Back to Oz & the Coffs Coast

The flight from Christchurch to Sydney was good, but had a cute (but worrying) moment at the baggage carousel; Australia has extremely strict agriculture quarantine laws and we had to put our bags down for the Sniffer-dog to inspect. The beagle stopped at my rucksack and promptly sat down on my foot! I admitted to having had apples in my rucksack the day before and fully expected to be delayed for hours while they searched our bags for prohibited items. However, the officer seemed to know from the dog’s subdued reaction that I was telling the truth, so gave the beagle a treat and went on his way…. phew!

Our flight to Coffs Harbour was a bargain with VirginBlue and we got to the town centre by 9.30am to catch the bus to Woolgoolga. Here, we were once again gob-smacked by the incredible friendliness & old-fashioned service that you get in Australia. Firstly, the taxi driver took great trouble in ensuring we were at the right bus stop, getting out and asking people on our behalf. Then, a bus driver who was parked on the opposite side of the road, crossed over to double-check if we wanted his bus - just in case we were at the wrong stop. Amazing.


That’s one of the reasons we chose the area as a base for job-hunting; people are friendly, the beaches are long and deserted, our friends John & Steph live here, the diving is superb, and …..they have the largest Sikh/Punjabi community in Australia – so they have great curry too!

While we looked for a place to rent, we stayed at John & Steph’s house and caught up with all their news. Their house at Corindi Beach is coming along well and Steph is very busy lecturing at Southern Cross University. John had also done his crossover to SSI Instructor so that he can work for his local diveshop.


Went to the Woolgoolga CurryFest on Saturday which included ‘Singh by the Sea’ evening performance by Dya Singh. His band has won ‘World Music Group of the year' etc. and plays a blend of Indian music with blues, jazz, Australian indigenous, etc. As weird as it seems, the didgeridoo and electric guitar actually sounded good with Indian instruments.

Whilst on my daily ‘drag’ down the beach this evening, we found hundreds of small Bluebottles (what we call Portuguese Man ‘O War jellyfish) and strange little frog-like creatures stranded above the tide-line. We did our best to get them back into the water but most were already dead. So, we scooped up two of the healthier looking ones in a shell and took them home. Once ensconced in a jam-jar of seawater they started to open out and we could look them up on the internet.
Turns out they are a species of Nudibranch, ‘Glaucus Atlanticus’. They are a pelagic species that float on the surface and feed on the Bluebottles and absorbing the jellyfish’s stinging nematodes to use in their own defence. They just look like little aliens to me!