Blogs from Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

This morning we started heading down the NSW coast in earnest. Yesterday we did a down and back from Coffs Harbour to South West Rocks and back to Coffs so today we travelled straight down the Pacific Highway to Port Macquarie and had a closer (but not too close) look at the fire that is burning in Limeburner NP. Whilst searching for info about the fire(s) I discovered that there are 50 fires burning along the NSW coast! Hopefully most of those have been small outbreaks that have been quickly brought under control. There was a huge plume of smoke blowing out to sea from the fire north of Port Macquarie. Our first comfort break was at the Visitor Information Centre in Port Macquarie. Very posh! The info centre is co-located with the Glasshouse Theatre so ... read more

Thanks to some of my fans, I got feedback on my last blog and decided that due to privacy policies and the internet nowadays I will now be referring to my 2y.o. as my 'little beast' and my 6 y.o as my 'bigger beast'. Although a little reverse because let me tell you two is TERRIBLE. But, if anybody else has constructive criticism I'd love to hear it! (Thanks dad for correcting my spelling error in my 1st sentence of my 1st ever blog! - I haven't changed it because I think it creates little personality and character ;) ) It has been pretty hectic in my household lately. Last week, little beast got sick and of course it spread through the whole house. Bigger beast was home three days from school, which means I get ... read more

Less than a month to go until South Africa - we've had a bit of a wobbly last week and we're a little concerned about the trip at the moment. The spouse decided to hang himself by his wedding ring at the warehouse last weekend and (in the Doctor's words) "partially amputated and completely de-gloved" his ring finger.. This happened last Saturday and Sunday he had surgery to basically put his finger back together.. He has a metal rod inserted in the bone to keep it straight whilst it heals and that needs to be removed after 6 weeks. That means that it will still be here for the trip which is concerning. It means he can't surf which is a big bummer for him - but not necessarily a deal breaker, but the risk of ... read more

After more than five years I finally got to travel to Australia again! My friends Scott and Virpi from Newcastle had spent the weeks around Christmas with Virpi’s family in Finland and travelled back to Australia via Berlin on 30 December. This meant we could fly to Australia together! I had not seen them since their wedding in June 2013, way too long, and I had not met their little girl Lily yet, who is 18 months old. We met at the departure gate in Berlin and it was so good to see them, and it was nice to meet little Lily. Our journey took us to Sydney via Abu Dhabi. We had tried to get seats next to each other, which proved to be impossible Our first flight was an AirBerlin flight, where you can ... read more

Hi travel followers. Nearly two weeks have again disappeared and we reluctantly moved on from Mark and Mel's (plus Tahlee and Kiara) place to Mardi/Wyong and ended up staying two weeks at our great friends "John and Lynn's. It was fantastic to catch up on old times and join Neil and Ros for Ros's 60th birthday. Sorry Ros, I just had to say it. We also caught up with just about all of our Central Coast Happy Camper friends at Chris and Deb's place at Pearl Beach for Australia Day celebrations. See photo. What a great time it was. We will have to see if we can be in the area at the same time next year. We also thought we would take the opportunity to get some medical and dental check-up's done just to make ... read more