Friday 25th February

Had one last delicious breakfast, then headed off to catch our greyhound bus to Brisbane. We arrived in Brisbane around 11.40pm and I went to a payphone to ring Bec (one of the 2 sisters we met in Airlie beach) I gave her terrible directions as to where we were, but after a while Bec and her sister Jess found us and picked us up and took the three of us to their house.We had a Tour of the Treby Residence, Then Jess treated us hungry travelers to an Aussie Barbecue. We then all Went to a nearby shopping center, so Lewis could buy a new camera. When we arrived back we Met the rest of the family who were all really welcoming and said we could stay a few nights which was really nice of them. They even did our washing for us!!! We gave Jess a game of tennis and their friends (Sam & Amy) turned up. We Then all sat outside and had dinner together and then we all decided to go out. We drank our leftover goon, and headed out to a place called the Royal Mail. It wasn't the best (Don't be offended when you read this girls! haha) But we still had a brilliant time and it was a good laugh! We left around half 1 and walked all the way back to the house and sat around their fire in the garden for a while then went to bed, as we had to be up early tomorrow to go to 'wet n' wild' water park!

Thursday 24th February

Today we went for another amazing breakfast nextdoor to our hostel. After breakfast, Lewis and myself decided to go book the fishing boat for 3 hours at 1pm. We walked back and me and Tom decided to chill in the hostel, while Lewis went for another surf attempt. 1pm arrived. The guy gave us a packet of shrimps, 3 rods and brief instructions on how to drive the boat. We started off driving over to a bank and trying our luck there, which resulted in lewis teasing the smallest fish in the world into a bucket using a bit of bait... Technically it counted as "catching a fish" so Lew was winning 1-0-0. I managed to get my line completely tangled after a cast and so after a few angry rants, we headed back to get my rig sorted. We then headed out to a bridge and decided to cast out our bait under the bridge (mainly because it was raining) As I threw the anchor out, the sun came out and it was baking hot. Then my luck started to change. Withing minutes I caught 2 fish! Something wish nasty looking teeth and a puffer fish! after my success, we had to go back as our three hours were up. But we had a lot of fun driving the boat back to the jetty! We got back and decided to all go to the beach for the remainder of the evening. We then all decided to go for a food shop. I suggested we watched the sunset on the jetty, which was pretty amazing, untill out of nowhere, a huge raincould came and nearly drowned us...

Wednesday 23rd February

We got up early today, because today we were going to visit AUSTRALIA ZOO! We went to the cafe nextdoor for a free breakfast (part of the hostel deal) which was really nice. Best breakfast so far on our travels! We walked to the nearest bus stop and waited for the over the top yellow coach roll up with a huge photo of Steve Irwin on the side. We climbed aboard and sat in our seats covered in Australian animals and headed off to the zoo which is around 2 hours from Noosa. To pass the time of the journey, the coach was equipped with several screens playing episodes from 'The crocodile hunter' It was actually quite fun. We arrived at the zoo around 9.30 am and it was almost empty! We walked around and saw a few crocs etc then made our way to the photobooth where you can hold a Koala and a Croc for 30 dollars. We thought "why not, your only here once" so went for it. Everyone was complaining the Koala stank, but I didn't actually think it smelt that bad! (probably because I smelt worse) It also decided to relieve itself on Tom's T shirt. We then went to the "Crocoseum" which is a big arena where they preform live croc shows. Was a bit of a let down to be hounest, so we were glad that we didn't have to pay to watch it! Would have been a lot better if Steve Irwin was there I'm sure! We then went to the kangaroo park where we bought some 'roo feed' for $2, which turned out to be the best $2 I've ever spent! The kangaroo's just bounded over to us and we were swamped with them all eating food out of our hands! I decided that after feeding them, I wanted to keep one, put a saddle on it and just ride it around back in the UK .. (don't think I will be allowed though .. ) We explored the rest of the zoo and fed elephants etc. One of the highlights of the day was this bird, who we nicknamed Marcus, chasing overweight children trying to peck them. We were crying with laughter at the mums and dads trying to shoo it away while it tried to attack their kids!
We left the Zoo at 4.30 and returned back to Noosa to sort out dinner. Overall, I actually quite enjoyed the zoo today. I'm not normally a 'zoo person' I think the fact I havn't visited a zoo in so long made it a bit more enjoyable, but the fact it was the legendary Steve Irwins zoo made it a must see! It was like a massive shrine to the guy though, which was a little bit creepy, but still.. you have to go to this zoo if you are in the area.

Tuesday 22nd February

We got up early and checked out of Pippies hostel. We then had a fairly long bus drive to Noosa. We had perfect weather for Fraser Island, but the day we left it poured down.. which was lucky! We arrived in Noosa around midday We checked into a hostel called Noosa backpackers resort which was a nice hostel. Lewis rented out a surfboard and me and Tom decided to walk to town to check it out. Although I've never been to Miami, Noosa kind of reminds me of what Miami looks like (in photos) It's quite a posh, well kept area. We had a look in the shops and then met up with Lewis on the beach. We got a free shuttle bus back to our hostel and Tom fell asleep. So me and Lewis decided to go find the local supermarket. We were walking along the riverside and noticed a sign for hiring fishing boats/rods & bait for only $70! The place was shut, but we decided to take a mental note of the place and come back tomorrow to check it out. Turns out that the supermarket is miles and miles away, so we had a long walk to do over the next couple of days!

Monday 21st February

Today we got up at our own leisure and strolled down to the beach to catch some rays. Lewis hired out a bodyboard and caught a few waves, while me and tom stayed on the beach. After a while, it got so hot outside we both decided to join Lew in the sea. After going to the beach, we headed back to our hostel and got in the pool for an hour or so. We then headed to an internet cafe, where I spent a good amount of time updating this blog. While we were in there, a storm came in and so we stayed in the internet cafe for a bit longer than expected. We were planning on going sandboarding in the afternoon and watch the sunset... thats the tropics for you !

Sunday 20th February

This morning we had our breakfast around 8ish and our first stop was the famous Maheno ship wreck This was an old WWII ship that was being towed to Japan for scrappage but it crashed on Fraser island and has been washed up on the shore ever since. The tide was in when we went to see it, so we couldn't get inside and have a close look. Lewis, who's camera was broken decided to just roll around in the sea and he then lost his sunglasses he bought from Thailand.. (Not the best luck over the past 2 days!) We then returned to the fresh water spring that we visited the previous day. We decided to swim up the stream and go for a bit of an explore. We then dried off and had a game of cricket on the beach, which I do believe I won! We then went for lunch at a little cafe. After our brief stop for lunch, we visited another stream, but this was a teatree oil stream (like the lake from the other day) we went for a swim in the stream and then it was time to leave Fraser island. on the drive back, we spotted wild dolphins jumping out the water right next to where we were going to catch our ferry back! We stopped and tried to lure them over to us, but I think they just got scared and swam away. We headed back to rainbow beach and went to the supermarket to buy our dinner for the night. After dinner there were a few bets being placed on games of Uno by Lew and Tom.. This resulted in both stripping naked, walking through a room full of people watching a film and jumping in the swimming pool.. and they were sober! We were all pretty shattered from all the swimming over the last few days, so decided to have an early night.

Saturday 19th February

Woke up this morning in a boiling hot tent, so there was definitely no lie in today! We all had breakfast together and set off to another lake. This lake was an orangy brown colour, because it was full of teatree oil. It was really good for you skin and hair apparently. We all had a morning swim and there were baby turtles everywhere at first, before we all jumped in and scared them away. We managed to push Lewis down to the bottom of the lake to see how deep it was and he surfaced having churned the bottom up, which created the most vile smell so we decided to all get out. Our second stop was another Sandblow. It wasn't as good as the lake Wabbi sand blow because we couldn't walk on it (you wouldn't want to as the sand temp was around 40-50 degrees) and it was difficult to see as there were a lot of trees in the way. But it was still huge and really impressive.
We went back to camp and had lunch, then we set off to a place called the Champagne Pools, which is the only area on Fraser Island that you can swim in the sea, well little sea pools, as the rest of the sea is so dangerous. Lewis stood in a tiny pool and managed to fall over and break his camera, where as Tom took full advantage and went off snapping photos left right and center. It was a nice place, but quite busy. We then went to Indians head which is a huge cliff face which gives you the most amazing views of the whole island. This was definitely my highlight of today. From the top you can spot stingrays in the sea and turtles, it was great. We walked back down to the 4x4 jeep and then shot off along the beach to another fresh water spring that runs into the sea. This was absolutely freezing! and as we were all still a bit tired from today, we dunked ourselves under and it woke us up straight away! We spent a bit of time here and then decided to call it a day and head back to the campsite and cook dinner and get straight back on the goon. We sat around the campfire again, and decided to walk to the beach and lie there and watch the stars (bit cheesy) pretty much everyone fell asleep on the beach for a while. Then we headed back to our tents.