15/6/26

Our first full day in Arugam bay. A place that Oliver has been dreaming of coming too ever since we read about it – and it’s surfing – in the lonely planet guide back in NZ! 

We had to begin the day however in catch g up with the Australia vs Türkiye match! We headed to breakfast and took the computer down with us, what a match! We were all stoked with Australia’s 2-0 win! 

It was then time to go for a wander and try and replace the goggles and swimmers we had lost on the bus. We managed to find goggled for the kids back at the same shop we found the rashies last night. I even picked up a rashie for less than $10! Bargain. Finally raelene got herself a new set of toggs at a surf school come surf wear shop. We got talking to the guys there and they had a spot at 1500 for a Surfing lesson over at peanut farm break. Oliver was dead keen, while to two others immediately asked if there were body boards available! Even I signed my self up for a surf lesson which Oliver was very happy about. 

We made it back to the hotel, had a quick preliminary swim at the beach at the end of our road then fitted in lunch before managing to make it back to the surf school in good time. 

We all piled in a tuk tuk and with boards strapped to the roof, off we went to peanut farm. Oliver had read all about this break and was very excited to finally get here today for a surf, it was lovely to see. 

While Arthur and Patrick headed off to get pummeled by waves on their boards. Oliver and I went through the basics on shore before joining the myriad of other beginner surfers in the water to try our luck in standing up. I say our luck, but what I really mean is I hoped that I would manage to stand! I knew Oliver already had it in the bag! 

The next hour was great fun and raelene did a great job to capture the magic. I was pleased to stand after a very rocky patch of falling off time and time again. While Oliver was having a great time, standing and even learning how to turn. 

Arthur and Patrick had a great time catching the waves and then at times getting sandwiched between the wave and the back wash wave that would occasionally approach with force and crash hard together. So funny to watch. 

With the lesson over and stories aplenty to tell we headed back to Arugam bay for one final swim before finding some dinner. As we waited for our food it was evident that everyone was pretty stoked with the first day efforts….lets hope tomorrow is just as fun! 

16/6/26

I was woken up by a small person crawling into bed with me, Arthur had had a bad dream and needed a snuggle. It was nice snuggling him but it also meant I was wide away and unable to get back to sleep. At 5am I gave up trying to get back to sleep so went for a walk to the beach, I left a note for Oliver telling him I was at the beach but he slept for so long that I was back before he woke up. I tried to do some yoga (adjusted due to my knee) on the beach but the stray dogs annoyed me too much so I watched the day begin before walking back. I wrote some diary then made a cup of tea and sat down on the outside lounge to watch New Zealand’s first game in the FIFA World Cup. The All Whites played amazing, it is very exciting for them as it is only their 3rd appearance in a World Cup. Oliver and Arthur had a wonderful sleep in then joined me to watch the second half of the game. Gosh NZ got close to wining a few times. After a great game we went for a walk to find some breakfast, we found a great little restaurant just up the road which does amazing dhal curry and rotti’s. After breakfast Arthur and I finally got to have our alone time which was lovely. Rhys, Oliver and Patrick went for a walk.

As soon as we had our little villa to ourselves Arthur’s face lit up saying its so quiet, we enjoyed quite a few card games then went down to the beach for a swim. Arthur and I had a lovely time together, spending one on one time with the kids is so important especially this year when we are living so close to each other with no private space. I feel this time gives us deeper connection, an opportunity for conversations to happy without interruption and such focus on each other. I felt Arthur got a lot out of today which makes me very happy.

We all met up again and shared stories of our time apart. Patrick and Oliver saw some fishermen coming home and they had a huge sword fish which they thought was pretty cool. The fishing boats here are amazing, they wait for a wave then race up to the shore riding the wave and as they hit the sand they quickly bring up the motor and amazingly they have beached their boats perfectly, it is quite impressive.

In the afternoon Rhys and Oliver went for a surf lesson while Patrick, Arthur and I stayed home again playing card games and keeping out of the heat. We then went down to the beach and swam in the waves until the sunset which was another goal of Arthur so he had a pretty awesome day in his books.

Hunger then set in hard and we didn’t make it down the street before Oliver was quite adamant he had found a good restaurant, we tried to explain it might not be a great choice but his tummy was taking charge and we gave in. Unfortunately Rhys and I were right and the food was quite overpriced, too western for our liking therefore very bland flavours but what saved the night was it was right on the beach so while we waited for our food the kids had fun running away from the waves.

The walk home under the stars along the beach was a perfect ending to a very good day.

17/6/26

It was an early start this morning for a surf over at peanut farm. We piled into the tuk tuks and managed to stop off to grab some bananas for sustenance as we left town. The boys were all stoked and Raelene was happy to be awake early and make the most of the day! Oliver and I had a great surf lesson, both catching good waves and standing more than falling! Arthur, Patrick and Raelene had a great time on the body boards, Arthur can stand on the board and ride it while Patrick gets on his knees and rides it in too which is pretty clever. 

Following our lesson we headed back to town to get some brunch in our bellies however as we pulled up at the hotel Arthur realised that one of Patricks thongs had found its way out of the tuk tuk as we were traveling. I ended up heading back with the Tuk Tuk driver and we thankfully found it back on the sandy track near peanut farm beach….1500LKR later I was joining the rest of the fam at our usual breakfast spot near our hotel.

With the World Cup on we are all keen to keep up with which countries are playing well so we settled in for a highlights session. We managed to catch up with all of the main games that we wanted to watch with the standouts being the Argentina match from this morning. The boys were so excited to see Messi (their favourite player) score 3 goals in cracking style. 

We enjoyed some lazing around, trying to recoup some energy from our early start and also keeping out of the heat of the day. We really feel that the temperature here is hotter than Nhulunbuy, it is sweltering in the heat of the day and doesn’t seem to cool off in the evening. Arthur particularly feels the heat but never complains! 

Once the heat subsided slightly we took a long walk up the beach to check out baby point and main point surf spots. It ws awesome watching people on both long and short boards carving up the larger R hand breaks off main point. The kids were keen to have a go so we hired a board and some boogies in order to try our luck. What we found however was a band of rocky reef that ran the length of baby point beach and in these conditions only provided a narrow corridor of wave with the risk of falling or washing up onto the rocks! We tried but quickly returned the boards and decided to enjoy a swim on main beach instead. It was a great evening, the vibe was a bit better up here with a few more people getting around, it still wasn’t super busy though! 

We enjoyed a Mojito while the boys swam until dark then ventured onto the road to find something for dinner, hopefully something a little better than last nights effort! We succeeded with a restaurant called curry leaves that had only been open for 1 month! Both Arthur and Patrick were complaining after chafe and were walking like they’d been riding a horse for 2 weeks straight. As a result we snagged a Tuk tuk and got dropped at our hotel.

18/6/26

Our day started with another morning surf at peanut farm. It was a beautiful morning and as the boys either surfed for boogie boarded I did some yoga, read some of my book then joined Arthur and Patrick on the boogie boards, it was a great way to start the day. Watching the surfers out on the water makes me think how peaceful surfing could be, sitting in your board waiting for the next wave – it all seems pretty cool and I can certainly see why Oliver is beginning to really love it. This morning he was catching great waves, paddling out then catching another wave. He was amongst the adults and doing very well. The smile on his face after the 1.5hrs was huge and radiant. 

The tuk tuk ride home was fun and we all had a fresh water shower then had to find the energy to go and look for brunch. Hunger was setting in on all 3 kids so we just went with the easy option of our regular restaurant just up the road. As there is only one cook in the kitchen we had to wait a while for all our food to be cooked which was fine as we had remembered our card games which filled only the hour pretty easily. 

We then hid from the heat in our villa, I snuck away for an amazing massage. One of the best I have ever had and it was only 3000rupee ($12). 

When I got back the boys had all down their school work – diary writing and were watching the FIFA World Cup. While watching the games Oliver and I snuck off for some alone time. Oliver and Arthur have both been very eager for alone time with me which is lovely and afterwards really does balance out their emotions which just proves how important it is to make the time for them all individually. Oliver and I had a lovely time wandering around the shops then finding a place for a drink. 

Once again the day disappeared quickly, we found some take away kottu and rotti then grabbed a tuk tuk to take us to elephant rock. The driver was great, he grabbed Patrcik and told him to drive which was fun. Patrick loved driving out of town through the paddy fields and onto the sandy track to the beach. Eventually the track got too bumpy and Patrick had to come into the back with us to hold one. 

We didn’t really know where to go to find elephant rock and as soon as we walked onto the beach the boys ran straight for the water. The waves were huge and so dumpy! It made both Rhys and  I a little nervous as no one else was around. We got them out and decided to walk along the beach a little before we climbed the rocks to watch the sunset. 

It was a beautiful long beach and the boys had a great time running in the water trying to outrun the waves. After we had turned around to head back a pack of dogs ran out of no where at us! Arthur got a huge fright and started to run away from them towards us, we yelled at him to stop running but he was soooo scared he wouldn’t/couldn’t listen. Patrick and Oliver were doing very well to walk slowly back to us as the dogs continued to bark and walk our way. Once all together Rhys had two big sticks just in case and we slowly walked back to our gear. The dogs continued to bark and follow us but never came close thankfully. There are so many stray dogs here, most are friendly enough but others give a warning growl which is a bit off putting. 

The boys wanted to lead the way up the rocks to find a good lookout point, they are like little mountain goats and were kind to fine me the easiest way up due to my knee. 

We arrived at the top and discovered a whole other beach which was beautiful and where all the surfers were. Hehe we had assumed the wrong beach was elephant rock beach. As the sunset we enjoyed yummy kottu and roti’s while watching surfers it was a wonderful evening. 

19/6/26

Urgh, the dreaded lurgy has hit. I was a phlegmy mess last night and woke up feeling less than ordinary. As a result I skipped out on the morning surf lesson, only Raelene Oliver and Arthur headed out to peanut farm beach, leaving Patrick and I to sleep. Patrick and I had a lovely morning playing cards and waiting for the surfers to return. When they did, we were treated to stories of Arthur standing up and surfing like a pro and Oliver once again having no problems. At one point Arthur told that while he was on a wave, another surfer collided with him and he was able to step off his board and onto hers and continue surfing! 

We had a pretty restful day today, with multiple early starts and late nights we have been enjoying taking some time out to relax in our room. We caught up on some World Cup games then popped down to the beach at the end of our road for a swim. After a late lunch we decided to hire our own boards head back over to peanut farm for a surf in the afternoon. I popped a couple of pseudos to perk me up a bit which helped a great deal and we were able to enjoy and awesome afternoon of swimming and surfing. Raelene even got on the boogie board and caught some waves! The real highlights of the afternoon were Oliver paddling into and catching his own wave, which he was stoked about, and Patrick having a go on the surf board! Patrick was going great guns, however he adopts the ‘Jesus stance’ and just stands with his legs together and his arms out, facing forwards, balancing on the wave…Its quite cute. Patrick kept going time after time, he loved it. Poor old Raelene though hurt her knee again today. While walking down off the rocks this morning she felt it become unstable, then this afternoon, she was in the shallows and twisted it a little when a wave came through. It’s quite painful for her and has swollen up a bit again, not great to be honest! Let’s hope that it sorts itself out over the next few weeks prior to our cycling in Europe! 

The day ended with a delicious buffet rice and curry meal at a restaurant that was playing the World Cup. Another awesome day for sure. 

20/6/26

Patrick wanted a sleep in again today so I enjoyed my book waiting for Patrick to wake up. Oliver, Arthur and Rhys snuck out to go surfing. When Patrick woke we played our usual round of cards until the others got home. 

Gosh the excitement levels were high when they got home, firstly they had seen a huge elephant in the rice paddy’s on the way to peanut farm then they went for a surf at main point which was apparently amazing. Rhys’ face said it all, he was beaming with how amazing the waves and his surfing was. Oliver was full of excitement as he told me the instructor had told him he was ready to move up to a hardboard….while Arthur had an absolute ball catching the waves. They said they had the water to themselves which was also a treat as normally there are so many other people. A very successful morning all round! 

After breakfast the early morning had been catching up on Oliver in particular so we headed back to the villa for everyone to rest. Oliver tried to fight the idea of a sleep but within 10mins he was sound asleep and remained like that for 3hours. 

While Oliver slept like sleeping beauty we played some games, watched some soccer, wandered up to the shop to find Arthur an elephant t-shirt and were colouring in when Oliver finally rose. 

We visited our friends at the House of Surfing and hired some boogie boards for Oliver and Patrick and a surf board for Arthur. It was a great afternoon at the beach, I went in for a swim and even had a turn on the boogie board  which was fun, far out some of the waves are huge and when they meet the returning wave they smashed together. Getting caught in that is quite crazy, it truly does feel like being in a washing machine. Arthur was quite tired from surfing so switched out with Patrick who had fun catching some waves with Rhys. 

We found a curry and rice place which had the soccer playing and the waiters enjoyed seeing the boys happy as they watched the game. 

21/6/26

Another early surf was on the cards today, the exciting thing about today however was it was Oliver’s first day on a hard board and he was pretty excited about graduating to the next level, and attaining his goal that he had set for himself at the start of our time here. 

There was however a bit of a mix up. Our usual instructor was no where to be seen! The tuk tuk drivers reckoned he had slept in after going a bit hard last night….luckily we were able to get onto another instructor and the actual brother of Haleem, Mahi. Mahi was super lovely and took us out for what turned out to be our best lesson on the water yet. Both Oliver and I were independently paddling into waves, and riding them right, all the way to the beach. The sets were perfect this morning and there were very little people in the water. Overall a very successful morning lesson. 

Oliver and I got back to the hotel and found that raelene and the other two had had a relaxing morning waiting for us to return. We walked up the road a got another filling cheap breakfast at Ali’s restaurant. 

Finally it was time to pack up our room, fix up the bill, say goodbye to the wonderfully friendly people at Arne’s place and move hotels for our last 2 days in arugam bay! We would totally come back to Arnes place. It was a perfect setting to relax and enjoy Arugam bay. 

Luckily our next hotel was only about 250m up the road, so we wandered up, checked in again and set about making a plan to head out for another surf this afternoon with our friends at house of surfing. 

When 3 o’clock rolled around we jumped in the tuk tuks again and headed back out to peanut farm for some more waves. It was great watching Oliver do so well on the hard board again, while Arthur and Patrick had a wicked time catching waves in and jumping off the lip of the returning wave….

Unfortunately though, raelene had a bit of a set back today. She headed up the beach to do a little bit of exercise, beginning with a couple of star jumps!! On her very first one she felt her knee give way, crack, and a sharp pain! It floored her. She managed to limp back to us and looked utterly devastated. 

After the boys finished surfing and body boarding, we headed back to the hotel and managed to grab some clean ice from a fish seller, allowing raelene to ice her knee for a good while that evening….

22/6/26

The sounded again this morning to wake us all up for another morning of surfing. This time we went to elephant rock. Our morning ritual of being picked up by tuk tuks with surf boards on top, getting bananas from a seller on the way then driving through the rice paddy’s is quite lovely. It was a bumpy road to elephant rock, we arrived in the sandy carpark and then all of a sudden the drivers were grabbing the boys and running towards the beach. A huge elephant had just run out of the bush and was only 5m from Patrick, Rhys and Arthur. The elephant crossed the carpark and went straight back into the bush, it was incredible plus a little frightening how close we got to it. With adrenaline surging through everyone we walked to the surf break and got ready to jump into the water. I was very slow walking as my knee was still a little sore, not as bad as I thought it was going to be though which was great. 

Rhys was on a hardboard for the first time unfortunately he was find the waves at elephant rock a little more difficult mostly because the waves were smaller and there were a lot of people to share the waves with. He caught a few then after nearly hitting someone he decided to call it quits. Patrick was also having a flat day, he only caught a few waves on this boogie board before coming over to me saying he had a sore throat and didn’t want to swim anymore. So he snuggled up in a towel and sat with me as we watched Oliver and Arthur have fun catching waves.

While we were sitting on the beach amazingly I spotted two pieces of tube-grip lying on the sand, it was like someone just placed them for me knowing I had been looking for some for my knee. No one had walked past us so I have no idea where they came from as they had not been there all morning. Patrick ran over and picked them up, even better than tube-grip they were knee braces and looked like good quality. Winner!

After surfing we headed back, grabbed some breakfast then avoided the heat of the day watching soccer. We then went for our final lesson with House of Surfing and everyone had a brilliant afternoon on the waves, it was great to watch. The knee brace made my knee feel much better so after the surfing we walked to Baby Point to enjoy the sunset on the beach for our last evening in Arugam Bay. On our way home I picked up some more ice and while reading my book listening to the boys fall asleep I RICE’d my knee hoping the swelling would disappear completely by tomorrow.

23/6/26 – Arugam Bay to Batticoloa

Our final morning surf turned out to be a mixed affair, more for me than the kids. Arthur took a hard board today despite people saying he may not be ready and he absolutely crushed it! some amazing surfing from Oliver also saw him enjoying his faint morning out on the water. Dad however…on the hardboard for the first real go, struggled! I ended up in the water more than I stood up! I did manage a wonderful ride into the beach though, so that was good fun!

As we made our preparations to leave the boys wanted to go back up to the shop where we bought the majority of our things for Arugam bay. Very kindly the man asked them if they would like to pick anything from the shop! It was so lovely of him, they boys started looking at small little trinkets, then he told them they could get a t-shirt…the boys were stoked and picked out a Sri Lankan football t-shirt each. Say big thank you’s and a final goodbye we grabbed our stuff, jumped in a Tuk Tuk and got to the Bus station in Pottuvil for our public bus to Batticoloa.

The Bus trip went smoothly, we are really getting the hang of the public bus caper now. it’s interesting to note though that there are 2 different types of bus providers in Sri Lanka, red government S.L.T.B. (Sri Lanka Transport Board) and Private. The colourful, mostly blue, busses are private providers and are more expensive than the govt busses. We also noticed that the Government busses give tickets with standardised pricing listed. The private companies however just name the price and take the money without giving receipts or tickets. The bus we were on today was a private one and when it came to paying, we found it markedly more expensive than the government busses that we have been travelling on recently (overall it was still bloody cheap though)!

On reaching Batticoloa we found our accomodation which was run by a Sri Lankan-Canadian. It was right on the edge of the Lagoon and he gave us a very good price for the family room, 7000LKR or $30 AUD. Next we headed up to the beach for a look around, it was a very wide, beautiful sandy beach. There was no-one swimming however and when we got in we found out why. The sand dropped away suddenly and made standing impossible. We are really so fortunate to have swimming ingrained in our upbringings, swimming lessons are so encouraged and accessible, plus of course we have been in a position to afford them which is also amazing.

Finally we found a bit of dinner at an interesting roadside BBQ restaurant complete with a crumbling children’s playground…after the kids were asleep I wandered down to grab Raelene and I some street eats and a couple of cold beers. En route I wandered past a hindu temple that was all decked out with lights and music. A guy stopped me on the way, totally boozed up to the gills, and offered me to to come to the temple for a smoke…I politely declined and continued on my way.