Pit stops along the East Coast

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So we travelled back into Brisbane and stayed there for a night. We met up with Daves friend from college, Don, who recently moved here for a bit. We also visited the Gallery of Modern Art while we were here. This was when the rain started and we could have kissed our tans goodbye.
Next on the itinerary was Surfers paradise. But it happened to be a wash out because the rain was relentless our 2 nights there. We had planned on learning how to surf here and also to visit a theme park and ride some big rollerclasters. Unfortunately the rain kept us from doing this and we headed out of the city a little earlier than expected.
We went down the coast to Byron Bay, and the rain let up and we toured the town, and took a trip to their lighthouse. As you can see from the pictures this turned out to be a beautifully sunny day and the water looks amazing.
We took another short drive to a place Coffs Harbour. this place is all about bannanas. There is a tourist attraction called the big Bannana...but it was kinda run down. We had a quick tour of the bannana trees growning and learned a bit about what they do to prevent them from insects eating them or sunburn.
Also while in coffs Harbour we went to a koala hospital. The poor little guys who are injured in the wild are rescued and sent here for treatment and hopefully to be released back into the wild.
some of them were permanant residents and could never be released, as some were blind, bad arthritis, or badly burnt they could never survive again in the wild.
this was sad but its great what the people are doing there to help them and to teach people how to help.

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Photos

1
a large person in bed...at the modern art museum

2
its didgeridoo making day!!!!

3
we got to pick out a piece of wood from this pile

4
a few seconds later Dave took over for the little man! haha

5
time to decorate it, painting it however we wanted

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practicing to make it work...takes a while

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drying it after we put the smelly varnish on

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the finished product, Dave practicing in our van

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and the bad was formed...we are called Platapie

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a lifeguard stand on Surfers Paradise

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Danger Point, the most dangerous surfing place in surfers Paradise

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surf board benches! how clever

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it was a crappy rainy day and the surf was hitting the rocks hard

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some of the skyline in Surfers Paradise

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in Byron Bay

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the lighthouse in Byron Bay

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a short hike down a trail and we were at the Eastern most point of Australia