THE RACHELEN PROJECT

I'm currently sat on a lovely beach in Wayalailai just off Fiji! I'll do my best to remember last week so here goes.

We left Hervey Bay after visiting Fraser Island and took the bus down to Noosa. Noosa has one of two everglades in the world, and it's the only one without alligators swimming in it. An everglade is a very reflective lake. We didn't go in the end because the only way to see them was to pay $100 for a kayaking trip.

After sitting on the beach for a couple of hours, we went to bed early and left the next day. Unfortunately it was one of the hostels where 60% of the guests work two hours a day to live  for free and the crowd becomes pretty exclusive. The next day we took an early bus to Australia Zoo.

Usually I'm not a supporter of zoos but I'd heard good things about this one from our Fraser tour guide, and having enjoyed Steve Irwin's show on TV as a child, Helen and I decided to give it a go. To its credit the animals had large enclosures and alternated shifts for the shows; the focus of the zoo was to raise awareness for caring for animals and to encourage kids to get excited about them. The midday show was great and ee got to see some pretty awesome birds and crocodiles. However, you never know for sure how much of the show is natural to the animals and the extent of truth in what the trainers say.

All of the animals in Steve Irwin's zoo are hand raised (raised with constant human contact) which sometimes causes problems if animals are transferred elsewhere, but as one keeper explained, you never know whether an animal will move or not so as long as animals are with them they will be raised by hand.

The same evening we caught another bus straight to Brisbane. We spent one night in the city (as we knew we'd be coming back for our flight) and went down to Byron Bay the next day for three nights. Byron Bay was my favourite place on the mainland; it's a little expensive but there are lots of backpackers and locals around, with plenty of cafes and independent shops to wander around. The beach was beautiful and although the atmosphere in the hostel started off a bit forced, it was a good clean place and dinner was included each evening.

We only ate out once in Byron and that was our last morning as we had some Australian cash to get rid of. We had a lovely breakfast with pesto and avocado, tomatoes, ham and cheese.

The same evening we splashed out in Brisbane with a burrito, sitting along the south bank of the river. It was a lovely public park with plenty of cafes, bars, landscaping, a ferris wheel and, unsurprisingly, a lagoon. From the little we saw of Brisbane it seems like an exciting city with a brief history and plenty of towers along the river banks. There are wide public squares with ice rinks and sledging slopes and people stayed out later than 6pm for reasons other than to drink. 

This ended our time in Australia! We spent far too much money here and were hoping to save some when we arrived in Fiji. Overall we had a great time, especially on the islands, but it hasn't been my favourite place to visit. There were a few too many bikini, jelly wrestling and wet t shirt competitions that seemed a little behind the times but the landscape was incredible and the efforts given to conserving it's natural beauty and the environment was admirable.