Jan 16th marked the beginning of our Amy, Gen and Brooke’s drive down the coast, with the goal of reaching Tasmania. We are now on the fourth night of our trip, and have concluded that is a MASSIVE distance, and are opting instead to drive just to Sydney, and then fly to Melbourne to meet up with another friend from Club Med. Unlike the states, or Canada, towns in Aus are severely isolated from each other. We would drive for hours through forests in between towns, and have realized that we will save time and money if we just fly the second leg of our trip.
The first day, we cruised on down to Byron Bay, stopping at various beaches along the way—we have consistently swam in two different beaches/cities every day thus far, and often pile back into the car in just our bathing suits, ready for the next swim break. Byron is a hopping hippie/backpacker town, full of cute little shops and cafes. We had lunch on the beach, as is becoming our custom, and then strolled all the shops. Rather than stay the night there, we continued onward- Amy’s mom’s cousin offered to put the 3 of us up for the night in his town, Evans Head. Looking a bit like Crocodile Dundee, and emanating some serious hippie vibes, it wasn’t long before Halden had approached us with a wild snake in hand and made us pose for some photos. No trip to Aus is complete without a snake encounter!
After an early morning beach visit in Evan’s Head, we drove further south stopping for swim and lunch in Broome Head, then we made our way to Coffs Harbour. Coff’s is home to the Big Banana, a tourist attraction marked by, you guessed it – a MASSIVE banana. We all ordered chocolate covered bananas as a mis afternoon snack. We stayed at a YHA hostel just down the road from the beach, which we were still lounging at by 6:15 pm. After a dinner of Indian food, we decided to hit the town. We spent the night tearing it up on the dance floor, in true Club Med style.
From Coffs, we made out way next to Southwest Rocks, which just happened to be hosting a massive lifeguarding competition, for kids from about 7-17. The whole beach was full of kids competing in rescue activities and relays. They had a relay race on the sand that made the 4x1 look like a walk in the park. After a quick swim ourselves, we were back in the car and on our way. We made a quick stop at Crescent Head before continuing on to Port Macquarie for the night. We took a long walk from Ozzie Pozzie, our hostel, to the boardwalk, where we marveled at the “painted rocks”- big rocks that the public is allowed to paint however they liked. There were uplifiting phrases, marriage proposals, and lots of dedicated memorial rocks. After a homemade dinner at the hostel, we caught a quick drink at the local irish pub, to some live music. The next morning, we woke up early in order to catch 8 am feeding time at the Koala hospital, and, or course to enjoy a quick swim!
Next stop: Anna Bay at Port Stephens, where we are currently staying for 2 nights at an eco-hostel, which serves as a wildlife Refuge. As we checked in, there was a baby owl on the desk, and baby magpies at our feet. I got some hilarious video of the magpies playing around with Amy and I. We spent the day at the beach, swimming, climbing rocks, and relaxing. We’ll stay here one more night- we’re planning to do dinner on the beach tomorrow night- before heading to Sydney.
That’s about it so far—it feels like I’ve been here forever, but it’s only day 10. It’s going to be a good year!!!
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