After our detour along the Grand Pacific Drive, we finally arrived at Sydney airport at about 2pm. Matt had phoned around a few hire companies while I was driving and had arranged a car with Hertz for a reasonable price. We pulled into the car park and Matt went off to pick up the keys only to be informed that the man on the phone had made an error and the car he had reserved for us was actually in the city centre! This then meant that the price for a car from here was more expensive as you pay airport tax! We knew we were never going to get to the city and back in the time we had and I really wasn't keen on driving through the centre of Sydney so Matt went off to speak to the other rental companies and see if he could get a decent price from any of them! In the end, Budget offered the best deal as we would get unlimited kilometres and a very fancy car! So with Matt behind the steering wheel of our new car following me, we set off to return our Keo!

One of Spaceships conditions of rental is that you wash the vehicle and fill it with petrol before returning it . Well we were fast running out of time so had to accept that we were never going to manage to do both! We were not helped by the fact that despite the nearest car wash being very close, the roads were in fact extremely awkward with 'no right turns' and 'one way streets' all over the show and in the way of the direction we wanted to go! In the end, there was nothing else for it than some driving skills I had learnt on Britain's Worst Drivers which saw me carrying out U-turns into oncoming traffic and forcing my way across 4 lanes of cars! All the time Matt was following behind wondering what crazy move I was going to attempt next! Later on though he did say he was very impressed with me. Finally (& safely!) we made it to the car wash and set about giving Keo a good scrub. After wasting an hour and a half sorting out the hire car we now had 1 hour to get Keo completely cleaned and to the garage. It's amazing how filthy a van can become after about a month on the road and the thousands of kilometres we had covered so it took quite a while and a whole lot of effort to get her clean! It was almost like a 60 second make over the speed we were trying to clean it at, leaving us both with rather sweaty heads by the time we'd finished . This definitely giving us a good reminder of why we pay the foreigners to do it at home. Once the outside was sparkling, Matt set about hoovering the inside while I transferred all our belongings into our new car, thank goodness it had a big boot!!!! It seemed there was enough sand and muck in it to make a small sand castle so the hover got its value for money.

Having decided to scrap the idea of filling up with petrol as we just didn't have time and facing the fact we would just have to pay the inflated fuel price they would charge, we made our way to the depot. We now had about 15 minutes to get there before they closed at 4pm! Typically this was the exact moment the sat nav on my phone decided to stop working and every set of lights decided to turn red on us so it felt like an impossible task! Somehow I managed to navigate us to the right road only to discover the depot had no signs up so it was a nightmare to find! In the end I figured we must have gone past it so we pulled over and I phoned the head office for directions and asking them to wait as we were so close . At approximately 4:15pm we pulled into Spaceships depot only to be told that they just tell customers they close at 4pm to make sure people get there in plenty of time when actually they are there until 5pm! Great!!!!! Another quality customer service initiative from Spaceships! But in fairness it's just another example of how we just can't seem to be on time for anything. All we had to do today was get here before 4pm and after having the entire day we still rocked up at 4:15 stressed off our heads, very sweaty, dying for a wee and food as we'd not had time for food or toilet breaks all day.

After spending the last 2 months in Keo we'd developed a bit of a love-hate relationship as it really did have its perks but also had its flaws. So this made it surprisingly sad leaving her at the depot as it was going to be strange without her and it looked a bit like a scrapyard, with so many cars all parked up after being returned and waiting to be fixed. As a little ray of light, Damian a friend of mine from home rang up just as we gave the keys back offering us to stay at his for the night, even offering us a BBQ and beer! This was like music to our ears . We didn't have time to get too emotional as we needed to get on the road as quickly as possible as we were now about 3 hours away from Nelson Bay where he lives.

The drive to Nelson Bay seemed to take forever but now we were in the luxury of our fancy car we didn't mind too much! Suddenly driving such a lovely car made Keo seem like driving a tractor, finally we had acceleration, power steering and cruise control. What we'd have given to have had this car to do all our driving in! The scenery changed a lot in such a relatively small distance, from city to countryside, housing estates to farms! We had to drive over a huge bridge which gave a beautiful view of the water below and the surrounding areas. As we drove into Nelson Bay we were struck with how upmarket it looked, with its golf course & tennis courts! We drove straight past Damian's road at first as we hadn't anticipated the huge gates on our left were in fact the entrance to their beautiful community! Thankfully we had the posh car and not our banged up dirty campervan, I think the gates may have slammed shut in our faces if we'd pulled up in Keo . It felt a bit like one of my favourite TV shows: Real Housewives of Orange County!!! As we drove round, we spotted a swimming pool and were struck by the number of children playing out in the street on their bicycles! As we pulled up on the drive of the Hurley Ranch, we spotted Damian & Sara up on their balcony waiting to greet us which made us feel so welcome instantly! Damian came down to let us in and after big hugs & manly handshakes, we made our way upstairs and into their gorgeous, modern, open plan home! We then got to meet their 3 children with Finn being very excited to tell Matt about all his Lego as he'd heard how Matt was a Lego lover as well. Eireann and Niamh had a friend over and were all playing on Mario on the wii.

The BBQ was well underway so we enjoyed a good feast with plenty of beer and wine to wash it down. They'd even treated us to pork sausages which is a luxury as Australians don't seem to like or understand pork sausages so they eat beef ones?! We had such a fun evening chatting and catching up, it was so good to hear how well all the family have settled in to their new life in Australia! The children are all loving their new schools, have made lots of friends and are doing extremely well in their sports, particularly swimming which is their main focus & passion! With Eireann breaking lots of school records within weeks of being here . Both Sara & Damian have been able to pick up some work which will no doubt develop into long term positions as their employers see what enthusiasm & drive they have! Making the decision to leave England can't have been an easy one but the life they have now is wonderful so it was definitely the right choice for them!

After a while, two of their friends arrived: Jenny & Anthony. They were house sitting for Jenny's sister, who lives on the same estate, while they are visiting family in Ireland for Christmas. They were so friendly and chatty so we had a real giggle! Jenny is a teacher at an International School in Sydney so with so many teachers in one place it didn't take long for the conversation to turn to school! But it was fascinating hearing about the differences between teaching here compared to back home and it certainly made me seriously consider my options!

It was pretty late when Jenny & Anthony headed home and with an early start for all of us in the morning, we weren't far behind them in heading to bed! An actual bed as well which has become a serious luxury but with no Keo it's gonna become the norm again hopefully . It had been such a lovely evening and proved the theory that with good friends it doesn't matter if you go a long time between seeing each other or even speaking, you can just pick up from where you left off as if you've never been apart!

The next morning we were up reasonably early, although not as early as Damian who had already left for work! The first thing we noticed was how incredibly hot it was as the forecast was for a heatwave today. We had no idea how busy it was going to be in Newcastle so we thought we had better skip breakfast and get on the road as soon as possible as it was about an hour's drive and we didn't know how easy it was going to be to park! After slightly struggling with the heat already we dived in the car for some air con and to get on the way only to notice the display in the car telling us it was 45 degrees already and it was only 9:30. Eeek!! Sara and the kids were all off to the beach as well with it being so hot you just need to be near water .

As we drove into Newcastle, we began to realise why people had been surprised we were going there! On paper it has everything a tourist could hope for: bars, restaurants, beach, surf, pools, hotels, shops... But in reality it is a really run down, almost derelict town that had a slightly unnerving feeling to it! It seemed like the most impressive part of the town was the big coal mines and harbour area with huge machinery to move massive piles of coal about and load the ships up. Thankfully we were only there for the day! We were glad we had come early as it was really tricky finding a parking space! We drive around for ages hunting for a spot but they were all 2P & 4P (2 hours & 4 hours free parking!) or ticketed so would cost a fortune for how long we needed! Just as we were about to give up & pay for the day, we spotted an area that had no restrictions other than no parking between 5pm & 5am! And it was free!! Perfect!!! We parked up and made our way to the area of the beach that we had spotted was the competition area . This seafront was the first place we'd been to that actually reminded us of England. The whole look of the beach,the pools, the surf club and the coast area just all looked like a tatty English sea side, not like the beautiful places we have been to here. We were still pretty early, so made the most of a spare hour or so to have a lay down & sunbathe despite it being a little overcast. We made sure to top up the sunscreen as even though it was quite cloudy it was still a scorcher of a day!

The Telstra Ironwoman competition started at 12:30 so we made our way over to the barriers to have a look. We were amazed at how few people there were on the beach as we had expected it to be packed and were really excited to get a spot with an excellent view! This event was Round 2 of the series, with the first having been completed just before Christmas in Perth. Each round comprises of a different format and today was an eliminator challenge, so 16 women started the first race with the slowest 3 or 4 being knocked out at the end of each race! Sounds fairly simple until you add in the fact that each race is made up of 3 laps: board, ski & swim; and there are 4 races in total! Still following?! It was easy to see who the best competitor was as, just like in the Tour de France, the winner from the previous round wears a yellow swimsuit instead of the standard pink ones . We had no idea who anyone was so we just cheered for everyone as they ran past us on their way back into the water! It was unbelievable how strong and fit these women are, some of them didn't even look tired at the end of each race as they walked up and down the beach stretching and relaxing their muscles by using ice jackets! You also found yourself feeling really bad for the women who got eliminated as they had worked so hard and, for the most part, really weren't that far behind the ones who got through! In the end it was no surprise who the winner was as she had dominated throughout each race, leading pretty much every leg and with a win under her belt in Perth she had good reason to be confident! Its an amazing race to watch as the sea plays such a big part in it. The waves were about 4ft today so they were really getting bashed about trying to get out to sea but coming back in was much easier. It's incredible how they all catch the waves and basically surf back in even when their swimming, they can surf just on their stomach it was so impressive . This makes it very cruel as well as while of course a lot of skill is involved, there is also an element of luck involved as, if the right wave turns up the people at the back can jump on it and catch the people who had been way out in front! The final result saw the following ladies on the podium: 1st Brodie Moir, 2nd Naomi Flood, 3rd Candice Falzon.

The Nutrigrain Ironman competition follows the same format as the women's except over 5 races instead of 4 and they wear red vests if they are seeded in the top 10 or white if not. At the end of the first race, we noticed that the couple next to us nearly had a heart attack when Thomas Trembath snuck up behind the guy in front of him and just pipped him across the finishing line, narrowly avoiding elimination. After striking up a conversation with them it made sense why they were so on edge; they were his parents! We had a lovely chat with them throughout the races, during which we cheered him on and they even invited us to go and stay with them if we ever head back up the Gold Coast! It seemed like we'd picked the wrong person to support though as he made a bad start and was behind right from the off . He was then in a small group of 3 or 4 at the back and he just couldn't catch up, but giving us all a very tense finish he just managed to overtake 2 guys right at the end to qualify again. Sighs of relief all round! Unfortunately it wasn't his day as pretty much the same thing happened again and he was eliminated at the end of the 3rd race coming 10th overall! Not bad considering he is relatively new to the Ironman competition and therefore still finding his way! The Ironmen highlighted even more the slightly unfair aspect of the competition which we hadn't really noticed in the women's competition whereby a race could be won or lost on the break of a wave as we watched Matt Poole come from the back of the final pack of 6 on the last stretch to catch a big wave and body surf to the front and dash up the beach to claim the 1st spot on the podium! It was an amazing finish that had the whole crowd going crazy. Except for Ali Day's supporters as he had been leading the race for so long and was so far in front it almost looked impossible for him not to win. The final result was 1st Matt Poole, 2nd Ali Day, 3rd Shannon Eckstein (who had won the race in Perth!) We had a brilliant day watching both competitions and agreed it was totally worth making the effort to drive all the way up to Newcastle!

Once all the races and presentations were over we made our way back to the car and started the journey back to Nelson Bay. We had heard from Damian to say we had all been invited to some other friends of theirs on the estate for dinner. They were going over earlier, so as soon as we were showered and ready, we were to give them a buzz and they would pop back up and fetch us! We got ourselves ready and gave them a call but no answer! As we were sitting waiting, Eireann popped home with a couple of friends and it turned out they were the children of the couple hosting! So we walked back up to the party with Eireann and joined Damian & Sara there.

The couple hosting were called Warwick & Audrey: Warwick was the token Aussie for the evening as Audrey is Irish and the rest of the guests were either English or Irish!! Audrey is a fabulous host and had prepared so much delicious food! She had even made profiteroles for dessert!!!! Followed by mojitos. We had another lovely evening chatting about our travels and hearing about how everyone had found themselves in Australia! They were all so friendly and easy going which made us feel incredibly at ease as we had pretty much gate crashed their party!! Once back at the Hurley's, the children headed straight to bed while we stayed up for a little longer to have a cuppa and write in their guest book! Damian also proudly demonstrated his new 3D TV! It was very cool indeed and now Matt wants one!! Not sure that's a travel necessity though!!

The next morning we treated ourselves to a little bit of a lay in and were very excited to find Sara in the kitchen cooking a fried breakfast! So we got to sit and chat with the kids whilst eating. Finn being especially hyperactive as usual. Once we were full and the bags were packed back into the car we said our farewells, took a couple of quick photos and set off for Sydney!

The drive back seemed to go quicker, maybe because it was now Sunday afternoon rather than Friday rush hour!, and it wasn't long before we were back at the Budget car rental depot at the airport. Neither of us was prepared for what we were faced with once we opened the boot and tried to empty the car! We had a ridiculous number of bags and loose items that we had collected in the van but we were somehow going to have to carry!!!! Not to mention all of Gareth's camping gear! Between us we stumbled about 50m (although Matt says it was more like 50cm!!) before I dropped everything and demanded we got a trolley, not realising you had to pay $4 for them! Thankfully Matt agreed and we made our way to the public pick up point where our Sydney adventure would begin!

A big massive thank you from both of us to Damian, Sara, Eireann, Niamh & Finn for making us feel so welcome in your beautiful new home! We had a lovely time catching up with you all and look forward to seeing you again before we head back home! xxxxxx