Last port of call .. Newcastle

We found that accommodation in Newie was quite a bit more expensive than any of our other stops, on this trip. Anything under $200 a night was either a bit far out of town or just a bit nasty. So I eventually chose an old pub, right in the centre of town, The Grand Hotel. 

The hotel was built in 1890 - she was a beauty. The rooms all have their own balcony and are very warm and comfortable. They offer a full slap up breakfast until 11 am for $16 - what could be better! The room was really comfortable, we had the best shower ever, yes ever! The balcony, even though really cold, was a great spot for an evening tipple.

The Grand Hotel, Newcastle

Newcastle was really charming, it's much smaller than we expected, given that it's the second biggest city in NSW. It has fantastic old building, lots of history and is surrounded by beaches.

Newcastle Port

We enjoyed a lazy three days wandering around the city. We caught the ferry to Stockton - all of five minutes each way! Whilst Newcastle has been regenerated and is quite charming, the regeneration hasn't reached Stockton, which has some amazingly ugly buildings. 

Stockton - home of the ugly building

It was fun to spend some time watching the tugs, busy pulling the massive container ships in and out of port and being entertained by the local pelicans also coming and going, although a bit more elegantly.

We took a long walk to Beaumont Street, past some beautiful old homes circa1920's. Beaumont street is a great shopping street with lots of vintage and op shops. Still didn't snag any bargains, but had a lovely couple of drinkies by a roaring fire, in the Beaumont pub. 

New street art.

We visited the art gallery, which was a fun way to spend 30 minutes and free. We also visited the local cathedral, where the priest gave Richard the bums rush! I still paid for the candle, I lit for Willy. 

Newcastle cathedral

We had some great meals, and twice visited the Foghorn Brewery, although to be honest it was more atmosphere and beer than great food. Still Richie bought a pretty cool Foghorn t-shirt  On our third and last day we took a long walk along the water front, with a short stop for cakes and coffee. The water front is also being regenerated, so will no doubt be totally different next time we visit. 

coffee and cakies, Newie beach.

We din't take the big camera out with us in Newie, because we were walking everywhere, so sadly not so many pics for the blog. 

We really did get up early when we left Newie - 6am - unheard of for the Ajayis' unless we are travelling. We'd been advised the traffic could get really bad, especially as we got close to Sydney, so we didn't want to take any chances.

The drive to Sydney took about two hours and was very painless (especially for me as I wasn't driving)! Returning our Apex hire car was really easy and we made it to the airport with an hour and a half to spare. Then our flight was one and half hours late, oh well, best laid plans and all that.



        As ever, always nice to be home.....

Port Stephens

We only spent the one night in the delightful twin towns of Forster, Tuncurry. We'd been really lucky with the weather but our luck had to run out somewhere and I guess it was Forster. We made another earlish start and headed off to Port Stephens, via one more stop at Kristens' Dads' bakery. This time we bought some delicious croissants and carrot cake and Richie introduced himself to the lady working there - still didn't get any freebies though!

We arrive in Port Stephens about lunch time. I'd identified a nice apartment in the centre of town, but when we arrived the office was closed, anyway to cut a long story short - after lots of calls, we finally got our apartment. Another huge fabulous apartment, but not as fabulous as Port Macquarie - mainly due to the lack of views. We cranked up the heating and settled in. 

Two bedroom apartment Port Stephens, party time...

Port Stephens is a very pretty place - very spread out, as it doesn't really have a town centre. Our apartment was in Nelson Bay, which is the most popular area. We had another Indian the first night, was pleasant enough 5.5/10 possibly .....

We really only had one full day in the area so we made the most of it. The views are really something, but you needed a car. We drove to Salamander Bay, only about a 10-15 minute drive. 

Mariner, Salamander Bay.

We ended up having coffee on the mariner and chatting to a local about life in Port Stephens - seems it's mainly retirees and holiday homes for Sydney siders.  It would be a fantastic holiday home as it is so peaceful and only about 3 to 4 hours from Sydney.

next beach to Salamander Bay, Port Stephens.

After our two nights in Port Stephens, we were getting a bit tired and not really in the mood for Sydney, so we booked our flights back to Perth for the Friday. We planned to spend three nights in Newcastle, drive to Sydney on Friday morning and drop off the car and catch our midday flight. Yodi - Mommy is coming!

As we left Port Stephens, we decided to find the  lookout point, Gan Gan that a local had told us about. We got royally lost and had to double back,but the views were worth it. 

view from Gan Gan lookout.

weird flower only found in NSW

Port Macquarie

It was another painless drive, down the Pacific Highway, from Coffs Habour to Port Macquaire and we arrived about 2pm. We stopped half way through at the metropolis that is Macksville, for coffee and cakies. 

Coffee and cakies in Macksville

Lovely old fashioned coffee shop, they had wooden bench seats - kind of like an American diner. We enjoyed the sun on our bones, whilst watching the locals come and go, then we dropped into the corner Op Shoppe, before we hit the road again. 

Op shopp, Macksville.

We eventually arrived in Port Macquarie about 2 pm and found a great apartment, right in the centre of town, with fabulous balcony views. The apartment was so nice (and warm) we decided to have dinner in. 

spectacular view from our apartment balcony

So after a stroll around town, a quick trip to Coles (sadly Aldi was too far for walking) and a visit to two Op Shops (they are everywhere!) we watched the spectacular sunset at the local pub (which quickly became our favourite). It really was something, lots of locals exercising, tons of birds and a couple of glasses of SSB with my beloved, as the sun set over the hills - perfection!

Sunset Port Macquarie - no words needed!

We really enjoyed Port Macquarie, so much to do and so beautiful. We spent a lovely few hours at the Koala Hospital, which was a great way to see koalas and learn how they were rescued. Plus it was the first time we've seen Koalas in Australia, previously we'd only seen expat Koalas at San Diego Zoo.

Next to the Koala Hospital was Roto House, a fully restored house from the late 1800's. It was owned by one family, The Flynns, from late 1800's until mid 1970's. 

We lunched at our favourite beach side bar again, and then took a 1.5 hour river cruise on a Chinese junk. It was lovely, there were about 15 of us on the boat (including about 9 Indian students who, sad to see didn't interact with anyone, despite approaches by the other passengers, just gabbed to each other in Hindi or played with their phones). 

on the junk

view from boat cruise

The cruise was pretty cold, but we were rugged up and they also supplied blankets. Apparently Port Macquarie was Australias' fourth penal colony, so the history was really interesting. After the cruise, we wandered around town and ended up at the Zebu Bar and Grill, listening to a lively Spanish guitar music. We bumped into the captain of the junk boat, and spent a pleasant evening talking crap with him. We had planned to have fish and chips for dinner, but all the fast food (except McDonalds) closed at 7pm! So we ended up back at Coles to buy some grub for a fry up. 

Our favourite beach side bar, Port Macquarie

We were so enamoured with Port Macquarie and our lovely warm apartment, with the fantastic views, that we decide to spend an extra night. I dragged Richie to a few more Op shops, but no bounty was to be had, sadly! We finally gave into the temptation of the nearby pie shoppe, The Ridgy Didge Pie Shop and it didn't disappoint. We took our delicious pies back to the apartment and spent a lovely evening doing nothing - something we are quite expert at!

It's ridgy dodge!

We were up bright and early again for the short trip, to the twin towns of Forster/ Tuncurry. We are really only visiting because lovely Kristen grew up here, plus everyone says how nice it is. We also planned to visit her fathers bakery and check out the apple turnovers, as recommended by Kristen.

Kritens' Dads' bakery, Forster Tuncurry.

We left Port Macquarie, via the coastal road and stopped off at Dooragan National Park. The views really were Spectacular - Patrick would have been lost for words! We took quite a few pics of the view and then drove back down to the coast, to the farthest look out, to see the view back up to the look out point. 

View from Doorman National Park - SPECTACULAR!

I'm stunned by the scenery but I'm smiling on the inside...

We finally reached Forster about 3pm, but it was starting to rain - our first rain since Byron Bay, although we can't complain as we have been blessed so far. Can't say we are that keen on Forster, it has lots of lovely water ways but seems to lack the charm of other towns we have visited. 

We found a pleasant enough hotel, motel, holiday inn, cranked the heating up high and after a surprisingly good meal at Hogsbreath Cafe, we retired to the warmth to watch the football, drink wine and write the blog. 

our trusty transport

Coffs Harbour

We started out from Byron Bay early (10am which is 7 am for normal people) with the intention of hitting the road for the 3 hour journey to Coffs Harbour. However, we decided to catch up with lovely Kristen one more time. We met for coffee and cakies up the Bangalow Rd. 

We finally hit the road about 1pm and arrived in Coffs Harbour at about 4pm. There was lots of accommodation around the $100 mark to choose from. We settled on the Ocean Park Motel, just near the beach and across from the Hoey Moey 
(hotel motel, geddit?).

Our first evening we had a fabulous Indian, at Aroma cafe - we'd been hanging out for a curry and it didn't disappoint. We did hit the local Dan Murphys, for BYO supplies first. 

It's really cold, still lovely and sunny but definitely cold. The day in Coffs Harbour we spent walking along the Mariner to Muttonbird Island and enjoying the spectacular views, followed by lunch at the Surf Club, soaking up some sunshine. 

Mutton Bird Island

We spent the afternoon wandering around town, visited the local, ping pong club, dropped into all 6 second hand shops and scored a few goodies and then back to the Surf Club for afternoon tea and cakies. 

score from the Coffs Harbour op shops

Needing to walk off all the food we are consuming we walked along Park Beach and along with locals either fishing, sipping wine on park benches and/or smoking spliffs in cars, enjoyed the waves crashing on the rocks.

Believe it or not we Indianed again for dinner, not as good as the first night though. We're up bright and early (10am) for the two hour drive to Port Macquarie.

Byron Bay

We were up bright and early Friday morning and after our good byes, we headed off to Byron Bay, via the Gold Coast. 

We stopped for a short break at Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast. 

Just a short rest in Surfers

The last time I visited Surfers was about 1978, if you look closely I'm sure that's me sunbathing!

It was better than I'd expected, pretty tacky but in a fun family, kiss me quick hat, kind of way, not sleazy. Although I expect it's a different story during schoolies week.  We had a brilliant fry up breakfast for $4.50 - gotta love that.

After a pleasant 2 hour drive we reached Byron Bay. We spent the first evening with the ever gorgeous Kristen. She is as positive and energetic as ever. 

Rum Raisin ice cream  and the lovely Kristen

We met at the Balcony Hotel for a few drinks and had dinner at the Railway Friendly Pub. Throw back city. I thought I'd stepped into 1976. Checked lumbur jackets, long scruffy hair, beards, thongs - the pub even had a chook raffle - fabulous! 

Kristen lives in a quite remote house with two other lovely girls (Candy and Josie) and after she made us a rice milk chai (Richies new favorite drink - well after beer) we slept like logs, on a mattress on the lounge room floor, covered in very warm sleeping bags. 

View from Kristens' balcony.

Next day was blessed with sunshine so we made the most of it. We drove up to the lighthouse, which has fantastic views. We were pretty lucky and spotted a whale, a huge pod of dolphins and one lone wallaby. 

We met Kristen at the raw food cafe she works in for lunch, visited the beach market and generally hung out in Byron. 

Fundies, lunch break with Kristen.

Love Byron Bay - it's really hippyish and a bit feral. Everyone keeps saying "hello man" to Richie - he's has suddenly become very cool.

We caught up with Kristen and her mates Candy, Josie, Misaki and Ross for dinner. The restaurant was seriously in the middle of nowhere - in a town called Tintebar - FGS! However, even though we got royally lost and it took us forty minutes navigating pitch black roads, it was worth it. 

The restaurant was called Che Bon and we enjoyed a fabulous three  course meal for $37! Yes $37???? I had a huge piece of salmon for main course and Richie had steak, it was a great meal. The children, oops I mean Kristen and co. were only drinking water but Richie and I had a bevy or two, just to show them how it's done.

On the Sunday we decided to stay an extra night, so after booking the room, we wandered into town for breakfast. Whilst it's great than Byron is so green, vegan, hairy, hippy and health conscious, it can start to wear a bit thin, especially at breakfast. I mean who wants coconut husk in place of sugar and egg plant gollop instead of perfectly respectable HP sauce ? Enough already, I'm old, I need a few preservatives.

We followed breaky with a massive beach walk, it was freezing cold and really windy - certainly blew the cobwebs away. We followed this with a shared BLT lunch and a delicious bottle of SBS back at the Balcony Hotel, we had a lovely spot in the sunshine...perfection. 

We followed that, with a huge apple pie from the bakery, a tub of rum 'n raisin for Richie and a frozen yoghurt with everything for me. 

Preservatives, sugar..... yummm

With our systems restored with preservatives, we retired for a much needed afternoon nap (which turned into an evening nap - basically we went to bed at 4.30 in the afternoon). This is what holidays are all about - eating, drinking and sleeping - with a bit of exercise thrown in - just so you can fit in a bit more food!

First Stop Brissy with Frossie

Ahh completely forgot to take pictures of the luggage - let's see if I remember on arrival! 

Yes the luggage!

Anyway 'coz it's cold we ended up with more stuff, so we took the bigger silver case. Funny how, the shorter the trip, the bigger the luggage.

We used Uber, for the first time, to get to the airport. It was great, our driver arrived in 7 minutes, as advised, and the cost was cheaper than usual taxi and we didn't have to worry about paying and receipts on arrival, as it all goes through the App. Very civilised.

Check in was painless, and now we are enjoying a big glass of red and a cold one to help us sleep on the flight. Got to love my fellow sandgropers, the usual WA winter wardrobe is on display - hoodies and thongs. 

WA formal flight attire.

We had a uneventful flight, although I didn't sleep a wink, even with the usually trusty Stilnox, but Richie got a few hours.

We collected our car from Apex and drove to Coralie and Adams' place. We had a lovely first day. Adam drove us into Brisbane and we had lunch at the South Bank, it was a moderately warm, sunny winters day. 

The kids frolicking at the South Bank beach seemed to think it was the middle of summer, ditto the semi naked, sunbathing Europeans.

first lunch at Southbank, Brisbane

 We took a long walk across the city, from one side to the other side and then got the free red ferry back. 

Unfortunately, I suffered the Holt curse and had a migraine the first night. I was awake all night and kept Richie up for a good part of it. 

The Holt curse strikes again

So we didn't go out until 1pm the following day because it took me all morning and several cups of tea to feel human again. 

When I did arise, we visited the Botanical Gardens (perfect venue for recuperation), was nice, not the best gardens we've seen but the bonsai section was very impressive. We had coffee and cakies and then headed off to Mt Coot-tha lookout that had fantastic views of Brissy.

view from Mt Coot-tha

In the evening we collected Coralie from QUT. She had just handed in her final thesis amendments so was very happy, and headed back to South Bank for dinner. 

We had a pleasant evening and a great walk along South Bank to admire the city at night.  It's really cold in Brissy - the forecast temps are the same as Perth but it feels much colder. Still, we have electric blankets on the bed which are delicious!

The Frossies slept very late on Thursday so we only had a short time in Noosa, but it was a delightful time. It was much classier than I'd imagined. 

We arrived after a frantic two hour drive, had a nice lunch, delicious coffee and cakies, a short walk around town and along the beach and then drove back to Brissy.

Our last night was spent celebrating with Coralie, as her final amendments for her PhD thesis were approved. 

The gorgeous Dr Frossie

Hurrah its finally over!