I arose to the sound of my alarm at the ungodly hour of 5am this morning (mind you the sun comes up here at 4am or earlier so it was really light already. Matt had kindly promised us an early morning stroll on their local beach (Peregian Beach) before he had to go for work. Unfortunately Scott was dead to the world at 5am and missed the little tour round in the car, watching the sun rise over the beach followed by fresh proper coffee on the drive home - perfect start to the day! It was really warm even at 5am and I was comfortable in a strappy top and shorts on the beach. The tropical climate is welcomed by both Scott and myself and hopefully we really have seen the end of trousers and jumpers now.

Back at the house I watched the madness of a morning getting kids up, breakfasted, dressed and out the door. I felt rather helpless not being familiar with the routine but did at least manage to put Maice's hair into plaits for her. By about 9am Scott had woke up and we loaded up the campervan and logged onto the internet to sort out out trip to Lady Elliot Island tomorrow. This is a small island at the very southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef and we were treating ourselves to a day trip out there, leaving from Hervey Bay via a short flight and then we get to snorkel on the reef and go on a glass bottomed boat. After a stop off at Coles supermarket for some supplies we were on the road again on our 3 hr journey north to Hervey Bay.

By about 3.30pm we arrived and found a quiet and shaded caravan park with a beautiful pool. We larked about in the water and were reminded of what a tropical environment we were in by several stunning brightly coloured lorakeets flying overhead. Despite the warmth and humidity the wind was picking up and we thought a storm was about to break. Luckily it just ended up being a light shower and so we headed over to the bay to walk along the beach before dinner. Trying to be healthy after our days of indulgence we had a prawn salad for dinner followed by melon.

It gets dark v early here as they don't turn the clocks back for daylight saving so now its about 7.30pm and pitch black outside our little camper already. This time we've hired a van called a 'spaceship' - it's basically the same vehicle as the wicked van we hired back in new zealand but with a few mod cons like a little fridge and a dvd player - so essentially we are back in a cramped space again. I'm really looking forward to returning to Noosa Heads for the weekend and staying in Matt and Camille's gorgeous air conditioned house again and it's fair to say we will have had enough of campervans for a little while by the end of this 11 day stint!