Sharkhunting bear crosses the border without his passport

Yawn - well - the bed was comfy!
:)
Thanks Kanni!!

Usual routine (sort of) then we dropped the wannabe-Dorothy of at her local school.  From there it was off to a beach at Coolangatta (where there were many good shapes [body-boards that is] there).  Sun out and very hot! WE did get warned yesterday about our expected arrival for dinner and the summertime thing.  Seems that Queensland has no summer time but New South Wales do.  No small problem - right??? Well you be surprised!!  After the beach _which we believe to be in Queensland we then drove to the the “official state boarder” and straddled same.  We literally had a foot in both states.  Weird thing is - there is no obvious demarcation line - such as a river or hill or whatever.  Thus the border (and their respective time zones) cut right across the local town.  This means that you can easily go shopping / movie's / dentists / schools etc across the (border) town and you are in a different time zone!! Awkward if you forget which is which and it pays to remember to ask which time-zone said appointment is. Busses / trains are affected by this as well. It also means that one half of the shops close earlier then the other.

Having criss crossed the border at will (without ever needing to flash our Passport) we drove on to the local info centre where we picked up some books for the impeding trip south- and spotted two clocks on wall giving the very distinct times!!!

Eventually we found the "Tropical Fruit World" and we took the guided tour - first up a show and tell about the different fruits they grow and their various ascribed properties.  I can recommend the "Red Dragon"  fruit - it helps ward against short term memory loss!! There was a lot of other never heard of fruit to taste some very yummy and sure to be missed in NZ.
The park then takes you on a tractor ride through the orchard and gives a running commentary on who grew what when why and for how long - along with another stop to tastes some fruit!! Did you know there are over 1200 Varieties of Bananas??? Included is also a steam train ride - which turned out to be a Diesel tuk tuk chugging along!!

Lunch was late and found in the Tweeds Mall, then it was time for the school pick up run.  The usual routine post school was changed with a short detour to razorback for 360 degree lookout – except the newly planted plants have grown to height blocking some of the 360 view.  Sigh!  I was going to take a round view/stitched together photo.

The evening was rounded of with a visit to the "local" scout group and we took part in their closing ceremony!  It was fun seeing the Aussies doing their stuff - in some ways very different (Flag break) but other stuff is just the same!!  I knew it was a good reason to bring one of my scarves!

Dinner was lovely and we had a late night 

Early morning roll call of the local swallow population.  I have seen them bunched up with 15 plus before

The surf was good- lots of locals and foreigners hanging 5.  No shark to be found - which may well have been just as well (good for the shark ea!)

No trip to the beach is ever complete unless Mamabear gets her feet wet.  The water was surprisingly cold . . . . 

The State border - with Mamabear having a foot in both states.   This does remind me of the house somewhere in the Alps where the border runs through the house making the bedroom in one state and the kitchen lounge in another state . . . . . .














We decided to demonstrate friendliness across the border with a scout hand shake. 















The Clocks in the Info Centre!! Hard to miss!!

A smorgasbord of fruit awaits you! it was very yummy - loved the red dragon fruit and the other thing that had a taste which was a cross of banana/vanilla/lemon flavour - yumm yumm 

snapped this wee beauty! Mamabear taken with the colour!!

Forgot the name of this particular fruit - it tasted yummy.  It can grow up to 50kg - about 5x the size shown here!

The Conductor was here - all aboard!! Fasten your seatbelts for a leisurely ride through the bush . . . .

Evening snack time

Looking out over Tweed Head / Coolangatta. Actually I wonder what they do if the border runs through school grounds?? Will they have a uniform school time or . . . . .








Tomorrow - we are off on our own - for the first time we may actually have to live in the camper-van!! So far we used it as a bed and breakfast in Brisbane and of course in Tweeds Head we were looked after by a lovely scouting friend - so the acid tests starts tomorrow



PS  - Links to the dragon fruit!! I can Honestly say - NO dragons were harmed for this story! :) 
Further - there is no truth to the rumour (given the fruit world experience) that this bear is giving up on his regular meat - thus the shark-hunting trip is still alive!  ^.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

dragon fruit health benefits

how to eat a red dragon - urm fruit