Sunday was a big day. Not only are we leaving Byron Bay and going to the Gold Coast to see our cousins but we are crossing the border! Good bye NSW and hello bright and sunny QLD! Not that there was actually any change in the weather when we crossed the border.

Our first stop on the Gold Coast was The Cardamon Pod, a vegetarian restaurant that is our favourite place to eat because of the delicious food and I can eat anything on the menu. After lunch we finally caught up with our cousins, Alice and Ida, at a park in Burleigh Heads. We have not seen each other for about two years. It was great to see and play with them again, we also had a sleep over at their house. That night we all slept together on mattresses on the living room floor, after having pasta for dinner and watching a movie.

The next morning Alice went to school but Ida spent the day with us. First we went to the the skate board park, then made slime, and had lunch at the Sushi Train which included a delicious chocolate fondant for dessert. In the afternoon we played in the pool at our caravan park which has a huge water slide. As usual Lilah was the first one to go down the slide, I followed her. It was a lot of fun and thrilling. We had races to the top of the tower to see who could go down first and the fastest, we also took lots of adventure selfies with my Go Pro camera.

Ida had never been in a camping trailer before and she was amazed at the space, so was uncle Stuart. Then Ida didn’t want to leave so we kept playing while Uncle Stuart went to pick up Alice from school. Ida had dinner with us which was Miss Margarita at Broadbeach which we once again loved. Then what was meant to be a drop off home for Ida turned out to be another hour spent at their house talking having ice cream which Uncle Stuart serves in a 30 ml measuring cup with two marshmallows on top, and watching half of survivor on TV which was pretty exciting with everyone watching finally when a dad came on in the middle of “survivor” we left to go home, but not without organising another time to meet!

On Friday morning we got up early to watch the sunrise. We walked to the top of Broken Head to look out to the ocean. In the distance we saw whales.  Nearer to the shore where the waves were breaking, a pod of dolphins were riding the waves in like surfers! When the sun came up far enough to shine through the waves it looked like a spotlight pointing at the dolphins like nature’s own circus show. We also saw a huge goanna walking around the park – the birds got scared of it and one started swooping it!

The weather has been perfect, warm cloudless days and cool nights. We spent the morning boogie boarding, it was a small surf which was perfect for Lilah and I. Lunch was veggie burgers and a delicious iced chocolate at Lennox Heads. More boogie boarding in the afternoon. What a relaxing day.

Friday was such a great day we spent Saturday riding the waves on our boogie boards again. Dad had to get out in the afternoon because he said he was freezing, he is getting soft. However Lilah and I thought the water temperature was nice and kept playing until even Lilah was over it. An excellent last day at Byron Bay.

Again we said goodbye to South West Rocks and were on the road to Byron Bay. Stopping for lunch in Coffs Harbour at The Happy Frog whole food vegetarian shop we stuffed ourselves full once again. Continuing on, we passed The Big Banana to get to our caravan park at Broken Head caravan park 5 minutes from Byron Bay.

The next day we went into Byron Bay to the farmer’s market. For breakfast we listened to relaxing music and ate samosas and passion fruit sugar cane juice, Lilah had croissants, it was delicious!!! We bought the tiniest lady finger bananas which you could eat in one bite, brownies, bright red strawberries and yummy blueberries.

For lunch we went to Miss Margarita a Mexican restaurant which we have previously eaten at and had enjoyed. The nachos, tacos and naked burrito was yum. Another delicious meal on our trip.

After lunch we went back to the caravan park and went boogie boarding at the beach. Lilah and I thought the water wasn’t to cold and the waves were perfect for riding on. I saw a sting ray while riding over a wave (well actually I nearly stepped on it). Finally to go back to our camping trailer to have a simple dinner.

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In the morning we went for a walk to the beach, the weather was warm but the water was cold. Since it was low tide we could walk a fair way out and the water only got to our knees. On the way back Lilah collected a bag full of recyclable rubbish, such as bottles and cans that were thrown about the beach, in only a few minutes!

After lunch we went to the Trial Bay Gaol. Mum thought it was creepy, Lilah whizzed through it and Dad found the history fascinating and took lots of pictures. Mia liked the lookout over Trial Bay from the guard tower the best but found the gaol cells to be creepy especially when you had to look through a small peek hole and the sign asked “can you see the prisoners on the other side”! When Lilah and Dad went back up to the look out tower they saw a pod of dolphins! We were there for two hours but it only felt like 30 minutes to me!

Afterwards we drove to the light house. It was very similar to the one at Seal Rocks with the same white houses. We did another steep trek to the top and on to a landing to look at the vast ocean, then with more pictures we headed home for dinner and to finish our movie.

“Where else can you go that you have lunch and your fish and chips get ‘tooken’ by a kookaburra!” – Lilah

For lunch I had the most delicious vege burger from the ‘Good Foods Store’ takeaway at Smiths Lake. Mum, Lilah and Dad had fish and chips which was stolen by kookaburras. Yep, straight out of their hands as they were about to put the food in their mouths. Brazen and fearless is how the kookaburras are here at Smiths Lake, part of the Myall Lakes National Park, the “Trio of krookas” did not just do it once but thrice!

In the evening after dinner we went to the lighthouse (which was a local suggestion) and on the way there we did spotlighting. We spotted one tawny frogmouth owl and on the way back we saw the same tawny frogmouth owl sitting on the same perch. When we got near the light house we saw this great beam of light shining at us and as we got closer we saw more beams go over our heads. When we got there it was like a big star shining with all the beams swirling around the sky. It is said you can see the lighthouse beams 40 kilometres away! We climbed up to the lighthouse but by that time it had started to lightly rain so we quickly looked around, took photos and sheltered from the rain in the doorway of the lighthouse, then descending and back to the car.

The quiet, deserted and calm Seal Rock’s beach became overrun with surfers and big waves on Saturday and Sunday, from sunrise to sunset the surfers rode the endless waves.

Lilah once again donned her wetsuit and grabbed the boogie board to ride the tide as it came up. The only problem was she chose a spot near rocks and a rip. Dad had to save her by grabbing her wetsuit when one particularly large wave threatened to drag her into the ocean.

The veggie burgers were so good the day before we headed back for more on Saturday. In true Channing fashion we ordered five burgers and ten dollars worth of chips between the four of us. This was washed down with a chocolate thick shake, brownies and a caramel long john! We all recommend this lunch spot.

“It is possible that if we’re going North East we can go South West!”- Mia

Sunday we packed up and were off on the road again to South West Rocks. When we got here Lilah wanted to see the pool and the playground, mum wanted ice cream, Dad wanted to hang washing and I wanted to do my blog, but instead after setting up we headed into town to have Triple layered gelato, playing in the park, going to the beach and by that time in one afternoon had pizza for dinner,a very Italian food day. That only left one more thing to do… Movie! But we only got to watch half of it before bedtime, but all the more reason to finish it tomorrow!

On our first day at Seal Rocks, in the morning we walked along the deserted beach across the road from where we are staying. We felt the soft sand on our feet and let the crystal clear water run through our toes. Lilah went to the beach fully prepared with her goggles, wet-suit and pink zinc war paint. At the shoreline Lilah fully submerged her head in the water only to realise that there was only sand on the other side of her goggles.

After Mum made us a deliciously filling Mexican lunch we did a walk to Sugarloaf Point. At Sugarloaf Point we walked up a steep hill to the light house where it was really windy. At the top we could see a white sandy beach and the sea. Mia and Dad went down to the beach and flew kites wondering where Lilah and Mum had gone? It turned out that Lilah and Mum had gone to another beach and had made sandcastles while wondering the same thing, where are Mia and Dad? And what are they doing? We met up on the way home, when we got back to our site we found that the black turkey birds had ripped open our bag of coleslaw and had thrown it all over the grass and they didn’t even end up liking it!? Luckily we had a plan B for dinner because Mum is never one to not have enough food. We had vegetable soup and cheese toasties for dinner using the tiny bit of coleslaw.

In the evening we heard dingoes howling and saw one of the dingoes come into the caravan park. The dingo ate the fishermen’s fishing bait that had been strung up in a tree next to their cabin. Luckily for the dingo the fishermen had gone fishing, so the dingo just kept eating.

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