Australia Part 9 - Gold Coast 1

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Boredom, Beaches and new friends

So our trip up the gold coast started with another great train journey with scones and jam (as per usual) and ended with us arriving in a place called Newcastle which was much warmer than the one in the UK. Although we weren’t far from Sydney at this point you could feel the temperature difference already. We made our way the short distance to the hostel which was an old manor house with a grand living room (now full of beer cans, dirt and hung-over travellers) and realised we were only moments from the beach - so first plan body boarding (as these were free). We checked in with the guy on reception who was pretty nice, we said we were YHA members, which I guess to him may have meant students, so he said he didn’t need to see mine but would need to see Nath’s id card! Ha-ha was he implying Nath looked too old or was a liar? Anyway we got to our huge shared dorm room; even though on booking they implied they were fully booked and were gonna have to try their best to squeeze us in. watch this when you are travelling, the amount of times the internet says they have room when on the phone they don’t and vice versa and often you’ll be told they are making an extra effort to squeeze you in when the whole time you are there you may not even pass another person!!

Anyway off to the beach we thought, grabbed some old smelly boards, and headed to the beach carrying our body boards like pros we thought. Unfortunately the sun that had been around all day had started to disappear and it was now getting on for 5pm, but we figured we’d made this fuss about wanting to try and trying not to look old and like we didn’t know what we were doing, we were gonna get wet, whether that meant a proper go or I just soaked myself so it looked like I’d tried. Needless to say we did have a go, I did spectacularly well assuming coughing and spluttering and rolling over like a beach whale was how you were meant to do this. Whilst Nath did a bit better than me, making use of his long limbs and massive hands to paddle at the right time. He was paddling in front of the wave, whilst I awaited it, tried to swim in front of it and then panicked when it started to crash on me and then just held on for dear life - didn’t really work, thus the coughing and spluttering. We did however head back after about 40 mins (its tiring stuff) aching and ready for a nice cup of tea!!!

Although we were only booked in for two nights we decided to book an extra night, not because there were loads to do here (quite the opposite) but because the local pub did a cheap roast dinner on the Sunday which we were pretty much signed up for as soon as we entered the hostel!! Last roast we had was at Annette and Chris’s back in New Zealand so this would be a real treat. We arrived back to find that the nice big dorm room had 4 or 5 or maybe 6 people in it all getting ready to go out. I couldn’t tell how many people there were because there seemed to be a couple of girls in the bathroom, a few lads coming in and out off the room with alcohol and not enough beds for all of them so I had no clue what was going on. All I know is I was wet and salty and the girls were spending so long in the bathroom I thought they were re decorating. I guess because I’ve always stayed in mixed dorms I hadn’t noticed how long it took girls to get ready - I’m used to waiting for Nath to do his makeup but girls take ages!!!

Anyway we headed into “town” to one of the happening pubs that was mentioned in my YHA guide as giving money off food orders - great we thought! However when we ordered our food the staff member said they didn’t do discounts and didn’t even know they were mentioned in this YHA guide book - what!!! Luckily Nath must have been hungrier than I was as he marched the book straight over there to show them the advert and demanded it was not our problem. This freaked the young girl behind the counter out enough to give us our money off - yippee for whinging pomes!!! They had some kind of party going on whilst we were there, with people arriving in some sort of fancy dress, or perhaps its fashion these days I cant tell any more, but it did look like they were celebrating the anniversary of the colour blind association - I didn’t see any banners but I’m sure that’s what it was! By the time it got busy and the local celeb got to the stage with his guitar and symbol tied to his knees - you’re picturing it right?!! We were about to leave anyway, which I was glad about as I’m not sure I could have taken to swirls of clashing colours as the party members hit the dance floor. When we got back to the hostel all the, whatever number, of people were out so we had our standard cuppa, watched some TV and then went to bed, after all all that boarding had tired us out and we planned to go every day to make the most of these freebies. That night I was vaguely aware that the room mates came back but it wasn’t till I woke up the next morning and noticed some of the beds were still made that I realised nearly all of them were sharing a bed together - ahhhhh, I wonder what else they share???

Anyway the next day we got ourselves all psyched up for more boarding and ventured down again only to find that the water was pretty rubbish wave wise (because we’re so good now we can tell) and the sun was hidden behind nasty grey clouds, something we hadn’t seen in a while. But again like a British person having a summer BBQ - I don’t care if its raining and we have no lighter oil, we’re having this BBQ whether I have to sit out here in the freezing cold and light this dam thing by rubbing sticks together - i.e. carry on regardless. Again I did my usual dazzling display of balance and timing, whilst Nath enjoyed watching and laughing for some reason, as it was too cold for him to go in! He was right after all but again I wanted to have another go even if it was only for a little while. With little else to do at the hostel (we were only still there because of the promised Sunday roast) we pretty much just lounged around before that evening watching an old film called Pricilla queen of the desert - which was fricken hilarious and gave us a good impression, I think, of how the red centre will be as long as Nath doesn’t turn up in a sparkly red number. The guy who ran the hostel joined us at one point and we mentioned the weather being rubbish, he agreed and added it would soon be time to get out his winter t-shirts….winter t-shirts you say, what are they when their at home I hear you cry….apparently they’re slightly thicker t-shirts to help with the extreme cold temperatures here!!!!


The next day was Sunday - yippee roast dinner and Dr Who- I try and make sure we’re at a hostel with TV as often as I can on a Sunday. It had started raining today so that pretty, much pissed on our day of boarding idea but we figured hey, doesn’t matter we have roast dinner to look forward to! However disaster struck, yes the volcano in Iceland had erupted again but no I meant that the roast dinner we had been promised, which I had gone to the reception guy that morning and asked when to sign up only to be told do it later, had now said oh we’re not doing it today because its Anzac day -nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! ”But that’s the only reason we stayed here” we said as we both collapsed in tears and shock into the corner of the room. This, I think, don’t ask me why its just a feeling, was not something he was used to seeing as he looked at us with a mixture of fear and pity; which unfortunately escalated to boughts of violence when we tried pulling at his shorts and whipping our noses on his leg.

Anyway after recovering from our shock with a nice cup of tea we decided to go for a walk around Newcastle as we hadn’t really bothered to see it - about half hour later we were done! The only thing of interest on the entire walk was that the horizon was full of huge tanker ships as we learnt that Newcastle is the largest exporter of coal -wow!!! When we got back we decided to generally just chilax (until Dr Who came on). I decided to do some reading as the TV was rubbish, so on the free book shelf, which I’m loving at these hostels, along with the free clothes bin, I found a book by William Sutcliffe about two 18 year olds who decide to travel India to “find themselves”. Nath and I have never really understood what people mean by that, but maybe that’s because most people come travelling straight from uni or younger without having figured what they want from life yet or more importantly haven’t been dragged down by the working world yet!! (Once you start working you can always “find yourself” at 6.30 in the morning in the bathroom mirror!!). We however had discovered, that
a) We drank A LOT of tea,
b) We do tend to whinge a little bit (especially Mandy), but that’s only because every one else is so bloody stupid or rude and
3) We were a little lazy.
Anyway anyone who’s ever travelled or thought they would go off somewhere else to find themselves should give this book a read!!

Anyway there was only a few hours to go before Dr Who and although I was hungry I was not leaving that sofa for anyone, any minute one of these other stupid travellers could switch it over to football or something; so I sent Nath off to start dinner whilst I held the remote and growled at anyone who came near. Finally after an eternity of waiting it was on, and whilst there had been three other lads sat watching the TV with me before hand for some reason as soon as the theme tune came on, they all suddenly had something else to do - great the Dr all to myself - I had decided to give it another go and I’m afraid, whilst I find him quite funny I’m not liking it!!

With our time at Newcastle truly exhausted (We took a total of only 14 pictures whilst here) we headed further up the coast to Port Macquarie, a little hostel that had been recommended to us as a cool place to hang out - unfortunately we should have guessed due to where the recommendation had come from, that the hostel was basically someone’s house with about 2 people in it. We were put into a 4 bed dorm which already had a German lady in it, who was a little weathered shall we say; even though there seemed to be plenty of other rooms free - but that’s what you get for using these e- nights, they put you in the smallest rooms that they wouldn’t normally have the balls to charge someone for, we were beginning to wish we hadn’t booked 4 nights here on someone else’s suggestion!!!. Anyway the “house” was pretty empty most of the time, but the few people that were wandering about (I’m not sure if they were living or dead - maybe bit of both??) Didn’t really interact with us, even though we were actually trying for once. Well we basically popped into town to get some of the needed shopping done for the next few days meals - so yet more noodles then!!, had some dinner and went straight to bed as the one massive TV in the lounge was being used and well there wasn’t really anything else to do.

Next morning as this hostel also had free body boards we decided that that was what we were gonna do, as still over breakfast no one would make eye contact with us, and the staff were exactly as described in my rough guide “absent and unenthusiastic” (should have read this, first never mind). So without staff members around we decided we’d go for a walk along the beach front instead as this spanned a good few kilometres and was meant to be quiet picturesque. It was pretty hot so what was meant to be a few k’s walk to the beginning of the beach front was a bit more arduous, however once we got there, the book was right it was a really nice beach. We stopped off for quite a bit looking at the rock pools and doing all the free stuff that we like to do to save money. We spent ages chatting about what we were gonna do when we got home and where we’d like to travel to next. We also stopped on one of the longer more golden beaches and watched some guys surfing, they were pretty impressive and made it look so easy, and especially when someone’s granddad ran passed with a board and managed to keep up with the youngsters.

As this entire surfing lark looked a bit too strenuous in the heat of the day we decided to continue our walk along the break water walk way and take a slower stroll so we didn’t have to sit back at the hostel with nothing to do (except maybe write a dam blog, I know I know, we are behind). The walk way was covered in huge rocks that had been painted by different people at different times for all sorts of reasons. Some had just put that they “woz ere” in what ever year - classic but boring; some were messages of congrats, or wise words to the world and some were dedications to people that had passed. This sparked a conversation between Nath and I about why people would do such a thing; with each of us deciding to agree to disagree (if you wanna know its best to ask us when we get back).

With nothing else much to do, we decided we would head to the local library which was only the next road over and see if they have free wifi - cha ching, they did!!! Even the in house computers at the library were cheaper per hour than the hostel was gonna charge, surely that little gem of information would mean that some of the other travellers would talk to us. So we rushed in to spread the good word, only to find the whole place empty but the radio blaring away to itself again. Oh well we figured we now knew where we’d be spending most of our days in this dull dull place. So just a note to those of you that have been reading about the gold coast so far - don’t bother!! It’s been nothing but beaches and dead little towns, I really don’t see the fuss, anyway sorry I digress.

After a good few hours in the air conditioned (thank god) library, and still no more blogs written, we headed back for the evening to have some dinner. There were a few people around but not many so we were able to grab the TV to watch what we liked. Sad thing is with all the channels available there was really nothing on, just like home. So we spent a good while flicking before I found an old episode of Dr Who to watch (yippee David Tennant again). It happened to be a two parter of which Nath hadn’t seen the end before so he was quite getting into it. However as we were just getting into some vital plot lines, some guy decided he was gonna plug his phone charger in, so unplugged the huge grey cable that clearly led to the TV instead of the white one next to it, that was attached to an un used fan!! What a knob head…the TV died to which he said “opps was that me?”. I had to hold Nath back, not because he was that upset that he was gonna miss the end of Dr Who but mainly because I know he cant stand fucking stupid people that wander the earth just bumbling form one disaster to another without considering others!! Luckily the guy made a run for it, whilst we sat waiting for the TV and satellite system to re boot in time for us to watch the credits!! What a moron!!.

Next morning, I stumbled bleary eyed into the bathroom, had a shower, admiring how empty the place was, only to find on exiting that I was in fact in the men’s bathroom. I passed a young Asian lad (the same one who had unplugged the TV) who was brushing his teeth at the time, didn’t say anything, but I enjoyed watching him do a double take as I passed, walk out of the toilet, check the sign on the door and then head back in-whoops. Now this wasn’t going to be my last dealing with Mr oblivious, he was sat next to me during breakfast and we started chatting, well I say we, he started talking at me and I couldn’t find a door…window…wall to exit through. Turned out he was from the UK, Slough surprisingly, and he’d been working in Sydney for months as some salesman and was now touring on the money he had made but he was without his mates so he was a bit bored. At this point I was thinking I had misjudged him but soon I realised I’m a bloody good judge of character (except that time I made friends with Mr P. Dofile). He started to mention how he was the top sales man for OZ even though he didn’t live here, which made sense as he was an amazing salesman in slough too. Blah blah blah. So my first thought was “I love this guy, people that boast are like the best!!”, but when he said he was missing his friends I felt sorry for him….briefly….he then topped this metaphorical moron cake with what I like to call the “pretend I’m a local ism”. He missed his friends because they had such a great time living in Sydney being out all night etc it was really pumped. Now the word I heard, wondered at and then let it pass, I wouldn’t have thought any more of it, until he brought it to my attention again. With a little fake laugh he said “oh my god did I just say pumped, ha-ha sorry that’s such a Sydney word”…. moron!!!

Anyway with that moment of my life now wasted for ever we decided to do something more constructive, so headed for the local koala hospital as there was really nothing else to do bar spend more hours in the library. I was really aware on the walk up of the entire bush etc we were passing, and getting a little nervous as we entered the hospital grounds by the amount of cobweb I could see. The hospital itself was small but functional, and many of its inhabitants would never live in the wild again. Most were either hit by cars or homeless because of bush fires, whilst some had been attacked by dogs and others suffering from Chlamydia basically!! Some of the stories of residents gone by were really sad.

We spent ages looking up at trees trying to see the dam things, even some of the staff couldn’t find particular members (which we later found but on pointing it out to a member of staff got looked at like we’d said something bloody obvious - I guess saying you’ve found that koala up the tree isn’t anything new!). After a while it was feeding time, so we watched the koalas like poor little old men in a home, wobbling on their branches and dribbling their food down their chin, it was so sweet and so sad. We also saw something in a tree that wasn’t a koala but we couldn’t really make out what it was. At first it looked like a big lump of bark but then it moved and I assumed it was a kookaburra, turns out in the end it was a frog mouthed owl - very weird looking thing (sorry we don’t have any good pictures of it; you’ll have to Google it).

That evening we decided we would watch one of the many films on offer, as most of the guests had left that day, along with the pumped moron; so it was relatively quiet (again). It must have just been the people who had been their prior as the lady that arrived that evening (from Ireland) was lovely, although turns out rather squmish (she joined us watching our film - interview with a vampire, which can be a bit gross in places, I could tell she was shocked as blood splattered everywhere, and slowly she put down her dinner and walked away - whoops). Another Swiss guy had arrived that evening so he was chatting away to the older lady in our room. So with them chatting, the constant radio on (even though no one was listening to it) and our film it was all getting a bit loud. We had turned the TV up because we couldn’t hear it over them talking mainly (and the radio) so at one point the older lad came over and asked us to turn the TV down because it was a bit loud. I was shocked at the time and therefore didn’t have a barrage of abuse ready for her and her loud mouth which was the cause of our increase in volume - Cow!!

The next day we had another attempt at body boarding, figuring if the old people we saw the other day can make it look easy it must be……the short answer to that is no not really!!! I manage to ride a good couple of waves in but nearly lost my bikini bottoms in the process (which Nath kindly caught on film) and soon afterwards I’d swallowed more salt water than I could bear so decided to have a relaxing rest on the dry beach, whilst Nath had a relaxing “burying Mandy in the sand” time!! So with the excitement of Port Macquarie over, we were back on the train and headed towards the “hippie” style hostel of Bellingen, which again we had heard loads about from previous hostel owners and guests and were now a little sceptical at what we would find.

The train stop at Bellingen was so remote that the train only stops their on requests, obviously they knew we wanted to stop there so that was ok, but once we were there we had no idea what to do. On exiting the train I noticed a woman who I thought had severe facial disfigurement or was some kind of terror hawks hag (old person reference - don’t worry about it) but because I had only glimpsed at her I didn’t want to make it obvious by staring and pointing. However when we got off the train I realised that she had an old witch rubber mask on to frighten the person she was meeting - phew.

Anyway on finding that we were left in the car park looking a little forlorn (not that the mask lady and her friend paid any attention) we managed to call the hippie crew at Bellingen and find that the cosmic love bus was “already on its way man”. Groovy I thought (getting into the spirit of things). This 70’s reject of a bus pulled up and as the happy pipe smoke cleared a very laid back guy said “you cats are with me”. Whilst in the real world a YHA van turned up minus the smoke but still definitely with the “dude” to collect us. This “dude” who was driving was from California so he had the right voice for this hippie place. I tried my best to join in with the young folk but failed miserably. I don’t think even the hippies really say “cosmic man” so needless to say after feeling like some kind of mental patient escapee I shut up. Luckily we collected some other people from the dreaded greyhound bus stop on our way so I had someone else to talk to. JO from the UK and Fredricka from Germany. We chatted loads on the way to the hostel which I was glad of as I felt Nath and I were still in our lonesome NZ travelling style and needed to make some friends.

On arriving at Bellingen it was indeed a laid back place, an old wooden building perched on a cliff face above the local river. It had its own chooks and lots of wicker furniture and hammocks for those tiring days. It also had a free pool table and lots of pictures of naked guests on a near by hippie commune beach - which was a trip you could do if you wanted. We were a little disappointed to find we had arrived on the wrong day for that excursion so would just have to walk round naked to feel like we hadn’t missed out. Our room was a four bunk room with beds that felt like they would collapse as you got on them, I think all the joints could have done with some tightening! We were in a four share room but on our own for the time being, which helped as with the noise they made from the slightest rolling over in the night, we’d definitely never been able to enjoy ourselves without making it obvious 😊

There were as expected a fair few spiders hanging around, also enjoying the laid back atmosphere but luckily they kept to themselves and just hung around else where. Our room opened out on to the decking right next to the pool and after ordering our pizza form the near by shops, as we had nothing left, and making a start on our super cheap goon bag we headed to bed. Next morning I was aware that people were already up an about on the decking but had I realised they were all sharing pancakes I’d have been there ripping their groovy arms off. So instead Nath and I enjoyed simple old toast and a cuppa. We had planned to go down to the river and use the free inflatable rings to float down it but the staff that were going went far to early for us (about 2pm) so instead we sat and chilled around the decking. We chatted with Jo and Fredericka a bit and also met some new friend’s Jo had made in her female dorm, Amy form Scotland and Esthme from Spain - we were beginning to feel very popular, especially Nath with all these ladies!!

Between us we decided we’d go down to the river tubing without the staff but managed in a short distance to get lost and find no trace of a river that looked like you could float down it, or even put a foot in it without catching something. We had tried walking through some long grass (which in my head I was screaming at myself not to do as I’d read about snakes living here - but continued anyway) and passed some very large cows giving us the eye. All in all we gave up pretty soon and decided that perhaps we hadn’t done enough lounging around so we did more of that instead. So as we’d had such a busy day we decided we would join in on the leisurely sunset kayak activity further down the river. So Nath and I and our new merry band of women got in another van with an equally groovy guy to his huge house and the river bank that he owned to do this night kayak. I joked about him renting the place for weddings and stuff but it seemed that he actually did anyway - so soon shut me up. We all headed out on the kayaks which were much like the trolleys you get in the supermarket with the dodgy wheel, and for some reason no matter how much I tried to control it it just kept going in its own direction, so after insisting that I had done many kayaking trips I looked like a right pilchard!! Luckily everyone seemed to have the wonky trolley kayak so we must have looked like a really bad synchronized kayaking team! Our guide was like a real old hippie from the Jurassic period or when ever it was so he was a little spaced out for much of the journey, but did point out to us some stars constellations (which he could have been making up for all I knew) and mercury which was cool.

On heading back we enjoyed a cheap glass of champagne (apparently) as this was an included luxury of that trip - they must think us tourist are really easily pleased -and to be honest we are, it was lovley! The guy started telling us about one lady he had on the tour who was British and then conjured up this accent he must have seen form Mary Poppins! We were laughing more at his accent than the story but luckily he was too stoned to notice. So with another stressful day over we went to bed and enjoyed that there was still no one else in our room - except those dam spiders!!

The next morning having missed out on the pancakes I was up early(er) but found that there were no pancakes at all today (dam it). So my new posse and I decided we weren’t going to be beaten by the long grass and freaky eyed cows and were gonna find this dam river tubing thing. After walking around in the heat and close to giving up we found the rope swing, which signalled the beginning of the “fun” but decided this dropped into an unknown depth of water and was too hard to even reach from the shoreline to jump on anyway. The local Ozzie lads (who aren’t scared of nothing) tried to help us poor pomes but we made our excuses about operations and work commitments so not to look to sad, and they left us be - phew, we could have looked really wimpy there.

I was a little put off by the steep banks to the river but was determined to not walk past the cows again, who were bound to laugh this time, and hey I felt I had lost my new braveness that I’d found in NZ so god dam it I was gonna get in this river. Nath managed to skid my way down the bank without breaking anything and soon the rest of us bowed to the social ridicule we would have felt from the cows and joined him. It was hard pretending the water wasn’t cold, when everything it touched tried to retreat and the first word in my head was f**k!! But I was quite convincing and managed to enjoy the screams and yelps from all, including Nath, who sounded the most girly as everyone climbed in. It turned out that some of the rings were bigger and more inflated than others so whilst I felt quite comfortable the others were either sinking a lot lower or had already sunk!

We had unfortunately all brought cameras with us, with only Esthmes being waterproof and also our bags full of suntan lotion and water which we had no idea how we were gonna float down the river with us (really hadn’t thought this trip through). So Nath gallantly said he would take it all back for us - bless him, and take photos of us along the way. I felt really bad that he wasn’t getting to join in, but I think his frank and beans were more than pleased to be out of the cold water. Problem was, now socking wet, Nath had to try and scramble up the muddy bank holding all our stuff - but we didn’t get to see any of this as we had already started to float down river like ladies of leisure. I must admit to being a bit nervous about what was in the water (I don’t know if crocs live in this area) but figured whilst I was in a group statistically I had a better chance of surviving! I of course didn’t tell my new friends this!

It was a really nice float down the river, but a little slow and you had too paddle yourself a bit, but before long we reached a shallow rapid area which we hadn’t planned for, now it was a lot of fun and very fast but for those of us that were lying a little lower in the rubber gins than others it was more like sitting down and being dragged over loads of rocks!! Which is exactly what happened to poor Jo who inadvertently ripped her bikini bottoms and spent the rest of our journey felling a little exposed to say the least!! We of course thought it was hilarious but soon felt the karma of our giggles by each finding a spot of river that had a lot of sharp rocks in that scrapped us all as we floated by. At the end of the river we saw Nath waiting for us, covered in mud bless him, waiting to help us out of the river bank. We told him briefly about Jo’s bikini bottoms and he did his best to hold a towel whilst looking the other way as she got out to save her any more embarrassment!!.

That evening Nath, Amy and I stayed up late drinking the really cheap wine, which tasted more like a rose but was actually a red that was meant to be kept in the fridge - very nice actually. After a good few glasses Amy came back with monopoly and suggested a game before bed - yeah we all know how long monopoly lasts - but considering we didn’t have to get up for anything in the morning we figured why not. The game was the same but also different in everyway, buying London streets with dollars and not a little metal dog or top hat in sight. I think we were so caught up in these little differences that we never saw Amy’s monopoly domination coming, who would have thought someone so sweet could change so much. Maybe being a civil engineer she got taught how to play monopoly at university or being Scottish she knows how to hold onto her money but she wiped the floor with us with clinical precision. By the end of the game Amy had more money and property than both of us put together!!

The next morning was our last day and as there wasn’t really much to do in the area (as there seems with most places outside the cities in OZ) we lazed about again. I slept in one of hammocks for a time and was joined by one of the local chickens who actually got on my hand and sat with me for a short while. Even though Amy had serious “monopoly” issues we decided that we would all hang out for longer, being as we were going the same way, so all decided to get the train that afternoon to our next stop at Coffs Harbour. Our bags were packed and ready hours before and we sat around reading and interneting etc and soon it was close to the time when we really needed to go. This time soon pasted but again we assumed having already seen us and our bags a few hours ago at reception they wouldn’t have forgotten about us - but of course we all know what assumptions do don’t we!! Needless to say we were rushed into the van with our driver dude from the states and driven at snail speed to the station. You’d think they guy would have gone faster but the problem was, being American, he had only every learnt to drive an automatic car so was having real problems negotiating with stick. Eventually he pulled into the bus station and wondered why we didn’t move, only to hear us all say in chorus - the train station stupid!! We literally pulled into the car park as the train arrived (remember this train only stops on request so would have gone if we didn’t show) and narrowly made it onto the train in time with flash backs of our LA airport sprinting!!

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Photos

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Newcastle

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Newcastle never looked so nice!!

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Toon army!!

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First class, second class, third class and errrr "Special class"

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Leave me alone, trains make me tired!!

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The scenic walk along Port Macquarie

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You take up all the bed, I take up all the chair - now we're even!!

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Crab poo

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"Your mum" classic!

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Surprise surprise the little fellow is sleeping

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A one eyed koala, poor thing

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Mandy said she enjoyed the boarding although her face told a different story!!

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Nath plastered!!

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A sand castle with "dense" foundations!!!

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Mandy back on the budget "KP Dippers"

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Looks like mandys bag has had enough!

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The view from our room

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Sunset kayaking