Beachside Apartments Nelson Bay

Well folks, Back a little earlier than expected from our trip oop north. The drive to Port Stephens went well, once we got the right map and directions from a couple of very helpful Aussies in the local petrol station. We stopped off at the most amazing beach I think it was called Anna Beach, the sand dunes were huge, stretching as far as the eye could see... so vast in fact that a few camels had got lost and were spotted ...

... We also saw a cow being milked by hand, which enable Steven to make some suitably embarrassing comments! The trip was topped off by a ride around the farm on a trailer. D and Yvonne stayed up most of the night to watch President Obama's inauguration, which we were impressed with, however at 5am when we went to bed, we almost packed up straight away with the arrival of a cockroach in the shower!

... Jacqui and sitting down to a beer and a catch up. A few beers later we had an excellent traditional aussie BBQ. The following day Bev and I were slow risers and Roger and Jacqui were at the gym, when Bev finally decided to get out of bed. The weather was looking quite promising so upon Roger and Jacqui's returned we headed to the beach for a swim. Nelson bay has a beautiful bay, we had a very refreshing swim with plenty of fantastic ...

AND HIS MULLET HAIR IS THE TALK OF THE TOWN, THE WAY IT LOOKS SO SHORT, BUT THEN HANGS DOWN! I said goodbye to John and Sydney and hopped, well ran, struggling with my massive rucksack and board bag, yes I am still lugging around a snowboard in the 40 degree heat, people think I have landed in the wrong country, but anyways, I got on a train to Swansea, in Newcastle about two hours north of Sydney, to see my old pals that I ...

... man-of-war (I guess related to the Portugese-man-of-war), is one of Australian's stingers. They float on top the water and don't stop stinging until they are dried out. The pain is pretty bad. The poison will settle in your lymp nodes and that can be pretty evil. The best thing to do is to rub an asprin on the sting and put an ice-pack on it. Now, these are the "harmless" Australian stingers. The box jelly-fish can lead to paralysis ...

You know those times in life when you can just feel a good thing. This is most defiantly one. O wee here at Edwards hall is excellent. Schooling aside there are plenty of opportunities to meet allot of really good people. First off, our College (dorm) is sponsored by a local pub, Customs. This gives us a great avenue to kick it. We also have a Bar on campus that hosts local ...

... with 'anti-war' and 'peace' slogans. Oh...and not forgetting the hatred towards George Bush and how the brainless idiot has turned this world into what it is now. Don't get me wrong, in no way are we hippies or anything like that, but it really does stop you in your tracks. Also in Byron we visited the lighthouse and lookout points at the top of a large hill and 'the most easterly point of the Australian mainland' (photo attached), to absorb some of the breathtaking views. To our delight ...

... party at the uni (its their freshers week) and we got there (its like in the middle of no-where) and it had sold out! grrr. so that was pretty lame too. were just off to the beach now, hopefully no beasties in the sea. so yeah. errm really not an interesting week. a few more pics as usual. some of them are old ones i forgot to put on a while ago. hopefully something more interesting to say next week! Tom

... Free to roam across the desert in any which way I choose and freedom is shadowed with danger. There is however, an empowerment in it that they do not understand a creative way of travelling. A journey that has not been forced but rather actively sought. I wonder if there exists a cyclic pattern of travel that runs between the female generations of our family. Life events that spiral between each age, From Nonna who left Italy, Ginetta who left Sydney ...

... here to talk and get to know each other. I am finding that half the fun of travelling is the people you meet, not just the places you get to see. I stayed here a couple of days and had a really good time, met good people and mostly laid around doing nothing, much like home really! I dragged myself down to the river front and booked myself on a 2 hour river cruise to see the area from the water ...