Mellow days and cool nights

We left Sydney early in the morning on Monday with our rental car packed to the roof and no space to spare. It was difficult see each other in the adjacent seats because of the surf boards between us. Quite a funny similarity to our rental car in British Columbia where it was snowboards instead of surfboards that packed the car!

The New South Wales coastline was beautiful for our 9 hour drive north. To be honest we didn’t really know a lot about Yamba except that it was going to be a great second house exchange in Australia. We arrived late at night and the next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and realized the beauty that was surrounding us with water and beaches all around. We were situated at the highest point in Yamba – so we had 360 degree views to soak in. It was only a two minute walk in either direction to arrive at one of the four beaches. Anxious to explore we decided to follow our tradition of doing a family run in every new location that we arrive in. As we explored Yamba that first morning we all fell in love with the mellow feeling of this small beach town and knew that the next two weeks here would be wonderful.

Setting out on our surfing safari

Rainbow at Lennox Head

The beaches of Yamba

Overlooking Yamba Main Beach

Here’s a few of our thoughts and highlights from these two weeks in Yamba…

Catching some waves
While in Sydney, we heard from many people that Yamba was well known in Australia for it’s great surf beaches. Yamba and Angorie Point are one of four ‘surfing reserves’ in Australia, where the land and coastline are protected from development to preserve the natural beauty and quality of the waves. We knew we were in a prime surf location when we learned that the founder of the surf brand ‘Billabong’ has a house here.

We spent many days playing in the waves. Kai loved his 6’5” board and Vea had a blast on her ‘Mambo’ boogie board. Norrie tried to feel like he was 20 again on his short board (it was a 6’9”) and had a great time catching waves with Kai. Kari had her surfing days fulfilled in Costa Rica – so she opted to go for long coastal runs while Norrie, Kai and Vea were playing in the waves. She did impress everyone though by jumping in the ocean after her runs and joining in the fun by body surfing some whitewater!!

We’ve been very luck with the weather while in Yamba. It’s the late summer temperatures of 25 degrees during the day and the warm ocean water at 22 degrees which make us feel very lucky. It only rained one day since we’ve been here – which happened to be our last day when we were busy packing up to leave for Brisbane.

Vea getting her first Yamba wave

Sunset sessions

Dawn patrol morning

Mambo Yamba!

Coastal ‘loop runs’

Math Graduations
We’ve been trying to get through a lot of homeschooling while in Australia with our home exchanges. We’ve worked out a great schedule of getting out of the hot sun in the middle of the day and heading back to home for lunch and homeschooling. Kai and Vea have been working very hard on their math and finally had their graduation into grade 7 for Kai and grade 5 for Vea! With graduation comes celebration – which for us meant baking cakes and playing a full night of family games to mark the event.

Family games night

Kai’s ‘seven’ graduation cake

Games and cake!

Bubble Crabs
Our first few days on the beaches of Yamba reminded us of some beaches in Costa Rica because of the amazing textures created in the sand by the miniature ‘Bubble Crabs’. They create small spheres of sand when they dig their holes on the beach. They start getting busy at low tide and work all day. With thousands of crabs all making their ‘bubbles’ of sand it creates an impressive piece of natural art.

Bubble Crab sand art

Abstract textures

Millions of small sand spheres

The ‘Kangi-Loop’
We were really happy to get back into our family runs in Yamba. The town has an amazing network of paths hugging the coast with fun exercise equipment along the way. Kari and Norrie also snuck in some ‘date runs’ with the favourite being our ‘Kangi-Loop’. We tried to get out early in the morning when the sun had just come up and the birds were beginning to sing their songs. One morning we came across a gathering of Kangaroos in one of the fields near town (they seemed to be out only early in the morning before the day started getting busy with cars and kids on the roads). It worked into a wonderful loop run back to our house with a crazy steep climb at the end. Amazing to see how close we could get to the kangaroos. We could almost reach out and touch them… and of course Norrie wanted to get that perfect photo so he got a little too close one morning – ending up being chased away by two angry kangi’s, A bit of a scary event and a lesson for Norrie that getting close to wildlife should be left to a zoom lens on the camera!

Captain Kangaroo!

A rest stop along our run loop

Exercise stations along the waterfront

Family run preparation

Empty beaches in the morning

Surf check along the running route

Local Feel
Once again we were reminded of how home exchanges can really make you feel like a local. Kari and Vea loved heading into town and chatting with the ladies at the sewing and scrapbooking weekly gatherings. Norrie and Kai chatted with many of the surf shop owners – trying to hit them up for a sale of their surfboards at the end of the week. Kai and Vea loved hanging at the skate park and watching the kids there before school – even happier when they had the park to themselves after everyone left. They managed to rent a fun BMX bike for a couple of days from the consignment store and they loved having the freedom to head to the park by themselves.

Big air in Yamba

The park to ourselves!

Bigger air in Yamba

Preparing for Japan
We really only plan our next leg of adventures very close to departure from our current location. In Yamba we had a lot of time to focus on our Japan travel research, and booked our Japan Rail passes. JR passes can only be purchased before entering Japan and we had heard it’s the most efficient and affordable way to see the country. We also started taking turns choosing to learn a new Japanese word or phrase of the day and had fun reading about the etiquette and mannerism of the Japanese culture.

Looking forward to exploring rural Japan

Arrival of our JP rail passes!

Farewell to Yamba
Our last day in Yamba was rainy and it felt for the first time like Fall was in the air. We left with an early morning start on our way to Brisbane to overnight at the airport for our early morning flight to Osaka. We decided to surprise Kai and Vea during our drive to Brisbane by stopping at the largest theme park in Australia – called DreamWorld. This is a theme park and water park combined in one. Lucky for us, this is the shoulder season in this part of Australia and there were no crowds or line-ups at the rides. We packed in a full day of thrill rides and epic slides with a bit of Aussie culture in between by viewing some ‘Dreamtime’ aboriginal shows and wildlife viewing, plus some educational lessons about the Koala Bear.

The ‘Claw’ – one of our favourites

High reaches of the ‘Claw’ ride

Fast and furious fun

Koala class

Riding the river rapids

Our overnight stay at the Brisbane airport was one of the more comfortable ones we’ve done. Compared to our experience overnighting in the Christchurch airport – this was like an all inclusive resort. Kai and Vea had a great sleep which was well needed after the long and thrilling day at Dreamworld. We’ve done enough airport overnights now to appreciate the good ones and critique the bad ones. Kai and Vea actually enjoy the whole experience and adventure of staying overnight at airports now. It’s kind of like a slumber party feeling for them!

We’ve had an amazing month in Australia with our two house exchanges and a real sense of the comforts of home. Living like a local has been a rewarding experience for all of us – giving a genuine appreciation for life in Australia. Now we’re ready and excited to pick up our backpacks and start travelling again. Japan will certainly be a huge culture shock when we arrive in Osaka!!

Here’s some more photos from our amazing month in Australia.

All 4 now!