13th March

We are trying hard to ignore the time slipping away quite quickly now until our return to England. It's hard though when you've looked forward to soemthing for so long and had such a brilliant time but there's a few more adventures to come yet. After leaving our ideallic campsite by the sea we continued our drive north and to the picturesque area of Byron Bay. We actually stayed in a neighbouring seaside village called lennox Head which was fantastic and where we experienced our first real flavour of the Australian waves. Now, I know we get waves in England and pretty good ones in some places but the sheer consistency and quality combined with temperature of water you get in Australian is awesome. You can stay in the water without a wetsuit for as long as your energy lasts - nearly two hours in our case. Isla got very brave and thinks she is a cross channel swimmer with her arm bands. I thought Connie would get her confidence knocked a bit by being constantly bowled over and bashed by the big waves but she loved it and was soon diving into the waves to stay upright. Rosie, who is an excellent swimmer, took on some big surf and I was a combination of David Hasselhoff the life guard and and the 12 year old kid I used to be throwing myself at every bit of surf. Michele lapped up the sun from the sun and Meg was a bit more reserved in the water and preffered the shallows.

After the peace of the rural coast we moved on to a more urban environment in the form of the Gold Coast. This is an area of coastal Queensland where many Aussies take their holidays and is totally different from any other part of Australia we have experienced or are likely to. The Gold Coast is a series of holiday resort towns with masses of apartment blocks for holiday makers and excellent access to the fabulous beaches. There are also several theme parks such as movie world and at least two 'waterworlds'. The flag ship resort is Surfers Paradise (the name, not a description of it) which is a cross between Blackpool and Las Vegas and we are so glad we didn't stay there overnight. It's like all those spanish resorts with high rise apartment blocks all vying for a view of the ocean and making it seem very claustraphobic. It's fine if you like that hubub but not for us. We stayed two nights in Miami, 10km south of Surfers and had two excellent days making the most of decent weather to improve our body boarding skills and swallowing more gallons of sea water in the process. A Manchunian caravaner lent us his body boards and we had so much fun in the waves. It felt a bit like having a mini beach holiday within our massive trip and a big bonus was our campervan with hot showers and amenities was just 50 metres from the beach. Rosie was using a skim board which is an oval piece of wood about 1 cm thick which you run and jump onto in very shallow water. Rosie loved it and must have spent at least 90 minutes perfecting her technique while Connie and I got blasted by the waves which was very exhilerating. We also found some time to visit a local market to top up our souvenir collection and tried hard to avoid the children wanting too much tut as we called it.

On from the Gold Coast is Brisbane which we didn't think much of when we travelled in the early nineties but in our opinion, we saw a tremendous improvement this time. We visited Kim, who is a friend of Ani's (my boss) whom I had met briefly in England when she visited our school. We were treated to a lovely BBQ and Aussie hospitality (although kim is a Kiwi by birth). She lives just on the river with a great view of the city and the best looking bridge (Storey bridge) n the area. The rest of our time in Brisbane was spent in the city browsing around and on the citycat (fast ferry) going up and down the river. Shopping is a highlight at any time with five ladies in the family and we have got things down to a fine art when we are all out at the shops. I tend to avoid actually going in to the shops if at all possible and prefer to sit outside watching the world go about its business while the five of them browse, or I'll take the little ones off somewhere for a bit to give Michele and the older girlies some quality time. This is particularly true for one shop which is prevalent all over NZ and Australia called Supre (with an accent over the e). If you imagine a combo of Claire's Accessories, Dorothy Perkins and top shop on speed then that is Supre. You are bombarded with bargains, loud music and teen accessories at every turn and they all love it! The icing on the cake being you get a proper bag with every purchase. There is nothing I wouldn't do for my family but it would take a lot to get me in Supre - rant over!!

We spent some time in New Farm Park which is so named after the farm which was created in the area to supply the convicts and freeholders who had moved to the area in the late 1700s with fresh produce. The playground here is worthy of note for its quality and setting. The children have become connosieurs of playgrounds on this trip; so many towns in NZ and OZ have them and we tend to naturally migrate to them for lunch and rest stops. There have only been one or two which have brought an audible gasp from the children when they entered the park. The pictures really say everything. The place was huge with massive, interconnected wooden climbing areas but all intertwined amongst the most amazing trees. I later discovered after a conversation with one of the park's gardners that they are Banyan Fig trees. They grow branches almost parrallel with the ground and drop tendrils which grow down to the ground, establishing themselves and thickening to become almost trunk like in order to support the main branches. It created a maze like natural playground and I know the children could have spent hours and hours here and not got bored. Well they made the best of the 30 minutes we had before getting the ferry back to the city and then into the van for a 100 km drive north to put us on the doorstep of Australia Zoo ready for a visit the next day.

Australia Zoo was always going to be a highlight of our trip and it lived up to expectations completely. We were one of the first through the gate (following breakfast in the car parrk!) and one of the last to leave having had a magical day, although as Michele and I both agreed, quite emotional. The legacy of Steve Irwin is still huge and he is still very much a presence around the zoo with his picture on every other signpost and many of his quotes on the information boards. At the entrance is a bronze statue of him with his family and there is an ovewhelming sense of sadness at the loss of such a character and influential Australian. He stood for family values, adventure, the environment and a real care and compassion for animals. This combined with his 'Aussie bloke' image and personality endeared him to millions. We enjoyed the much anticipated animal show with snakes, birds and crocs in the 'Crocoseum' which is a huge auditorium and very entertaining. The children fed the elephants though Meg kept a good half metre from hers as she held up her half an apple. Isla got hands on again with the kangaroos which I know she is just dying to hug and give a cuddle to. Connie was quite taken with the Dingoes and has remembered lots about them. Rosie was the Koala keeper when we did the cheesy 'picture with the koala thing'. Actually the picture is a 'ripper' as Steve Irwin would say - you'll probably see it on our wall if you are round our house in the next few months. All the animals seem remarkably well cared for and their philosophy of the keepers being really hands on - handlers in with the tigers etc does seem to make the animals less stressed. You certainly don't see any of that repetitive behaviour so often seen in some zoo animals. We all agreed it was the best zoo we've ever been to (and believe me we've done a few) and left very happy but with a hint of sadness as well.

We moved out of the motorway rest area campsite we've been in for the last two nights and headed up the coast. The rest areas are all over Queensland and are free with basic amenities but usually near busy roads, so quite noisy. Just up the coast is a beautiful area called Noosa Heads and our campsite is right on the estuary. After a serious maths session , we spent the afternoon in the river on a fantatstic beach. Rosie started a hermit crab farm with her snorkelling prowess with Isla as the surface support. Meg worked on her body boarding skills and Connie developed her spade work in the sand. Michele and I sat and watched the beautiful pelicans taking off and landing on the river - they are fantastic birds - so graceful and diginified. Later in the day I barbequed some of our dinner (kangaroo steak and burgers) and we watched thousands of bats take off across the estuary on their way to their feeding grounds for the night - very special!