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5th Feb 2011 was a very early start for me and min, after not much sleep due to too much excitment at seeing sophie and lauren! We drove down to the airport with a surprise picnic in the eski all ready to go! We arrived at the airport and waited for them to come through even just waiting to see them was emotional i think i cried several times just waiting and finally they walked down and out of arrivals, there were many tears shed between me and Sophie! We made our way to the car to go for our surprise picnic in front of the Opera House and what a day for it, it was so hot and both Sophie and Lauren had arrived in Joggers and a jumper! Sitting in front of the Opera House with them was great and even tho i have seen it so many times now, it still doesn't feel like i'm there! I love it at Mrs Macquaries chair, its a beautful spot and is where we sat to watch the firework NYE! We then drove back to Kiama to go for a swim at Rob and Chrissys and to try and keep Sophie and Lauren awake till a normal time to go to sleep to help fight jet lag! The next morning we went to take samuel his laptop which he had forgotten to take to school then we went to surf beach, the waves were insane the biggest they had been the whole time we were in Kiama! We then began to head to the Blue Mountians!
The Blue Mountains is an amazing place and i think it would be even more amazing if it wasnt so foggy!! While we were there you couldn't see the 3 sisters from the view point but we were lucky enough to catch sight of them after our walk to scenic world and there they were for a few minutes before the clouds blew back over them! The walk down to scenic world was amazing, throught the rainforest and past the amazing katoomba falls, you go past so many different levels of it and its just beautiful, we all took our shoes off and paddled in the cool water too!! To get back up after the walk down we took the worlds steepest railway! We also took a trip to the Jenolan caves, Here we had a self guided tour around the grand arch, devils coach house and nettle cave and a guided tour of the orient cave, they talked about how the cave was formed and showed us different areas and took you quite far down, at one point they even turned off all the lights so that was a bit spooky!!
After a couple of days in the Blue Mountains we headed for Sydney! We were staying in Darling Harbour so our first night there we wondered around there, its so pretty at night time with all the skyrise building lite up! We also booked ourselves on to the harbour bridge climb, Yippeeee! We were very much looking forward to this! It was a bit pricey but it was worth it for the breathtaking views across sydney! We spent an afternoon at Bondi Beach, with much disapoint of the lack of filming for bondi rescue! We took Sophie to the Lindt cafe and i think this is my favourite place in Sydney! hehe!! Its so goood! Then to burn off our chocolate we walked to Circluar Quay to see the Opera House at night! We also picked up our new car in Sydney too! Ready to drive us to Port Stephens for a day of relaxing on the beach after all the walking in the Blue Mountains and Sydney! It was a bautiful beach called nelsons bay, the sand was white the ocean was warm, then me and Lauren ended up being rescued by the life guards! Nothing like bondi rescue either! After a totally relaxing day we headed to Port Macquarie and had a blast hiring jet skies! we hired one for an hour and took it turns to drive, it was so fun! We took a visit to the Koala hospital, where they take care of the injured koalas before returning them to the wild, it was very cute and they even had some baby ones! We also took a sunset river cruise and had fish and chips after!
We then spent a day in Coffs Harbour at the pet porpoise pools where we all got kisses from Dolphins and Seals! It was very cute! and of course we had to have a picture in front of the Big Banana before making our way to Byron Bay! Byron was beautiful and probably my favourite beach on the east coast! The Sand is so white and the water so blue and all thought there are a lot of people it never felt over crowded! At the light house in Byron we saw dolphins and turtles swimming out in the wild! it was amazing! On Valentines night we spent the evening chilling out in the pool and the hot tub at where we were staying it was lovely! Min hired a surf board here on our last day too and spent the whole time trying to catch the waves while the girls all watched! hehe!! That evening we headed a little bit more north to the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise! Here Sophie wanted to try and do some shopping for girfts and uggs! and success she found some gorgeous ugg boots at a decent price and could even claim some tax back on them in the airport when she left, bargain! we also decided that it would be fun to spend the day at Wet 'n' Wild a water park, and it was! it was so funny but the best bit was watching to see if min would make it round the loop in the vertical drop water slide! luckily he did and didnt have to climb out! That night we drove to Brisbane to see Luke and Laurens Cousin, we spent 2 nights at Luke and 1 night with Claire. Seeing Luke again was so fun, we chilled out, watched inbetweeners, swam in his pool and ate dominos! We were his first English visitors so that was cool! Our last night with Luke and Andrew we went to Hogsbreathe for dinner Yummmmmmy!
We got up early in the morning to drive to Australia Zoo! it was great here but we didn't see Terri or Bindi, but we did cuddle koalas!! that was cute, considering they only eat eucalypus leaves they are so heavy and solid but their fur is so soft! We also fed kangeroos and wallabies and watched the crocodile show in the famous crocoseum! After our day at the Zoo we headed to Noosa as a little stop gap before heading to the whitsundays! Noosa was fun, we slept the night in the car then went kayaking before being called in early from the kayaks becasue of a huge storm, we drove all the way through the storm to Airlie Beach, it was the best storm we've ever seen and soon got sophie over her fear of thunder! The lightening was so bright that it lit up the whole road and fields around us for as far as the eye could see! It was incredible! but by the morning it was over! But we followed it pretty much all the way for 12 hours so We decided to stop at a servo and cook ourselves our pancakes for pancake day before driving the last bit to Airlie Beach! Once in Airlie Beach we had a wonder around the shops and went to check into our powerplay trip to the whitsunday islands! Very excited about this as i had been waiting for this for years! and whitehaven beach did not disapoint, it was one of the most amazing things i have ever seen, it was stunning and i was speechless! Whilst out in the whitsundays we took 2 dives and i wasn't that impressed to be honest, the vis was bad, there weren't that many fish and it wasnt as colourful as in asia either! But was still pleased that we did it, even if Min did loose his mask, which he was very upset about! And the only reason he lost it was becasue he was helping me (becasue we hadn't set up our own BCD's mine wasn't set up properly and couldn't inflate so i kept sinking when we were on the surface!) Me and Min also lost the group that we were diving with, i had a problem with my mask fogging up so min and i stopped to clear it, once we had finished we turned to look were everyone was and it they were gone, so we looked around and swam to the surface when we couldnt see anyone! after a littel while they came back up to look for us and then we headed back down, but thr vis was so bad, one of the worst we have dived in! We stayed on the whitsundays for 2 nights and it was perfect! powerplay was a really fun boat with only 18 people on board and the aircon even worked in the rooms! After the trip we staye for one more night in Airlie Beach to Enjoy a night out with Team Powerplay! The next day Sophie and Lauren would drive to Cairns! When we got to cairns it did nothing but rain for 2 days then on the day that Sophie and Lauren were leaving it was nice so we got to enjoy the lagoon for a couple of hours at least! Sophie and Lauren managed to do their last minute gift shopping too even if it was raining! Sophie had her 22nd birthday here and we celebrated with a hogsbreathe and the biggest rocky road pudding you have ever seen! 4 of us were eating it and still couldnt finish it off! We then had to head back for Sophie and Lauren to finish packing before taking them to the airport. it was nice beacuse me and min could go right through to the departure gates with them and stay with them until they were litterally about to board the plane, it was so nice getting to spend those last few minutes together, It was a very emotional goodbye and i cried for days, i missed Sophie like my arm had fallen off, min didnt really know what to do with me! Bless him!
And there you have it our amazing road trip up the East Coast of Australia
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
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lauren Amazing xxxx