Nearing the End of New South Wales

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Day 75 - Cessnock

We had a leisurely start to the day as most wineries don't open until 10 in the Hunter Valley and a friendly chap in the campsite said he would give us a lift out to our first winery (saving us the taxi fare). We went to about 11 wineries throughout the day (of the 140 in the region) and walked between them all. The women in the wineries could not believe that we were walking for the whole day and I do not think that we saw anyone else walking around...apparently it is fine to taste wine all day and drive between them! They wonder why Cessnock has a high accident rate.
The atmosphere was laid back like in Marlborough, New Zealand and in most places you could probably try about 15 wines if you wanted! One of the "wineries" was a champagne house and Sarah declared it here favorite place in the world; to be fair it was pretty cool. We had fabulous weather for the day, the scenery was stunning and most of the wineries were really nice, huge estates with really pretty gardens. Overall it was a really nice day and once all our tasting was complete we took a taxi back to the campsite and had a relaxing evening at the campsite.

Day 76 - Cessnock - Port Macquarie

I felt pretty rough this morning (all self-inflicted!) so struggled to get up as early as usual. This worked out well though as most of the wineries did not open until 10.00am so we could not revisit them until this time. It was a very tough decision but we decided on 3 bottles of wine (one from Savannah Estate and two from Petersons Champagne House - the best place on earth!). Once we had picked up the wine we set off on the long drive to Port Macquarie.
We wanted to get to the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie in time for the 3.00pm tour. We just made it with 10 minutes to spare and it was well worth it. We had a 45 minute tour around with one of the volunteers who runs the hospital and it was also feeding time so we got to see the koalas being fed too. Although we were not allowed to see those that were in intensive care we got to see the koalas that were recovering in the outside area and they are so cute! It is horrible to think how many get killed by cars every day.
After the hospital we looked for a place to park up for the night before having a wander along the sea front and around the town. It was a nice seaside town with a palm tree lined promenade area and the beaches had the usual good surf. We found a nice spot to watch the sun go down while having our dinner before heading back to the campsite for the night.

Day 77 - Port Macquarie - Byron Bay

We were out of Port Macquarie by 8.00am to make the very long (400km) drive to Byron Bay. We stopped off in Coffs Harbour on the way through to Byron but we did not stay long as it was not very inspiring. We arrived in Byron at about 2.30pm so we had a good amount of time to explore the town. I decided that I needed to get running now that we had a bit more spare time so found some cheap running shorts and we did a bit of shopping around for Fraser Island and Whitsunday tour prices. Byron is a really nice little seaside town with a bit more going on than in the previous towns we have been through. It was nice to see some action again. As you can expect all the shops are geared up for tourists and surfers so it was nice just wandering around the nice gift and clothes shops (although Rob was not so pleased as there are no music and game shops!).
In the evening we had arranged to meet up with some friends (Ann and Adam) we had met in New Zealand who were also in Byron. We had a really nice night out with them at the beach front bar and also met a few other couples who were staying at their hostel. Is good to get tips from people who are going in the opposite direction from you!

Day 78 - Byron Bay

We awoke and decided to go for a run "out" to the lighthouse which actually turned out to be "up" to the lighthouse. It was a bit of a shock to system after no running for 3 months! After we had run up the hill to the most easterly point of Australia and enjoyed the views (without any cameras) we ran back home again. There were a few showers throughout the day - so not perfect Byron Bay weather - but we had a poke round the shops (I swapped a book!) and got a few trips booked for the next couple of weeks further up the coast. We also had the mini-drama of Nationwide blocking both our cards; so had to ring and sort that out too.

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Photos

Hunter Valley
The vineyards.

Hunter Valley
Another pretty estate.

Port Macquarie
Feeding time at the Koala Hospital.

Port Macquarie
The sunset from atop Port Macquarie.

Hunter Valley
Sarah in front of one of the estates.

Port Macquarie
More classic signage.