06/06/09 Saturday Day 295 After checking out of the hostel at 10am, we stayed there for about 2 hours watching TV because our bus wasn’t until 12.30pm. About 15 minutes after getting the bus, we stopped for lunch as it was the same bus tour we got yesterday, Auckland to Rotorua via Waitomo Caves. The food stop was called The Big Apple café. And yes, there’s a huge big red apple at the front of it. After an hour there we headed off again. The next place we stopped was just for a toilet break. But nearly every sign in this [View Full Entry]

---

---

05/06/09 Friday Day 294 Cool and cold day today. Got the bus from Sky City at 8.15am. Our bus journey was part of the Great Sights bus tour to Rotorua via Waitomo Caves which was where we were getting off and it included a running commentary by the driver along the way. We got to Waitomo Caves village around 11am and booked one of the cave tours at the information centre right where the bus dropped us. When we asked for directions to our hostel she told us it was 2 kilometres away and with no taxi service we had a [View Full Entry]

---

---

02/06/09 Tuesday Day 291 We nearly didn’t get here. At the check in desk the guy behind the counter said to us he needed to check that our visas were ok for us to come back into the country. Their own system was down so he rang this one in immigration to check. This one told him our visas expired in May even though they’re 12 month visas and we only entered the country last October. What a tool. So he had to go off again, this time to his supervisor to check. So he rang someone else in immigration and [View Full Entry]

---

---

30/05/09 Saturday Day 288 We found out this morning that the old couple in the rented campervan van, your one has to get surgery done on her shoulder after the accident last night in Katoomba caravan park so it turned out to be serious enough. Busy day today. Firstly we had to collect some of our clothes we left with Viv in Sydney to mind. Thanks for that Viv. Unfortunately for this kind act, you’ll now be minding our summer clothes until we come back from New Zealand! After picking up the clothes and giving Viv a quick tour of the [View Full Entry]

---

---

29/05/09 Friday Day 287 Since today was practically our last day in the van, we decided to stay close enough to Sydney, so as not to have a huge drive on our last day. We decided to go to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. Oh my god is it cold up there. It was 9 degrees. There’s 1 caravan park in the town which is about 20 minutes walk, including some rather steep hills. After some lunch and a walk around the town, including buying woolly hats cause the ears were frozen off us, we headed back to the park to [View Full Entry]

---

---

28/05/09 Thursday Day 286 Once again we continued south, ever getting closer to Sydney. We left Port Macquarie in lovely sunshine only to reach Newcastle in clouds and rain. We have no luck. We didn’t get out in Newcastle. We had lunch in the van near Nobbie Beach. It’s a very industrial town and relies on it’s port activities by the looks of it. The city centre has really just a pedestrian street. So we continued to Cessnock in the heart of the hunter valley region. Cessnock is again small enough town, easy to get around. It’s got the usual big [View Full Entry]

---

---

27/05/09 Wednesday Day 285 Today was another huge drive from Armidale in New England all the way to Port Macquarie on the east coast. But my god, the windy roads getting to the coast was unbelievable. You see Armidale is in the tablelands so we had to climb up windy roads getting there so going back we went back down them and then started going up the other side. I was a sign post that said windy roads, next 45km. It seemed to takes ages to get on to flat roads but eventually we did and eventually we got to Port [View Full Entry]

---

---

26/05/09 Tuesday Day 284 A day of diversions Our original plan was to drive from Coffs Harbour to Port Macquarie, some 200 kilometres or there abouts. On the way down we decided to take a slight detour to a place called Taylors Arm, 30 kilometres off the main highway at Macksville through some fairly rough roads. This place has a population of 50 but it does have a famous pub called “The pub with no beer”. It’s a fine sized pub alright and it has it’s own brewing company out the back somewhere. We didn’t bother sampling any of their beers [View Full Entry]

---

---

25/05/09 Monday Day 283 After seeing Cape Byron lighthouse we started heading south once more shortening the journey to Sydney. We passed through a place called Ballina where it had a huge prawn on top of one of it’s buildings. We had to be diverted here because the main highway was still flooded. Most of the towns on the way to Coffs Harbours look battered from the storm that passed over us when we were in Brisbane. There’s still debris of leaves and bits of tress everywhere and there’s also loads of trees knocked over. Coffs Harbour is a nice place, [View Full Entry]

---

---

24/05/09 Sunday Day 282 After leaving Brisbane we headed south towards the Gold Coast and see what the fuss is all about. Approaching surfers paradise you can notice loads and loads of high-rise apartment blocks. Again we still have bad weather and the swells and waves in the sea. It’s not a bad place to stay actually. There’s loads of restaurants and shops and bars. It would look like a really nice place had the weather not been so cloudy and rainy! After a quick stop for some ice cream we continued out way south passing all the Gold Coast beaches. [View Full Entry]

---

---