Well, Well - less than 2 weeks left here in Brisbane and we had our last trip away at the weekend before the big trip begins.....

We took Friday off work and drove down to Byron Bay ( the first time we had been out of Queensland - it's in New South Wales for those who don't know!) which was gorgeous!

A proper little surfers village with a small main street with traditional surf shops and a gorgeous beach with hardly anyone there!

We walked up to Cape Byron Lighthouse which was built in 1901 and still works! This was a mega steep climb and I had sore calves tyhe next day! We also went to the lookout of the most Easterly point in Australia where we spotted our first wild whale! It was amazing when it jumped out of the water - huge with a a white tale - we saw lots of dolphins too.

We then chilled on Byron beach for most of the day with our picnic and sunbathed. In the evening we headed back up the Gold Coast towards Brisbane to get to our Holiday Park just outside Surfers Paradise - we did the mistake of firstly booking to go away this weekend and then driving right through the centre of the IndyCar Festival weekend - whhere one side of the Gold Coast highway is turned into a race track for a motor racing competition on the streets of surfers - got a bit caught up in the traffic but managed to get a peek through a fence at some mega fast cars shooting round the track!

Our holiday park was fab - 3 swimming pools, tennis court, heated spas, crazy golf (not like the basic ones in Scotland!!) and we had the cheapest cabing which came with a double bed, 3 bunks, fride, cooker, TV, sofa and dining table - pretty impressive - the amenities were just across the path too so my middle of the night walks to the loo were not too scary!! In the evening we went across the road to the shopping outlet complex where we had a really nice Italian meal to top of the day.

Saturday - We drove back down the Gold Coast to Burleigh Heads where there is another lovely beach with great surf so we had our picnic and watched the surfers doing there thing - oh and guess who walked past us while we were sunbathing on the beach - MISS NICOLE RITCHIE (Lionel Ritchie's daughter for u oldies - he, he!!) and her boyfriend Joel Madden with a friend - i didn't have time to whip ot my camera but it's a claim to fame!

In the evening we had booked tickets to go to the Outback Spectactular show which is a themed dinner and entertainment show - very howdy partner - proper outback ozzie style! Wegot our Stockman's Hats when we got there and went into a huge arena where we sat at benches and a 3 course bushtucker meal served to us while we watched an amazing show of live horse stunts and races/competitions and learnt about the Ozzie outback. Our side of the arena was "Austral Downs" and stunt artists competed against "Wandoola's Station" - we had to shout things like "CooooHeeee" which apparently is the Great Australian Call!!! Loads of fun (our side lost tho - booohoo!!) Oh and there was unlimited free beer and wine but poor Iain missed out in that as he was driving (what a shame - i haven't been driving over here as you have to pay a surcharge for under 25's so i have been sitting back and relaxing......)

On Sunday we had our breakkie, packed up and headed to the shopping outlet to but a few discounted Boardies for Iain (surf shorts) and some Boradies for me too! and we headed down the coast to see what Surfers was like - we missed the IndyCar traffic as we went a dfferent route and although the beach is lovely (they all are down the coast) Surfers Paradise is so tacky - like a mini Tenerife or Faliraki - wiyj lots ot tacky tourist shops and pubs - even had a "Condom Kingdom" right next to a Fendi shop!! There was quite a few drink people about coz of the car racing so we grab some lunch and walked along the beach - you kind of have to go to say tat you've been but 1/2 a day is enough!! Oh there is even a Hard Rock cafe that is horrible - v.tacky, nothing as big or as Americanised as any of the other ones - just looks like a dowdy cafe!

Anyway, the next 13 days we're going to have to pack, binned stuff and ship stuff home and try and get our bank and tax stuff sorted before we go so off for some ice cream now for pud.

Hope everyone is well,

C & I xx