Today is Ray's Birthday. Happy Birthday!!! We started the day with cards and presents. After our mini celebration we left Greenwell Point and started our drive back to Umina Beach. Our main goal today is to make it to Newtown by lunch time. Newtown is a quirky suburb of Sydney. We want to get to a costume shop to buy the remaining items we need for our fancy dress party on Saturday. The problem is that in Australia all the shops seem to close between 3 and 5pm so we needed to hustle a little bit.

We did make a few stops along the way. The first one was Seven Mile Beach which was another beautiful and empty beach. We stopped for a few minutes to have a look. I would have loved to have stayed and relaxed for an hour but we were on a schedule.

Our next stop was the lighthouse and blowhole in Kiama. Kiama was a super cool town with ocean views and cliffs and interesting architecture. We drove out to the point and enjoyed the view and watched the waves roll in. The blowhole was pretty cool too.

There was a little café in Kiama Park that served teaso we sat for a few minutes so Ray and Lesley could enjoy a cuppa. In Australia tea rules the world. Everything revolves around tea. Even the cricket matches have tea breaks. I have to say that I am glad that I do not share this addiction for tea. It always seems to be tea time and it is rather expensive. It costs $3-$5 each and we stop two or three times per day, not including morning and evening tea which is usually made at home. Some of my Ozzie friends even get a little cranky when we get too far past tea time. I somewhat understand due to my coffee addiction but if I just get a couple of cups of coffee first thing in the morning I am good for the rest of the day. I don’t mind stopping and sitting for a few minutes. I usually just have a glass of water and enjoy the company. I have not seen an automatic drip coffee maker anywhere in this country and what they pass off as coffee is so awful I can’t even drink it so once I have my morning cuppa, I make myself with the beautiful coffee maker Lesley bought for me for $1, I am done for the day.

After Kiama and tea, we drove North along a beautiful coastal road. Parts of the road are even built out over the ocean to prevent rock slides from wiping it out. It reminded me a lot of the road near Grand Junction. This one is just over the ocean instead of the canyon and the river.

We made it to Newtown just before 2pm and immediately found a perfect sidewalk café to have lunch. Sometimes it is hard to find a good restaurant for us to eat at. We all eat seafood but other than that Ray and Lesley are Vegan and none of us eat fried food. I am mostly a vegetarian and only eat whole foods so these little towns can be tricky. We have had pretty good luck this road trip with the exception of lunch in Berrima.

We made it to the costume shop and they had everything we needed for all three of us. We are now ready for our party on Saturday night. We were a little disappointed to find that a lot of the funky shops close at 3:30pm in Newtown. So we walked around a little and then drove back to Lesley’s.

Ray and Lesley went out to dinner for Ray’s birthday and I opted to stay in. I was still full from lunch and I am sure they were ready for a little alone time.

Thank You Ray, Lesley, Karlene and Michael for an awesome trip. I had a great time seeing all the kangaroos and exploring another part of Australia.