Brisbane to Sydney

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Brisbane was where Lorna's parents joined us for a couple of weeks. We spent two days in the city, eating nice meals (only afforded when we are not picking up the bill ourselves) and sightseeing. The boat trip along the river through the city was cool, Brisbane was much nicer than we had imagined.

On leaving Brisbane we took a boat over to Tangalooma Wild Dolphin resort, a beautiful beach resort where we fed wild dolphins. It was amazing, each night a group of dolphins, adults and babies, swam into the bay for their meal of fish and for a chance to show off to the spectators. The experience was great. Whilst at the resort we also went quad biking in the sand dunes and we did some snorkelling until it was cut short by a Wobbegong shark which scared Lorna out of the water- although we later found out that it was harmless, it was very big though!

When back in Brisbane we picked up another campervan for the McGregors and all set off on the road to Surfer's Paradise. Along the way we stopped at a koala sanctuary where we all had our photo taken holding a koala.

Surfer's Paradise was what we had expected of the Gold Coast, all built up and very busy. The beach was nice though and we cooled off in the sea as the weather was very hot.

Next stop was Byron Bay. As the annual Blues Festival was on we had to stay in nearby Lennox Heads which actually turned out to have a nice beach of it's own. Byron Bay was extremely crowded due to the festival.

We moved on to Coff's Harbour for a couple of nights and decided to dub it 'Scoff's Harbour' as we did nothing but eat there- well we had to make the most of being spoilt whilst Lorna's parents were with us!

In Port Stephens, the next stop, we took a boat trip out to look for dolphins. We managed to see some and we sat on the boom net of the boat as the dolphins swam around beneath us.

After a brief visit to Port MacQuarie we drove down to Manly where Lorna took her Mum to Palm Beach aka 'Summer Bay'. We then all went to Sydney. The McGregors had parted with their van so we stayed in a hotel and enjoyed Sydney's shops and restaurants one last time. We went to the Shangri-La hotel for cocktails with a view of the harbour which was amazing.

On the last day of their visit we walked the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk and had lunch in Coogee. Fortunately it wasn't too hot so it was possible to do the entire walk, we had tried last year but had to give up due to the heat.

The next day we said our sad goodbyes and then, now back to the two of us, we went to Sydney Aquarium to see the 'World's Largest Platypus Enclosure' (there were three of them in it)!

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