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Published: January 14th 2009
19/12/08 = Cool Kiama Campsite
Had a good sleep once I stopped worrying about van sliding off the banking and into sea. Nice to wake up in such a beautiful location and when did venture out of van, saw that 2 other vans had come and stayed overnight too. Looked like a really nice day again, so quickly did the breakfast and wash thing, then went to lay on and apprectiate beautiful beach for last time. Creamed up and was only there for 10mins when giant cloud came over and got really cold. So, drove on to Kiama.
Not a far drive to Kiama and was still a little cloudy when got there, so had a look round shops. Nice town and some really lovely shops - v.quaint and old style. Glad I didn't find anything to buy though. Went to info centre to ask about library (our no.1 specialist subject area). Visited blowhole while we were there (=main attraction of Kiama) as was right next to info centre. Was pretty awesome as far as blowholes go and did shoot water really high. Was also a really nice view of Kiama from there and looked like a lovely place.
Tried library, but internet was down (boooo), so went to find campsite.
Found an awesome campsite = Kendalls Beach Holiday Park. It was positioned right in front of it's own private beach and just as we pulled in, the weather seemed to get really nice. Was cheap to stay there, had a really good kitchen and also a cool TV room - can't ask for more than that! Obvious what I did first...happens every time...went to make food! Had some lovely scrambled eggs on toast and spotted in TV guide that latest Batman was showing on a movie channel that campsite had - brilliant! That was our night sorted. Went back to van, passed on the good news, then did the 30second walk to the beach - amazing!
Beach was really nice; one of better ones we have seen. Laid on it for ages. Sun was really hot, but could hardly feel it because was such a nice breeze. Perfect sunbathing weather, just had to be really aware with suncream. Watched some cool guys surfing and by time 3 o'clock came, water was full of body boarders and surfers. Loads of kids came down after school. Must be
Me in Australian sea
There you go Mum...some proof for you.
*Additional note*
By the way, I DO NOT wear my bikini that high, the stupid waves pulled it up. Just wanted to clear that up!so cool when you can finish school and just head to water with a board. Stayed on beach until 4 o'clock, then went into water to wash all sand off. Nearly impossible to wash sand off my factor 30 vegetable oil cream...is so thick it's invinsible and every time get out of water, am glowing white like radioactive man! Didn't go deep in water, but even at waist height waves were crashing over shoulders and again was really hard to stay standing.
Back at campsite, got shower to try and get all sand off, but still couldn't remove radioactive man suncream. Decided to have a walk into town then because really fancied an ice-cream; strawberry to be specific. Was a nice walk along coast into town, but didn't even go all way into town because found a good ice-cream shop before it. Got the biggest ice-cream ever had in life and only asked for one scoop; another scoop wouldn't have even fit on my cone. Strolled back eating ice-cream and took me the whole 20mins to finish it. Went to TV room then to make sure could get movie channel. Really nice lady from Sydney helped me look too.
Wiped out by the wave.
Probably the same one that pulled my pants up. Better than down I suppose! She was really friendly and ended up watching a bit of her favourite TV with her = Aus version of Deal of No Deal. She absolutely loved it. Don't know if it started in Aus or UK first, but is still a big deal out here.
Chilled in TV room for a while and got really busy around dinnertime. Had a nice cup of tea (v.English) and rang friend from home to speak to God daughter Soph who is 2 today. Love you Soph. Really disappointed that didn't get to say much because phone card ran out. Put all my coins in too but they didn't last long either. Ring again at christmas. Back to TV room then and as soon as kitchen quietend down, made my usual extra large dinner. No pasta today though...decided to live life on the edge and have rice. Threw everything in that I had, needed using up before give van back on 24th, and turned out really nice...really large...but really nice.
Watched a bit of TV and really excited for Batman at 9. Completely gutted when campsite man came in and told us we had to lock up at 9, 9:30 at
the latest. All best movies on a night, so don't know why they have movie channel if can't watch them?!? Had to settle for The Hulk instead, which finished at 9:30. Was o.k., but was no Batman! Cleared out at 9:30, posted key for caravan man, had my night time wash, then headed to bed.
20/12/08 = A night out in Wollongong
Had a really good sleep and woke up determined to go for a run as had promised myself would do it yesterday. On opening eyes, last thing I felt like doing was running, but got up and did it anyway. Couldn't face a distance run, so went to hill near campsite and did some hill runs instead. Looked at hill and stupidly set a target of 15runs - regretted that decision as soon as did first one, but had to do it. Did it in sets of 5 with some arm exercises in between to break it up. Felt alot better after doing it (not immediately after...like 10minutes later) and really enjoyed nice shower. Went to TV room then and really enjoyed breakfast of tea and toast while reading magazine - was a good morning!
Nan Tien Temple
The biggest temple in Southern Hemisphere. V.pretty. Chilled and watched TV for a while, then after all washing had nearly dried, left for library at 11:30. Spent nearly 2hrs on internet trying to catch up with everything, then set off on journey.
Had to re-stock petrol first and was really impressed when a man came out and did it for us. Never had that before. Choose to believe that he was doing it to be nice, not because he spotted 2 blonde haired girls driving a van and thought we were incapable. Set off toi Wollongong then and was only a short journey. Had decided that we were going to have a night out because not been out in ages, so headed straight for info centre to ask about good places to go. Also asked about hang gliding = supposed to be really good here, but was too expensive, so decided couldn't do it. Had a little shoop round town. Wollongong not a beach town like lot of other towns come through, but a small city, so was nice to look round. Although shopping without money (I mean window shopping...not stealing...I haven't slipped that far down ladder of life yet!) never lasts that long, so decided
to spend rest of afternoon visiting Nan Tien Temple = biggest in southern hemisphere.
Temple took a lot of finding, mainly because an industrial estate had been built round it (bit like Normanton), which somewhat spoilt the feel of it. But when got inside grounds, was really nice and forgot that were surrounded by industry. Buildings were really beautiful, although there were some v.mean looking Buddhas outside main temple. Really glad when we walked to pagoda and found the cutest Buddhas ever. They were mini exercise Buddhas and 100% cute. Looked round all different sections of temple and really enjoyed trying chinese calligraphy, but got to say that favourite part was the exercise Buddhas. Had to get some pictures with them, but drew the line when Deb suggested doing a leap frog over one of them for a photo...pretty sure that leap frogging a Buddha would not be the best way of showing respect. Left after that, before Deb had another crazy idea and got us both publicly flogged! Decided to get something to eat in town as both fancied a really nice sandwich and not the home brand bread&wafer thin turkey that we had. Looked around, but was
6 o'clock so most of the places closed. Ended up in the Hog's Breath Cafe = worst place eaten so far. V.expensive, not a lot of choice on menu and food really not that good. Disappointment. Stayed for a while, but then headed back to van to get ready for night out.
Opened up the famous champagne (=actually sparkling wine) that was donated to us on 2nd day of trip as a Welcome gift. Chilled out and had the bottle between us, then did best we could taking it in turns to get ready in a rear view mirror. The glamorous life! Headed out to 9:30 to a bar we had parked near. Was here that got a vodka that actually tatsed like beef - it really did. I love a goof beefburger as much as the next person, but not in my vodka! Held nose, drank it down, then moved on. Deviated from plan given to us by info lady and went to a really busy bar called The Harp. Was really good in there and totally full. Had a karaoke on and were entertained for ages watching all singers = comedy. Only thing that ruined bar was
A pretty view and a statue.
V.vague, but no idea what/who statue represents. the number of times were approached by 50yr+ old men. Either we looked really old or really ugly...don't know which is worse?!?
Next headed to Glasshouse = also v.busy. Good music here from charts, so easy to have a sing and a dance. At 1am decided to try another bar called Kooneys but for some unknown reason they wouldn't let us in...maybe we looked too old!...so went back to Glasshouse again. Big queue to get in but was a really good night in there. Stayed all night, just dancing away. Chatted to few different people and ended up having a laugh with a group of guys for a few hours. They left but we decided to stay until end = bad choice. As dancefloor started to thin out and weren't many girls left, felt distinctly like being in a cattle market. Guys not shy in Australia. Cattle market was our que to leave and left club just before 4am. Had short walk home which was fine until noticed dodgy, drunk guy following us. Deb gave him his marching orders to leave (alcohol = bravery) and was fine. Got into bed around 4:30 and went straight to sleep.
*
Best part of night* : Asked a girl to take a photo for me and Deb. She must have misheard because she put her arms around her friend and started posing. I was a little baffled until realised that she was actually posing for me to take a photo of her. Why on earth would I want a photo of 2 girls I don't even know?! Was a totally embarrassing situation and really didn't know what to say to her. Repeated what had originally said, she looked a little embarrassed and quickly took a photo for me. Still can't understand it. Only thing can think is that either she was famous, or just unbelievably confident/arrogant!
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