Blogs from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

Away we head on Tuesday 28.1.2020 heading straight from Melbourne to Canberra to catch up with our lovely Aunties....bit hesitant heading north with all the bush fires around....but after checking everything we should be OK. Arrived in Canberra mid afternoon and booked into the Mercure Hotel Belconnen which only just opened a few days before our arrival and what a lovely hotel it is. Very large rooms, stylishly decorated and lovely views over Lake Ginninderra. The added bonus is that there is a connecting door from the hotel into the Labour Club where we could stop off for dinner and drinks in between catching up with the Aunties and sightseeing. Canberra has had a bit of a rough summer surrounded by fires, smoke, dusty and truly parched. Our Aunties cooked us a lovely dinner the first ... read more

This morning we set off from Armidale to drive along the Waterfall Way to the coast. We hadn’t even reached the outskirts of Armidale when the Golf’s tyre pressure warning system alerted us to a change in tyre pressure in the passenger side rear wheel. To be on the safe side we headed back into town to check the tyres. Hmmn, sure enough, the tyre did need some air. With the tyre situation addressed, our first stop was at the Baker’s Creek Falls. There was a little bit of water in Baker’s Creek, but not enough to flow over the falls. Ah well, a short stop was all that was needed because there was no need for Bernie to set up the tripod to take arty photos of the waterfall. A little bit further along Waterfall ... read more

We have been able to get away from Sydney on a side trip to Coffs Harbour and then, more recently to Melbourne, Seymour and Albury. Here are a few pics from our trips.... read more

We had mixed weather over the last few days of our stay, one moment blue sky and incredibly hot, and then an amazing thunderstorm and lightening shows and still hot, then sunny skies again. But it really is great weather for me as I love the heat and the smell of the rain on the baked earth. On Wednesday as we thought the weather was not going to be too good we decided on a trip to the Dorrigo Rainforest centre and went out on the walk above the trees, well some of us did. I managed to go out and have a quick look around and turned back to the safety of the centre. The boys all went out and it really was an amazing view and really up above all the trees, quite amazing ... read more

Tuesday 22 December continued Pat decided to have some retail therapy and went off to the shopping centre on her own at 4.30 pm. I had some quiet time. It rained. Pat came back with a few purchases about 6.15 pm. We had booked a table for 7.30 pm at Macauleys just up the road. It was still raining. Pat had atlantic salmon and lemon tart citron, I had chicken satay stir fry (hot) and a deep fried ice cream covered in macadamia nut. Lovely and we were both stuffed. Back to the room in the rain. Wednesday 23 December Still raining. We woke and slowly stirred about 8.30 am. We had thought to go out for a drive today, but because of the rain we changed plans. Instead we would stay local and visit shopping ... read more