Aries Holiday Apartments Coolangatta

... Darling Buds of May' you aint gonna be rocked out of your socks! However, we were knocked out by the Atomic Hi-tones, Danny & the Cosmic Tremors, Pat Capocci Combo, the Firebirds, the Firedomes and the Flattrackers. All Australian and extremely good.
The last night we caught the Vargas Brothers and Luis & the Wildfires from California who were, of course, superb.
Thus our journey down the coast of Queensland is done.
We are staying in the Gold ...

... pain was mostly gone and the swelling had gone down, so we detoured slightly to pick up meat pies in Yatala. Once home, a quick google search told me that the best remedy for blue bottle stings was a long hot shower, which I must agree with. Thankfully blue bottles are not deadly, and although the pain was pretty unpleasant, it's not the end of the world. So here I am, 7 hours post-first jellyfish sting and slightly worse for the wear, but overall pretty well. I've ...

... and election. I don't even know who runs Australia. Some more Aussies heard our accents and approached us to tell us they don't get many Americans this way. I was waiting for the punchline or the America comments but they never came. I was definitely getting that impression, too that Americans stick to Sydney mostly. We were a novelty to them. One asked if the hike was nice since she had lived nearby her whole life but ...

... guide met us at 8:00 am and took us to a nearby beach, where he equipped us with life vests and helmets, and then spent about 30 minutes giving us instruction and safety tips. Then we piled in a raft, similar to a white water raft, and paddled out into the surf. Let me just say, that we had no idea how strenuous this activity would be. Once we battled the incoming surf, our guide would turn the boat around and we'd wait nervously for his ...

... to spend loads of money and far less chilled out than cooly. and the surf is ****, despite the name. i am learning to surf here, got myself a learner board and go out whenever i can, im not very good yet but ive plenty of time yet! the other big news here is that the annual quiksilver pro surfing competion has been here in coolangatta the last two weeks. so thats seen a massive increase in tourism to the area and of course the worlds top men ...

Slight change of plan. headed up straight to Surfers Paridise, met up with some people who are a good laugh so travelled up with them to Surfers. Spending more time on the beach and surfing. Hurt my head in Byron surfing. The waves here are so big! One knocked me of the ...

... completely wrong. I didn't think either Courtney or Devon would even try yoga, let alone enjoy it - they asked me to do another session the next day, after we finished. Devon is funny. He is 22, fresh out of 'college' (he's American) and annoyed most of us by sharing an Israeli girls bottom bunk bed and trying to keep us out of the room by putting a sock over the doorhandle of the room at 11:30pm. I had to be up at 6 the next day for ...

... As we were on the beach, we couldn't believe our eyes when 3 dolphins swim by very close to shore. The whole beach just stopped to look at Fungee, Flipper and one of their mates (can't think of another famous dolphin). There are alot of spot points to see dolphins and whales up by the lighthouse. We were just having one of those lucky days of seeing some wildlife. Class. We moved out of that kip after the second day. Made as much noise as ...

... Weekend" (aka mini-but-annual family reunion), and I'm bummed that I'm going to miss it, but then again I missed the celebration for Family Day (the anniversary of the day we got the girls and became a family), and will be missing the birthdays of Hebrom, Semhal and Mom (her 50th!!). Semhal sounded pretty good after apparently being recovered from mono that no one even knew she had until a few days ago when she was finally over it - that ...

... to this really nice restaurant and ate kangaroo steak, crocodile, emu, and I had some good Australian wine. It was wonderful! Today we are just relaxing, walking around the city. Tomorrow is the Great Barrier Reef!!!! I can't wait! Cairns is such a tourist town. There are like 150,000 residents and 2 million tourists a year. It's fun though cause you can meet people from ...