Blue C Apartments Coolangatta

... descent left us both with ear aches - something I have never had a problem with in the past. Took hours to unblock!

Coolangatta was a balmy 23oC on arrival and the Byron Bay minibus arrived as booked. The Gold Coast looks as though little has changed in 15 years. Very ordinary.

Offset easily by that 23oC and arrival at The Byron at Byron...

... searched because of herbal medicines and what not. I thought it was better to play safe and declare the one highly risky item we brought - a jar of Bisto gravy that Paul's sister Jo wanted from the UK !! Luckily the customs lady wasn't bothered and (flashing the blue AU passport!) we got straight through. Picked up a hire car and Paul drove from Brisbane down to Collangatta and Bilambil Heights where Jo and Mick live - arrived at 2am, completely knackered and ready for bed !

... American in our room. We of course went to reception and asked for another room citing our 2 issues and got another room at the other end of the building....over the smoking area!! It was even noisier than the other room but no budding porn stars so better on the whole. We left for our Christmas destination of Ballina on Dec 23rd on the first bus out of there. The bus was half an hour late because of all the seasonal traffic ...

... can also claim that we suppose. We also went to Rainbow bay, which is very popular with families for the little sand islands and then down to Snapper rocks. As you can see, there is no end to the beaches in this area. We also followed the Walk of Remembrance, a memorial to all the ship that have sunk around Australia, particularly during the war. It is quite sad to see the amount of casualties, but good that a memorial is being ...

... To die for! Max and I had a wine tasting--he smelled, I tasted. We did some off roading, which we know that Jim's sister and brother in law will be proud of. Our guide took us through a rain forrest and pointed out all kinds of interesting things--strangling fig trees, funnel web holes, termite destruction, trap door spider. He was intersting, funny and very patient with the endless questions from the kids. A highlight for me was ...

... by. After checking out the next morning we took our time and caught up on emails before returning to the shopping centre to actually buy those gifts we'd looked for the night before. By the time we'd done all that it was time to go to the bus station for our mammoth 16 hour overnight trip to Sydney, where we would be staying with my friend from Norway Cup adventures, Dave Goldsmith. Lots of love, Mark and Theresa xxxx

... as far as you could see, definitely a camera moment I thought. What we didn't realise until we arrived at the lighthouse, we were standing on Cape Byron, the most Easterly point in Australia. The view up here was amazing & the crisp white lighthouse was picturesque set against the deep blue sky. And as if all that wasn't enough to put a smile on your face so early in the morning, the migrating Humpback Whales from the Antarctic ...

... finger and your thumb, leaving the other fingers upright - it usually means 'perfect' above water in England). I signalled, 'no. I have a problem - I keep sinking.' She understood me, but didn't know enough to help me. She waited, watching, until Niko turned around on one of his many routine checks to see how we were doing. He asked if I was ok and I explained the problem again. 'Just add air,' he signalled. Feeling frustrated, I ...

... amazing. I only got to see one of about 15 caverns but it was very pretty. I was back in Sydney on Thursday and did all the main attractions like the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The harbour was very beautiful and after hearing it compared to San Francisco so much I would say that it is similar. I think Sydney harbour is more scenic than the SF Bay, but the Golden Gate Bridge is way nicer than the Harbour Bridge. ;) On my last day I went to the ...

Hello, We arrived in Byron Bay yesterday and are staying in a hostel right on the beach. It's a huge hostel, but our room smelt like a tramp had been living in there, and it's freezing at night so didn't sleep very well last night.... but apart from that Byron Bay is really nice. There is a big long beach where everyone goes down to surf on, and a big light house that you can go to and whale watch as they are ...