The drive from Rainbow Beach started well enough, after five days of waiting for the car we were finally on the road again! Our plan was to stop at Eumundi Market and then continue on to the Gold Coast. We'd pre-bought a 3 day theme park pass and the kids had been looking forward to this part of the trip since we started.

We'd been driving for 80 km and were passing through Gympie when we heard the now familiar, completely disheartening sound of the radiator boiling!! Toby and I were so despondent as we filled the radiator and googled directions for the Gympie caravan park. It was 9am on a Saturday morning so the Mitsubishi service centre wasn't open again until Monday and according to their websites, the car hire companies were also closed. I rang one anyway and someone who worked there happened to be at the office for a short time and said they could get us a car if we could get there quickly. We drove as quickly as we dared and had a hire car by 9.30 - a bit of luck had gone our way!

After a very quick van set up, we drove down to Eumundi Market. The kids all remembered their favourite stalls from our last visit and we left with hair braids, anklets, balloon animals and lots of lovely fresh fruit. Gemma had her much needed fix of dumplings and sushi, Lachie enjoyed a soft serve icecream, Neve had fried curly potato and pancakes and Toby and I had laksa - all very satisfied!

Not knowing how long the car would take this time, but fearing the worst and knowing there was nothing in Gympie to entertain the kids, we decided to drive to Movie World on the Sunday. It's hard to imagine another situation where driving a 500km round trip to go to a theme park seems like a good idea! We left at 7.30 am, arrived at 10 am, had a fantastic day til 4.30 then got back to Gympie at 7pm. I wasn't really expecting to enjoy Movie World but it turned out to be great fun! The shows were entertaining and while the queues were long, the rides were great fun too.

Gemma's experience of rollercoasters was my funniest memory of the day. She was adamant she wouldn't like them and refused to consider going on one so we waited instead for 30 minutes to go on the Scooby Doo ghost train. It went along a track through the usual dark, spooky props and Gem was nervous but smiling. Then it started to climb and as Gemma realised what this meant she started to shout "it's a roller coaster, I'm going to vomit, get me off, get me off!" By the time we reached the top she was crying hysterically and I could do nothing but hold her as we plunged over the edge! Needless to say she screamed all the way. Later in the day as I was waiting with Lachie in a queue for another ride, Gemma pointed to a medium roller coaster and said, "I'm going on that, I'll meet you back here". I was so surprised and went to check on her a few times but she waited determinedly in the queue and then went on all by herself. When she returned, she was so pleased with herself!

Toby and Neve queued for an hour to go on a 60 second Superman Rollercoaster but both said it was their favourite ride and would have liked to go on The Green Lantern ride but we didn't have another hour to wait so maybe next time!

On Monday the service centre opened, they ran the car for 2 hours and took it for a drive but couldn't get it to overheat. Totally frustrated, we said "keep trying!" and went to Noosa for the day. It was perfect weather and we had a picnic lunch overlooking the beach, walked to the national park, ate icecreams and played on the beach. Meanwhile the mechanic hooked his boat up to our car and drove 50 km out of Gympie, causing it to finally overheat! The news was not good; the required part needed to come from Sydney this time and the car would not be ready until Friday!! Neve was going to school camp on the following Monday and I needed to get back to work and perhaps most frustrating, there was rain and cold weather forecast. After much deliberating, we decided the kids and I would fly home and Toby would wait for the car to be fixed then drive back.

So on our last day together in Qld, we decided to drive to Sea World. This time it was a 13 hour day but again, we all had a great time. The seal and dolphin shows were fantastic, Gem and Neve found rides they loved and Lachie and I particularly enjoyed the aquarium.

So now as I type, the kids and I are on a plane on our way home. We've had an amazing trip, seen some spectacular sites and had so many wonderful experiences. The car troubles have been unfortunate but we've had a lot of luck and managed to still do most if the things we'd planned. Would do it all again in a flash!

We were away for 53 nights in total and stayed 10 nights in National Parks, 10 nights with friends, 20 nights in caravan parks, 9 nights in free camp spots and 4 nights on Heron Island.