Well were are finally off on our trip up the East Coast, and our first stop was Port Macquarie. We only decided to stop here becasue we were meeting Claire (who we lived with in Sydney and who is travelling up the coast with us) in Coff's Harbour on 5th April and thought it would break up the journey a bit from Newcastle. As it turns out though I am really glad that we went becauseI had a really good couple of days. We arrived at the bus station at 1.30 and got picked up by the hostel's minibus. It seems like they do that everywhere up the coast, which is great because it makes lugging our bags around much easier. Even after a 4 hour bus ride my shoulders were still aching from carryiny my bag from Penny's to the bus stop. I have kind of got out of the habit, but I'm sure that will change over the next couple of months.

The hostel in Port Macquarie was called the Ozzie Pozzie Backpackers and it was a really nice, chilled out place. It was small and only had about 10 rooms which were all spread out around an outside courtyard with tables and hammocks to relax in. Once we had dumped our things in our room we went out to do some exploring. The weather wasn't great so we just went around the shops and got our barings. I did manage to get us lost and walking in the completely wrong direction even though I had a map. Port Macquarie is quite a small quiet holiday place, and Justin said it reminded him of a big Centre Parks, but not in a bad way. It was a nice change after being in Sydney for so long, and we had some time to relax before we got to the livlier places like Byron Bay. We just went out for a meal that night and then headed back to the hostel for and early-ish night as we were both so tired after travelling.

The next morning the weather had improved loads, and it was a really hot, sunny day. We hired some bikes from the hostel which we thought would be a good idea as we could go a bit further afield. In hindsight it really wasn't. They were the oldest bikes ever and really hard to ride, and they only had breaks where you have to peddle backwards to work, and they didn't even slow you down a bit let alone stop the bike. I think I nearly died about 5 times that day. We went to the beach quite early and it was really good. It was a big place but also nice and quiet and the weather was getting even hotter and hotter. After spending a few hours there we biked up to the koala hospital and walked around there for a bit. It's where they take rescued koalas to treat them before they get put back in the wild. It was a bit hard to find though, and even harder to find our way back from as I lost the map. All the koalas were really cute though. We just chilled out at the hostel for the rest of the afternoon as we were worn out from the biking, and cooked some dinner. We have decided to try and cook our own food more rather than eat out all the time as it's loads cheaper. That night we sat outside in the hostel and just chatted with the people there, then a group of us went out for some drinks at the Irish pub around the corner. It turned out to be a really good night but the pub didn't stay open very late so we went to a club in town. It was a complete dive, especially compared to places in Sydney but we had loads of fun anyway. Everyone we met was a good laugh. We had to get up early the next morning to check out as we only stayed for two nights. We were really tired, and just a tad hungover, so we had a lazy morning. We went out for breakfast then just watched some TV. We got a lift back to the bus station at about 1ish to catch the Greyhound for the next stage of our journey. Claire was already on the bus when it arrived, as she had left Sydney that morning. The bus was packed though, and when we went to sit in the seats where the driver told us to go, they weren't actually there! They had been taken out for wheelchair access so I was worried we wouldn't have anywhere to sit, or would have to lie on the floor for 4 hours. It all worked out ok in the end though and off we went to Coff's Harbour!