One of the other guests picked one up and put it on a table in front of him, saying 'Chicken chicken chicken!' excitedly. We went to bed, and avoided eye contact.The following morning, after a similarly terrible night's sleep, I got up at 6am and went for a quick swim in the Bellinger River. Elissa was still napping, but by 7am we were both up, and ready to go. Two nights of dreadful sleep soon caught up, though, and by 8am no one was going anywhere. Apple juice, Powerade and sweets motivated us though, and we drove over to Dorrigo National Park, over a winding mountain road, through verdant forests and past crystal streams. A lookout from the top of the mountain. A lookout in the rainforest canopy. A beautiful waterfall. It was a shame we were in such a hurry, we could only spend about 3 hours in Dorrigo and still make Lismore by nightfall.
Our stay in Lismore was uneventful, with the exception of meeting someone in the swimming pool with a few stories. He told us about visits to Nimbin, and some cookies he made once. He'd made a batch for himself with special ingredients, and some without for his three year old daughter. The daughter had got through them pretty quickly, and then she decided she wanted one of Dad's. Dad said no. Daughter made a fuss. Dad took a bite from his, and a large chunk of cookie fell off, bounced from his lap, onto the floor in front of him, and quick as a flash, the daughter had scooped it up and eaten it. An hour or so later, she wasn't feeling that good... He also mentioned he was no longer with the mother. I can kind of see why.The following morning we went to Nimbin ourselves. It was market day, and the place was pretty crowded. It looked like a more permanent version of some of the stall areas at Glastonbury, but it was more of a theme park version of what I had expected. Elissa said it didn't used to be like that.
Anyway, after that we headed to the Queensland border, and Coolangatta YHA. We booked in, and then Clint and Ursh arrived. A shopping trip later and we'd stocked up on beer and wine, and then we went to the beach. Walking down in a bit of drizzle, all dressed in our swimming gear, a random stranger said 'You're going to get wet...'. Isn't that the point, I thought. But as we got onto the beach and looked to the south we saw what she meant. The sky was black, and the thick clouds and heavy rain was coming straight for us. When you're in that situation there are two ways to go. One: you can head back to the car and cower inside, whimpering pathetically. Two, you can run down the beach like a loon, with your board in one hand and a smile on your face. We went for option two, and had one of the best trips to the beach that I can remember!
On New Year's Eve, the weather was still dreadful, but we decided to go to Wet and Wild, a nearby waterslide theme park, anyway. The queues were short, and we were going to be wet anyway. We tried everything, swam in the wave pools, slid down the slides, raced down the wave racer, drifted down the river rapids. By 5pm we were pretty exhausted, and so we headed back to the YHA.
The plan to go to Coolangatta for New Year's Eve was to try to have two NewYears. Having had such a big day beforehand, we had thought about staying in the hostel, going to bed early and telling people we'd had two New Years anyway. But we were running low on drinks, so we had to find a bottle shop. The man at the hostel sent us down the road to one that was closed. It was raining. It was all too much. So we jumped on a bus and headed for New South Wales, a few miles south.
Twin Towns Services Club hosted the first part of the evening. We ate - my burger turned up with no meat in it originally, and one of Elissa's pieces of chicken was made of fish, but other than that it was good food at a good price - and watched a random local headbutting a balloon absent-mindedly. Then we headed outside and found a monument to the border, and stood by it until midnight. Lots of happynewyearing later and it was time to go north to Queensland. This New Year was a lot more exciting than the last - everyone was shouting "Woo!" for about half an hour leading up to midnight.
In fact, we were by far the least excited people in there! Elissa bought a round of shots to liven things up, and I wrote "Woo" on a piece of paper. We gave it to a local to hold, and she shouted "Wooo!", and I only wish I had a photo of her face when she turned it round and read it afterwards...On New Year's Day, the car problems started. A quiet creak in the left front wheel made Elissa and me a little worried. The RACQ came to check it out, but couldn't see anything wrong. And we checked it out on the morning of 2nd January at a place in Miami, and they couldn't get it to squeak. But by the time we got to Brisbane it was much more consistent. Much more about the car later.
In Brisbane, we didn't really leave the hotel until the evening, what with the hotel's spa and sauna. Walking into town we found Clint and Ursh's hotel, and we all went for a bite to eat and a drink. Various cock-ups with our food meant a lot of free drinks (due to Ursh's initiative - the rest of us were about to leave indignantly), but a slightly sparing feed. And Brisbane itself, we didn't see in much detail. But I did like the fact that the buses all had tunnels of their own. It was a bit like riding tiny trains!
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