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Published: October 2nd 2007
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Coffs Harbour Creek
A lovely day for a stroll. Coffs Harbour We journeyed on the Greyhound Bus to Coffs, stopping off at the Big Prawn Restaurant for brunch (complete with huge prawn on the roof). A Shrewsbury lad called Ian picked us up from the bus stop and gave us a tour of Coffs Harbour. He told us about the fantastic diving he enjoyed around the Solitary Isles, so we decided to sign-up for two dives the next morning, especially as it was a chance to see nurse sharks. The sunshine disappeared as we walked up Mutton Bird Island, the jutting out headland dotted with Mutton Bird burrows. The parent birds had just arrived on their annual migration and were flying about and pairing up. As we walked along the peninsular, we kept seeing a bird of prey, fluttering on the sea breeze. Walking back to the hostel, we marvelled at the surfers braving the rips in the bay to catch a wave.
Diving the Solitary Isles Up early we rushed down to the dive shop and had a shock, because the staff actually expected us to help load the gear on the van and then unload it onto the boat! We had grown accustomed to having dive
coffs harbour
View from mutton bird island, bit breezy up there. slaves do everything for us, even kit up our gear. The second shock was jumping in the water, which now felt relatively cold at 20 degrees (we can't believe we actually endured 4 degrees at Stoney Cove in English winter!). The 5mm two-piece wetsuits were really restrictive and combined with the cold, seemed to prevent you taking a full breath. Jase loosened his suit while Rach struggled to catch her breath in the surge at the surface. Eventually after a few minutes taking some deep breaths, we descended. Our Japanese Dive Master had been pretty useless, he didn't even speak to us before or after the dive, but he came in useful for helping Rach get down as we were both so buoyant in the thick suits. At the bottom we swayed forcibly backwards and forwards in the surge. At first Rach fought it finning madly thinking it was a strong current, but then realised it was just swinging us around, not dragging us away. We saw a few wallygongs, also known as carpet sharks, that were really camouflaged on the seabed. Unfortunately we didn't find any Raggytooth Nurse Sharks, which had been the big draw for us diving there,
Hunting!
A Falcon/hawk/kestrel?? taking advantage of the breeze to hunt. but it was an experience. Back on the surface, no one helped us onto the boat and the ladder wasn't roped, so our bare feet slid on the shiny metal. We braced ourselves and managed to haul ourselves out of the water with all that extra lead on. Jase felt green between dives and puked over the side. Rach opted out of the next dive because the conditions had been disappointing and it didn't seem worth the effort. Rach found it really interesting onboard the boat, because it gave her lots of insight into dive training. She felt really sorry for one of the students who was obviously struggling in the swell and the instructor was getting impatient with him. The boat lurched quite a lot whilst waiting for the divers and even though Rach never felt ill, she involuntarily projectile vomited all her tea and biccies back over the side.
Quiz Back at the hostel, Justin the Entertainment Manager who we had got chatting to (fellow diver) invited us to join in the quiz night. We thought it might be a laugh and as many of the other teams were German, Swedish or drunk, we thought we had
a good advantage so coffed up $3 each to enter. Justin initially told us the prize was the Pot, which would be a good win of $60. However, just before the quiz started he said that the prize was the Pot plus theme park passes for travellers heading North and a couple of nights in a Sydney hotel for those going South. We were a bit skeptical, but thought hey, we'll try to win. Luckily it was a draw between our team and an American team. Justin was trying to sort some tie-breaker questions when we cheekily asked whether we could split the prize, as the other team were travelling North. Amazingly Justin said that was cool, so great we had a few free nights, probably in a hostel or budget hotel somewhere in Sydney. Throughout the quiz, Justin gave away 24 bottles of Carlton Cold to people for winning a game of Paper, Scissors or Stone. Justin then headed out and came back with two boxes of "Goon" (plonk) a dodgy sweet, fruity white wine and more beer. The American guy called Colin and two German lads, Linus and Mattius, joined us for a series of silly drinking games
diving in coffs
Bit cooler this time! that involved drinking copious amounts of nasty wine. Colin was determined to try to dispel the myth that Yanks can't hold their drink, but only ended up confirming it by puking broccoli and cauliflower all over the Gents loos after his forfeit of downing a huge glass of wine. Linus spent most of the night puking and pooing on the loo, so Justin decided to get him with the hose pipe, which caused much hilarity. Jase helped Justin clear up Colin's puke and jokingly said, "Does this earn me four nights in the Sydney hotel mate?"
The Morning after We all planned to get up and visit Pet Porpoise Park to see the dolphins and amazingly we escaped hangover, but only Mattius was well enough to join us. We arrived at the park and got a welcome kiss from a friendly sea lion and then sat in the stadium for the dolphin show. We were entertained by the performing dolphins and the seals, some of which were resident in the park because they had been injured and rescued. We also saw some cute little penguins and fed a comical Port Jackson shark. We walked back to the hostel along
the creek, enjoying the sunshine as we following the boardwalk. The water sparkled in the sunlight and tiny crabs scuttled around the mudflats below us.
Just as we were preparing to leave the hostel to catch our bus, Justin called us over to the computer to show us the hotel he had booked for us in Sydney. Jase joked "I hope it's the Hilton mate!" to which Justin replied, "No, you don't want to stay there, this is much nicer!". Ha ha we thought. To our amazement, Justin had actually booked us into Fraser Suites in the city centre, which looked fantastic on the website. We couldn't believe our luck, even when we received the email confirmation stating that the $1200 fee had been paid in full. With fingers crossed, we hoped the room would really be ours!
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non-member comment
Why?
Why are there more photos or you two kissing animals than each other? Just kidding, sounds great, well done on the quiz, not like you Jase to rake it a little but just as well, Fraser Suites sounds quite plush. Keep enjoying yourselves cobbers!