A British tourist spent at least five seconds believing she had lost some weight, before realising that the extra space in her bikini bottoms had in fact been created by some loose elastic.

The misunderstanding happened at the Mooloolaba Beach Club Resort this evening, when British tourist Caroline Gough dived into the swimming pool and felt her bikini bottoms trying to make a bid for freedom.

Caroline explained “Maths and Science were never my best subjects, but I do remember learning about forces and resistance and angles. I’m sure a group of GCSE students could draw a nice diagram to show how the force of me hitting the water at a specific angle in bikini bottoms that are no longer snug would cause them to attempt to leave my body.”

Fortunately it was dark, and although the pool is lit up in Caroline’s favourite colour of turquoise, it is believed that nobody was around to witness the incident.

Since her arrival in Australia last November, Caroline has enjoyed sampling all of the jelly flavours and different types of chocolate that aren’t available in the UK, and also enjoys regular milkshakes.

“It’s unlikely that I’ve lost any weight recently” Caroline said. “But I am an optimist, so I was more than happy to believe that maybe somehow I had shifted a few pounds. Then reality kicked in and I realised it was just a case of loose elastic.”

Caroline commiserated her false weight loss hopes with a limited edition Kit Kat that is not available in the UK.