AQWA is cool for one big thing: a huge tank with an underwater observation tunnel that has it's own travellator. It's huge. And so are some of the things swimming around in it. We got all educational to start with (Rachael is missing school after all) and learnt all about the different eco systems along the coast (ok, we stood and looked at lots of pretty fish and maybe read the little info thingies) before heading down into the depths to stand under 5 million gallons of seawater filled with things that want to eat you.
Aw, aren't they pretty? soon turns to gasps and an involuntary step backwards when one of these swims out of the gloom and eyes you up. Mmmm, what shall I have today? Western? Chinese? Thai? Aussie? Yum yum, food that come to me - take out without the hassle of actually ordering (shark's have a problem with phones for some reason). The tank is stuffed full of fish, sharks, rays and turtles. Turtles are cool. They glide through the water with this look upon their face that says 'I know things you don't know' (Like, how to hold your breath for ages and not get eaten by sharks - valuable skills, I think you'll agree?) 
. Just as cool are the rays. They ripple their bodies to swim and are HUGE. I mean really huge! Enormously huge!! They block out the light when they swim over the tunnel above you. Absolutely amazing. The only drawback to the AQWA tunnel is when you're trying to take photo's. Flash refelcts on the tunnel which is bad for the photo but flash also annoys the hell out of the locals (fish and staff) so it's a big no no, which is why everything looks really blue and a bit gloomy. Never mind, go and see it for yourself, you won't be disappointed.Back upstairs and the hunt is on for my favourite sea creature of all - the octopus. I'd have one in a tank if I could but the cats would go fishing and I like my cats too much to allow them to be hugged to death underwater by a friendly (and probably poisonous octopus called Ollie). Our search took us past the sea horses which are cute and very strange
especially the feathery ones which look like seaweed. The octopus was not at home (or hiding very successfully) so we left a message with one of his mates who was floating around in the dark looking cool as only cool colourful fish can do. Seriously cool. I'm not sure he actually passed the message on (he might have been a bit too cool to be helpful) but we left one anyway and hopefully he'll send 
us a postcard one day to explain why he wasn't available for photographs and when he's thinking of popping over for some sightseeing and a short break from the stressful life of an exhibit.Noodles for lunch. Yum. And home we go. Now Hillary's is a bit of a walk (20 minutes or so) from our home from home and it's quite pleasant. You stroll across the boat car park and then along the coast for a bit before cutting into the estate, past lots of big houses and you're there. Easy. Except for the rain. English rain takes on many forms: spitting, drizzle, light rain, a moderate shower, gusty squalls, lashing down, a hurricane even. Australian rain has: thinking about it, persistant and monsoon. Not even halfway and the weather went from cloudy but ok to monsoon. Instantly. No real warning, just alot of rain very quickly. We ran - but there was nowhere to really hide. We ran some more and found a picnic shelter. Designed to keep the sun off your head but, given the fact the sun had scarpered, it would do as a rain shelter.
We got wet. I looked worse than Inga and Rachael but, take it from me, they were wet too. We sheltered, laughed and failed to drip dry. Monsoon's being what monsoon's are, it soon bored of trying to get us wetter and went off in search of easier victims. We went in search of towels, dry clothing and a cup of tea.
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