Cairns to Brisbane in 15 minutes

No, that's not how long it took to cover the distance (that's been 10 days) it's how long I have to try and cram everything in to a blog post about it all... so I'm going to skim and fill in the details later as well as probably writing the very pretty postcards I bought at Fraser Island this morning, though those probably wont make landfall back home until after xmas.

So I've traveled a fair chunk of the coast of Queensland now, I'm currently in sunny Brisbane where a nice man at the Apple Centre up the road told me that the mysterious fault my iPod suffered two weeks ago (resulting in it failing to recognise any of the 20gigs of music it's still carrying) appears to be a hardware failure and is probably terminal. Shit. On the bright side though Aussie iPods are dirt cheap given the exchange rate so I may yet treat myself to a replacement as a christmas pressie (though there'll still be no way of getting my music on it until I get home)

You guys don't care about all that though do you? You want to hear about the stunning tropical islands I've been sunning myself on for the past week, that'll brighten up the northern hemisphere winter for you all* The big 'uns were Long Island in the Whitsundays and Fraser Island which I just left and is the world's largest sand island, meaning that apart from three large rock formations on which it rests the entire island is made of sand. Follow the links for more detail and some piccies as I'm in a net cafe and can't upload my own. Both the islands were stunning in their own ways though I spent more time on the water in the Whitsundays than I did on Long Island itself: myself and six of my friends on the tour spent three days aboard a gorgeous black 60ft yacht called "Silent Night" alternately exploring some of the other islands in the Whitsundays and racing about under full sail with mad grins on our faces.

Hard to do this tour justice with so little time, so I'll leave it at that - the wikipedia entries on both places should give you all some idea of the places I'm seeing and the people are just awesome: it's such a good group and I'm going to miss them when we get to Sydney in a few short days.

* honestly folks I'm not gloating at all: I have to come back in January and am painfully aware of how cold that's going to feel after three months down here!