This morning started a lot like yesterday morning. I grabbed my laptop and went to the deck with a cup of coffee to blog and watch the sunrise and enjoy the birds. We packed up and cleaned up and hit the road. Our drive today was only 159K so we had lots of time to meander around.

Our first stop was "The Big Banana." I can only compare this tackiness to “South of the Border.” We looked in the gift shop and took a picture of the big banana and passed on the rest of the stuff to do there. Australia has a bunch of Big Stuff and the Big Banana was the Big Thing that started it all. Now we know who to blame.

We then drove through Bruxner Park to Sealy Lookout. This was a fun road that drove up the side of a mountain that was home to several banana plantations and kiwi farms. The view from Sealy Point, at the top, was beautiful. We looked down over all of Coffs Harbor and the Pacific Ocean. We talked to a nice lady there who recommended we have lunch at Café Kookaburra

By this time it was time for lunch so we decided to drive to Nana Glen to the Café Kookaburra. We ate in the garden which was full of flowers and metal statues of frogs, butterflies, dragon flies and more. Lesley loved this place. They served water in purple jars, had purple doors in the bathroom and the water from the taps was purple. Her favorite color is purple and there is a lot of it in her life. They had an old fashioned train car in the garden as well. We could have dined in the tram but it was so nice out we opted for outside. Café Kookaburra turned out to be a great recommendation.

We stopped in the big city of Grafton (population 18,000) to pick up a new Nikon. We had called prior and they were holding one at the counter for us at Harvey Norman. We were driving through the main village and Lesley and I spotted a couple of cute dress shops so pulled straight in to have a look. Eric walked down to Harvey Norman's to buy the camera and Lesley and I tried on dresses for an hour. I am so happy to have a camera again. Thank you Lesley for letting me commandeer yours for a few days. You may have it back now.

We decided to take the scenic road from Grafton up to Woombah. This was a farm road that ran beside the Clarence River. In a town called Lower Southgate, Which is North of Southgate, we Saw “The Big Yellow Dog.” This was a big plastic yellow dog statue outside of a pub. This was a total accident. We are not intending to drive around Australia and see Big Stuff. We got to a town called Lawrence and had to take a cable ferry across the river to get into Yamba. The ferry ride lasted about 4 minutes and we were on our way into town.

We decided it was time for happy hour so we broke out our beloved Lonely Planet and found a place with a view to have a beer. We made our way to The Pacific Hotel and grabbed a drink at the bar and found a table in front of the big glass wall overlooking the ocean. We were enjoying watching the surfers when out of nowhere a guy with a parasail dropped out of the sky. He was riding the air current right in from of the hotel. Apparently they take running leap off the cliff in City Park, which is right next door to the hotel.

Lesley’s friend Narelle called us while we were at The Pacific Hotel and said she was home and ready for us to come over. We were only 10 minutes from Narelle and Matt’s house so we arrived there quickly. They welcomed us with open arms into their beautiful home. We had a nice evening hanging out and sharing stories. They made us a delicious dinner of prawns and salad. It was such a treat for me to have someone else cook dinner. I have been doing a lot of cooking since we arrived in Australia. A good time was had by all.