September was suppose to be our vacation/travel month, but COVID, so that all got postponed. We were meant to take a month off to go to the US and then on to Israel and Jordan for a pilgrimage with our old church. Instead, we took a week off and traveled Up the Coast from Sydney to explore more of New South Wales. I was blown away. The longer I am here in Australia and am able to explore it, the more I fall in love with it!! I told Brandon I wanted to eat, drink and hike on this vacation and that is exactly what we did. 🙂 I even tried to do some swimming at the Airbnbs that had pools, but it was a bit too chilly yet; maybe later in the year. I randomly woke up at 6:30am every morning of our vacation to get up and get exploring. So different to my love of sleep and sleeping in when not on holiday. I planned the whole trip and had lots of stops planned to see beaches, do hikes, and for food. I pinned everything I wanted to see and do on Here Maps and Bridget (the GPS) helped us find our way. There were a few times she was 100m off or so, but she got us to the general area and we were able to use signs to guide us exactly. A big thanks to everyone that helped me plan by giving suggestions. We saw and experienced so much more thanks to you!! The craziest thing we saw was a guy rescue a snake from the middle of the road. He stopped traffic and picked it up and threw it into the bushes out of danger. So hard core!!!

Night one was in Newcastle and we visited a restaurant for lunch, a Cheese shop, Frazer Beach, Caves Beach, the Fernleigh trail, and Red Head Beach on the way there. We had supper at a Mexican place on Darby St. Day two we explored a bit of the coast in Newcastle, then it was a day for Roadside Attractions; the big mosquito, the big Ugg boots, the big oyster and the big axe were all seen. We tried to find the big kookaburra, but the shop it was in front of changed hands, so not sure where it went. We had lunch at a pie shop where we tried a crocodile pie. Trial Bay Gaol was a prison back in the day that we checked out. The area had so many kangaroos chilling. It was so cool!! We saw Little Bay Beach and the Smoky Cape Lighthouse, then headed in to South West Rocks for the night. Day 3 we headed further north to Coffs Harbour, went up in the hills to a lookout to see all the Solitary Islands along the coast. We saw all the Roadside bananas and banana fields, before heading to the Moonee Beach are for a hike around the headland, then onto a Butterfly House complete with maze and dinosaurs!! We completed the day in Bellingen, an adorable country town that had a cool old Butter Factory converted into shops and restaurant and a chill feel from the surrounding greenery and river. We stayed at an adorable Youth Hostel complete with hammocks. We walked around town and up to the Bellingen lookout which would have been better to drive up to. Brandon dropped his phone and cracked the screen. (He ordered a new one and did surgery on it last night, all fixed!!) We got Israeli food for dinner and hung out at the Hostel.

Day 4 we headed inland on Waterfall Way to hike in National Parks and see all the waterfalls. We saw 10 total. Crystal Shower Falls, Dangar Falls, Ebor Falls, Wollomombi Falls and Gorge, and Apley Falls were the big ones. Some of the area was burned by the wildfires late last year, but it is regenerating. We spent at least an hour or so getting to Beech Lookout which was a bit far and down a crazy rocky road for our car. It made for a nice, quiet lunch spot though. At the last falls, Apsley Falls, it looked like the perfect place for platypus, we didn’t see any, but did see 2 echidnas instead. We didn’t beat the dark getting back to Port Macquarie, but thankfully did not see any wildlife on the wind-y mountain roads. I had used our travel points to book in two nights at a fancy hotel, but we were really disappointed. The room was worn and it was not nearly as good as the Airbnbs we had stayed in, or even the Youth Hostel. The location was good and they did have a spa pool. Day 5 we had an easy start and walked around Port Macquarie. They have themed koala statues around town so I tried to get pictures of as many as possible. I had a tasting at Cassegrain Winery then we had an amazing lunch before having a tour of the koala hospital. It was super cool! They care for wild koalas and also have permanent residents for ones that can’t be released. I love koalas!! Never saw any wild ones on this trip, but they are so adorable. I had gotten stung by an ant right before our tour, so headed back to the hotel for a chill night and take away burgers.

Day 6 we headed south to Nelson Bay, stopping at Harrington, Crowdy Bay, Blueys Beach, Sugarloaf Lighthouse (saw whales!!), Tea Garden and Hawks Nest, and Tillgerry Peninsula. We went to the Nelson Bay lighthouse and climbed Tomaree Mountain for amazing views of the area. We got fish and chips from Aussie Bob’s and ate it back at our Airbnb. Day 7 we stopped at Fingal Bay, then continued south the coastal way through the coal industry area of Newcastle. It was the first and only part of our trip with bad weather, rain, but only in the morning and we still got to do everything we wanted. We visited Norah Head Lighthouse and had lunch in Long Jetty coming into the Central Coast. We went to Bonnie’s Lookout, Captain Cook’s Lookout, Marie Byles Lookout and Adam Strom’s Lookout as the weather cleared. We then met up with our friend Anna and did a hike to Maitland Bay. We did a quick hike of the Bull Spurr Trail as the sun was setting, then had dinner at the local pub. Day 8 we ate the cold breakfast provided by our host and fed the peels to the goats as instructed. We checked out Pearl Beach, Patonga Beach, Staples Lookout and a bon bon/nougat factory in Gosford where we stopped for lunch after visiting the Japanese Garden. Brandon got a lot of inspiration for our someday garden from it. We then did our last hike of the trip, the Girrakool Loop before heading back to Sydney and the cats!! Enjoy the pictures and feel free to leave a note or ask any questions below.