Bali at the Bay Nelson Bay

... to see some of the great places in Australia. <br>Now back to our news....... We spent a few days reacquainting ourselves with our grandkids, it has been 12 months, and it wasn't long before the kids felt comfortable with us again. Then we headed off to Anna Bay for 5 nights (Port Stephens area) about 45 mins from Maitland. The caravan park is very quiet at the moment which was good for us. We lashed out and got an ensuite ...

... meal from Natalie we all had an early night and changed out plans for the rest of the week. On Saturday we are off to New Zealand and will send the next thrilling instalment from Caroline and Steves in Napier. Bye for now all of you who are reading this, Keep your messages coming its great to hear all your news - special thanks to Sophia from Thomas. x ps.If you think this is a bit hoodobley wotsits but dont blame Thomas OK!

The 20th was another day of a lot of driving. We explored the beach at Cresent Head and then drove to the Port Stephens area. The major city is Nelson's Bay which we did not actually get here. We decided to stop a few kilometers from Nelson's Bay at a place called Anna's Bay. This is where many of the sand dune tours start. We drove to the beach and found that the last tour for sand boarding just left. We checked into a ...

... get round this and was selling the contents of his shack for $150,000 and would pass the flat over to the buyer of the contents. You'd feel pretty stupid if you bought the contents and he never gave the shack to you!! Tomorrow we leave the beautiful and quite Nelson Bay for Sydney where will be meeting my cousins, one of whom I also haven't seen for 18 years, I wonder if they've changed from that picture of all of us in the bath 25 years ago!

First stop with the hire car wsa Newcastle. Supposedly Australias 6th biggest city. They'd try and big up anything at all over here in New Zealand and Australia. "The worlds 152nd best coffee shop as voted for by the Alzheimers Association". There was feck all accomodation in and around the city so we crossed the bay to Stockton and to a small camp site there. Straight away we were able to see the difference between the Aussies and the Kiwis. Basically the aussies talk ...

... leid für ihn. Also sind wir ein bißchen spazieren gegangen. Im nächsten Urlaub nehmen wir definitiv ein all-rad Fahrzeug mit. Wenn ich mich richtig erinnere sind nämlich doppelt so viele Straßen nicht geteert, wie geteert sind in Australien. Manche sind total spaßig zum durchfahren. Aber, man brauch schon all-rad um sicher zu sein (im Outback ist es allerdings trotzdem keine garantierte Sicherheit, da man im Sand stecken bleiben kann).

Alright dudes!!! Welcome to surf camp. Ready to catch some gnarly waves??? Surf camp was ace. I got up on my 2nd wave. I kicked butt!!! Julesy needed a little more time to get back into it....perhaps it was she wanted a one on one with the surf dudes....the ...

As if all this hospitality weren't enough, Alan is also a rugby fan and had his telly fixed specifically so that we could get up at 6.45am for the All Blacks vs France game. It's a huge win to the ABs too - bargain! At around 9am, Elaine and Alan pack all sorts of stuff into some boxes and we head off into the next door park for a brilliant BBQ and champagne breakfast. They have these great ...

... the bonnet, so I continued reading War and Peace, more to finish it than cos I was enjoying it! Noosa is a posh holiday town, and the first place we got an "official warning" for sleeping in the cruiser in a car park. We had stopped near the national park, and were surrounded by Koalas - no idea how they sleep so high up, they seem to look as if they are just about to fall out! Australia seems to have more than its fair share of barges, so we hopped ax a narrow stretch of water to ...

... Bay/Port Stephens. However there was a small panic situation, signs at every car park saying no camping! But we finally found a remote spot and took our chances. The toilets were slightly less desirable though, and its not like we have been used to luxury! Animal sighting 5: Black Widow Spider! Living on the lights were numerous black widows, needless to say toilet trips were kept to the minimum...one stop, and teeth remained dirty till we found another toilet the next day!