Great Barrier Reef

The title is pretty self explanatory. Today we went to the great barrier reef :).

While Lizzie was busy taking photos, Rhi and Laura did an introductory dive.

After our snorkelling and diving, we had a huge buffet lunch before going back out onto the reef to snorkel at a different spot. On the way back to Cairns we sat in the sun whilst drinking a lovely free glass of champagne :)

SKYDIVE!, and Cape Tribulation

On monday we did our skydive, falling out of a plane at 14,000ft, and landing on Mission Beach!

Yesterday we travled North to Cape Tribulation. We swam in a water hole and managed to find some ocre rocks. The ones the Aborigionals use to paint themselves. So, obviously, we had a go...

This morning (wednesday), we got up at 5am to watch the sun rise on the beach

This afternoon we swam in a gorge. Swimming up along the side and riding the current back down was crackin' fun, Gromit.

Magnetic Island and Mission Beach

The first night on Magnetic Island, Wednesday, we went to feed the rock Wallabies :)

On thursday we went to a Koala Sanctuary. Here we held a black cockatoo, lizards, a baby crocodile, a koala, a snake, and an echidna, which is what is in the photo below :)

Koalas spend 18-22 hours a day sleeping....

After the sanctuary we made our way over to a waterfall. It was lovely, and we were boiling but didn't have swimming stuff so couldn't get in the water properly :(

On friday we travelled to Mission Beach, met back up with Laura, and spent the evening in the pool.

Yesterday we enjoyed white water rafting in the Tully River. It was absolutely amazing!

Today (sunday): We were supposed to skydive this morning, however, due to broken radios and then rain, we didn't. There's always tomorrow....hopefully....

Airlie Beach and The Whitsunday Islands!

On saturday evening, we went down to our hostel bar to have dinner and a few drinks with the people we we're at the cattle station with. Here is a beautiful photos of us with Lauren :)

On sunday we departed Airlie Beach on our boat, Matador to sail round the Whitsundays. The weather wasn't great, it rained, lots! Dispite this we still jumped off the boat to snorkel with the fishes.

We didn't manage to get to Whitehaven beach because of the weather but we did go to a lookout point, and there it is behind us.

We're back at Airlie Beach now, and will see the guys from our boat again this evening at the bar downstairs :)

Fraser Island, Rainbow Beach, 1770 and Kroombit Cattle Station

We haven't writen for a while as we haven't had reception for internet. After Noosa we went to Fraser Island: the largest island in the world formed from just sand. We travelled the island in four wheel drives and camped next to the beach at night, avoiding the dingoes trying to get in on our dinner!

 Here we went snorkelling in beautiful Lake Mckenzie, we even caught a turtle :)

We also went to other lakes, rivers and creeks. Here we are standing infront of Eli creek.

This is a shipwreck which has obviously been there for a while. This is the group of people we spend our three days on the island with.

Back at Rainbow Beach we visited the sand dunes. There are 70 different colour sands there because of it's location, the sand is washed here from all over the world. Here we also learnt how to throw a boomerang, and went sand sledging down the dunes.

Then we headed onto 1770 and did the famous Scooteroo. We got to ride these 'Mini Harleys', and as you can see, dress up like hardcore bikers!

A cattle station in Kroombit, further inland then turned us into cowgirls. Here is our attempt of lassooing a goat! It proved to be alot harder than it looks. Hahah. We also learnt how to crack whips and tried not to get thrown off the mechanical bull!

Now we're at Airlie Beach, we're going to cruise out on a sailing boat this afternoon to the Whitsunday islands and stay on a sailing boat for two nights. We'll let you know how it goes :)



Glass Mountains and Noosa

It rained all day in Brisbane, but we explored the museum, art gallery and shops in the afternoon, then went out in the evening.

On the way to Noosa yesterday lunchtime we stopped off at the glass mountains.

Noosa is a lovely little beach town, and today we spent time exploring the farmer's market and national park.

Byron Bay, Surfers Paradise and Brisbane

On Wednesday we went sea kayaking around Byron Bay. Unfortunately the waves were too choppy to get up close and personal with the dolphins, but we went snorkelling along the reef metres away from green sea turtles and various schools of fish.

 We left Byron Bay early thursday morning and headed to Surfer's Paradise, our first stop in Queensland where we set our clocks back an hour. We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach (again!) and went out in the evening. There was an almighty storm and we got absolutely soaked coming home!

The rain continued today as we moved up to Brisbane. We browsed through the shops, museum and art gallery and are off out tonight. Tomorrow we head up to Noosa.