[lettie]

Our last morning in Melbourne was spent doing what me and Sparks do best.......eating and drinking. We had packed all of our stuff and left it at the hotel to collect it later. We walked through the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens past the small cafe in the centre. This cafe was lovely, surrounded by colourful gardens in a very tranquil setting. They did this fabulous fruit toast there. Each slice was massive and packed with sultanas, raisins and dates, I struggled to get 2 slices down and Sparks had to help me out. We didn't breakfast there that morning but opted instead for Fed square, the reason being that I did not want to be farting all the way to the Gold Coast off the fruit toast...

Fed Square was pretty lively for a Sunday morning, we had our brekkie then managed to squeeze in a wine and cheese tasting. It was all Victoria produce and it was all mouth-wateringly good, I could certainly get used to being here but I have a feeling that I would be obese in no time.

We collected our bags and got the Skybus to the airport for our flight to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. The motel which we were going to closes their reception at 8pm and we would get there a little late. I gave them a quick call with an estimated time of arrival and they gave me the code to get into the safe box where our room key would be.

We landed in Coolangatta and collected our hire car. We were staying in the small town of Tweed Heads for the next 4 days. Tweed Heads is a lovely place but a bit confusing. You see, Tweed is in New South Wales and at the end of the road is a roundabout, across which lies Coolangatta. Coolangatta is in Queensland. NSW put their clocks forward 1 hour in the summer, Queensland do not.. Therefore, everytime we crossed the roundabout we had to go back an hour... It confused the hell out of me, I have to admit that it doesn't take much but I didn't know whether I was coming or going.

Our motel in Tweed was lovely, we found our key in the safe box with a little letter from the manager to say that she had put milk in the fridge and switched the air conditioning on. She then came out to meet us anyway and directed us to a fish shop where we could get a bite to eat. This shop was crammed with every imaginable form of sea food. Lots of big fillets of different fish, Moreton Bay Bugs, crab, lobster, king prawns, oysters etc.....they did good chips too. We strolled around the town of Tweed Heads the following morning. It has a clean little beach and foreshore, an arcade of shops, a hospital, 2 supermarkets, a liquor store, garage and a few restaurants, a bowling alley and a club. Across the roundabout Coolangatta has much the same. What did surprise me was that for such a small population there are 2 sex shops in Tweed and one in Coolangatta.. Tweed doesn't have the holiday resort mentality which blights other parts of the Gold Coast. It is a brilliant location to stay if you want to explore northern NSW and southern Queensland, not at all touristy..

Here are a couple of pics of Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens and some shots of the coast at Tweed Heads.