Rest and relaxation in the Tweed Heads area

We collected the caravan from storage and had 2 weeks in Kingscliff a small (very small) area on the border of Queensland and NSW, we stayed at the Drifters caravan park and had a really nice site. It was great to actually stay put and put our sun screens up on the awning and feel at home for a while. Kingscliff is an interesting little area with the Tweed River by it's side, a great fish and chip shop and access to lots of interesting areas to explore. The sunsets watched from the river were beautiful and the mountain range including Mt Warning at sunset were stunning. We visited Tropical fruit World which is a research park and has the largest selection of tropical fruits in one location.We took a tractor ride around the park and picked up macadamia nuts from the ground which we opened with a nut cracker machine by the tree. We also went to a fruit tasting show where we tried all different varieties including the black sapote.The park is set out with areas of fruit from all different countries such as a Chinese Garden, Indian, Aztec, Amazon etc which contained all the fruits from that particular region. They also had a Bush Tucker and Medicinal Garden. They also had a produce shop and we tried the taste of lemon mertyle which was lovely and supposed to be very good for you. I thought it was a bit expensive for a family ($37) to visit but we got a concession ticket so not so bad for us. We also went for a trip down the coast and there were some beautiful little areas to visit, it had episodes of rain on this day and we went onto a cliff overlooking the sea and watched the rain and surfers. We also went to a little place called Salt Village which was built on an original salt mine. The houses were absolutely stunning and beautifully designed, the beach had the whitest sand with no stones, shells or seaweed, it looked like it had been man made. There wasn't a soul on the beach apart from a life saver in a little tent to shelter from the rain.The whole of the Tweed area with all it's little towns surrounds the Mt Warning extinct volcano which stands at 1157m. The history of the volcano which was active 20 million years ago and the lava reached 100kms into the ocean and covered 5000 square kms, so over 20 million years the wind and rain carved out a huge bowl around it and is called the Mt Warning Shield Volcano and is the largest in the southern hemisphere. This is what makes the countryside so rugged and the rich volcanic soil, high rainfall results in beautiful rain forests and scrumptious fruit and veges which are prolific to the area. We drove around the base of it and went into the National Park to the walking track as you can walk to the summit but it takes 5 hours and id termed as strenuous so we thought it might be a tad challenging for us especially on our own. We went and had a coffee at the Parrot Garden Cafe where you can view the parrots and a couple of small monkeys and various animals. Apparently the owners were circus people from Europe who have settled in Oz but it was only just OK. We had a couple of evenings with some people we got friendly with and had a few drinks and a barbecue. All in all we enjoyed this stay and the area which was stunning.