Dear All, We\'re having such a good time in Oz so far! We flew into Cairns on the 22nd September, the first thing we noticed was the weather change from New Zealand, its so hot here! We can\'t imagine what its like in England at the moment with the evenings getting shorter and darker, as its coming into summer here! Cairns was a nice town, we went on an orgainsed tour into the rainforest where we swam in lakes and under one of the most famous waterfalls in the world, you may know it from the Timotei shampoo advert! We also had our first experience on the great Barrier Reef, we did a short half hour dive which was a definate experience, so many bright coloured fish, its like swimming in a tropical fish tank!! We then headed to Mission beach, which is a lovely beach with really red sand, we swam in the sea and couldn\'t believe how warm it was, just like swimming in a luke warm bath!! No wonder the sharks and crocs like it so much! Luckily we have seen neither so far! We then went to Magnetic Island , a small island with a lovely beach, we stayed in a really nice hostel overlooking the beach. We then headed down to Airlie Beach, and hopped onto a catameran to go sailing round the Whitsundays. This was the highlight so far, the boat was lovely and even had a spa!! We did a lot of snorkelling and saw much more of the reef and even touched a turtle!! We also went to the nicest beach I have ever been to, its called Whitehaven beach and is said to be the 2nd best beach in the world (the 1st is a private beach in Mexico apparently). the sand was so white and fine it looked like snow and the water was so clear it felt like being in a swimming pool!! (pictures to come!) It was awesome! We got back to Airlie Beach today and are going to hop on an overnight bus tonight to Harvey Bay where we will be going to Fraser Island. Can\'t wait! Take care xxx