27th Feb
Woke up super early today, only in order to find signal to ring my Daddy on is birthday which we did a couple of miles down the road, that made me much happier. We drove into Port Macquarie and had breakfast at the harbour, t'was lovely, hardly anyone was about and it was so peaceful. We debated what to do for a while and then settled on going to the Billabong Koala Park. We saw dingoes and parrots that said "hello" & "whats the time?" and monkeys and snakes and super cool pelicans. We even fed kangaroos!!! That was exciting, they are so cute. It was just like feeding goats at Wimpole but kangaroos instead. Just feeding them out of our hands, we each had these 2 baby kangaroo attatched to our food, I named the girl one Beatrice, the boy one I didn't like so much as he drank the girls wee! And then we patted the cutest most adorable animal on earth….koalas! They're fur unexpectedly feels like felt, it's not soft at all. They are just the cutest creature ever.
It was roasting hot again today, so we went back to same campsite and swam in the river there. Was luxury! Kids were cliff jumping off and it was like a proper alpine setting. We did some clothe washing and made our home comfort dinner of bangers and mash.
28th Feb
We went surfing today, whooo! Got up super duper early today and drove to Flynns beach in Port Macquarie. Got kitted out in our wetsuits and began our lesson… eek! We did a few moves on the beach and then out into the big open pacific ocean! Firstly we rode the waves lying down, like body boarding, we got the knack of that quite quickly J Then we started to stand up, now that is where it began to get tricky. Balance and position on the board are very important; also the timing of catching the wave is key. We did it! We did it! We got on the boards and lifted our legs up, jumped up, spun round and rode the waves like proper surfer chicks all the way to the beach!! And we did much more than once, oh yeah. We were pretty good for first time surfers even if I do say so myself. We surfed for most of the day with a lunch break in between, we were knackered by the end of it. Plus in the afternoon lesson we were with loads of 6 year olds in there after school club, haha they were so good! Felt like a little girl all over again J
After our adventurous day surfing we went into town and walked along the waterside, the rocks were all painted with celebrations and memorials. We even spotted some wile dolphinsjumping out of the water! We had fish and chips on the pontoon whilst 2 pelicans swam on by. Staying near the beach tonight in Port Macquarie and it was flipping boiling! Literally sweat dripping off us just lying still, there was a huge storm tonight waves crashing and massive bolts of lightening.

1st March
White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits. Waking up on the beach this morning was blissful!! Put our bikinis on as soon as we woke up and went for a morning swim in the ocean and had breakfast on the beach whilst the sun rose, lovely. Drove to Coffs Harbour today, stopping off along the way at Nambucca Heads and spent the afternoon on the beach. It was incredibly hot again 36 degrees, we couldn't stand to be in the van any longer. The beach was gorgeous, we walked along and collected shells and cooled down in the ocean. We drove onto Coffs Harbour, didn't really have a good look around, we were too hot and sticky, popped into a camping shop and stocked up on gas cylinders. We stayed at Sandy Beach tonight, a little town just north of Coffs, swam in the ocean yet again, our 3rd beach and ocean swim of the day! This is the life hey J Made a delicious sausage casserole for dinner (although not as good as Mummy Gills!) and another huge storm was brewing. So on Ashleigh's orders we sprinted inside the van without doing any washing up or tidying away and good job we did as it got so windy and lots and lots and lots of rain along with all the thunder and lightening…jeeeez!

2nd March
We survived the night of the storm, phewf! Saw the sun rise over the ocean again this morning in our morning dip in the sea again, I could get used to this life. We set off on the road again towards Ballina, stopping off at Grafton on the way where we did a little retail therapy J Bought new bikini bottoms as mine aren't the securest of ones and a hat for the sunshine. Set off again to Maclean wich is a strange little Scottish town where all the electricity poles are painted in different tartans and they sell haggis… strange Scottish people! Next we arrived in Ballina, where we went for a dip in the ocean yet again. Spent the night in Ballina by a cute little river J Very hot again tonight and lots of rain, I think we're in the stormy season.

3rd March
WE'RE WITH ASHLEEEEIIIIGGGHHH!!!! :D Yippeeee! Very excited and happy little lady indeed! Been nearly a year exactly since we saw her last.
We woke up in surburbia in Ballina this morning, took a little drive around and drove onto Byron Bay. Went straight to the auto electrics to get the van fixed as it is pretty much fallng apart but they did they good job and we now have our aircon back and a working cigarette lighter to charge our electricals. We didn't stay long in Byron as we are going to come back and do the whole gold coast properly after we have seen our favourite Ash. We stopped at a beach in Tweed Heads and spent hours and hours there. It just gets so hot all you want to do is be in the water and cool down. Been on so many beaches in the past few days & I'm still not bored of them, in fact I love them. Even got a cheeky little Frisbee to play with. After our afternoons relaxation we drove onto Ash's, got here without any trouble. I have missed that girl so very much. Had our first HOT shower in 2 weeks! I washed everything twice and it felt so good!! Then we went out late night shopping at Capalaba, bought some hair dye, came home and dyed our hair, all of us. Aha Ash got hair dye on the carpet the naughty girl. And meg has gone reddy, auburn brown colour, I claim credit for that it looks gorgeous! Ooooh I love seeing Ash again :D

4th March
We slobbed. We slobbed some more. And some more. And some more. Ash was at work all day as was her Daddy and me and Meg were left to our devices which consisted of a lot of internet use, watching lots of films i.e. Bugs Life twice and happy feet haha. Luckily the weather was miserable so we didn't feel guilty that we should be doing something productive, thank god we had Ash's house to stay in, wouldn't have been nice in the campervan. Once Ash had finished work we all got dressed up, first time in ages I have put mascara on, and went out for tapas at a funky little bar by a lake at Victoria Point. Ash treated us to a bottle of Champagne to celebrate being together again J had a good night playing pool whilst the others attempted to play :P saw some turtles in the lake too! And slept in a proper bed, next to a proper shower and proper flushing toilet! J

5th March
Daddy Carlos woke us up to a delicious barbeque breakfast, never had one of those before. We are getting looked after very well here J Had a lazy morning again, went into the shops and bought some dinner for tonight, popped to the video store and spent the rest of the day chilling all together watching film after film after a yummy chicken fajita dinner after film after chocolate after film J

6th March
Went to a market this morning in Cleveland, Carlos treated us to a special coffee as well. I had a very bitter, Milan, ice cream coffee thingymajig, phwoar that was strong. We then became inspired to be very rich when we drove through Raby Bay, very very very huge, posh, expensive, gorgeous houses! We drove up to the Point where the sea was very high, rough and brown which apparently is a sign of cyclones on their way…eek! Our hosts then took us up to Mount Coot-tha with views of the entire city of Brisbane, pretty stunning. Then down to the Botanical gardens which were huge! Wandered around there for a while looking at all of the pretty flowers, big spiders and dodgy birds until we got hungry. Went for wedges somewhere in a big shopping centre and that wasn't all….afterwards we went to see some koala's at Daisy Hill, they're very lazy creatures and just cuddle the branches of the tree and sleep, sounds like a good life to me. And then after that we went to Sirromet Winery and had cheese and biscuits and bread and olives J Very fun filled day indeed, did so much. They are good to us.

7th March
Me and Meggy went to Mount Tambourine whilst Ash was at work. Went to Cedar Creek falls which were very pretty indeed, the waterfalls were all layered down to the floor of the valley. Went to thunderbird park thing where everything was closed on a Monday, we did see a parkeet smack it's head on a sign and fall to the ground though, Meg laughed! What a meany she is, we couldn't bring ourselves to end it's life quickly…. L rest in peace pretty birdie. We then filled our guilty tummies with lunch from a little winery in Gallery Walk, a bus load of Japanese tourists arrived just as we did. I love how they have to the "peace" sign in every picture they take and no one ever smiles in their photos. We drove back to Cleveland and picked up the smelly one from work, after Meg had a little accident reverse parking, trundled along to Capalaba again and went to the cinema to see Halls Pass. Was pretty funny! Owen Wilson's nose!