This is our last night in Noosa - tomorrow we head up to Hervey Bay and do a 3 night camping trip on the all sand Fraser Island. Should be a blast - hopefully we’ll see some more Humpback whales and some dingos!

These past 2 days were spent wandering around Noosa, walking 6 miles on the National Park trail, and going to the Australia Zoo. Highlights were seeing dolphins in the wild, feeding a kangaroo in the zoo, petting koalas and seeing all the cool animals.

Talk to you guys after we get back from Hervey Bay!!! As always more photos can be viewed on my flickr stream.

Dave and I just arrived in Noosa last night and are getting used to being back on land. We did a 4 day sailing trip in the Whitsunday islands with Pacific Sunrise and had an amazing time. We met so many cool people from all over the world, saw the most beautiful beach we’ve ever seen (whitehaven beach) and spent time snorkling and sailing…so beautiful!!

It’s finally sinking in to me that we’re on this trip, in Australia, and that we still have 4 weeks left. It’s cool meeting other travellers who are on a similar journey, and really interesting talking politics and culture with the other people we meet. It’s amazing how much you learn about yourself and the world while traveling like this….it’s priceless!

I of course miss everyone back at home and think about you all often - mostly that you’re sleeping while I’m awake. Today we’re off for a nature walk along the Noosa National Park and will hopefully spot some koalas in the wild, and then tomorrow we’re heading to the Australia Zoo to check out Steve Irwin’s zoon. Here are some photos straight out of the camera from our last week!

Love you all!

the gorgeous Pacific Sunrise boat that we called home for a few days:

Sunset over the Whitsundays:

Stunning Whitehaven beach, if you look closely the grey specks in the water are stingrays:

Looking down onto Hamilton Island during our stay at the Beach Club.

We hiked to the top of Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays and saw this view:

Windblown and tired but we made it all the way to the top:

Dave and I are getting rid of our sea legs after 3 nights on a live aboard dive boat which was amaaaaaazing! We went with Spirit of Freedom and they did a phenomenal job organizing all of our 10 dives over the few days. We saw so many cool things - more than I could even describe here. Some of the highlights were diving with the potato cod and being there for a cod feeding(photo of dave and a potato cod below), swimming with the minke whales(GORGEOUS!) and seeing all the insanely amazing coral. This was the best diving we’d ever seen and we had such a great trip and met a bunch of fun new friends.

We also spent a few days before at a resort called the Thala Lodge which was beautiful and felt so isolated. Very cool and relaxing. The photo below of both of us was taken this morning at Lizard Island - beautiful little island with a gorgeous resort. Then we took a small prop plane back to cairns…pretty cool scenery from above! We have this one more night in Cairns while we get rid of the nitrogen in our blood and then we’re off to the Whitsunday Islands!!!!!!!! Here are a few photos from the last three days.

Mom and dad thanks for keeping up with our mail!! Love you all!

More photos can be seen on my flickr stream: shey’s flickr

Today we woke up early to watch the sunrise (who are we kidding - we woke up at 6:00 am b/c we’re not adjusted to the time yet), and then headed to the Daintree River area for the day. We checked out Mossman Gorge, Cape Tribulation, and took a river cruise on the Daintree River and spotted salt water crocs. Fun times and gorgeous scenery. We even did a rainforest hike and saw all kinds un of cool trees and vines way older than us. Here are a couple photos from the last few days!

Tomorrow we head south a bit and spend 2 days at Thala Beach! I’ll check in again later!

We’ve arrived without a hitch, got over the jet lag in 1 day, and are totally pumped for our day at the beach today.  It is gorgeous here - the weather is amazing and our hotel is awesome (Martinique on Macrossan). 

Of course I realized once I got here that I forgot my memory card reader at home so I have to figure out how to upload my photos still….

I finished the third book in the Twilight series and bartered it for the fourth so everything is good on that front!

Miss everyone already, but we’re so looking forward to exploring this area and a part of me already feels at home here.  To my aussie girls - remember the boutique Witchery?  It’s still here and I want to buy everything. :) 

Love you all!
~Shey