concerned by a massive school of fish that we close in shore. They don't normally come this close unless something is attacking them, still, nobody got eaten.

Surfers Paradise was a must and we ended up camping on the side of the road on Chevron Island which is in the middle of the many waterways that pass through the Gold Coast. It seemed to be millionaires island as each house was on the waterfront and each had its own dock and yacht. Our crappy camper didn't look out of place at all! We spent the night out in Surfers and then a day at the beach.

After Surfers we were going to go and see Brisbane but parking was too difficult and after 2 hours of driving around we decided to leave it, our camper doesn't fit in multi-storey car parks as its too tall. So we took the 2 and a half our drive to Noosa Heads. This is a small town in a national park on the coast. We hired a fishing boat and that led to a lot of fun... first we stopped to fish and then as we pulled away I got the anchor caught in the propeller, that took a while to untangle. Then we ran aground and had to get out and push the little boat out into the deep. Finally after catching nothing and heading back we caught a hand sized fish. None of us could kill it and after suffocating it for 15 mins we pulled the hook out and threw it back to the ocean. That fish is probably not as clever as it was.

We also did a walk through the national park where we saw a wild Koala (apparently seeing one wild is v rare!) and then saw dolphins at dolphin point. Followed by an amazing sunset and getting a bit lost in the forest in the dark.

On the way to Noosa we past the Glass House Mountains and so we doubled back an hour to see these at sunset. They are quite out of place on the landscape, mountain sized pinnacles raised out of the ground. Apparently formed as the lava in volcanoes being left behind and the volcano itself eroding away. We were lucky as that night it was also a super moon which was quite impressive.

That night we drove up to Hervey Bay and stayed with a family friend for a few days. We were going to go to Fraser Island (the largest sand island with dingoes, lakes and 70 mile beach) but Kieth's 4x4 was broken and we couldn't get another one (we looked high and low for one!) so we hired a catamaran for an hour and did some sailing. Next day we went Whale watching. The whales were very curious and came right up next to the boat, they breached and tail/fin slapped too! I've never been so close to whales before, you could nearly touch them. Back at Kieths we had Kangaroo steaks which were delicious, very rich meat with nearly no fat, yum!

The next morning thanked Keith and Cherrie for having us before heading north for an 11 hour drive to Airlie Beach. As we passed through Rockhampton however we stopped at a Sizzlers, finally. It was just as good as I remember too!

At Airlie beach we booked a trip to the Whitsunday Islands snorkelling. As we didn't have the time we could only do the one day speed boat tour, turns out though everyone finds this the best way to do it anyway. This took us to 2 different snorkelling locations and then to Whitehaven beach, the sand there is so soft it feels more like flour than sand. Snorkelling, we saw a manta ray and a huge angel fish.

Our plan was to drive from Airlie Beach to Mission Beach (where Richard planned to skydive) but thanks to the local wildlife we didn't make it for 4 days! On the drive we drove through a huge forest fire that pretty much engulfed the road. It was nigh so driving over the bridge into the flames was like driving through the gates of hell, pretty cool though! About an hour after that we were doing about 100kph and a kangaroo decided to commit suicide and jumped in front of us. I never actually saw it jump in front of us and we just went straight over it. It shattered our air filter and smashed the bumper. GREAT! We slept at the side of the road and the next morning nursed it into the next town. It happened to be a Sunday so nothing was open and we had to wait a day before any garage was open. The rental company sent us to a garage which ordered the part (for the next day) and we are now $650 down! Bloody Kangaroos.

After 3 days of fishing from trees in the local creek and relaxing in a park we finally headed out of Ayr on our way to Mission Beach and then to Cairns. Once here we had a day before we started our Scuba Diving course and went up the mountains to hike to a creek where we swam and saw wild Cassowaries. They are funny animals, just like the bird from the movie UP! We made it back just in time before they closed the park, it was quite a hike back up to the van.

Now I have just finished doing my PADI Open Water Scuba course, I'm now a Scuba Diver! It's such an amazing feeling being about to swim underwater and breathe, especially over the Great Barrier Reef! We spent two days in the classroom doing theory and in the pool practicing these skills before heading out for two days on the reef diving for our assessment. The diving there was incredible, definitely going to booked to do my advanced open water. Even the food on board the boat was amazing, by far the best food we've eaten in the past month or so. In one dive we saw 2 turtles, a Whitetip Reef Shark, Napoleon Maori Wrasse and a shoal of Buffalo Parot Fish, even the instructor came up saying what an amazing dive it was!