Queensland

QUEENSLAND, often called The Sunshine Cost, is the most popular state in Australia for turists. This is the only state in Australia which doesn't have summersaving, and this could sometimes cause problems when you cross the border. The weather is tropical, and there's a lot of things to see and do here, tropical islands, great beaches and, of course, Great Barrier Reaf. Queensland is the second biggest state in Australien, after WA. Along the coast you find palces like The gold coast and Surfers Paradise, Brisbane and the popular city of Cairns.

CAIRNSis located in the north of Queensland, right beside Trinity Bay. Cairns has become some sort of meeting place for all backpackers. Almost every single person you meet who's travelling has either already been there or they're going there soon. The weather is very tropical, and it's also very humid. The population is about 50 000 people, and the fact that it's heaps of turists here, doesn't make the city less friendly. This picture is taken by the Esplanade, where it's big green picnic areas. Most of the hostels is also located by the Esplanade, and at night it's the meeting place for all the backpackers. In the city of Cairns there's no beaches, but if you drive about 20 km up the coast, you come across some great beaches.

BRISBANEis the state capital in Queensland, and is located right next to the border to New Sout Wales. Brisbane is the third biggest city in Australia with about 1,3 million inhabitants. The city is big with modern skyscrapers, but it's not quite as busy as in Sydney or Melbourne. For most travellers, as with me, Brisbane is just a quick stop, preparing for further travelling.

THE RAINFORREST. In the north of Queesland
there is a lot of rainforrests. This picture is from
Cape Tribulation, located about 160 km north of Cairns. In Australia there's less than 2 million hectars of rainforrest, and there's a constant threat of extermination. In Cape Tribulayion National Park there's a oreserved area of untouched tropic rainforrest. In the thick rainforrest it's very humid and in one year it falls about 4 500 mm of rain.

GREAT BARRIER REEF offers a lot of exiting things. They say it's one of the worlds greatest places to dive and the reaf is a huge turistattraction. Diving here feels like you're in another world, and it should, because of all the coralls, and fishes in colors you didn't knew existed. Most of the reaf is protected in the Great Barrier Reaf Marine Park, and every time you enter the park, you'll pay a fee.
There's a lot of diferent divingschools with resonable prices. If you want to dive more than just a day, there are courses that takes you out on a boat a coupple of days. And if you don't want to dive, you can always go snorklig, or just relax on the boat.
If you decide that you want to dive and get the most out of your trip, you can take the oppertunety and take your divinglicens. Diving is a fun sport, men you should bare in mind that it is in fact a sport, and it's not an easy one. It can be tuff in the beginning, but it's really worth it.

SAILING is very popular along the eastcoast.
If you're looking for a day of relaxing, but you
still want to have fun and meet interesting people,
you should defenatly go on a sailing trip for a day.
The price often include breakfast or lunch, and
but you have to take whatever you want to drink
with you.
You can do nothing, or you can do it all. You can
relax on the deck, go snorkling or try "boom-
netting"- wich means you're sitting in a big net wich
is attached at the back of the boat. That's a real thrill!

CATTLESTATIONS is very common in Australia.
They got huge territorys with thousends of
animals.
The fact that Australia is the worlds dryest
country, they're very dependent on the rain
that falls during the winter. If it dosn't rain enough,
the reservoares dosn't get filld up, and by the end
of the summer, they can be out of water.