On our final day in Brisbane the weather was yet again wet but luckily Sophie had taken the day off of work to show us Brisbane so we had the luxury of a car!! The weather did clear and we enjoyed cheese and biscuits on the river front and walked around the city. Sophie wanted to hear Becky's musical talents so we even ended up having a ling-a-long in the music shop before heading back to the car! We then enjoyed a chilled out evening of Indian food and cinema which was just what we fancied after a hectic few weeks on the move!! ... read more

A little tired from the night before we 'decided' to miss our 9am bus to Brisbane and instead caught the much more sociable 1.10pm one after having sampled some of Surfers finest fast food (which led Elin to run up the down escalator in the shopping mall before falling over at the top!!) We arrived in Brisbane a little confused by the Southbank which resembled a mini London one and waited by the farmers market (which had amazing free samples!!) to meet Becky's cousin, Sophie. Sophie took us back to her home in the Brisbane suburbs and treated us to homemade pizza and mango ice-cream before taking us up the mountain to see the amazing views of the city by night!... read more

Day 42 saw the return of the clouds and so much of the day was spent mooching around coffee shops and trying to wangle student tickets for the Q1 tower for the following day! Luckily we succeeded and the next morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky and so Camilla and Becky headed up to the 77th floor of the Q1 building (which took aprox. 20 seconds!!) to see the amazing views across the coast! They made it back down to the ground to join Elin on the beach where the waves were just a little large! Having learnt from their previous error in Bondi, Becky and Elin managed to stay within the flags this time and luckily there were no wardrobe malfunctions either! We returned to the hostel and decided to head out again ... read more

On our final day in Byron the sun was shining and we decided to take the 1 hour walk around the bay and up to the lighthouse! The climb was a little steep to say the least but the views were amazing from the most Easterly point of mainland Australia and we were even able to spot some dolphins! We headed back down to one of the beaches and made the most of the sunshine before heading back to get ready to leave Byron the following day (but not before sampling one of the many new varieties of dairy milk which we had been resisting for weeks and hearing some rather disturbing stories from our dear room-mate Gordon!)... read more

Today was the day which we had been most curious about....Nimbin! Famous as a hippie cannabis-smoking town we were told we would get high just by standing too close to the locals!! The bus there was amazing! Our driver John picked us up in a bus which Elin said was like her old school bus and we drove the hour and half journey to Nimbin, with John narrating (we learnt a lot about macadamia nut farming and the many MANY uses of them!!). Set in a valley, we saw the famous rocks of Nimbin before walking up the main street where we were approached by several locals who were selling 'special' cookies!! Browsing through the shops we discovered Becky's true home, as her hair perfectly matched some of the alternative headwear including a beautiful shaggy multicoloured ... read more