The rest of the holiday

I'll put some of the photos up for the second week of the holiday for memory purposes - it seems like a very long time ago now! We had a lovely time with my parents-in-law, caught up with extended family and friends, and went in to the art gallery and enjoyed Brisbane's beautiful winter weather.

I had to work for a couple of days because we are so understaffed at the moment - quite coincidentally I needed to be in Brisbane so took myself off to a hotel in the middle of town for a couple of days and worked. It was very peculiar to do that in the middle of the holiday but needs must. The only downside was the room was on the 38th floor! That is too high for me, I am a small town / small building kind of person. The dining room had floor to ceiling windows, so this is as close as I got ... I would rather eat standing up for two days than sit there.

After Brisbane we went to stay with Brad's brother and his family just out of Murwillimbah in northern NSW - I hadn't been there before and it is the most beautiful part of the world. They are on a hectare or so of land and it is green and rolling and gorgeous. We went to the regional art gallery and this is the view from the front. Incredible.

And they have a couple of very sooky little house dogs that just wanted cuddles. Fine.

On the way back we stopped the night at Coffs Harbour but went to Byron Bay for lunch basically because I've never been there, and it is quite well known in Australia so I thought I should check it out. It was the most perfect day and yes, it is an exceptionally beautiful place. Even in winter the beaches looked inviting ... too fancy for the likes of us, but we walked up to the light-house and had lunch in town, and that was fine.

One last airbnb in Coffs was a cute granny flat on someone's acreage just south of town, then an easy nine or so hours drive back to Canberra on the highway, to see a very very cuddly cat. Not traumatised (not a big enough brain to suffer trauma) just happy to see us.