Hello From the Gold Coast!!

Finally I get to do my blog....I haven't forgotten you all at home (I promise) just been really busy on tour!

So where shall I start?!! I met up with the group, 29 of us in total. Mostly all from UK but some from Austria, Canada and New Zealand. A great bunch of people again so im very lucky!! I have been spending most of my time with 3 english girls and having loads of fun!

We started our tour in Cairns and went to the rainforest for the day. Here I cuddled a Koala! This was amazing and I have now put one on my Christmas list...pleeaasseee!!
We also took a trip in a cable car over the rainforest canopy which was stunning as it was so high up.
I also did a second day diving on the Great Barrier Reef and this time went to a much nicer reef which was really beautiful and the colours were amazing. Weather still windy but I got myself some extra strength sea sickness tablets which thankfully worked. Loads of our group however were in a bad way, which was unfortunate for them.

After this we headed to the outback for our nights camping which was so much fun. We cheated a bit as they were luxury tents and had proper beds in them!! We did a bush walk which was interesting and a totally different landscape from the Malaysian jungle!
In the evening we headed to a high point to watch the sunset over the amazing views of the bush. We sipped champagne and took in the magic. The night ended when we had a buffet dinner, (more bubbly) and a bonfire!!

After leaving the outback we arrived at the marina to board out boat for the next 3 days. It was a racing sailing boat named The British Defender. We sailed to a bay and dropped anchor to watch the sunset over the islands and spent our first night gazing up at the stars.
Day 2 on the Whitsunday Islands we woke up to have breakfast on the deck at sunrise. We then sailed to Whitehaven beach which has the whitest sand in the world. We went to a lookout point and the views were breathtaking over the beaches. We spent some time on the beach before heading to another bay to snorkel. Here we got lucky as it was low tide so the sun shone through the water and lit up the reef. We saw loads of fish and beautiful colours before drying out in the sun on a little beach.
Our second night we watched the sun set again and as the moon hit the water I spotted some dolphins passing our boat- amazing and totally magical! We had another fun night of drinking and dancing on deck under the stars!!
Our 3rd day on the Whitsundays was eventful. We sailed to an island (which was more of a sand strip) to snorkel and got dropped off by our small speed boat. We then had to walk along in the shallow water to reach a bigger island so we would drift the right way in the current back to the boat. A couple of minutes in Emily got stung by a jelly fish and when she lifted her foot out of the water it was still attached. Very scary as we have constantly been told about all the many things that can kill you in this country and some jelly fish stings can leave you hours to live. It luckily turned out that she was fine but we didn't get to snorkel after this and were quite glad to be out of the water and back on the boat!
We then left the Whitsundays to head back for a night in our posh resort in Airlie beach. It was Sophie's birthday so we had a night of drinking, dancing and yet more giggling!!