After the poor weather we had experienced in the Blue Mountains during our last day in Sydney we were hoping things were going to improve moving North!

Lucy and Junni had reserved a hire car and after breakfast  we collected it from a garage just round the corner from the famous Coca-Cola sign at the end of Kings Cross. Something had happened with the booking which meant that the car they thought they had rented was not available - no complaints though as they upgraded us to a bigger better car!! A far cry from my travels in South America, we were embarking on a road trip Aussie style, along the beach, along the coast, and in a 5-seater business-class saloon car!

So, when one is in Sydney, and when one has a car, what is the first thing one does with that car? Well... drive it over the Sydney harbour bridge obviously! We picked up the car with Junni driving, and after a few dodgy attempts to familiarise ourselves with the road system and actually escape Kings Cross, we found the main road and headed over the infamous landmark bridge. Quite an experience!

For the remainder of yesterday we spent the day heading North, with the weather okay but not great. Where is all this famous Australian summer sun?? We did stop off a couple of times, most notably in Newcastle (of course!), if only to take typically Geordie touristy photos standing by the road sign! A home away from home. It was also quite nice just to drive through the landscape, with some of the roads taking us alongside the coastline, then frequently heading in land through seemingly eternal foreign-looking jungle forestry. There is something nice about just looking out the window and enjoying any view that differs from that which you are familiar with. We obviously spent the whole journey trying to spot kangaroos or koalas, with no joy! I remember from the last time I was in Australia in 2002-2003 with Junni and Keith I think it was over a month before we saw a wild kangaroo, so with hindsight our chances were maybe slimmer than we hoped! The other "unique" experience of the journey (although if I am honest, not particularly enjoyable!) was Lucy's iPod and being educated on all the new pop tunes I have been missing out on for the past 6 months or so. Who is Lady Gaga??!

Later in the afternoon we eventually arrived at Coffs Harbour, another town I had visited and stayed at last time I was in Australia in 2002. We did try to find the hostel that I had actually stayed in, but when we pulled up in the driveway it was very obvious that it had been closed for some time as it was quite deserted. We followed signs to another nearby hostel for the night.

Today, joy of joys, the sun was out, and we didn't want to miss it so decided to head to the beach for the day, and what a wonderful day it turned out to be. We rented some body-boards from the hostel and found a lovely quiet serene beach near Coffs Harbour. Whilst Lucy fully applied suncream and waited on the beach to relax and soak up the sun me and Junni applied our sun cream then immediately headed straight into the water for a surfing contest! With hindsight this was maybe not the best or most sensible thing to do as the sun cream was obviously immediately washed off so we both got rather burnt (see the photo!). Ouch!

Sunburn aside it was a great day. The surfing was great fun and we had a little competition to see who could go the furthest on the body boards(whilst both being paranoid about anything and everything in the water that happened to brush against our legs!), then spent time with Lucy relaxing in the sun and enjoying the sounds of the beach - wind, birds, waves. Very relaxing and a great day.

So... after a great day at an Aussie beach... what could we possibly do for an Aussie evening meal? Well... BBQ of course! After buying some "snags" (sausages), wine and beer we headed down to one of the communal picnic areas near the beach in Coffs Harbour. The areas have car parks, seats, coin-operated BBQ grills, canopy-style roofs and are very clean and well-maintained and to be honest are a really great idea. Why don't we have them in England? Maybe the weather! Whatever the reason, they are excellent. We were very surprised at how clean they were actually, and equally surprised that the area was almost deserted. We put our money in the machine and cranked up the hot plate before throwing our sausages on them, which resulted in much amusement. I'm not sure if it was due to the cheap sausages, the flat hot-plate, or a combination of the two but the sausages loudly squeaked every time they were touched! Cue much childish, immature but equally hilarious amusement!

After tucking into our sausage sandwiches and knocking back a few of Australia's finest alcoholic beverages it soon became apparent maybe why the area was not too busy, as the weather turned for the worse and the baking sun we had enjoyed for the most of the day quickly turned to an overcast, windy, rainy and chilly experience. We were determined to finish the BBQ though, despite the weather turning against us, and ultimately I had a really great night!

I just hope that the weather this afternoon isn't a sign of things to come...!