THE GREAT BARRIER REEF Up early again today, gosh we are gluttons for punishment! We take a lovely early morning walk along the sea front, past the Lagoon to the Marina. We are the first here, so hop on board and grab a coffee & Danish for breakfast. We do like these trips that include loads of food! It is a god send really. We watch everyone else board and grab there breakfast before the first briefing of the day, this is where they try to upgrade us (for a hundred dollars or so) to diving. But apart from it being cheaper, we decided that as the reef is so close we can probably see just as much. Although the dive mistress did have amazing boobies! We sailed out to the outer reef for a good ... read more

We arrive into Airlie beach and get picked up by our hostel Bush Village and are put into a really cool double room in a bungalow with a shared kitchen and bathroom and one other room. Luckily no one was out in the other room, so we managed to spread out and relax. We popped into town to pay our reef tax at the office and pick up our terms and conditions form. Liam popped out to grab some dinner , then we set about packing what we thought we would need for the trip. A couple of day’s worth of clothes and swim wear. Up early washed and checked out, bags stored and a lift down to the marina, we hang around and meet everyone else on the trip before the stinger suit people come ... read more

HERVEY BAY & FRAZER ISLAND We arrive at Hervey Bay Greyhound stop frazzled. The air con was up full blast and when we made a food stop the temperature on the roof read 44 degrees. Hot, hot, hot! We jump in the waiting mini bus for the Palace backpackers, where we will be staying. En route we fill in the check in card and are told the bottle shop run goes at 6pm (we need to go if we want Goon for the Fraser Island trip) and if we want ‘all you can eat pizza’ that night sign up and pay by 6.30pm. We get put in a top floor 4 bed dorm with a crappy old fan which is luckily at our end (well those are the bunks we chose!). We have a balcony though ... read more

The Greyhound and the East Coast We have an early start today and are up at the crack of dawn. We pack the last of our things and head on down to reception. The Northern girl, Melanie, with the really long hair who came on last night just before we went to bed is on reception. She is the one who has a bit of a moan at everyone as she never wants to do any work! Well true to form she was sitting outside having a fag ignoring all of the rubbish, cups and left over drinking items that have obviously been sitting there since last night! We said we wanted to check out and she told us to wait until she had finished her fag! Well, Charlotte replied that we were getting a bus ... read more

RUN UP TO XMAS Wow, we want to see everything in 3D at IMAX, took our breath away! Avatar wasn’t a great story but the spectacle of it more than made up for it. Plus it didn’t feel like nearly 3hrs. Then a nice little walk home, though Sydney (the last Train had gone about 20 mins earlier) past some rather ugly prostitutes all of which were gazing a Charlotte’s chest as if to find out where she got them done. Home, beer and bed, a great end to a great day. Necessities day, desperate need for laundry being done. So as usual we’re up at the crack of noon, and in to the laundry, then some Chillaxing, and brainstorming for the day’s events round the hostel while it finishes. Off to the pool today, we ... read more