After much deliberation on which way to fly home from NZ we had decided to start our trip in Australia, somewhere I’d lived way back in 2003 (an amazing 19 years earlier, I am getting old!!) and I was keen to show the kids a few highlights, they were predictably excited to look for koalas and kangaroos up close too. Sadly couldn’t quite fit Fiji in this time, but good to leave something to come back for!! Flying into Brisbane seemed the best option, then we could do a one way road trip down the coast to Sydney, but would the weather be kind enough for “winter” camping? Despite selling all our furniture and the car to raise funds, finances had been well and truly blown on the 9 flights and crazily priced car hire (apparently during COVID they sold half their fleet and hence prices have doubled) so camping only viable option left with Em on maternity leave! Annoyingly the surf at Sumner on the last pack up and cleaning day looked better than I’d ever seen it but too busy to catch a ride and boards all packed up for a 3 month shipping journey home too. The final pack up was a back breaking, box loading, house tidying marathon and Em pulled an all nighter again to get the house shipshape, I had a few hours sleep huddled under the heat pump on the living room floor, not quite the Hilton experience for our final night in NZ. We squeezed into Becky and Michaela’s cars with our usual mountain of luggage and after a mad dash to the bus stop on Ferry Road we said our goodbyes and boarded the airport bus to the airport and the start of the very long journey back to Scotland.
First flights (1/9 and 2/9) were a two leg flight to Brisbane via Melbourne (half the price but possibly not worth it for the hassle?) and an all too quick hello to an old friend Peetie Poo who kindly came to the airport to hold the baby and say hi while we frantically tried to make our domestic connection to Brisvegas. After a very long, tiring day of the final pack up of our lovely house at 304 Cannon Hill Crescent, in the aptly named Mount Pleasant, and endless travelling we finally made it to Ellie’s house at 10pm (midnight NZ time!) for a well deserved sleep. Strange not being in New Zealand in our trusty Nissan Serena but somewhat exciting to be somewhere new for a change! We had a slow, lazy start the next day sharing family travel tips and testing out all their exciting toys then headed down the coast, stopping at Coolangatta for a massive feed at the bakery, lunch on the beach and a quick look at Snapper Rocks for some surfing, bit too busy for our liking! Onto Byron Bay instead and the stunningly situated Reflections Campsite, our home for the next four nights and top left in the first picture:-
We had a rude awakening on our arrival as massive storm clouds rolled in and just when I had the tent half up we were hit with strong winds, torrential rain and bullet hail stones! We all cowered in the car while the poor tent was by now three inches under water and then of course being winter it got pitch dark too! Less than ideal, but Em and the kids legged it to the kitchen to knock up dinner and I tipped as much water out of the tent as I could, then towel dried the inside and fashioned a dryish home for the gang. Luckily this turned out to be one of only two wet days on the trip to Oz so not a sign of bad things to come! The campsite was like living in the rainforest with an amazing beach below and Em and I enjoyed surfing with dolphins at The Pass which is a world famous point break. We surfed here four times and each time the wind was less and the waves were better. Nearby Wategos beach also had great surfing and friendly dolphins nearby and was much quieter. The classic coastal walk to Cape Byron Lighthouse was as good as I remembered it and the kids and I enjoyed climbing the steps to the very top of the lighthouse. Sadly the excellent Piggery Flicks is no more but the amazing pizzas at Belongil Treehouse were great on the last night. The wildlife in the campsite was pretty good with dolphins on the beach, plenty of parakeets and some friendly kookaburras but we went to Macadamia Castle wildlife park to get up close and personal with some more exotic ones, as well as of course eating the best macadamia nuts money can buy! The kids got to feed kangaroos, stroke giant snakes and blue-tongued lizards and see koalas and wombats as well as the usual farmyard animals, chicks and rabbits to stroke and cuddle and we even had time for a final second surf of the day on the way home which was a nice touch though shoulders telling me we’re not surf fit at the moment! Only slight hitch was a flat battery in the car just as the parking ticket ran out but luckily a friendly surf bum came to the rescue, turned out he’d just bought jump leads yesterday, ideal timing!
Sadly all good things come to an end and it was time to move on from the ever lovely Byron Bay, great to come back to somewhere after nearly 20 years and find not much has changed! We headed on south for a big driving day down to Port Macquarie and stopped at Bongil Bongil National Park near Coff’s Harbour, home of the big banana and still a sprawling mess. The “rainforest” walk was disappointing (NZ and Byron a tough act to follow) but as soon as we short cutted to the wild remote beach we were far more impressed and followed this back to the car instead. Got to the campsite in Port Macquarie just as the sun was setting and it looked decent enough though the unpowered sites were miles from the camp kitchen, play park and pool sadly. With only two nights and one day we packed in the fun to one busy day, Em ran the scenic coastal 9km path to Lighthouse beach while I drove over via a surf board hire shop, then after a fun surf and lunch, I got to enjoy the run back to camp which had some great views and plenty of scrambling on the many boulders along the way. Back in time for a quick dip in the icy pool with Sara (no heated pools in Oz!) and a feast of fish and chips just off the coloured graffiti rocks of the Breakwater, complete with resident pelicans and a great sunset. A really nice place to break the drive to Sydney and conveniently exactly half way down…
We’re on the road again….Another big driving day followed, this time we took the slower coastal route through Booti Booti National park which has some great lakes and beaches on both sides of a narrow peninsula. We started with a short leg stretcher up to Cape Hawke Lookout which had a great view from the tree tops up the coast. Nearby Boomerang Bay was a perfect lunch and swimming spot and even Zach enjoyed a quick paddle before the long drive to our next campsite on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, a place I knew well from living and teaching for three months in 2003. The temperature had been dropping steadily as we travelled south and the last two nights in the tent were cold and damp and we all longed for the return of the sun!
Our final day in Oz was all very Scottish with wind and sideways rain but we went into full tourist mode and got the Manly ferry over to Circular Quay (free parking in Manly if you hunt around and a great way to arrive downtown!) via some bouncy waves. The rain had eased off slightly so we walked through town to check out the sights, small town kids were amazed by all the skyscrapers and we even blagged a ride on an express glass fronted elevator in one cool looking building. Next stop was a picnic in Darling Harbour and a visit to the excellent aquarium with some impressive sharks, perky penguins, giant rays and the mysterious lettuce munching Dugong. Super expensive but actually well worth it. The rain was back so we opted for a tram back to the Manly ferry and beat a hasty retreat to our sodden tent for a final cold damp night of broken sleep, in retrospect a hostel might have worked better in Sydney, further North was fine for winter camping but not this far South. This made all our bags very heavy for the next flight but we somehow juggled the weight around and got away with no extra charges from Jetstar, travelling with a baby is the way forward, the buggy bag takes loads of extras and airport staff are generally much kinder and more helpful to you. Em and I must have carried 4/5 bags each onto the plane in the end and no one minded! Our whistle-stop tour of Oz was over but in usual fashion we managed to squeeze plenty in and nice for me to take a trip down memory lane and see some old haunts. Next stop, somewhere new and hopefully equally fun, Aloha Hawaii…..
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 