Paradise Inn Motel Surfers Paradise

... Byron Bay. Now there is a nice spot. Small, historical,funky and unpretentious, it is the stomping ground of musicians, painters, potters and actors. It is also the farthest point east on the continent and if you looked REALLY far out to sea and had Superhero vision you might see the migrating humpback whales.

We couldn't leave the Gold Coast without seeing the Rugby League Titans play at their home turf. It was a lopsided game but plenty of pushing ...

Got to Brisbane on Sat and jumped on the train to Coomera Waters where Bryan & Myra picked us up. Got in the car and Bryan said, "So you've been camping everywhere?" "No, staying in hostels." came our reply. "Oh...well we're glad you like camping anyway, there's a nice spot of grass for you in the garden!" Me & Matt went silent in the back, thinking the same thing - we haven't even brought a tent! but we found ourselves saying "Great, that will be fine!" I had ...

... shark bay was really amazing, also a really authentic small copy of a real reef. Since the weather was hot we went for swim in the pool area, a nice refreshment before the seal show started. Seal show was pure fun, mainly aimed for kids. The main event, the dolphin show, was way different that what I expected. That in a good way, it was very educating, what dolphins like to do and what they can do. After the show you could watch the doplhins in the pool ...

... a first. Its a real struggle getting him away-bribes are the only solution. We picked up the hire car and headed north up to the sunshine coast...Home of loads more beaches and Steve Irwins Australia Zoo. First place we stopped was couladra, the guy at the tourist office is not on my Xmas card list. Ended up at some dive of a caravan park. It was late and couldnt be bother to find another one. Luckily it was only next morning when we realised you could see the ground through ...

... similar to the day before - sandwiches and fruit salad and then some hotdogs. Scooby Doo then re-opened so we headed over to go on that, even being sucessful in dragging petrified Celeste on, therefore mananiging to get the entire family on the ride. We stopped to watch the new Scooby Doo street parade which turned out to be quite entertaining. Once it was over we decided to go to the Looney Tunes section of Movie World ...

... drinkin a pile of Jager Bombs! (Jager and Redbull) 25th December Felt pretty rough so we just sat around the apartment with a few beers, got pizzas and watched films. 26th December Shaun and Ewan went out to a shooting range and shot some hefty guns, at night we just had a few drinks in the apartment after Ewan and Eve had been on a pretty cool looking fair ground ride, I wis too much o a chicken though!

... an under-statement. Also, there are a lot of old people in Surfer's! I never realised it but most people in Byron are under 40. I was surpirsed to find that I knew a lot of people in Surfer's. Since Byron Bay is a must stop on most people's travel itinerary and most people visit Cheeky Monkeys once, people seem to know me whereever I go. It's awesome! After two days in Surfer's, I have travelled up to Brisbane. Today I had ...

... bus to Bryon Bay. 4 hours later we checked into our hostel and went along to the Beach Hotel Bar to watch the cricket, after a 40 minute power cut that took out the whole of Bryon, we witnessed the end of yet another terrible defeat in the cricket, this time in the 20/20 game. We hocked up with Si Bowker and his Australian girlfriend who were touring up the east coast and started off on the slippy road to another heavy night. There ...

... for the bus been full of ****** Aussies I'd have given him a load more verbal. Luckily where he'd dropped me was right next to the Roma St transit centre, which is only 2 stops on the train from mine. I didn't feel like doing much for the rest of the night and was in bed by 1am. I got up nice and early on Sunday as it was meant to be a hot day and was planning on spending a day in the sun. I was half way through my breakfast when the agency called asking me to be at Sofitel in half ...

... was a moving tribute to these people who were our age and in Australia for the same reasons we are. We arrived into the retail park that is Hervey Bay that afternoon and early the next morning were introduced to the group of people with whom we would be sharing our self-drive explorations of Fraser Island over the next three days. There is something undeniably intimate about being crammed into a six-seater 4x4 with ten other people, and we quickly got to know ...