Renewing aquaintances.

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Geo: -28.1756, 153.542

This morning we left Byron Bay at 9-30 having again had breakfast in our room. We headed north via the Pacific Highway to Tweed Heads/Coolangatta, the Twin Towns. It was an easy drive and took about an hour.

Having arrived at 10-30 we went to our hotel, Twin Towns Resort where the Oceania Athletics Association Congress was meeting. We were pleasantly surprised that we could book in straight away and had free parking in their basement car park. We went up to our room on the 11th floor of the Harbour Tower. The room is amazing. It is an apartment with a lounge, kitchen and very comfortable bedroom and bathroom. Our views over the harbour and the Heads are magnificent. We settled in and then went for a walk over to the foreshore and then checked out the Tweed Mall. Here we browsed the shops and I found a very well priced skirt in the Black Pepper shop. We then bought some supplies at BWS and returned to the hotel.

Even though Tweed Heads is in NSW the proximity of the border has made them decide to operate on Queensland time during the summer, so we were back an hour in time.For lunch we went to one of the restaurants which are part of the complex here. The Orient gave us good standard Chinese fare at very reasonable prices and in large quantities.

After lunch we walked out to the nearby lobby where we started to meet up with all our friends from around the Pacific. Geoff Martin was there and soon Cherry Harvey and the Gardiners from Norfolk also found us. Yvonne Mullins, Ina Marsters from the Cooks as well as Trevor Spittle from NZ also passed by. We sat there chatting to Margaret Mahoney and Matt Mahon. Eventually Sebastian Coe and his wife Carole arrived and it was lovely to catch up with them again. Many other islanders also passed by.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Oceania Headquarters in Yvonne's room to collect our accreditation and bag of goodies and had a drink with Annette and Linda from NZ and Brentt Jones from Norfolk Island.

Dinner was at a local Italian restaurant with Bob Snow , Matt Mahon, Margaret and Phil Jones from Athletics Australia. It was a pleasant meal with plenty of food and stimulating conversation.

The most important part of this section of the trip is the renewing of friendships and catching up with people we haven't seen for at least six months. Tonight was an excellent start.

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