Nursing a big hang over, emma and I decide to drive to manly beach where we had arranged to meet gedgy and everyone…..unfortunatley my phone battery is dead as doornail and we have nowhere to charge it until we get to manly.
Manly beach is really nice although it is described as slightly tacky it seems to have a chaming appeal and we both decide that we would like to indulge ourselves and book a couple of nights in a hotel. It seems that new years day must be the traditional day for the locals to visit the area….everywhere is fully booked and people almost laugh as I ask for availability. After some nice fish and chips we try our luck with one more hotel…..at last they have some rooms but point out that it is peak season and it would cost 400 dollars night…….a bit beyond our budget to say the least….but I think about it for a good few minutes before common sense prevails (mainly due to the lack of parking for the hightop van)…we decide we need to sort out a place to stay before meeting up with anyone…..we head up the north shore to nareemba where there is a Big4 holiday park….after much waiting we are told that they do have one spot left it is very busy here but the site is right next to a decent beach and there is a good holiday atmosphere amongst the hordes of aussie holiday makers and the smattering of barmy army!