Port Macquarie & Coffs Harbour 2/1/12 - 5/1/12

So Jenna got to write about the amazing city of Sydney and the exciting NYE we had, and I'm left with writing up the next few days which basically involved little else other than lying on a beach!!

We're traveling the East coast of Australia, starting off in Sydney and heading north up to Cairns. We have 4 weeks to do it in as we have a flight out of Cairns to Singapore on the 31st January. The distance along the coast which we will be traveling is 1491 miles, which if you looked on a map of Australia, would give you an idea of just how big this country is. We're using the Greyhound bus which is very similar to the Intercity buses we used in New Zealand.

Our first stop after leaving Sydney was Port Macquarie. The town was situated right on the beach and seemed to be quite a popular holiday destination for Australians - not too many backpackers to be seen. We just spent the day and a half which we were there sunbathing on the beach. Along the sea front there was a small jetty which on the 1st day kids were busy jumping into the sea from. On the 2nd day we sat nearby again but this time spotted a shark swimming around, no more than 30m from where the kids were swimming the previous day! For some reason I seem to have gained a fear of the water over the past couple of years, I'm not quite sure why. As Jenna will confirm, I'm happiest when I'm in situations that I feel I know exactly what's going on.... and as this shark proved, you never know what's going on near you in the sea - particularly in Australia! Safe to say I chose not to go for a paddle.

 My experience with Australian wildlife went from bad to worse when I awoke from a little doze and found this monstrosity of a bird pecking his way towards us. Admittadly I flapped a little! We later met some girls further along the coast in a different town who were sat a few yards behind us and had seen my 'flustered' reaction!

 We then traveled a couple of hours further up the coast to Coffs Harbour. We spent 2 nights there and thought it was a good place, but very similar to Port Macquarie and to be fair we could have done either/or. We spent plenty of time on the beach again - Jenna thought she'd try to fit in with the locals and.... ride a camel on the beach! Her camel was called Ozzie which i think helped them bond well. When it came to Jenna actually getting onto the camel, I had the camera at the ready in anticipation of the inevitable. Amazing though she didn't fall off, so I put the camera away with a mixture of relief and disappointment!

 After cooking a BBQ in the evening, we went for a drink with the 2 girls who had seen my earlier pelican episode. We ended up chatting  to a bunch of sailors who had just finished a 40 hour yacht race from Sydney. They were a real good laugh and absolutely plastered, a couple of them were good enough to take us to see their boat to show us around and get us drinking a few rum and cokes which apparently has to be done when you're a sailor!