Blogs from Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

We made it to Oz! The 13 hour flight from LAX to BNE was not half as bad as expected. Word of advice: drink heavily the night before an evening flight, and the hangover will make you sleep like a baby on the plane. We had a fantastic going away party the night before we left, as well as a fantastic hangover the next day. Joey barely made it on the plane because he was feeling so sick (nerves had "nothing" to do with it). After a nice long sleep and a couple of movies, we landed! Customs were such a breeze that Joey still claims that we skipped them. Now the hard part... driving. The whole left side of the road thing was a total trip. Joey managed to drive very well, with a few ... read more

Geo: -28.1756, 153.542This 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 ... read more

The border crossing was much closer then we thought and we said a fond farewell to Queensland. We made our way down the coast to Tweeds head, had a quick stop off at Surfer's Paradise beach and went for a relaxing swim at nearby Currumbin Creek. The Gold Coast is famous for its surfing, and boy does the pacific ocean crash onto the beach with some big waves! I think we'll stick to the beginner waves! The coastal route around the area was really pretty and quite remote. We found a cute little beach with a headland walk up to Norries head and decided to stop there for dinner. We'd seen a lot of people camping at nearby rest area's; technically this is illegal but we thought we'd risk it for one night. We pulled over ... read more

Well it's now 2012 and time for another adventure. After 29 years of service I have accepted a redundancy from my role at NAB so what better way to start 2012 than by going on a family holiday ! We are off to Asia to see Malaysia and Thailand retracing some steps from our 2009 holiday but including a stay in Chiang Mai as well. All up 15 days of travelling in 3 destinations being Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Chiang Mai. Hopefully we have good weather and create some great memories and some happy snaps. The next adventure will be a trip to USA in June 2012... read more

We are staying overnight at Tweed Heads and are on daylight saving, which Queensland doesn't do. We survived the drive down the Bruce Highway and over the Gateway Bridge, (yikes!), called into a shop I love in Brisbane, (Lily G) and then drove on to the Gold Coast. From Bundaberg we have been thrilled to see the jacaranda in flower all down the coast and there were many beautiful flowering trees in Brisbane. Perhaps we'll actually see them in Grafton, we're always a week or so early. We'll be home to see Sydney putting on it's November jacaranda cloak too, so we're really being rewarded this year. Surfers Paradise is getting ready for the big car race which snakes through the town, I think this weekend. We seem to be there the same time each year ... read more