Blogs from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 2

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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour December 22nd 2015

Monday 21 December A good nights sleep. Objective today, pick up hire car and drive to Coffs Harbour, approx distance 400 kilometres. We awoke and stirred at 7.30 am. Check out was 10.00 am and our car pick up was 10.00 am. So we showered and packed, left the room at 9.30 am. The rental was a short walk and with the great pavements here, our wheeled luggage was easy to walk through the streets. The office at the rental place was manned by one person, who was answering a constantly ringing phone and dealing with several people. Our turn came and our booking was there, so it was simply a case of filling in the paperwork. Out the door and down the ramp to the cars. Our car is Toyota corolla saloon automatic. We stuck ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour November 25th 2015

We have stopped at Coffs Harbour a few times over the past 5 years as it is a handy half way between Brisbane and Newcastle where our some of our family live. But we had never heard of the Clog Barn, but Marg had spotted a special deal for powered sites on the TravelAuctions web site. The park is located on the main road through Coffs Harbour (Pacific Highway) and we wondered if it would be noisy. We arrived and the Park Manager showed us our site with a bush clad stream running immediately behind the site. David and Mary arrived a little after us and found that the site they were allocated was occupied. Never mind, they had the choice of three others and also enjoyed the quietness of the camp. An added bonus was ... read more
Botanical Gardens Coffs Harbour
Azure Kingfishers
Azure Kingfisher

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour September 13th 2015

An early start was required so that we could drive to the rally spectating location in the forest (not far from Coffs Harbour). In this instance, the parking was on a hill in a farmers paddock and then all of the spectators were shuttled by bus to the spectator point. We had to carry chairs, camera gear and lunch so it was a bit squeezy on the bus. The location we had selected was Flooded Gums which had a number of advantages; there were multiple viewing areas, spectator facilities were good (food, toilets etc), the final power stage was to be run on this course and it was quite close to our caravan park. There was a minor delay with our shuttle bus as a tourist / spectator somehow managed to drive on to the road ... read more
Rally Australia
Rally Australia
Rally Australia

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour September 12th 2015

Today was a "rest" day at home because we had agreed that we would spend the whole of tomorrow spectating at the rally. This would involve an early start and lots of walking to different viewing areas. We decided to have a leisurely start by going to the local shopping centre and having breakfast and then trying our hand at standup paddleboarding. Georgi (the lightweight) took to the paddleboard like a duck to water, but Lenny found balancing on the board a little more difficult. We had hoped to hire the paddleboard on a rising tide but somehow our booking got confused and, in some places, we had just enough water to float along. Still. it was good fun (but not as much fun as kayaking).... read more
Standup Paddleboarding at Moonee Beach
Standup Paddleboarding at Moonee Beach

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour September 11th 2015

The coincidence that we were in the Coffs Harbour area when the premier rally event on the Australian calendar was being held had to be taken advantage of. The start of the event (World Rally Championship - Australian round) was on Lenny's birthday so it seemed feasible that we would take in some of the action while we were in Coffs. And so, we went to the service park (where the cars are maintained and / or repaired during the event). Rally cars need to have tyres replaced twice a day or more so there is always something happening when the cars come in for service. Of course, rallying is a high speed game and things can go wrong. One of the international teams had already pulled out of the event after a head-on collision with ... read more
Rally Australia
Rally Australia
Rally Australia

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour February 23rd 2015

I've really enjoyed Coffs Harbour but unfortunately the weather hasn't been great. We had three days of rain so spent a lot of time in the hostel playing cards and watching movies but It was so much fun. After spending a lot of time in Sydney sight seeing by myself because I wasn't in a hostel it was nice to meet lots of people and spend time with them. Seen as I haven't done anything that exciting I'll just summarise my last 5 days here. Thursday 19th: spent the morning sleeping off my hangover and then went for a walk to the beach with my roommate Sonja. The hostel had a Mexican night so I definitely wasn't going to turn down Chilli and nachos for pasta again. Friday 20th: This morning was a bit of a ... read more
Not really that Big banana
Shaving competition in the quiz
Pop the ballon competition

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour February 12th 2015

G'day mates! We're now halfway through our holiday and halfway through our road trip from Sydney to Brisbane. The total journey is about 12 hours but ours is broken up into approx 2 hour slots each day. We left Sydney on Monday morning - cloudy and drizzly. Got to the Hunter Valley wine region by lunch and the sun was fully out again so we detoured off to Shoal Bay, Port Stephens and had a glorious arvo there, accompanied by a tree full of parrots. We stayed at the Hunter Valley Resort which has developed from a wine grower to the main tourist centre in the region. In the morning we had a short walk round the resort and saw our first wild kangaroos - hopping and everything. We had a tour of the winery after ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour November 22nd 2014

Cap’n’s Summary Vuda Point, Fiji to Noumea New Caledonia total run of 765 nautical miles in 5 days and 4 hours, at an average 146 nm daily run, and an average speed of 6.2 knots. Left Vuda Point at 2 pm on Wednesday 29th and arrived in Noumea Harbour at 16:20 on Monday 3rd November. Noumea to Coffs Harbour, Australia, 896 nautical miles sailed, at an average of 149.3 nm per day and an average speed of 6.2 knots. Left Noumea at 11:30 on Thursday 13 November and arrived Coffs Harbour 19th November at 11:00. I have said in the previous blog, I had been looking for crew for a couple of weeks and then finally I had a Swiss couple. Urs and Marianne have been travelling through Asia for the past 2 years and they ... read more
Doug showing Marianne what to do.
Urs writing his blog.
Our first dinner in Noumea

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour March 31st 2014

I spent my last day in Bondi sunbathing on "The Grassy Knole" at the north end of the beach. I much prefer sunning it on a nice piece of maintained grass than I do on sand although I like to be next to the beach. I had taken a little pack lunch with me which kept me full all day. Newy came up and sat with me from 3.30 until 6pm. We people watched and checked out all the beautiful people that Bondi has to offer, and there were loads! At 6ish I headed back to my hostel as I needed to pack up and get my laundry done. That night I was the only one in the dorm which was a nice end to my 7 day stint in there. Met Mikesh from the Netherlands, ... read more
Port Stephens
Stockton Beach Entrance
Port MacQaurie

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Coffs Harbour March 5th 2014

Kilometre after kilometre we increase the distance to Sydney. On the highway we hear some interesting facts about Australia and the things we see outside. At lunch time we stopped in Taree a small town by the river Manning. It is a big river with a green promenade. Big trees shadow a few benches. Next stop Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie. Brigitte an imigrated from Germany was our guide. She tried to speak german, but it was a mix with English. It is not allowed to touch koalas because after they are healthy again they will be brought back to wilderness. 5 minutes later photo stop at Gaol point. You have wonderful view about the sea and several beaches. 5 minutes later stop at Macquarie center. Half an hour free time for walking through Macquarie. They ... read more
Koala hospital




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