Blogs from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 10

On our last day in Byron I managed to burn my eyebrows and my ears. When I woke up the next day my ride sife of my face, which I slept on was completely swollen. I now know that I have to put sunscreen EVERYWHERE! We are now in Coffs harbour which means... WE ARE NO LONGER SLEEPING ON THE GROUND!! I had never been so happy to sleep in a bed, and slept like a baby, hahah. We were only here for a couple of days, and pretty much just wandered around the city. Smaller places in Australia are known for their large monuments of random objects. Naturally, we started our trip by visiting a giant banana, and it was definitely as cheesy as it sounded... hahh. We then wandered over to a dutch themed ... read more

2nd January 2008 - SURF SCHOOL BEGINS I didn't sleep too well despite being exhausted. I think I was scared that my alarm wouldn't go off so i'm sure I woke up at least every half hour. I got out of bed at about 5.45....way too early to be up and about!!! I showered, dressed, packed the rest of my stuff and made my way to Kings Cross Station where I caught a train to Central Station. So hot and humid even at 6am and carrying the bag wasn't fun........it's times like this that I miss the van!!! Once at Central Station I wandered around trying to find the pick up point. After half an hour I still had not found it so I phoned the surf camp who explained exactly where I needed to be....woo ... read more

It's true what they say. Aussies really do go the beach on Christmas day. We could get used to Christmas like this. We were fortunate to be spending the Christmas holiday in Moonee Beach, near Coffs Harbour, with Chris's sisters in-laws (the hosts with the most!) Jim and Pauline. What a fantastic spot and what fantastic hosts. As happens with many people on Christmas eve we had to make that last mad rush to the mall for the last minute gift shopping. And to have Phia's (Chris's neice) picture taken with Santa Claus in her new christmas dress. In Australia, shopping mall santas are housed in sand castles. Once the shopping was completed we headed back home to prepare for a delicious feast. We had our Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. Served outside on the patio, ... read more

To Lennox Head Surrounded by raucous rugby players (Fijians and Australians) we had not slept well and were therefore eager to move on to quieter parts. We had left our towels and sandals out to dry overnight and were lucky that they were not pinched. One guy in another van was not so lucky - he had his flip flops (or thongs as they are known over here) stolen and was enraged when he found out! It was amusing though watching him cycle around the site barefoot (I do not think he had any other shoes!) with a face like thunder in search of them. We continued our southbound journey as far as Lennox Head, known for good surf and Lake Ainsworth, a freshwater lake brown in colour due to the tannins from tea trees lining ... read more

October 6, 2008 Not every day is totally great. We spent a frustrating morning dealing with rental campers. I told you it was too good to be true. To make a boring story short we ended up driving a nice rental car out of Sydney at 2 PM. Joe didn’t seem to have much trouble driving on the left side of the road sitting on the right side of the car, but he is still turning on the windshield wipers when wants the turn signals and we both always seem to start to get in the wrong side of the car. I am sure glad Joe is doing the driving because there’s no way I could feel comfortable doing it. Because today is Labor Day there were “Driver Reviver” stands along the freeway offering coffee and ... read more