It's bye bye Byron, and hello Coffs Harbour where we met Marc and Amber.

When Steph and I first arrived we walked down to the harbour to check it out. If I were asked to sum it up in one sentence it would be: Brixham without the decent fish and chips. We were not too impressed and worried what we were going to do for the next two days.

When we got back to our hostel a very lively, outgoing israeli girl asked us if we wanted to join her and her friends by the pool for a bottle of wine. They had been in Coffs for weeks and some even months so we thought there must be something going on. The problem is that the place is not as centralised as other places we have visited. The town centre, beaches and other attractions seemed to be relatively fractured.

As we walked across the road to get some supplies a maniac in an ice-white Audi A4 decided to rev at us and beep his horn. As we turned to give him what-for we saw Marc and Amber grinning and waving at us. Here we were after a 4hr cramped coach journey and they were cruising around in their own air conditioned saloon. It turned out that they had booked a Toyota or something similar, but had to be upgraded because it had been double booked. Lucky swines!

That night we all decided to go for a meal for a catch-up. We showered, changed, dolled up and walked to where we were told the restaurants were. As the receptionist had said, there were several nice looking restaurants there. What he didn't inform us of however, was the fact that they all shut shop at around 8.00! They don't like staying out late over here. Pizza and drink on the beach it was then!

The pizza was good - only place in the world you can get a nacho pizza according to the guy behind the counter. We don't tend to believe that.
I was approached by a kiwi who has apparently never seen a human my size before. He tried to convince us he was Scottish despite his New Zealand accent - he was very drunk. He repeatedly asked Marc "do you wanna surf? Or do you really wanna surf? Do you just wanna tick it off your list?". Marc tried explaining numerous times that he had been surfing for years and that he didn't need to tick it off his list. The guy was too drunk to have a two way conversation, but he was very friendly.

When we got to the beach we had some wine and even some beer! (thanks Marc!). We were chatting away for a couple hours when Marc started to jolt his leg around. Amber asked what was wrong - "something's sniffing my toes!", we all turned and saw a foot long possum scurrying away up the ramp.

The next day we went to Diggers Beach in the Audi. Pure luxury in comparison to our previous modes of transport. We body surfed and sun bathed. It was the first day of sun in a few days so we made the most of it.

Later we walked to a place called the Surf Club as we were told it had good food and live bands. It closed at 7.30!!!! So we walked back and saw bats the size of seagulls and nearly got caught by a web across a path created by a nasty looking spider. We watched our step all the way to a restaurant called Hogs Breath. Below average.

The next day we jumped from the jetty in the morning and left for Port Macquarie in the afternoon. Farewell Marc and Amber!

Port Macquarie's main attraction was the koala hospital. Which we went to for a tour and to watch feeding time. They are lazy little blighters! 20 hours sleep a day - that's 40mins more than Steph!.....and 40 less than me.

We sat beside the port and ate in the evening. We were instantly surrounded by dozens of seagulls. Nothing unusual about that, but when I threw a scrap to the gulls along came two pelicans with similar dimensions to Harry and stood a foot away from us. Steph jumped up and hid behind me. One of them followed her. The locals loved it and we became a temporary tourist attraction.

A week dominated by wildlife.

Next stop: Sydney.