I went into the main.tpl file and added .?mode=index&thread_order=1 into the first div.

 
 
<div id="top">
<div class="left"> 
{if $settings.home_linkname}<p class="home"><a href="{$settings.home_linkaddress}">{$settings.home_linkname}</a></p>{/if}
<h1>
 
<a href=".?mode=index&thread_order=1"
 
 title="{#forum_index_link_title#}">{$settings.forum_name|escape:"html"}</a></h1>
</div>

This forces it into the view we want. I assume the cookies do their thing and keep it into this view once they have clicked the links.

I know its a cheap work around.

Does anyone have any other ways of doing this?