Well where do I start with DARPA, our home for the forthcoming two weeks? We booked her from spaceships and she is a big, orange Toyota Estima, the biggest car I have ever driven, has automatic transmission which took some getting used to, has an ipod connector, fridge, gas stoves, dvd player and bed in the back seats. We immediately loved her, although I did see a spaceship called Shatner which I would have killed for! Just to make the Shangri-La staff a little more uncomfortable we drove her up to the valet parking so we could bring our luggage down and pack her up ready to go. I did the first bit of driving as Nina hadn't driven properly for years so was nervous, and was very pleased with my navigation round Sydney thank you very much! Luckily I had taken note of where the bus had taken us the previous day.

Off we set, driving across the Harbour Bridge and feeling very odd without having to change gears, my left foot felt lonely not having to do anything. We drove up the Pacific Highway on route to Forster, obviously the best town in the world! There was no parking in the town itself so we drove down to a little beach about ten minutes away and parked up there for the night. Thus our first night in DARPA was to the soundtrack of waves crashing on the nearby beach. However as we weren't entirely sure of whether we could legally stay there overnight or not I woke up pretty early expecting to hear the police rapping on the door - a theme that would continue whenever we weren't in campsites. Waking up in a converted car is a bizarre experience, the windows are steamed up regardless of the fact all we've done is sleep, you can't sit up without smacking your head on the roof (this does happen to Nina more than me), and it is a true skill manoeuvring around each other to get to backpacks in the boot storage (which is actually under the bed), milk in the fridge and towels hanging from the front seats. I think we have finally got it down to a fine art but it took a few days to get used to.

Once we had got dressed in the cold off we went to use Macdonald's toilets just down the road. This is just how classy you are when you are sleeping in a car - luckily Nina wanted a coffee so we didn't feel too bad about using their sinks and free wifi. Obviously we had only gone to Forster for the photo opportunities it offered but it was pretty cool being in a town which bears your own surname. Apart from that it was much the same as most other Australian towns, a Woolworths, bowling club, golf club, shopping centre, Macdonald's, KFC, park, etc etc. We did a cheeky check in the phone book before we left, to find there was only one Forster actually living there so I wonder if he was a relative of the original founders?!

Becca