Quality Hotel The Willows Gosford

... work that night so Ed and I were left to our own devices. The second day we drove down to one of the beaches and went for a long walk down the pier where we got blown about and hit in the face by the sand! Thanks for that Karen! Seriously though, the views from the end of the pier are beautiful. We then tried to walk up to the Fort but we were stopped by security - Karen looks really dodgy! - and told we weren't allowed to go any further as the fort ...

... place was in a suburb by the beach, but was kind of out of the way. I rolled up and was amazed to find the place was in a "million dollar" neighbourhood and was quite modern. An amazing view of the city, *******************wood floor, beautiful kitchen. Heaven. The flat mates seemed a bit quiet, and it would be necessary to get a car asap, but I could manage. The second place was located perfectly, but the guy isn't home until Tuesday, so I did a drive-by of the neighbourhood ...

... which made for a great little walk to a fishing hole at the north end of Cathos. Its set up in the headland with a deep cut in the rocks that the allows swells roll to and and from the sea. We didn't have fishing poles, so K Ching and I settled for canned tuna and cheese sandwiches. After the Cathos stop we continued to Gosford to revisit ...

... agrees with the locals. Cathos is a classic and needs to stay the way it is. After revisiting Cathos I headed down to Moonees. Moonees is my favorite Australian beach. You have to hike 15 minutes through bush to get there. Once there you see nothing but nature. No signs of man. Its a beach break with a rip along a rocky shelf the sweeps you right out into the lineup. There are lefts and rights with a bit of punch. The surf was looking like rubbish when I arrived, so I ...

well my lovelies, was getting sick of the old smog (that's Sydney to you commoners) decided to take a lovely four hour train to Newcastle. This is a country town. Bloody hot - 31 degree's plus. I loved it here! Actually took a surf lesson you'll be glad to know. $25 for 2 hours. Lasted 10 mins. The waves were huge, been thrown ...

... let us know how the he/Tash/Robbie/baby story ended) & Jack (of course) outside the surf club. We watched them being sprayed, not sure with what, then Jack disappeared (oh no!). Luckily, for us he reappeared wearing nothing but a towel - whoopie! He commented that they had made him get naked and was winging that he had eaten too many burgers in LA (sweetie darlin') - not that anyone cared/noticed. Sadly, he was wearing white boardies under the towel, the ...

... Longboarding Championships- and with good reason too...the wave can be perfect). We managed to catch some real good ones before A giant dark and moving shadow in the water spurred us to paddle into shore. Here we go again. We got out of the water and looked out to see a huge school of fish jumping and swimming, birds swooping down to catch them and a giant fin circling the perimeter...also nearby a couple dolphins were playing ...

So, another week of conservation is over, yay! This week we had a different team leader man called Steve, and it was pretty boring really. Sarah really doesnt get on with him, hes kindof lazy. One of this weeks jobs was pulling up grass by hand!?!! There were some baby trees so they couldnt just cut the grass around them, but jesus, its like sumthin people on death row have to do! We pass the time by ...

... chandeliers, it was such a cool theatre right out of the 1930's I think. And it was totally empty on a Tuesday afternoon. The movie was 2 hours and 15 minutes long but it was great. It might not have been the best movie to watch given all the flying over oceans we're doing! The weather turned rainy and overcast after the movie and we headed back to the hostel. We chatted with Fiona and David for over 2 hours. It was awesome. We learned so much about them and their ...

... of gourmet wines and restaurants. We went to 4 or 5 different wineries to do some tasting. You're under no obligation to buy, you just walk in and get a taste of about 10 wines! 'If you had a designated driver you could really end up getting ****** for free here' we pondered as we set about getting ****** for free... By the end I couldn't really taste any difference but at the start I found it very interesting - comparing the ...