Were moving on to Bryron Bay and the Gold Coast on Tuesday, very excited about more beaches, the theme
Parks and Surfers Paradise! Luckily we've also been offered free accommodation with very nice people who we met at an Australia BBQ- ladies who play in a softball team and come to Coffs every year to stay with Debbie. We rang Judy up and she offered us 3 rooms, saying she'd like her sons or daughters to be treated the same way if they were off travelling, were very very lucky! Accommodation was rediculously expensive when we started looking at moving on.
Since my last update we've been up to quite a lot and were feeling like we can do a lot more now we saving a lot of money. We ventured up the road to the Boules club which we can see from our balcony, we got a green to ourselves which was a good thing as we weren't all that skilled and people 2/3 games away would have got a little annoyed at us. We also chose a bit of a silly time to
go just after mid day on one of the hottest days with a bright blue sky and the sun beaming down on us. It's a hard life when the biggest dilemma you have is how to minimise tan lines :)
We had a good couple of games which got a bit competitive and very hot and sticky! We improved slightly after a few tips from some of the clubs members that felt should come and offer guidance after watching from the bar. We also got interrupted just as the games were tied by two wild wallabies! Adding to my tally of wild Australian animals, just the kangaroo to spot now.
After a quick refresh and some tea we headed back to the boules club house for trivia night. We did come last... But we felt the questions were slightly more biased towards the elder and obvious regular participants in the room! A lot of the questions were based on events and artists before our time! It was good fun though and we were happy with quite a few flukes answers we got, we concluded had we been amoungst more people of our age group 'god save our team' would have been a lot higher up the table.
Me and Amy have had a couple more good days lazing on the beach trying hard to get our Fiji tans back and we returned back to the local boules club for a treat- a cheap meal out! Me, Jen and Mike had a pretty decent steak and chips with Dianne sauce for what we worked out to be £5! Amy wasn't as fortunate she was excited about her Mexican option but it came as a very tiny portion, they didn't cater so well for vegetarians or pesky Bulgarians as we call Amy (Peskatarian as she eats fish).
For a while Jen had been banging on about visiting the clog barn... We decided after saying no a lot that we would go with her. It was as exciting as it sounds haha but after the clog demonstration Jen bagged herself a free clog for living the furthest away so she left a happy bunny.
Australia Day was a big day to be celebrated here and Debbie invited us over to adrift for a Barbie, all we had to supply was some alcohol- some goon and some ciders as a treat. Goon got messy as the beer pong games started on the Ping pong table in the games room. We were taught how to peel prawns like true Aussies, sing the national anthem and had a thong throwing competition which I stormed! (N.b. just to be clear thongs are the name given to flip flops down here!)
Yesterday we headed to Coffs Harbours main attraction- the big banana. Advertised as a banana plantation with tours but also offering tobogganing, ice skating, laser tag and water park. We weren't too sure what to expect as the pictures looked like it was some bodies back yard. We got there a bit late and the prices were quite high so we ended up going for a couple of games of laser tag. This was highly amusing running about an empty alien laboratory in the dark with smoke and mirrors, it certainly got the adrenaline pumping and was quite scary waiting for the other 3 to appear out of no where with a flashing gun and vest ready to deactivate you for 10 seconds. I made myself laugh by jumping at my own reflection in the mirror after running like a scared headless chicken between rooms. Jen also made me laugh by running the opposite direction screaming then later on running into me again around a corner and shocking herself! We got very hot again but it was a good afternoon! The evening brought some more laughs as we decided to keep on with the kids theme in the apartment and had a game of sardines in the dark before getting serious and stargazing for a while from the balcony.
Today we had very good weather again so we went out to he creek to hire ourselves some kayaks, it was a great way to see the creek and enjoy the sunshine on the water. We got very wet after some childish splashing and the water was so salty so for ages after we were rubbing it off. The day was well on truely made when we returned to pay and after chatting to the owner about home and admittedly faffing around on how to pay he said he'd take the payment for one kayak and to help ourselves to a beer from the fridge! So we grabbed a beer and sat down and the next thing we know he brought us over a big plate of chips! So for 6 dollars (just over 3 pounds) we got 2 kayaks, 4 beers and a bowl of chips! Very generous of him and we were made up!