Surfing down the Gold Coast

Most Easterly Point

Sandunes near Port Stephens

Look Out after steep climb at Shoal Bay

Coffs Harbour

Byron Bay

Paradise Point

Our last week in rural Australia has been spent cruising 1100kms down the Gold Coast from Brisbane to Sydney. When we left beautiful Brisbane, we stayed overnight with Rosalind's friends, the Kays, at Biggera Waters near Surfers Paradise. The clusters of boats of all sizes in the specially built northern suburb of Paradise Point create a level of opulence and quality of life we had not seen before in Australia. We moved on to Byron Bay-the alternative lifestyle town- where we visited the continent's most easterly point . Next we continued to Coffs Harbour, with the wildlife conservation area at Muttonbird Island. This was followed by a stay in Port Macquarie and then Port Stephens with its nearby sandunes, the highest in the Southern Hemisphere.

Driving on the Pacific Highway has not been as difficult as we had expected, although it still needs great concentration due to the inconsistent conditions of the road and the many large triple-sized trucks which drive with no regard to the private motorist.

We are now in freezing cold Sydney for our final week in Australia.

There is enormous interest here in the World Cup with many street cafes broadcasting live matches after 11 p.m.but there is also a lot of disappointment at the Socceroos' (Australia's soccer team) performance.

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