South to Coffs Harbour (24^th & 25^th November 2014)

We said our farewells after breakfast to both Carole, Jim and Minty the cat and headed south along the Pacific Highway to Coffs Harbour, over 350km away.

We were to stay for two nights at the Wyndham timeshare accommodation just outside Coffs Harbour that Helen and Fred had kindly offered. We had to be there for 4pm.

Wyndham Resort

We left at 8am and some way into the journey thought we were getting a bit tight to arrive on time. Now Brisbane is located in Queensland, while Coffs Harbour is in New South Wales (NSW) and there is a one hour time difference, with NSW being one hour ahead. We had mentally factored this extra hour into our estimate for arrival so were looking for an arrival time from the navigation device of 3pm to give us an hour to spare.  When the margin had been whittled away to 30 minutes we were getting a little anxious so added a little extra speed. However, within a short distance of Coffs Harbour we realised that the navigation device was smart enough to recognise the state line and had already adjusted the arrival time, so we ended up arriving at 2:30pm! This was a surprise and a bit annoying since along the journey we had peeled off to see Byron Bay and Ballina, but the going was slow through the local beach traffic and due to the “pressure” on time had unnecessarily aborted the trip to Ballina.

Sheila was very excited to spy a kangaroo in amongst the trees as Mike was driving, the first sighting of our trip. Mike’s still waiting for his first sighting. The landscape down to Coffs Harbour was very fertile with many farms growing sugar cane and rearing cattle. As we approached Coffs Harbour we noticed the odd fields of vines and quite a few banana plantations.

In the evening we drove into Coffs Harbour to find a restaurant. The wind was blowing up a storm, and it was at least a force 5-6 but not a single windsurfer in sight. We ate at the Yacht Club to get a view of the turbulent sea but all the windows were sandblasted and too misty to see through.

Coffs Harbour Beach - blowing a gale

The following morning we played the nine hole golf course on the resort and both Mike and Sheila spotted a frog in one of the golf ball cleaning units. 

Sheila dodging the rotating water spray as she hits the ball

After golf we went for a swim and then had fruit for lunch. A storm then started to brew across the mountains, eventually bringing heavy rain, thunder and lightning to the resort, the first rain we have seen in Australia. We spent the afternoon sorting out an inland route down to Melbourne and checking to see whether "The Bylong Valley Way" had sealed surfaces, even though we have a 4WD car we didn’t fancy taking chances.

We popped down to the resort bar/restaurant for tea and cake but they had no cake so bought a Kit Kat bar to have with the tea. 

Mike spotted a water dragon statue on a stone in the pond in front of the restaurant, only to see it move and realised that it was real, then turned around and found one behind him on the patio of about 9-12 inches long!

Water Dragon on patio

We drove down to Coffs Harbour, after the storm had abated and walking up and over Muttonbird Island and spotted a number of birds that we had not seen before, they looked rather like grey heron and blue chaffinchs. 

Sheila on Muttonbird Island with storm clouds in the distance

Dinner was taken in the Deep Sea Fisherman’s Club were we had a great meal of grilled sword fish..

Sheila had been given some insight into “one-armed-bandit” strategies by Jim Cooper over the weekend, so tried her luck in the club with a $5 bill, winning back her $5 within two attempts and so decided to take her money and run. Now she needs lesson two!