The church had a Aid To Humanity charity event in Lismore NSW on the 23rd of April. It was an 8-hour drive from Sydney and the church organised buses to leave at 6pm on the 22nd to arrive in time for the 10am activity, and leave Lismore at around 4pm to reach Sydney a little past midnight.
We originally planned to join the bus but because Erin got sick the week prior, we decided it was better to drive on our own.
So we were exploring our options to see how we can manage the long drive and not get too tired. The coming Tuesday was a holiday so we took Monday off to have 3-4 days. We initially thought of going to Gold Coast (12+ hours drive) on Saturday afternoon, then heading down to Lismore (5hours) on Sunday morning, and back to Gold Coast in the afternoon to enjoy the next 2 days. But then we realised there'd be too much travelling and we'd really have just the 2 days to enjoy. Probably not enough for Gold Coast.
We decided it was best to travel 6 hours to Coffs Harbour on Saturday afternoon, rest for the night, then drive 2.5 hours to Lismore on Sunday to help in the event, before returning the Coffs Harbour to enjoy 2.5 days. And so we did. We booked our
22 Apr, Saturday:
- Performed our duties at worship service in Sydney till around 11am.
- Lunch at home then started looking for hotels to book. Most of the hotels are already fully booked. Found a decent one at Sapphire Beach Holiday Parks.
- Packed our bags and left home at around 2pm enroute to Coffs Harbour.
- Quick stops in petrol stations for toilet breaks.
- Reached the resort at around 8pm.
- Rested for a little bit, then went to Coles (about 10km away) to buy groceries
- Back in the hotel a little past 10pm, cooked dinner, then went to rest.
- Up at around 6:30am. Lani and I went for a stroll on the beach
- Ethan was also up early and him and I hit the beach for a quick dip, then we went around the resort to see the facilities, which was surprisingly great. They had swimming pools, games room (table tennis, air hockey, billiards, xbox consoles), 12-hole mini golf course, and a kids playground.
- After breakfast, we left the resort for our drive up to Lismore
- Arrived in Lismore past 10am, right in time for the giving away of the relief goods and the clean-up campaign.
- We helped clean one of the houses and Lani and Erin's photos were featured in INCTV. Nice!
- Left Lismore around 2:30pm and got to the resort just before sunset.
- Ethan, Erin, and I went for a dip in the swimming pool until it was dark.
- We spent the evening in the cabin watching TV (a documentary about the missing child Madeline)
- Whole day spend at Big Banana. We went to Candy-making workshop, Banana theatre and plantation tour, Giant Slides, Laser Tag, and the Water Park. Of course, we did eat some bananas and banana-flavoured ice cream.
- Going back, we went passed Dominos pizza and a Thai restaurant to buy take out dinner.
- The evening was again spent watching TV (my kitchen rules)
- Woke up early to go to the beach, then played golf, air hockey, and table tennis in the resort. Ethan and Erin also spent a lot of time in the playground.
- Left the resort just past 11am
- A quick stop at the Sealy Lookout, then headed home to Sydney
- A did a number of stops along the way. Reached sydney past 6:30pm.
- Went for dinner with church mates celebrating Lani and ka Rina's birthdays.
