Australia – Pacific Coast Road Trip from Brisbane to Sydney

Wednesday, April 25 – Friday, April 27

Road Trip!

Back on the paved road, we continued our road trip. We discovered that Dreamworld was only a seven minute detour, so we stopped off at this amusement park in an effort to find some Wiggles toys for our nephew Braden, who is a huge fan of the Australian music group. The park was closed for Anzac Day, but we were able to find a Wiggles shirt in the gift shop.

Now we know how the Griswold's felt when they finally got to Wally World!

Next, we drove to Surfer’s Paradise, which is just that. We aren’t surfers, but we had a nice time walking on the beach watching others have a go at it. Then we walked along the main street and grabbed some lunch.

Surfers' Paradise: Strolling the shore of this famous beach town.

We hit the road again, stopping next at Byron Bay. We arrived just around sunset, and drove around town. Once it got dark, we headed up to the lighthouse to get a good view of the town at nighttime. The lighthouse was beautiful, as was the walk along the path beneath the lighthouse, where we could see the cliffs and the waves splashing against them. We were both amazed at how many stars lit up the sky!

Byron Bay: Enjoying the lighthouse at the lookout over this cute town.

We left Byron Bay, then headed for our final stop for the day, Yamba. By the time we arrived in this small town, it was pretty much shut down. In fact, we had to hunt down our hotel keeper to check us in to our room! We found the one place that was still open at 9 pm, Pippi’s Café, and since they were no longer serving dinner, we had dessert for dinner instead! Back at the hotel, we watched some tv, then went to bed early.

On Thursday, we woke at 7:30 am, went to the hotel’s huge pool for an hour, then drove into Yamba. We sat on a bench taking in the beautiful views of the ocean overlooking Clarence Beach with surfers, a saltwater pool, and a lighthouse. We grabbed breakfast at the same place from the night before, then started our drive south.

 

Yamba: Ryan taking an early-morning dive, and Kristen taking in the panoramic view of the ocean.

Our destination tonight would be a town called Port Macquarie. Our first stop was right outside of Coff’s Harbor, at the Big Banana! It was literally a Big Banana. Basically, at a banana plant farm on the side of the highway, the farmers have created a fun pit stop for tourists. After posing with the giant banana, we had lunch at the Banana Café, which included a banana split, banana bread, a chocolate covered frozen banana, and a bunch of bananas for later! (We were a bit concerned that we might have a potassium overdose!) We wandered around looking at the banana plants, and decided to follow the signs for the toboggan ride. And so, for the first time for both of us, we rode on a toboggan. And not just any toboggan, but a toboggan in the middle of a banana plant farm in the middle of some random town in Australia! Needless to say, we had bunches of fun!

Who wouldn't stop at this road-side attraction featuring a giant banana-themed amusement park?!

Following our five-course banana-themed lunch/desserts, Ryan experienced his first ever toboggan ride!

Our next stop was Coff’s Harbor, where we drove up high to enjoy the lookouts of the ocean.

 

Coff's Harbor: Ryan needed to stretch his legs/arms during our road trip.

Then we drove to Nambucca Heads where we went on a short estuary walk, did a scenic drive (Wellington Drive), and ended up walking along an ocean boardwalk lined with painted rocks.

    

Nambucca Heads: Kristen strolls down an estuary, while Ryan regrets not bringing paint to the pier.

We continued our drive south staying on the scenic routes. The drive was beautiful with lots of trees and tree cover, and signs everywhere telling drivers to be cautious of kangaroo crossings, and where to stop to see koalas in trees.

 

Sadly, these signs came too late...you wouldn't believe the fine for hitting a kangaroo!  (Just kidding.)

We stopped at a place called Scott’s Head – where we took in more views of the ocean. Then we stopped at Grassy Head and Stuart’s Point, part of a national park. Here we had to drive off road for a few minutes (but it was nothing like our off-roading adventure in Brisbane.) We parked the car and walked the rest of the way to a very secluded beachfront. It was beautiful as the sun was slowly setting, with cliffs on either side of the beach, and dunes in the background. We continued our drive along the scenic route, then finally made our way back to the Pacific Coast Highway.

 

Scott's Head (left) and Grassy Point (right).  Fantastic views all around!

We got to Port Macquarie and checked in to our hotel. The owner, a German man, saw our last name, and assumed we “sprechen sie Deutsch.” He quickly discovered that we don’t, and we quickly discovered that he could pronounce our surname better than we could! We went to an Italian place for dinner – which was BYOB. So we grabbed some champagne, and enjoyed the entire restaurant to ourselves. We headed back to the hotel and went to bed early again.

Port Macquarie: Relishing the final days of our honeymoon.

After grabbing breakfast, we left Port Macquarie and hit the road again. Our destination tonight was Sydney. We followed the scenic drive to the twin towns of Tuncurry and Forster, which sit on the “Great Lakes.” Our goal today was to try a dessert called a pavlova, something recommended to us by an Aussie. However, throughout the day, after stopping at almost every bakery we saw, we never found it! After no luck finding a pavlova in Tuncurry, we stopped in Forster. No luck with the pavlova here either, but we enjoyed seeing the lakes. We went a bit south, and stopped in Green Point to get a better view. We drove off the beaten path to an area that was part of Booti Booti National Park. We saw the lake, tons of birds, and a bunch of fishermen.

Great Lakes: Down Under

We drove further south and took a detour to Bluesy Beach, which had the most beautiful and light blue water we had ever seen. It was very secluded and we had to walk down a long, wooden staircase to get there. There were rocky cliffs on either side, and we had a relaxing time taking in the beautiful scene.

   

Bluesy Beach: A secluded and beautiful beach.

Our next stop was Seal Rock – another beautiful part of the coast where we waded in the majestic light blue water. This beach was unique, and was filled with all sorts of rocks and rock formations, causing the waves to crash in many different directions.

 

Seal Rock: An amazing sight with water crashing in all directions.

We left Seal Rock, and continued on the scenic drive. We kept our eyes out for kangaroo crossings and koalas in trees, but we didn’t spot either. We did, however, spot two kookaburras along the way, although they weren’t sitting in old gum trees or laughing! We made our way back to the highway and stopped in a town called Newcastle. We explored the town, grabbed a late lunch, hit traffic for the first time during our road trip, then continued our drive. Right outside of Sydney, we stopped at the grocery store (Woolworth’s) in a last ditch effort to find pavlovas. The bakery didn’t have any, but we were able to find a ‘make-your-own’ pavlova kit, which we bought to bring back home! We made it to Sydney after sundown. We were glad to be in Sydney, but sad our road trip had ended. At least we remembered to “Keep Left,” and driving on the wrong side of the road wasn’t as difficult as we imagined.