Crescent Head, May 2011

May 10^th, We left Stockton this morning, heading north, destination unknown. As we travelled, Val looked at our maps and, we decided to go to Crescent Head. We holidayed there 8 or 10 years ago, long before we started caravanning, and remembered it as a Town we liked, so decided to go check the place out again. We booked into the only Caravan Park there, Crescent Head Holiday Park. We booked in for 2 weeks and spent the rest of the day setting up and looking around. It didn’t look like anything had changed over the years.

May 11^th, I drove into Kempsey to visit Centrelink and put in our paperwork. In the afternoon we walked around the Crescent Head shops and dropped into The Country Club, to find out when raffles, bingo etc. were on. 

May 12^th, We drove into Woolworths, in Kempsey, to do a big shop. Crescent Head only has a Foodworks Supermarket and their stock is limited. Before leaving Crescent Head I picked up our mail from the Post office. I had been waiting for a package from Steven and it arrived. He bought himself a new Laptop and gave his old (only 12 months old) Laptop to me, as my old one was playing up. We went to the Country Club for the Meat Raffles and a flutter. Didn’t win any meat but Val had a good run on the Pokies.

May 16^th, I’ve spent most of the week-end downloading off the old laptop and setting up the new one. All of this went very well, which for me was close to a miracle. An electronic whizz I am not. I packed up the old laptop and posted it back to Steven.

May 17^th, Val went to 7pm Bingo at The Country Club and won 3 - $5 vouchers, and then followed that up with a $100 win on the pokies. I went up at 9.45 pm to walk her home.

May 20^th, We went to The Country Club for the meat raffle, to-night, and Val won a very nice meat tray.

May 22^nd, I decided to have a fish in the Creek this morning, the tide was coming in and the weather was great. Killock Creek is just tidal backwater that seems to peter out into an irrigation drain and isn’t suitable for boating. The Park hires canoes for people to explore the shallow Creek waters, if that is their thing. I caught 4 bream and one flathead, unfortunately all undersize, but was a lot of fun.

May 23^rd, We took a walk up to the Shops and called in to The Country club for an afternoon drink. Val was having a little flutter and I had a spare $1 coin, so I popped it into a machine 3 down from where Val was playing. I was only playing 25 cents at a time and on my 2^nd press got the feature, which gave me over $100. I took out the $100, a great return on my $1. Val’s machine wasn’t giving her any joy, so she moved onto the one I had just won on and ended up coming home with her own $100, from the same machine. That’s what I call a good afternoon at the Club.

May 24^th, We were supposed to leave to-day but decided to stay for 3 more days and see some of the Malibu Surfboard Competition, before heading to Coffs Harbour to meet up with Val’s Brother and his wife (Brian and Julie) who  are coming down to spend  2 weeks with us in Coffs. I went fishing again, at the mouth of the creek, and caught a 27cm bream and a 38cm flathead.

May 25^th, Heavy rain and strong winds, this morning, was the worst weather we have had here. Val had to watch Masterchef, on TV, so sent me up to the Country Club for Dinner and to watch The “State of Origin” NRL Match between QLD and NSW. Unfortunately the Blues lost but it was a good close game. The Club was very busy tonight as the Malibu Surf Competition registrations were on as well.

May 26^th, We walked to the beach to watch the Malibu contestants ride the waves. They had approx. 200 entrants, of all age groups, who had travelled here from all over Australia. This was day 1 of the 3 day competition and I was wondering how the Judges would be able to identify the riders. I soon found out that each 5 called out were given a different coloured shirt to wear over their wetsuits, how easy. They were scored on the best of 3 runs. We were impressed with the skill of the surfers and couldn’t believe it when one contestant finished a perfect run in by doing a headstand on his board. We left the competition and went back to the Caravan, as it was time to pack up ready to leave for Coffs Harbour in the morning.

Stockton April 2011

April 26th, Arrived at Stockton Beach Tourist Park, not raining thankfully, after a wet pack up in Sydney. This is one of the Parks that we like, but like Dunleith it is very open to the weather.




April 29th, The weather has been wet and windy since we arrived so have done a lot of reading. The rain eased off this morning so I got out a couple of rods and went to find a fishing spot out of the wind. Lost a lot of bait but didn’t catch anything. Val was glued to the TV from 4pm till 11pm for Will & Kate’s wedding.



April 30th, Around 11am, there was a knock on the side of the Caravan, and Lo and behold, it was Carole and Rob (our friends from Charlestown) called in the say hello. What a pleasant surprise. We made arrangements to go to their place on Monday evening, for dinner and sequence. To-night we went to Joan and Roberts, for a baked Dinner and sequence, and had another enjoyable evening.



May 1st, Still getting those southerly winds but the rain has eased off. I went down to the Harbour at 11 am to watch the Powerboat Races. It was only one race lasting 1 hour. The course started opposite the Brewery in Newcastle and the circuit went out through the breakwall and along Stockton Beach and back. It was a very noisy contest, the bigger boats were constantly lapping the smaller boats, showers of spray were sent up when the boats were turning to roar back up the Harbour for the next lap. The going was pretty rough outside the Harbour, a lot of boats dropped out during the race and fortunately there weren’t any accidents. There was a good crowd lining both sides of the Harbour.



May 2nd, Val made her famous pastries to take to Carole and Robs tonight. After a tour of their house we enjoyed a lovely meal and played sequence till 1.30am. They are late nighters, like us.



May 3rd, We drove out to Salamander Bay, to deposit some unwanted items in our Storage Shed and have our annual Medical and Skin Cancer Checks. We did run into a few people we knew and caught up on the local happenings. We dropped into The Nelson Bay Bowling Club for a drink and Val made a profit from their poker machines.



May 5th, Yesterday I helped Val by putting on a load of washing. Always the helpful husband. When I pulled the clothes from the washing machine, to my surprise, my white socks and shirt were PINK. Val had put her new RED pants into the washing basket, and I threw it all in the machine. Thats what I thought you did with dirty clothes, if it can’t be washed by machine it shouldn’t be in the basket. That’s my last word on the subject. After lunch we took the Ferry across to Newcastle, I bought some replacement socks and Val had to go to the Millers Sale. After we cruised (on the Ferry) to Stockton we called into the Stockton RSL for a drink, and you wouldn’t want to know, we had to stay for the raffles. No meat tray but Val went home with a win on the Pokies.



May 6th, We met Joan and Robert at West’s Leagues Club at New Lambton, for dinner and a flutter. The meals were good, company was great and the pokies were kind, as Joan, Robert and Val all had good wins.



May 7th, As a result of my recent Cancer Scan, I had to go to the Medical Centre at Nelson Bay, this morning, and have a cancer cut out of my back. After about 8 stitches to hold me together, I drove home feeling like someone was permanently pinching my back. A very uncomfortable feeling. We met Carole and Rob at The Redhead Bowling Club for dinner tonight. The meals were very good and the servings were huge. We went back to their place for sequence and played from 8pm till 2am, incredible 6 hours.



May 8th, Mothers Day, both Steven and Greg called Val. They had both given Val her presents when we were in Sydney. I walked Val to the Stockton Bowling Club for raffles, dinner and a flutter, to celebrate MD. Val won a $12 voucher, we had a nice meal and Val won $150 on the pokies. To-morrow we pack up to leave on Tuesday morning for someplace north of here, yet to be decided.