Yamba Prawns

Hello to everyone,
First of all a big congratulations to Alice and Jack, great news and we wish you happiness always, we hope to see you at Luke & Jamie’s family day, we will be there.
It has been a busy time since our last blog. After leaving the sunshine coast we headed down to the gold coast, where we were lucky enough to get Lucy (van) up onto my sister’s (Christine) front yard, it was a bit of a battle because her yard isn’t level, but Chris is getting really good at reversing into any spot, after leveling the van with bricks, Chris and Dennis assuring me it wasn’t going anywhere, I relented and we stayed there for 2 weeks. Although what we didn’t know is that Christine was going on a weeks holiday to Tangalooma Resort , which she invited us to come over, which I did for 4 days and Chris would follow, he stayed to dog sit the four dogs as most of her family were going over or not at home, so Chris came over for 2 days. I don’t feel sorry for him because he was lucky enough to get a free grand stand pass for the Gold Coast Indy 300 car races, thanks to my niece’s boyfriend who had the ticket and couldn’t use it, so he had a great time, but I’m sure he will elaborate on this.
Chris Comment: It was a great coincidence that we were on the Gold Coast for Indy week, Sue and Christine had entertainment, the poor dogs needed company and a free ticket was on offer. I spent most of the day absorbing the sound and vision and high speed atmosphere enjoying the Indy race and two V8 races. You cannot appreciate the sound and speed without being there. I think every second promotional model in Australia was there for the day promoting everything from night clubs to portable fridges, Bundy Rum (as if it needed promotion there) and every car accessory made. Sorry Guys I forgot to take my camera. On the down side I do not recommend spending the night on the floor with 4 dogs.
Tangalooma Resort, on Morton Island is beautiful, 70 minutes ferry ride from Brisbane has white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, it’s a resort type of island so you can do as much as you want or as little as you want. Christine and her friend Karlene go there for a week every year and stay in a three bedroom beach front villa, which sleeps 8, so they can invite lots of visitors while they are there. Christine and I did everything from parasailing which was fantastic, sand tobogganing although, when you climbed up this massive sand hill and looked down was a bit scary but I did it and it was great, it was a really windy day when we did it and the tour guide said we would be doing about 40klms an hour, but it was lots of fun, I even fed a dolphin in thigh deep water (Christine knows the trainer) and so he took me out, although when we approached the water he said now don’t be alarmed, but there is a wobbygong shark just under the jetty he might come out, don’t be alarmed your kidding aren’t you, all I heard was the word shark and I was more concerned about that then the dolphin, then I thought what could he do, gum me, so the dolphin feeding wasn’t as amazing as I thought it would be. In the bar every night was a themed night so we had karaoke (where is Kelly), bingo and a Hawaiian night which was a great laugh. I had a lot of fun with my sister and on the gold coast. When Chris and I got back to Surfers we went up the new Q1 building. At 80 floors it is the highest residential building in the world and the 20th highest building overall. Wow it’s amazing, the lift does 77 floors in less than 43 seconds and you can see from Tweed Heads to Brisbane, fantastic views ,me not being much of a lift person we were on the 3rd floor before I knew we were moving, it was so quiet and fast.
Our next stop was at Ballina for 3 days, it’s also beautiful. We caught up with Phil Heggen and Sue for an afternoon, and it was good to catch up with them. From Ballina we drove out to the farm at Goolmangar, to see if it was for sale, but unfortunately it wasn’t, if anything it was like Fort Knox to get into with padlocks on the gates, so I guess maybe the owners were away there wasn’t any sign of life only a few horses in the paddock which Chris went over to feed, but gee it looks nice, green grass lush paddocks even the house looks picture perfect. On the way back we got bananas for $5.00 a kilo, what a treat.
Next onto Yamba for 3 days, we are now visiting places we normally zoom past on our way to other destinations and they are so nice, truly if you can you should take the time to see this wonderful country. Yesterday we caught the ferry over to Iluka and today we drove into Grafton via Mclean and along the banks of the Clarence river crossing at the Bluff point ferry and traveling through beautiful country side. Grafton is celebrating the Jacaranda festival and it’s just beautiful with all the Jacarandas in bloom. Having Yamba prawns for dinner tonight, life’s tough. Leaving tomorrow for Coffs Harbour for three days, then Cresent Head, Forster, Hawkes Nest and Toowoon Bay by the family day.
Love to all, Sue, Chris & Olly.