Hi Sharps fans!

So we are well into our Australian adventure now. There's lots to tell you - I hope you don't get too bored!

We landed into sydney at about 7am from bangkok. We stepped outside and it was absolutely heaven. It was 10 degrees c and i hadnt felt so fresh in 2 months, it was amazing. However as we had no warm clothes whatsoever we were glad to be getting our connecting flight up to Cairns where the temp was much more tropical and what we've become used to now. When we arrived in our backpacker hostel we felt like total newbies again. Traveling in Australia is so different to Asia. For example you share your bedroom with 10 people and you have to cook your own food. After 2 months of eating out we were very depressed at this thought. However with prices as they are in australia there's no way we can afford meals out! We got into the swing of things though and our first day was spent at some waterfalls just outside Cairns. They have the typically cheesy australian name of Crystal Cascades. As we entered the park we were warned not to touch the stinging trees at they would cause "major distress"! After this me and hannah were scared to touch anything green as we didnt want to find out what kind of major distress we would be in had we touched them. Later that night we went into the city with a few people from our hostel. It was such a shock going on a night out. The drinks prices are about 10 times higher than in asia. We realised we'd definately have to cut back on going out. Anyway we went to the famous Woolshed and danced on the tables so it was all good fun! During our stay in Cairns we also took a trip up to Porte douglad and went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. We saw some amazing things such as a shark! It was about 2 m long but didnt pay us any attention at all. At no point did i think i was going to get eaten.

Next stop down the coast was Mission Beach. There's absolutely nothing here except a lovely beach but we weren't complaining as our tans needed topping up. Its also a popular place to sky dive so we enjoyed watching them land on the beach and imaging us doing that in a few weeks time!! We stayed at a place called scotty's which was a really fun hostel. We did a pub quiz on the fist night and came last - very embarrassing, but not suprising i think you'll agree! The second night was the full moon party in thailand so we celebrated with a full goon party. Goon is the name australians give to cheap boxed wine. Me and hannah were new to this though and were in the supermarket looking for the brand "goon." Everyone thought this was hillarious but i think it was an easy mistake to make.

Our next destination was Airlie Beach with a one night stop over at Townsville. In Townsville we stayed in a hostel which resembled an inner city block of flats complete with people hanging out on the balcony shouting abuse at us. We only stayed here one night as there really wansn't a lot to do here anyway. We were excited to get to Airlie Beach as we'd been reliably informed that we'd have a good time. This was definately the case. We had 2 nights here and met some very interesting people! We then set off on our whitsundays trip. This consisted of 3 days on a boat sailing around the beautiful whitsunday islands. We managed to do 2 more dives as well which was really cool. I'm becomming slightly addicted! We also did a night dive which was pretty scary and to be honest i only saw 2 fish! My torch was rubbish and my goggles fogged up. But im still glad ive done one as ive wanted to do it since we learnt in thailand. We ate like kings and queens on the boat. A typical day would be:

Breakfast: Cereal/ toast/ fruit/ yoghurt
Snack: Biscuits
Lunch: Ham, cheese and salad wraps with cake for deserst
Snack: Nachos with chilli and sour cream
Dinner: Steak/ Sausages/ pasta bake/ potato salad/ green salad/ More cake for desert

As you can imagine, me and hannah were absolutely loving it. I think we both put on about a stone!

The trip also included a stop off at Whitehaven beach which was absolutely stunning. It has the whitest sand in the world. We took some really cool pictures here which you may have seen on facebook. Another highlight of the trip was seeing humpback whales up close. We were sat relaxing and suddenly someone shouted "whale!" Everyone came rushing out and there were three whales swimming right next to our boat. They wereabsolutely incredible to see. Later the crew told us that whales had never come so close to the boat before and the captain was tererified they were going to cause the boat some damage. They might tell this to everyone but i was very excited and so just lapped it up!

We were sad for the trip to end as we'd met some lovely people and also because we were back to eating rubbish food! We spent one more night in Airlie Beach with steffi (one of the girls from the trip) before heading off to Agnes Water.

Anyway I'll leave it there because i'm even boring myself now and internet costs a bomb! Hope you're all well. Keep in touch everyone! x x x