Surf's up dude

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At the very first, when we got off the bus, we both had a feeling we were going to love Coolangatta. A gorgeous little seaside town which was not geared up for backpackers at all (what a breath of fresh air), the place was unusually packed because of the Quiksilver Surf Pro competition which was on for the duration of the time we were there. Talk about good planning!
We booked into the Coolangatta Sands Hotel right in the centre of town, which, on first inspection, looked promising enough. Sharing our room with 4 blokes (girls, thats not as appealing as it may sound, picture, smelly socks, surfboards and snoring) the place seemed reasonable enough. However, our generally optimistic view deteriorated when as soon as we went to bed, the loud bass from the nightclub downstairs made sure that sleep would be a distant memory. . .
After the longest night of our lives where I think there was a hardcore techno rave off between seemingly a dozen D.Js', we couldn't wait for a morning brew to wake ourselves up. Well, with no kettle or cups with handles, we lucked out there too. This was fast turning into a nightmare and then out of the blue came an angel to save us from hostel hell. Enter one Sharon Lee.
Sharon, who we first met in Bali round the pool, had said to us that if we were ever in Coolangatta, to let her know and she would put us up for a couple of days. Strolling along Snapper Rocks beach, bemoaning our fate at the shitty hostel, who should we bump into but none other than our mate Sharon! On hearing our tale of woe, our kindly friend invited us to stay with her and her family for the rest of our time in Coolie. How cool is that?
The Lee family - Mel, Josh, Bree, Bridget, Courtney and cats, Bella and Narla - gave us the best welcome and made our time in Coolangatta a very happy one. We spent most of our days on the beach - Coolangatta's beache's have to be some of the best we've seen yet and you know how much I rave about my beaches!
We also went to Tweed Heads shopping mall - a bizarre experience in that even though its a short bus ride away, we actually step into NSW's time, whereby on one side of the road you're an hour ahead than the other side!
We didn't do very much else in Coolangatta - its just that sort of place where you want to just chill out but one thing of note was the lovely little fruit shop we found where they sold the best smoothies ever with 3 pieces of fruit on top of the cup. Making sure we got our 5 a day was about the most interesting thing we did in Coolangatta but it was just what the doctor ordered before things would get all hectic with the arrival of Team Taylor in Surfers!

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