A Year in Australia: Term 3 - NSW and Queensland Coast

We spent our last school holidays on a road trip up to Queensland. 2400 kms in 16 days, that's quite a bit of driving! It was great to see the NSW and Qld coast and the break was jam packed with activites and sites. It was a great time but now I think we can really use another holiday at the beach doing nothing!!

We started off at Newcastle for two nights. Fergus had his end of soccer season celebration in Newcastle with the boys. They went to the horse races and partied it up. The girls and I spent the weekend at the Canadians who were housesitting in Newcastle. We spent time at Bar Beach and at the pool.

We left Newcastle for Nambucca Heads on a Sunday. It was a long drive but we made it by about 7pm. We arrived at the Big 4 caravan park in the dark after some complicated manouevring in the dark. The pool was open until 9 pm so the girls got to swim under the stars (a first for them) in a nice heated pool.

We slept in a bathing box -- the least expensive accommodation we've found in Australia at $68/night for the four of us. It was a room with two bunks but perfectly comfortable for a nights sleep. We got up early at about 6 am and went for a long walk on an empty beach in our pajamas! We had our first sighting of dolphins in the wild. What a brilliant morning!

A popular spot for Aussies on the NSW coast is Coffs Harbour. We stopped briefly at the big banana. For some unknown reason, Australians are obsessed with big replica of things and these objects can be found throughout the country.

Big Prawn, Ballina

We spent a night at Lennox Head for a sleep. The beach and the town was nice.

We finally arrived in Queensland by Wednesday. We saw Surfer's Paradise from miles away with it's high rises poking awkwardly up into the sky. We went there to see if it was as bad as all the aussies say. Well, the gold coast is a bit of a concrete jungle with traffic and buildings. The beach however was very nice! We only stopped for a 10 minute gander.

The Gold Coast is a theme park heaven for children. There are lots of worlds - seaworld, dreamworld, movieworld, wet and wild, etc. Fergus and I could cope with only one so we decided on Seaworld. $240 later!! The girls loved it though. The smiles on their faces was worth every cent!

Dugong or Sea Cow

We spent three nights in Brisbane. It's a smallish city and reminds us of Vancouver. We headed to the South Bank area for the day. The main galleries, museum, state library, man made beach and water park is all located in the area. The State Library of Queensland had activities for the kids with a cowboy theme. The girls loved making their cowboy hats, vests, belt, scarf and line-dancing.

Queensland Tree Waratah

Other areas of Brisbane is New Farm and Fortitude Valley. We found a fantastic park at New Farm.

Beautiful purple Jacaranda trees EVERYWHERE!

Frangipani

We stayed in Brisbane's Paddington at a great house. The neighbourhood is very hilly, it has lots of antique and eco-type shops, it was very quaint.

On our way up to Noosa, we stopped at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. It was a great day out. The zoo has a strong conservation focus and the animals look healthy and happy with lots of space. There was definitely a sad tone there without Steve. We searched and searched but we couldn't find Bindi!

My new favourite aussie animal - the Wombat

We arrived at Noosa Heads at sunset and what a beautiful sight! There were heaps of kite surfers and it was very windy.

On Saturday we drove out to Eumundi to the Markets. There were hundreds of stalls. The small town's population of 500 becomes thousands on market days! The girls particularly loved the special fairy -- $8 each for some paint on their face! Wow!

We stayed by the river in Noosaville rather than the township of Noosa. It was heaps cheaper and quite nice.

Noosa is more upmarket and more resort-like with loads of beautiful beaches, shops, hotels, and families. The girls had fun on the main beach.

A short drive from Noosa along the sunshine coast are numerous untouched beaches with white sand and blue water. We stopped and LOVED Marcus and Peregian Beach! The water was actually warm for a change!!!

So one of our final stops was the infamous Byron Bay in NSW. Byron was once a haven for hippies and people looking for an alternative lifestyle. You either love it or hate it, I don't think there is anything in between. It is now alot more commercial than say 20 years ago but it is still a diverse community of all kinds of people! Young and old hippies, surfies, wealthy rich and famous people, artsy and creative folks, families, backpackers, and tourists from all over the world! It is great for people watching and there is loads to do. The environment is also amazing with the mountain range, trees, beach and surf. Great sushi at o-sushi!! We LOVED it!

We arrived at Clarkes Beach at sunset when it was raining. At the parking lot were about 7 hippie kids dancing in the rain. Margot asked if they were having a dress up party!

The Pass

We hung out at the main beach at Byron Bay. It's busy but not too bad.

There are lots of smooth pebbles at Byron, not very many shells though.

Lovely organic chicken breast on the kids' menu!

One morning we caught sunrise at Cape Byron, the most easterly point in Australia. We were up at 5:30 and the girls did great.

View of Tallow Beach from Cape Byron

We spent another day at the main beach. Fergus had a surf as well.

Margot spent hours helping and learning from this sand artist. She loved it!

Around from the cape is Tallow Beach. It was BEAUTIFUL and we were about the only people on the beach.

We saw the Great Moscow Circus one evening. The girls loved it. We were gobsmacked by the globe of death -- three guys on motorbikes riding around inside a small circular metal cage!!

We spent our last day at the rock pools at Watego Beach (Ella MacPherson holidays and goes to surf and yoga camps here!). This is how the rich and famous live!

We spent our the last weekend of the school holidays in South West Rocks at the Trial Bay Big 4 Eco Lodge. Again, it was family oriented and the kids had a good stay. There were lots of wild kangaroos roaming around the campground; there was a fantastic games room, jumping pillow and pool. The area is remote, beautiful and less commercial than Byron and Queensland.