Hi all,

I cannot believe we've been away six weeks already! We're a third of the way through our trip now- its going so fast! Australia was great, we saw some amazing things and Cairns was a perfect location for our last week. As well as the Great Barrier Reef, we also spent a day visiting the Daintree Rainforset and Cape Tribulation. Its the only place in the world where heritage-listed rainforest meets coral reef.

We travelled north from Cairns along the Captain Cook Highway with views of the coast along the way. The sea looked gorgeous in the sun but we could see all the "stinger nets" set up to ensure safe swimming during Queensland's jellyfish season. Although apparently being safe from stingers doesn't necessarily mean you're safe from other uninvited guests, as one woman found out when she realised the log she thought she was swimming with actually had eyes! Not all the creatures are nasty though, and it was pretty amazing the pull over at the side of the highway and see a paddock filled with wild Wallabies.

We walked around Mossman Gorge before heading to an animal sanctuary, where we could spend time in the enclosure with the wallabies. Although we had to keep away from Romeo, a rather amorous male. A few female visitors had received some pretty nasty scratches in recent weeks. They also had a large collection of crocodiles- both fresh and salt water. The smaller fresh water ones were easy to spot and are generally not as threatening but we couldn't see any of the salt water crocs beneath the murky swamp. Our guide through some pebbles in to see if the vibrations enticed them to the surface and this huge four and a half metre croc came leaping angrily out of water. He was appropriately named "Grumpy". Its scary to think you'd never know they were there.

We crossed the Diantree river into Cape Tribulation itself. Civilisation pretty much ended here. Although about three hundred people live in the rainforest and there are some places to stay, its definitely not for anyone who likes their home comforts. Theres millions of species in the rainforest and we had to look out for Cassowarys while we were driving through- an osrich-like Australian bird which is very endangered. There are only 1400 left in the world and 60 were killed by road accidents last year alone. There's over 200,000 species of plant in the rainforest- in comparison, ther's only 15,000 in the whole of Britain. Serious foliage.

Our rainforest walk didn't dispaly much apart from a big Huntsman spider (not posionous) and some mosquitoes, which continued to bite us despite the generous layer of insect repellent we had just applied. Very annoying and the thing I will miss least about Australia. We had lunch on Cape Tribulation Beach,a beautiful stretch of white sand, where we saw another Lace Monitor which apparently has a tendency to bite picnic-ers (how scary?!), but fortunately it didn't come near us and the only things we had to shoo away were some bush turkeys.

We stopped at Alexandra Range lookout where you can see right over to the reef on a clear day. We couldn't see quite that far but we did see the small island where Steve Irwin had his unfortuante encounter with a sting ray. We alSO stopped to sample some of the Daintree ice cream- theY only have four flavours on offer a day and its whichever fruits are in season from the orchard. We had coconut, raspberry, wittleberry (which strangely tasted like coffee) and another that I can't remember the name of but wasn't very nice anyway.

We then went on a cruise on the Daintree river to see if we could spot any crocodiles. Unfortuantley, the only things we saw were the remains of an unlucky cow and a green tree frog. Apparently the water's still warm so they don't need to come up to the surface to bask in the sun. They are definitely there though- only a few weeks ago there was a tragic accident when a five year old boy was taken by one.

On the way back, we had a driving tour through Port Douglas, a bit of a hot spot for the rich and famous. We tried to spot some celebrities but to no avail. We did, however, see a colony of flying foxes high up in the trees. Not the same, but still pretty cool. The trip was excellent value for money and it was a great way to spend our last day in Australia.

We are in New Zealand now, Christchurch to be precise, and its a lovely cathedral city. Very England-like. We even saw a road called St. Asaph street, which was quite exciting. We are staying in the best hostel we've stayed in by far. We don't want to leave but we are starting out tour tomorrow. Our first stop is Kaikora where we hope to do some whale watching.

We have some great things planned while we're in New Zealand, so watch this space!

Love Sian and Fin xxx