Blogs from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 8

With no further work available for us at Graincorp, we packed up and left Moree on Friday 13th November. Heading for the coast, we decided to call into Stanthorpe in Queensland and see what might turn up there with the stone fruit picking and apple thinning. As we approached “the town of Boggabilla on the McIntyre River” we were searching through our CD collection for the John Williamson song “Wobbly Boot Hotel”. We stopped to take the obligatory photo of said establishment. It was hot and dry as we stopped at Goondiwindi and had a quick walk up town to get bread for lunch. The next task was to find a shady spot for lunch. We found the Botanic Gardens, which were more like a picnic park, but the lake in the centre and the big ... read more

It is 31C degrees here at Woolgoolga and it’s windy. Every afternoon a wind comes up which shakes the motor home and blows over tents. We’ve given up having the awning and our table and chairs out and instead are cooling off in the air conditioning - chilling out. Yesterday morning we walked along Woolgoolga’s beautiful beach to the lake. Because of the recent high seas, and 'Woopi' (as it's called by locals and we who've spent our lives coming here!) losing a lot of the beach, the wreck of the ‘Buster’ is now exposed. Buster went aground along the beach around 1890. It is usually buried and once or twice we’ve seen a rib or two poking up from the sand. Now the shape is more evident. Doug was interested to see that the planks ... read more

G'day! How's sunny England?! Melbourne was a bit of a shock to the system. There I was thinking 'it's Australia, it can't get that cold', going out in just a t-shirt and hoody and later returning to the hostel to grab my jacket, hat and gloves! Apparently they had just been hit by a particularly cold spell plus the on and off rain made matters worse. Melbourne is a great city though, despite lacking the major sites that Sydney may hold it has a very livable feel to it and is extremely multicultural. We found you can eat any food you like (too many Thai restaurants though!), though as with Sydney an 'Australian' restaurant we could not find! What do they have I suppose, only having European settlement over the last 200 years? Will have to ... read more

Well here we are - in Coffs Harbour - two months after leaving Sydney Harbour. Not exactly a screamingly fast pace north - but the weather gods seemed to think we needed a slow start to the trip - so sent rain, wind and big swells to keep us in the marinas rather than out at sea. We actually had a great time at each stop (Pittwater, Newcastle and Port Stephens) - and decided that as we wanted to come back to Sydney for a week for a couple of very special occasions, we would put the boat into Coffs Harbour marina for a month. Its less expensive than alot of the marinas, lovely place to stay - and only a train ride back to Sydney. (Well - an eight and a half hour train ride ... read more

In Coffs Harbour haben wir uns trotz des nicht ganz so tollen Wetters einige Ausflüge gemacht. Unter anderem haben wir Big Banana besucht. Die Bananenplantage konnte allerdings nicht ganz unsere Erwartungen erfüllen. Für 10 Dollar Eintritt pro Person, gabs lediglich zwei Kurzfilme (eines davon war ein Hologramm) über die Geschichte der Bananenplantage in Coffs Harbour zu sehen und anschließend einen zwei-minütigen Boardwalk durch die Plantage. Ergo: Big Banana ist keinen Besuch wert (Griff ins Klo). Viel besser hingegen war Sea World. Dort wurde uns für ca. 20 Dollar verhältnismäßig viel geboten. Wir haben mit den Delfinen Ball gespielt, haben Pinguine gefüttert und wurden von Seerobben sowie Delfinen geküsst. Auch gab es einige andere Tiere dort zu sehen (siehe Fotos). Nächste Station unserer Reise ist Grafton. ... read more