G'day from Brissy!

---

Helloo again! Blogging from Brisbane, after a very very busy couple of weeks! Since we left Airlie Beach we had our 12 hour overnight coach journey (which, thank god, wasn't nearly as bad as we'd thought!) and stayed at a place called 1770 (Agnes Water). Here (Hoki will be jealous :P) we rode motorbikes all afternoon! We got all kitted out with flaming leather jackets, helmets, rub-on tattoos, and after a quick blast of "Born to be Wild" we (about 35 of us) rode around the town for a few hours and watched a gorgeous sunset 😊 While Rich seemed to pick it up straight away, I must admit that at the start, I really thought I was going to die. Probably because I kept getting confused and pulling the throttle towards me, which speeds up the bike rather than slows it down! Oops! Anyway, after a few practises all was well and it was really good fun (and safe Mum, don't worry :P).

We then continued on our adventurous streek and had a surfing lesson the next morning.....so tiring and definitely not as easy as they make it look on TV! Rich managed to stand up quite a few times which was awesome, and everytime I managed to catch a wave I decided I was quite happy lying down and so just rode the waves in lying down :P Still very good fun though!

Moving down the coast we then stayed at Rainbow Beach, which is where we went on our Fraser Island tour from (the world's largest sand island). This was a 3 days/2 night camping trip which (despite the uncomfy camping aspect!) was great - we were in a convoy of three 4 wheel drives and drove around the island along the beaches to different lakes, etc. Unfortunately Rich hasn't been driving long enough to drive the 4WD (even though he really wanted to!) but I took the wheel which was awesome 😊 Driving on sand is pretty tough, very strange to drive on as you've got to go fast enough not to get stuck but the wheels and steering wheel take on a life of their own! Lots of good driving music blaring out and evenings drinking at the camp....good trip! Plus we had one dingo encounter (as one clever German girl brought Doritos to the lake so the dingo loved that!), but Rich screamed at it and chased it off haha!

After returning to the mainland and finally having a shower and good sleep, we headed on down to Noosa. This is a pretty well-off area with lots of holiday homes of the rich - very fun to peek at all the huge houses! We had a day just chilling at the beach (and attempting body boarding which ended with me face-planting when the front of my board got stuck in the sand :P), and then did a boat trip the next day. The trip included a 5km canoe as well, which was good fun, abeit so hot with no breeze! There was also a lovely huntsman spider waiting for us in the canoe when we flipped it over! At least there were no crocs in that river....or so we were told!

From Noosa we travelled about an hour further south to a small town called Mooloolaba (they have some great names here!). We only spent one day here; visited a great aquarium and relaxed at the beach for a bit. Today we came down to Brisbane and are doing some city "sight-seeing" today, followed by the Australia Zoo tomorrow which we've heard is amazing 😊 Courtesy of Dad we also have the luxury of a Holiday Inn for 2 nights here rather than a hostel.....we haven't seen the room yet but are pretty excited by the prospect of good air-con and a comfy bed!

Hope you're all well back home, thanks for all the messages by the way 😊 Home in less than 2 weeks now and looking forward to seeing Christmas stuff as it should be....it's not right seeing Christmas decorations and posters over here when it's 30 degrees!! xxxxxxxxx

---