The Clarendon Hotel Newcastle

... over the loud speaker.. she took my passport and my boarding pass.. woops I said they have found my stash of drugs. But no, they had overbooked the flight and I had been upgraded to business class. Woo Hoo. Lots of room, lovely hostesses to look after your every whim. So from then on I did have quiet a lot of sleep. But must admit the pratt (sorry ******) next to me didn't say a word. Pity I should have got Louise ...

... hid it around the corner. The next morning we drove to Byron Peak, the headland overlooking Byron Bay. The scenery from up there was really nice and in July and August it's supposed to be the best place on the planet to see whales from land. It is also the most easterly point of mainland Australia and has a nice lighthouse up there too. We hung around up there for a while and took a few photos then spent the rest of the afternoon either online or walking ...

... day they would sober up and it would be like nothing happened. Mark told me that they were going to move to the Gold Coast together in February (by now he had moved in with us, but wasn't paying for utilities. He was also leaving a mud wherever I cleaned and leaving messy dishes around). The timing was great because I'd had just about as much as I could at that point and was going to move out in January myself until they came up with this fantastic idea. I told them to give me ...

... of a koffufle. Is that a word? My dictionary doesn't seem to think so. The next day I rock up to find the police there. It takes a second to realise that the entire place has been trashed. Car windos smashed, door torn off and a sick look on the dealer's face. I feel bad for him, even though he had told me that the previous owner of the car was a "little old lady who only drove it to get groceries on Sunday". Apparently he had made a bad deal at some point. I ...

... ninemsn.com.au/article.a spx?id=393373 (the pub The Kent in the clip is bro-in-laws bar). I hadn't been there for 3 years, in fact to the day as the Hamilton Festival was on then too or maybe that was another time, anyway, it was great to have brunch on funky Darby St. and check out the great clothes shops esp. the new expensive one called "High Tea was Mrs. Woo" where I bought a gorgeous merino wool jumper (why?) and to swing by Bar Beach again.

We decided to go for a drive today to Newcastle (about 2 hr drive north of Sydney) to see the ship that ran aground at Nobby Beach during a storm last weekend (9 & 10th June). It is a massive ship, you can see it from a long way off from the town centre. And you can see how high up the spray from the waves goes (see ...

Thursday, November 23, 2006 It's no joke that Australia is hot. Sweltering even. At midday, when it's hottest, anyone with a half a brain (read: the Aussies) stays indoors leaving the streets for the less intelligent, sun-drenched dumbasses (read: us sucker backpackers). Perhaps it's not that extreme, but the truth is if you're accustomed to the climate you change your habits. Well I'm not, and like many travelers here I find myself trekking all over the ...

... so as there's only 5 of us we've got plenty of room. It's a bit like being back at uni - the house reminds me of uni accomodation and i've got to cook and do my washing again! Ally, Ant and I went into Newcastle (about quarter of an hour on the train) on the Saturday to look round the shops and the beaches, it's a lot nicer than i thought it was going to be, I thought it was an industrial town but the centre is really nice and ...

Thank you Katie! You have given us a bed, a shower a massive bedroom and a lovely stay with you in your gorgeous house in Coffs Harbour. We met up with our 'Kayaking Pal from Fiji' and it felt like we had gone home for a bit. It was so relaxing to stop in a home for a while and relax. We had the most sophisticated night out of our OZ trip so far when we went to a party at an Aboriginal Art Gallery ...

... school children in uniforms complete with hats happened at a park in the center of town. Later I'll add some great pics of my sons standing on a cliff while the surf pounded to shore. We saw surfers swimming with dolphins here and did quite a bit of walking in the town. For some reason when I think of Australia it is this town I wish revisit. Just a lovely small town atmosphere with the addition of the coastal view.