Hellish day in Port Macquarie 10/08/16

The first thing I did in the morning was check whether my camera worked. I was absolutely gutted when I realised it was completely dead. I had booked to go to a marine park the following day, and was flying to New Zealand on the Friday so I knew I had to get it sorted ASAP.

I googled a few camera repair shops, and it looked like there was a shop called Camera House not too far from the hostel. Jess and Carla were going to walk around the Kooloonbung Creek, and the shop was supposed to be on route. We spent a while trying to find it, but it was nowhere to be seen. I tried to ring them but the number was disconnected. It was then I saw online the shop had shut down but the details on the map hadn’t been updated.

I decided after that the best thing for me to do was to find a Telstra and get an Australian phone. It was so difficult without internet to get any information or know where I was going. Luckily Jess let me use her phone to get a rough idea of where I was going but she had to go with Carla as soon as we got to the creek so I had to keep going into shops to ask people for directions.

I found Port Macquarie really hard to navigate but I eventually found the main shopping centre with a Telstra. I spoke to the salesman and decided on a new phone to get. I had to wait around 20 minutes to get to the counter as they were so busy, and that’s when the assistant said she couldn’t sell me a phone without my passport. I had bought a couple of phones already and no one had ever said that before so I was really pissed off.

I left Telstra super stressed and ended up calling mum on WhatsApp (thank god the centre had wifi) and getting upset in the middle of the shopping centre. I must have looked like a right idiot but it was the first time in my trip I just really wanted to be at home. Looking back it was ridiculous but I was really stressed out and sleep deprived which didn’t help.

Mum told me to just buy another phone and camera which I decided to do. As Port Macquarie was a tiny town, my only option was a JB Hi-Fi which is a tech store. Before I went there I saw a mobile repair shop and went in to see if anyone could do anything. They didn’t know about fixing my camera but one of the guys looked at my sim card and told me the pictures were all still there. I was SO relieved they memory card hadn’t been damaged.  

I then decided to stop at JB Hi-Fi, the Australian version of Currys, to see what cameras they had. On the way I ended up bumping into Jess and Carla who were on their way back to the hostel. They came with me and I looked at the different cameras and decided on the one I was probably going to get.

I went back to the hostel with Jess and Carla, picked up my passport, and went back to Telstra. I got lost on the way there as I was trying to remember the route I took but went down the wrong road. After about half an hour I managed to get a phone which made getting around a lot easier.

After I had bought my phone I popped into a Kodak store as a last ditch attempt to save my camera. The guy in there was really nice and checked the camera but said it was really unlikely it could be fixed. He did put all my pictures from the memory card onto a USB which I was grateful for.

I went to JB Hi-Fi and got the camera. It was the updated version of my original and also the last one left so I got it for a bit cheaper as it had been on display. There was a slight issue when no one could find a battery for it, but after almost the entire store team was searching for it, they found one that fit.

 By this time it was around 4pm. I was meant to be going to a Koala hospital with Jess and Carla in the afternoon so I was a gutted to have missed it. They said it was good but I hadn’t missed too much and would probably see similar things at the Koala sanctuary I was planning to visit in Brisbane, which made me feel better.  

I called Jess and we arranged to meet in Town Beach park to watch the sunset. To get there, I walked along the breakwall on the water’s edge which was really pretty. All along the path were painted rocks decorated with quotes, pictures and memorials.

We hung out in the park for a bit watching the skateboarders and waiting for the sun to go down. 

We then walked back down the breakwall to Kooloonbung Creek. We stopped to read most of the rocks so it took us a while. 

We were told by the hostel staff that if you go there just after sunset you can see the bats wake up and fly down towards the river. It seemed like there were thousands of them in the trees, they were so loud!

We stayed there for a while and planned to go for dinner. There was an Irish bar called Finnians that we looked in, but we decided it was a bit too expensive so we went and bought food to cook from Coles. From there we walked back to the hostel and had dinner. I did some blogging and we all just chilled.

I was getting a 1am night bus to take me to Coffs Harbour that night, so had to sort out all of my luggage ready to meet my taxi. I said goodbye to Jess and Carla around 9.30ish and then hung out in the hostel until 12.30am. The wifi went down which was really frustrating but I spent some time planning out my next few weeks and I had data on my phone. It was a bit eerie in the hostel after everyone went to bed as it was mainly outside, so pitch black. My taxi picked me up and took my down to the bus stop. I was really early, so I called Grahame and spoke to him until the bus picked me up. It was a 3 hour journey, but I didn’t get any sleep! :(

Dolphin Cruise in Nelson Bay 09/08/16

When we got to Nelson Bay, we had around half an hour before our cruise left. The waterfront was gorgeous, so I went to take a picture but realised my camera lens wouldn’t open, which was so stressful and really disappointing as I wanted to take pictures of dolphins on the cruise.I did some googling and realised it was likely some sand had got into the lens when we were boarding, and was probably stuck. I tried everything to get it out but nothing would work by the time we had to get on the boat.

Our boat was called the Moonshadow. It was a really cool boat that had a water slide and a net where you could swim with the dolphins in the summer. The water would have been far too cold when we went though.We initially sat on the top deck, but it was so windy we decided to move inside until we saw any dolphins. It took around half an hour to get out of the bay before the tannoy said they could see dolphins in the distance.

We went outside straight away, but there was only a couple of dolphins swimming and we didn’t get that close. We stayed there for around 15 minutes watching the two of them and then the captain said he would try and find some more closer to the bay. We did see one more, but that was it. We were both a bit disappointed that we hadn’t seen more. On the way back into the bay I called Canon and googled a few tips to get the sand out of my camera. Luckily it started working again but I was advised not to use it too much.

When we got off the boat we had a look at a few shops in Nelson Bay and then went and walked to the breakwater in the marina. There were so many pelicans which were absolutely huge. There was one that was blocking the entrance to a fish and chip shop which was funny to watch.

After the breakwater, we walked back into town and stopped at Coles and the post office to pick up a few things. We caught the bus back just before sun set and ended up meeting Stephy and Sarah who had also come to Nelson Bay after sand boarding.

We got back to the hostel, showered and then I got changed into my pyjamas. We were catching the 8.50pm Greyhound bus to Port Macquarie, which didn’t get in until 12.30am. We hung out in the hostel lounge watching the Olympics until it was time to leave.

We got the bus and I tried to sleep a little but didn’t have much luck so I ended up talking to mum for around an hour. When we got off at Port Macquarie, we met a Dutch girl called Carla who was staying at our hostel, the Ozzie Pozzie YHA.

We had to walk around 15 minutes to get to our hostel but it was all uphill and really uneven so I struggled with my two suitcases. I definitely wished I had called a cab to get there. It was around 1.15am by the time we got there. I had a disaster when I got to the room as I realised my water bottle had cracked in my backpack and leaked everywhere.

It had completely drowned both my English and Australian phone, as well as my camera. Amazingly, my English phone was working but it didn’t have data so it would only work in wifi areas.  It was SO frustrating as I had spent so long fixing my camera from earlier. It was too late to do anything so I took out all the batteries and hoped they would dry overnight.

Sand Boarding in Port Stephens 09/08/16

Jess and I got up early as we decided to go sand boarding together in Port Stephens. Two German girls called Sarah and Stephy had checked into our room the night before and also wanted to go, so we all walked down to the bus stop together.

We got the 9.15am bus from the town center to Anna Bay, which is where the sand dunes were. On the bus I noticed the opal stone had fallen out of the ring I bought in Coober Pedy. I was really gutted as I loved the ring, but also quite annoyed as I had only had it a few weeks and taken it off for anything where it could have been damaged. I rung the opal mine and they told me I had to send it back to them for it to be assessed and then repaired.

When we got to Anna Bay, we were initially told we only had a 5-10 minute walk to the sand boarding location. It turned out to be more like 20 minutes uphill which was quite stressful as we thought we would miss the tour start. Luckily we powered up the hill and made it there on time. We got a ‘sand dune safari’ bus to the dune site, which literally felt like we were in the middle of the desert.

We were given some basic instructions of how to ride the sand board, and then allowed to go up the dune as many times as we liked. The weather was gorgeous but that also made the dunes quite hard to climb as they were really really steep.

We rode down a few times and I was surprised by how fast we ended up going. It was so much fun but we all got absolutely covered in sand. 

Jess and I took a few photos and videos of us boarding, and then after a couple of hours we had to leave to get our next bus to Nelson Bay for the dolphin cruise we had booked.

Stephy and Sarah decided to stay longer, which would have been nice, but Jess and I both agreed we couldn’t have gone back up the hill many more times! We got a lift back to the sand dune entrance and walked back to the main road. We stopped at a bakery for lunch and then caught the bus. 

Glenrock, Merewether Beach & Newcastle Wharf 08/08/16

Tom had to leave quite soon after work as he was a doctor and was working a night shift. Lydia and I decided to drive to Merewether Heights, which apparently had a beautiful coastal walk. The scenery on the drive there was stunning!

When we gotto Merewether Heights, we walked down a hiking track and saw a few paragliders landing right in front of us.

We walked along Mereweather Beach to Glenrock Lagoon which was formed straight from the ocean. I had a bit of a paddle to cool off as the weather was really warm.

We then walked back along the beach past the ocean baths to Merewether Surf House, which was around 3k. We had to walk across some rocky areas, which were really painful. I didn’t want to get my trainers wet, so had to walk barefoot. We had a drink and watched the surfers as the sun set. They were so impressive, especially some of the kids.

We didn’t want to walk back in the dark so only stayed for one drink. I had a really nice glass of Prosecco. We walked back along Merewether beach and hiked back to the car. The sunset views were amazing.

As we were walking back, we saw a really active Octopus swimming in one of the rock pools. I had never seen one in the wild before so it was really cool, 

Lydia was dropping me back to the hostel, but on the way we stopped at the supermarket so I could pick up some dinner. We decided we would meet again in a couple of hours to go out for another drink.

I went back to the hostel, made dinner and went back to my room. Jess was there, and we spent a couple of hours planning our route up the coast. We decided we would travel together where we could.

Jess joined Lydia for I for a drink in the evening. The pub we were originally going to go to was closed so we ended up walking along the Newcastle Wharf to a bar called the Queens Wharf hotel. It was quite quiet, but we had a nice evening. We were all pretty exhausted so didn’t stay out too long. We walked back along the wharf to the hostel and I said goodbye to Lydia. I went to bed pretty much as soon as we got in. 

Newcastle Beach, Nobby's Beach & The Foreshore 08/08/16

I had to be up really early this morning for James to be able to drop me at Central Station in time for my train to Newcastle. We loaded all of my luggage into the car and said goodbye at the station. It felt really strange to say goodbye as I had been in Sydney for quite a while compared to other places and had enjoyed spending time with James. But I was really looking forward to starting my trip up the East Coast.

The lift in the station wasn’t working so I had to get on the escalator with all my stuff which was a bit difficult. I topped up my opal card, and found my train really easily. The only issue was that there was station maintenance in Hamilton, the stop before Newcastle, so I had to get off the train at a place called Broadmeadow, and catch the shuttle bus to Newcastle. It was a bit of a pain with all my stuff.

A few people got off the bus including a girl with a giant backpack. I asked if she was heading to the Newcastle Beach YHA as there wasn’t too many hostels in Newcastle and she was. It turns out that Jess, from Northampton, had just finished working in Sydney and was heading up the coast on a really similar route to me. We walked up to the YHA together and checked into the same room.

The hostel was really nice and we both instantly noticed how the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than the city hostels we had stayed in. We chilled in the room for a little while planning out the rest of our trip. At 12, I headed to down to reception to meet Lydia, who I had met at Surf Camp and was living in Newcastle.

We walked down to Newcastle Beach, and then along the Esplanade to Nobby’s Beach. It was such a nice day so the views were really good.

We stopped to watch the surfers for a little while and then walked past the lighthouse and along the Newcastle Breakwall. On the way we saw a huge sea lion basking out in the sun on the rocks.

We then walked back along the breakwater and through the Newcastle Foreshore to head to Lydia and her boyfriend Tom’s house for lunch. I met Tom, and they cooked us a really nice pesto pasta meal.