Two days in Tin Can Bay to clean the car, wash all the clothes, sheets and generally take a breather was welcomed after Fraser Island. We took the boys to a dolphin viewing and feeding expedition at the Tin Can Bay Dolphin sanctuary where we paid a couple of bucks and they got to feed a single fish to some friendly dolphins that hang out at the same spot each morning at 7:30am. The line was long and the clientele varied with the best example being the entire family wearing matching garish, fluorescent fishing shirts. The colours where so bright and the pictures so abrasive I was afraid they may scare the dolphins away so luckily the boys got to feed them first and the fluro family stood in line after Bailey and Harry. Getting their fish in a cup and negotiating the 5ft tall Pelican that blocked their path the boys got up and personal with a dolphin and Fi and I got to take a photo before we were ushered out and the next person was directed down to the water. We watched for a few more minutes before the fluro family suddenly emerged from behind the pelican and scared the crap out of the dolphins and they swam away faster than you could say "ridiculous outfits". The main destination from Tin Can Bay was the Gold Coast but we had a one day stop over at Maroochydore on the headland where we were right on the beach and had a lovely view of the setting sun. One day there and then onto Jacobs Well. This was a little hamlet about 20 minutes north of the Gold Coast where we decided to base ourselves for 4 nights whilst we hit the theme parks for Harry's birthday. The caravan park was in an odd location but we met and got along with those in the park and the boys got to fish off the jetty which yielded zero fish but a few big nibbles which was good. The park residents were nice as well. One night, before Harry's actual birthday, a chap had his guitar out and was playing and singing some lovely tunes. Harry, just before he went to bed, wandered up to the old aged crooner and asked if he would serenade him to sleep. The bloke duly obliged and kept up the singing and ended with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" which we all loved and clapped our appreciation from bed. The following morning we had a strange experience when both Harry and Bailey upgraded their fishing rods and reels at the hookedonline.com fishing shop just outside the caravan park. The guy who ran it was really really friendly but he was the exact doppelganger of a guy I played rugby with, Tom Woodford, which even Fi said was freaky!! I'm still convinced it was him and he was playing a giant prank but suspected I'd been in the sun a little too long so we went back to the tent and made ourselves another coffee. When we got ourselves sorted, the theme parks were awesome. On day one we made our way to Wet-and-Wild, which was full of waterslides and fun rides for all ages. Tackling most of the slides a couple of times the family kept coming back to a ride called the Tornado which had all of us screaming as the rubber ring we sat on was hurled down a vertical drop into a ginormous funnel that spilled into the pool. Bailey needed his pants cleaned after the first run and was so scared that he didn't even scream when we descended into the funnel. After that we were up and racing for the top of the stairs again. It was sooooo much fun!! And what made it even more enjoyable for Fi and I was that we looked like super models next to most of the other people in the park. I'm not sure what has happened out here in Australia but it seems that we are trying to emulate the American diet and it's really showing…… After our day at the park we decided to join then and we found the last remaining Sizzler in Australia which was Harry's request for his birthday meal. Chaos ensued as we all went bananas at the buffet and before we were even aware we were at the dodgiest of chain buffet restaurants, Bailey had consumed 4 main course plates of creamy pasta and 6 puddings only to rush to the toilet and throw up after the 6th bowl of ice cream took its toll. Harry and I were not far behind him and the drive home was very quiet as we were doing all we could from not vomiting and nursing our aching and swollen bellies. The next day was Warner Brothers Movie World, which was great as our midweek plan to get there with no school holidays meant there was basically no one around and waiting times for the rides were non-existent. The only problem being that there were 3 rides not open and we'd done the whole park in about 1.5 hours, which was a bit disappointing as there weren't as many rides for the boys as the height restrictions kept them away. Fi and I did manage to get on one of the roller coasters and it was lucky it was one of the last runs of the day as both of us came close to soiling our own underpants as it looped us up and down and around at such a breakneck speed. The final day of the theme parks was spent at Seaworld, which was fantastic. Seal shows, dolphin shows, jet ski shows and the most amazing aquarium we've seen so far as well as a touch pool full of stingrays had Harry beaming. Out of the three attractions we found this one the best and we were the last to leave despite being in the line at the start of the day before the doors opened. Well worth the money.

BrisVegas, as the Australians call it, was fun but the first real city we'd been in since we left in mid-July so adjusting to the cars and traffic was a little bit of a return to reality. Leaving Jacobs Well and Tom our fishing shop doppelganger, we ventured off the Bruce Highway and out of Queensland at which point Bailey asked why was it called the Bruce highway. I explained that it was originally named Captain Cook Road but wasn't deemed Australian enough so they replaced it with that iconic Aussie name Bruce!! He bought the explanation and we headed into NSW. Leaving the sugar fields behind, our first stop was Byron Bay to see what all the fuss was about. It looked nice and was very "chilled" and "laid back" but more so because it has been commercialised to look like that. The 8.5 million backpackers we saw there wandering around trying to "out cool" each other meant we only stayed for an overpriced coffee and some supplies before heading further south. The destination was Yamba as the grey clouds descended and the weather looked like closing in. Yamba was supposedly voted Australia's best town a few years ago so we were keen to see it. I'll agree it was nice but couldn't say it was the best town given all the amazing places we've seen so far and we've only been to a tiny few. It reminded Fi and I a lot of Cottesloe in Perth but built up and with a village feel to it. The beach was pretty special as we saw first hand the excellent swells peeling off the headland into the bay and watched as surfers and surf lifesavers competed to catch the bigger ones into shore. We ended up spending a whole morning there in a coffee shop just reading the paper whilst the boys worked on their travel journals. The coffee they served was the best Fi and I had ever had so our experience of Yamba was a good one overall. We ended up staying a little south of the town in the National Park right on the beach and found a spot surrounded by trees which protected us from the wind. The beach was about 37 seconds from our tent so we spent most of the next two days on it swimming and walking up and down, building a swing for the boys in a tree and hanging out with the kangaroos. Fi had me running again so we spent each morning waking up at 6am with the birds and then jogging along the beach. It was lovely as it was only the two of us on the whole beach at that time of the day. Even when it got busy there were only about 6 people there besides us along the 5km from our campsite to the headland that separated us from the next lovely stretch of coastline. We packed up after 3 nights, said goodbye to the 20 or so kangaroos that were pottering around our campsite or just nearby and made our way to Sawtell, which is a little village a few kilometres south of Coffs Harbour and a place which is special to us as it was where my Mum grew up. The park we pulled into was practically deserted and we started setting up next to a lovely family who had arrived about 20 minutes before us with two children about the boy's age and were on a 4 month trip around Oz as well. Our first day was spent wandering up and down the delightfully quaint main street with its boutiques, coffee shops and the right mix of pubs and restaurants. For a small town of less than 3000, there was a really nice feel to it. The main street was only one block back from the beach so we headed to the Sawtell SLSC and went to check out the surf. It was still a little windy but we went in anyway and the waves were truly excellent. Big, rolling and lovely to catch. It was all the things my mum used to go on to me about when I was younger about how wonderful the waves were where she grew up. The small bay that ended on the headland to one end and the National Park on the other was very pretty and had Fi and I looking at real estate agents windows and contemplating life there. The boys loved it as well, so we decided to extend our stay by another 3 days so we could spend more time on the beach with some better weather and also make sure we had somewhere to watch the Rugby World Cup final. Fi managed to get hold of some info about the Sawtell Surf School and we booked the boys into a couple of hours of surf lessons with Caspian, a tall fit surfer and the most chilled guy I've ever met. The waves had died down and the boys had a blast, even managing to stand up on their surfboards on most of the waves they caught. The surf school is designed for "Grommets" (young surfers) so there were about 5 others, all under 10, catching these little waves on boards designed to make it easier to stand up and have a lot of fun which everyone had. Fi got so excited that she took a lesson in the afternoon. I wasn't sure if she wanted to surf or just have Caspian hold her on a surfboard and spend some time bouncing in the waves with him. Either way, she had a great time and I got to hang out at the rock pool that was designed and built by my granddad in the 50's, which was another reason that made us feel we had a real connection with the place. The days were lovely as Fi had me up early running on the beach followed by a quality flat white from one of the coffee shops, beach with the boys in the middle of the day then we'd spend the afternoon at the local pool, which was attached to the Caravan Park, doing laps. The boys spent their time playing with Lennie and Charlie, the kids from the next camp, either fishing or floating down the creek to the sea and we chatted with their parents Rachel and Rob who we really clicked with and had a good laugh. On one of the nights we were there we followed the crowds and hit the local RSL club to join the famous Sawtell Meat Raffle. Getting to the bar first we picked up our numbers and nervously waited whilst others started piling into the club. Not realising we had to wait another 2 hours before the raffle was called we crossed the road and partook in a pizza & a beer before heading back. The boys were stoked as our numbers got called, twice!! It was all super exciting and we felt like celebrities until we strolled up to the meat counter and picked out our two platters of meat from about 50 they had there and which had to be eaten within 48 hours or it would have gone off. Leaving the club we still felt like super stars with our "double bagger" until someone told us that it was more uncommon not to win than to actually walk away with some fast greying meat. Not to be perturbed we went back on the Friday night for the seafood Smorgasbord where we promised not to indulge as we did at Sizzler and grab some tickets for the MEGA Friday Meat Raffle…..(we walked away empty handed from this one, but full in the guts from the endless prawns, oysters and desert table….). The rest of the days were also spent shooing away a family of wild bush turkeys who were getting too familiar with our rubbish bin & food box and were so bold they would even wander into our tent when we were there. We started by throwing thongs at them as they scuttled around to ward them off but as soon as we got in the car or walked off to the beach we'd turn around and notice them hiding in the bush looking at us then running straight for our rubbish bag when we turned our back. After about 4 days of this behaviour I left some old stinky polony in the rubbish bag on purpose, and the turkeys took the bait. Gobbling up the rancid processed meat we didn't see them for a couple of days afterwards as I suspect they were recovering from a bout of food poisoning under a tree and cursing at us whilst we spilt muesli on the ground for breakfast just to antagonise them…..which the pretty little magpies very politely swept up for us….. sweet revenge….One of the highlights was on our second last night in Sawtell where we were invited to dinner by Meredith, a lovely lady we met on the beach and whom we kept bumping into everywhere we went. It was a nice evening of wine and chicken whilst we reminisced about Perth with her and her husband Danny as they had lived there for a while and we chatted about our travels regaling stories of Weetbix, stingers and the fun times we've had so far. She really spent some time on prepping the meal and had us leave with a container full of yummy gingerbread fingers which we polished off the next night. Our time in Sawtell was wonderful and we all really felt a lot closer to this place because of our history there. The boys got to surf their first waves, Fi got to grab Caspian whilst she was "falling" off her surfboard, and I managed to drink half of Columbia's coffee beans at the best coffee shop in town. Ahhhh…..too nice…...