After leaving Yamba, We headed for Coffs Harbour and the Aussitel Backpackers Hostel. It felt very strange to be celebrating Christmas Eve so far from home and family and as we headed for Coffs, we all commented on how surreal it was. We got settled into the hostel and then phoned Damian and Carolyn Humphries, the Australians who had exchanged homes with the Kiryluks a few years earlier. They invited us over and we spent the afternoon getting reacquainted with th...

We made our way from Alexandra Heads to Yamba without much difficulty, although traffic was heavy and moved slowly in places and there were some torrential downpours along the way. It was, again, quite a long drive - almost 6 hours, including stops at scenic pullouts and at Byron Bay for a short walk on the beach. When we arrived in Yamba, we parked and phoned Brian Smith (Smitty), a friend of our good friends, the Kiryluks, who met him during their teacher exc...