Port Macquarie

So we left Yamba (MaClean) on a wet afternoon and headed south on the Greyhound. We arrived into our next destination at dusk (5.30pm) and walked through the town towards the river mouth to the next holiday park! Port Macquarie (pronounced Macourie) is the biggest place we’ve been to since Brisbane! It was the third city in Australia to be built, mostly by convicts and has many 19th century architecture.
It was dry and the beginning of Easter weekend so instead of camping we had a dorm room (for $3 more) all to ourselves! It got even better when they were providing a free seafood bbq for Easter! Happy Days!
We treated ourselves to a pre-birthday drink at the Beach House but was still sound asleep by 10pm!!!!!!

Saturday 11th April…..my birthday, hoooraaaah!
The sun was shining and it was a wonderful day! We both woke up early (camping sleep pattern) and I opened my 5 cards!!! Daz surprised me with some earings (I lost some he bought me last year on Fraser L) and then surprised me 10 minutes later with a Rip Curl hoody (in preparation for NZ!) What a good hubby he is!!! He said it was a good job I was sleeping off a big hang over in Byron Bay last week otherwise he would never been able to go shopping without me!!!!!!!

So money was no object today! We treated ourselves to yummy big cooked breakfast (brunch!) and then had a little stroll around town and the board walk by the Hastings River, which has big rocks all along the side. Each rock has been painted by different people from locals to travellers! Its very bright and happy! There were no free rocks so we couldn’t paint one but it looked really cool!

We walked to the Koala Hospital, the only one in the world that looks after only koala’s. It relies purely on donation funds and has is run mainly by volunteers. There were 6 patients there with illness from arthritis to Chlamydia and a curviture to the spine. We had a guided tour and learnt about the individual patients, it was really interesting. I could never get bored of this beautiful animal, they are adorable. I fell in love with one koala in particular (her name was Birthday Girl) and she had arthritis and was 22 years old! In the wild they usually live to 12-14, so she was a very old lady and was so cute! We enjoyed the visit and popped some coins in the donation box.

We strolled along the coast line back towards the holiday park and passed many little cove beaches. There was a lookout point at Windmill Hill and the views were lovely, not surprisingly a good place to have a wedding! (We watched the bride pull up in her car!)

It hazed over in the afternoon but at least it was warm and dry!!! We went on a sunset cruise along the Hastings River and took some drink and nibbles. It was a pleasant ride, we went passed loads of huge houses and on the way back at dusk there was a chance of spotting dolphins! Unfortunately we didn’t see any!!! Not to worry though, Yamba dolphin experience was a highlight!!!!

We spoke to all the family via the webcam which was lovely, nice to see everyones faces! Dad was looking hot in a recently purchased Sydney hoody! Haha!

The last deed of the day was a yummy Mexican dinner out! (Sangria on the menu!) We shared a big chicken fajita dish and enjoyed ourselves! We’ve not eaten out twice in one week since Asia!!!!!

So all in all, it was a great day!

Sunday and Monday weren’t that interesting! We woke up to rain on both days, so we were lucky that Saturday was a lovely day. We checked out the shopping centre and had a browse. Apart from that we chilled back at the holiday park and watched a few films in the tv room!
Our bus on the Monday wasn’t till the evening so we killed a few hours by going to the cinema and watched ‘The Boat that Rocked’. We assume its out in the UK as it’s a British comedy?…..we found it really funny!!!

‘Port’ as its known to the locals was a nice little place to stop on the way down to Sydney, if the weather was a bit better im sure we would of utilised the beaches but not to worry, im sure you’re all a bit fed up of hearing about our lovely relaxing days at the beach! Haha!

We got a lift to the bus station (thank goodness as the rain just didn’t stop!) and our next stop on the bus was Newcastle! We arrived in late and checked into the YHA. Our next destination was Port Stevens (a little gem of a place not on the Greyhound route!) So after a night in Newcastle we rented a car and headed up there on the Tuesday.
And what a good idea that was………..till next time
xxxx