Well the heavens have finally opened - we knew the lovely 'winter' weather couldn't continue. We're currently in Noosa, where we have been since Tuesday and it has rained non-stop!! Shame, since Noosa (apparently) has some lovely beaches. We're leaving this afternoon and, guess what, the rain has stopped and the sun is out....sods law, I think.

Since our last update we've visited Brisbane and Noosa. Being a large city, Brisbane was pretty similar to Sydney. However, we did some interesting sightseeing and activities including: The Botanical Gardens, Southbank and Streets Beach, a beer tour (Chris's idea of course), experienced an international rubgy match and (the highlight of my stay in Brisbane) visited Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter! We also felt very sophisticated one evening, visiting a place called the valley and drinking cocktails to live jazz. Clearly we forgot we were budget travellers on that particular evening...

The Botanical Gardens were lush and I can see why Liz (a colleague of mine) got married there. Unfortunately we didn't explore the whole area - we seem to have lost our sense of direction lately and keep missing things out/getting lost. For instance, yesterday we managed to get lost for 30mins walking round the block! I really don't know how we got this far... We experienced beauty (although artificial) at Streets Beach, located on the Southbank. Described by lonely planet as a lagoon, it really was a lovely place to chill.

The Wallabies (Australia) vs Wales match was more fun than I anticipated - I even bought a scarf to get into the spirit of things! Who knows what I'll do with it back home...maybe sell it on ebay? The atmosphere was amazing, with fireworks, music and balloons every time something happened. I became a bit of a tomboy for the evening, with beer in one hand and a greasy burger in the other! The other tour we did, mainly for Chris (!), was the beer tour around the Castlemaine XXXX factory. At the end you get four beers to try. This was all fine and well until I dropped my camera onto Chris' beer glass - oh dear... the glass cut his finger and the beer went everywhere!!! Worst still, it fell all over his front looking like he's wet himself. Needless to say, he wasn't best pleased but soon got over it (well, I still get the odd comment about drinks...) It was one of those moments where I knew I really shouldn't be laughing but I couldn't help it, which added fuel to the fire!!

So now we come to the highlight of the trip (for me anyway) - our day out visiting Steve Irwin's zoo (Australia Zoo). I was really excited about this anyway and driving Chris mad! I think Steve was an inspiration and loved watching his tv shows with my brother when I was younger. The zoo was such a friendly, educational place and I am inspired after visiting it. Unlike other zoos I have visited, this one has such a different, friendly, feel. Perhaps it's because of the family origins (Steve's parents established the zoo in the 70's) or maybe it was because the staff are so passionate about what they do....either way, we had a great time. I'm also usually against the idea of zoo's but at this place the animals are there for a good reason and are well looked after. Apparently Steve Irwin used to say, regarding food, 'if we can't eat it, the animals won't be given it'. It was amazing to see this one man's lifes work and how much he achieved. It was also poignant viewing the endless tributes and realising just how much he is missed. I felt really sad thinking about his wife and children. On a lighter note, we experienced a show in the famous Animal Planet Crocoseum which was fantastic.....and a tad scary: a massive crocodile came out at the end of the show and was apparently behaving different to usual. However, the 'croc team' had it under control: Steve apparently hand-picked the team and trained them himself. By the way, when you look at the photographs you'll see quite a few of me with a fake crocodile...I haven't gone mad. Everyone had pictures with it - one girl even pretended to be surfing on top of it....! Maybe the zoo brings out the child in everyone.

So that's really the main highlights of Brisbane. We haven't got too much to report on Noosa due to the unfortunate rain. Today we're off to Rainbow Beach and the weather is warm again! We're thinking of booking a 3 day Fraser Island tour after this, so apologies if we can't text/call anyone but we're not sure if we'll get signal on the island or if we can even take our mobiles.

Hope everyone is well and the weather is still nice in England..?!

Take care, Lisa + Chris xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx