17th Dec - 27th Dec

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From Ballina we arrived in another small seaside town called Nambucca Heads. We found a motel here offering fantastic views over the bay below, and as it was another hot day Nancy set about sunbathing by the pool and i went wandering down to find the beaches. I under-estimated the heat of the sun and as i got a bit lost on my way back (i did have a map, but in my defence Australians tend to pick and choose which roads to have signs for), feared i'd die of sunstroke. In the end i got away with just a really burnt face. On my travels i stumbled across a graffiti wall. A place where people come to paint their messages and leave a mark on the place. They should try this on Canvey Island, although i imagine it wouldn't have quite the same affect.

The first night in Nambucca Heads we had a long drawn out stand-off with a huge cockroach, and i can tell you that spraying loads and loads of Nivea for Men anti-persperant on it does not work. Maybe i should have tried Lynx. Eventually we managed to shoo it out the door and got some sleep.

My plan for the rest of the time here (we only booked in for two nights) was to concentrate on getting the rest of my body looking like my face. But then we had a huge thunderstorm and there was nothing to do. I got bored and decided to re-visit the beaches in the rain and see what they looked like. Very similar, but a lot less people. (I did this on the 18th Dec and spent christmas day in bed ill).

From here we drove to Newcastle and for the first time in Australia were turned away from all the hostels in the area. It was nearly christmas and we hadn't booked anything. So we drove on and found a small place called Terrigal. Terrigal was terrible. I'm sure it was a nice place but we arrived there on the day we had intended to be somewhere else and it was only 15 degrees and raining out! Up until this point i haven't been in temperatures much below 30degrees since the start of October so i was freezing. We went for a few drinks that night and to make me completely hate the place i left my only pair of jeans behind in the rush to move on the next day.

The one thing Terrigal was good for was booking our future accomodation. In the short stay here we ensured that we booked somewhere to stay all the way up to the 3rd January - the day i fly out to Tasmania. Every night that is except for the 28th, which we couldn't find anything for. It is the 27th tonight so tomorrow should be fun.

The first place we booked into was Wollongong. We stayed here for 3 nights. Initially we planned to spend christmas here but decided against staying in one place for so long... and it was fully booked after the 22nd. Wollongong wasn't too bad a place though. The actual city was just like an english town with a huge high street and shopping centre, but it had plenty of bars and a decent harbour and beach. Unfortunately, the cool, cloudy weather continued and so we were restricted to just the bars. Here also, i got a room to myself again, which is always nice once in a while. I should have used this time to re-sort my backpack but instead seemed to make more of a mess. I also bought a DVD player to go with my mini-laptop so i hardly look like a proper traveller anymore. Our rooms were above an irish bar so we went there the first night, Nancy made a friend in Kylie and we got to listen to a terrible band who have somehow managed to get themselves booked there for New Years Eve.

From Wollongong we went to Narooma. The place we'd spend christmas. As mentioned before, i felt ill so despite joining everyone for a few drinks on christmas eve during the day, as they all moved onto the pub in the evening i went to bed wearing a jacket and a fleece as i was so cold. I woke up a few hours later feeling really really hot! Christmas day was spent in bed, with a cuppa soup for christmas dinner. We are in a 6 bed dorm. On arrival, there was just one other guy there but from Christmas Day onwards we were blessed with the loudest snoring man ever. I have no idea how his partner puts up travelling around with him. I hate that man, and i think he is english.

Tomorrow we move on toward Melbourne. We are not booked into our hostel there until the 29th and do not need to get the car back until that date so we will be looking for somewhere to stop along the way.

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Photos

Nambucca heads
View from our room