Pacific Coast Beach Towns

While at Manly Beach our friends Sherri and Paul were kind enough to arrange accommodation for us through their timeshare company for two weeks in two different locations up the coast. This was a tremendous gift for a couple of reasons. First, it meant I didn't have to do a lot of planning, and trust me, it's not as easy as you might think. Second, we were going to be spending full weeks in two locations; we are all getting tired of one or two night stands. And third, we were going to get to stay in two bedroom condos for less than the cost of staying in a hostel -- hallelujah!

Jack's bum and the Port MacQuarrie beach

Before our first condo, however, we had a week to spend travelling through some beachy towns on our way north. Remember, this is the Southern Hemisphere and it's the middle of autumn, so temperatures are dropping in the south. We needed to get moving north to more tropical climates, or buy another wardrobe!

Based on the advice we received from all of the Aussies, we first stopped at Port MacQuarie and booked the Ozzie Pozzie Backpackers YHA. I had booked two nights knowing that would mean only having to spend one full day at what I suspected was a surfers' party spot. We arrived at around dusk, and so we didn't really get a good feel for the place until the next morning. Our room was well equipped with ample storage space and we had an ensuite -- a big plus! The next day was raining, so we stayed in most of the day. Fortunately there was a pool, ping pong table, fooseball table, and pool table to keep the boys entertained, not to mention a rainbow lorikeet named Cheeky (hard to believe these creatures weren't painted by a 4 year-old!). The hostel seemed to be a few bungalows that had been joined together into a little compound with gazebos and covered patios. There was lots of outdoor seating and lounge areas, and everything was painted in colourful pinks and yellows and turquoise. It was very surfer chic. The other guests were well behaved and cleaned up after themselves, so we decided to stay another day to give the town a chance in the sunshine.

I would like this lady's job

The weather was nice and we were enjoying ourselves so much we stayed for four nights all together in Port MacQuarie. The beaches were lovely, and the Ozzie Pozzie loaned us boogie boards to take advantage of the surf. A little trivia side note: for some reason, and maybe a science teacher can help me out, the sand squeaks on the Pacific Coast. In bare feet or in shoes, it's like you're dragging your feet on a super clean kitchen floor. I never would have thought sand could do that! In addition to our beach days, we visited the Port MacQuarie Koala Hospital for a tour of the koala enclosures during their feeding time. Most of these cuties were being treated for complications due to chlamydia. (Oh, the humiliation!) Others had been burned in bush fires or had been hurt in car accidents. They were all so sweet, and the volunteers were doing some great work.

STIs don't discriminate.

From Port, we travelled a couple hours north to Coffs Harbour for two nights. Really, it was much the same as Port -- a gorgeous beach town. This time, we went to a strictly swimming beach so there was no risk of surfers hitting us, and the swimming was great. In fact, it was just the lifeguards and us for most of the day! We swam, floated down a real "lazy river" into the ocean, and had a picnic. It was a gorgeous day.

The boys and no one else on the beach at Coffs Harbour.

To be fair, I haven't yet seen a beach in Australia I didn't love. They are all quite beautiful. Some are more crowded than others, some have a bigger surf than others, but they are all as nice as the next. The water is warm (about 22C now) and clear and the sand is soft and white. (Sorry Canadian friends, I really am livin' the dream)

As a painful but nostalgic shot of reality, a high school group booked into the Coffs Harbour YHA for our second night. I witnessed teachers collaborating about which students needed some extra supervision, the teen drama queens, the malnourished-oh-I-feel-faint girl; I was the target of nicky-nicky-nine-doors, and we were kept up late listening to them giggling away in the halls. Yes, it was like being back at home at BHS.

The next morning, it was finally Friday and time to head to our first condo.

The timeshare was located in a teeny beach town called Bogangar. This is pretty funny to Aussies because "bogan" is the Aussie slang term equivalent of redneck or trailer trash. We quickly discovered that Bogangar prefers to be called Cabarita Beach. It's the same place. He he he.

While Cabarita Beach was pretty to look at, it had signs posted saying there may be sharks and stingers (poisonous jellyfish) present. Needless to say, the boys had zero interest in the beach after reading that. So, besides spending a half day lounging around in the squeaky sand, we entertained ourselves OFF the beach.

This frog rock is about 10' tall!

Bogangar has only a grocery store, a surf shop, a bakery, and a handful of other stores, so we definitely didn't spend our time in town! The resort was quite nice and had a pool and tennis courts and mini golf to keep us amused, but strangely there were no other people around. I know others were staying there, but I don't know where they were. It was a little creepy. The grounds were very well kept, and we discovered that passion fruit grows on vines and has amazing smelling flowers. We backed on to a nature reserve and we listened to cookaburras laughing and watched cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets among other cool birds that I can't identify.

On Sunday, we went down the coast to Byron Bay, an ultra-cool, ultra-hippy, surf town down the coast. Next to Bondi, Byron Bay is THE surf spot. We were there on market day -- we love market day -- and after scouring the whole town we finally found a parking spot and made our way to the market.

If you are need of candles, or batik or hemp clothing, or tie-dyed shirts, or seashell jewellery, or organic herbal teas, or -- oddly -- dream-catchers, then the Byron Sunday market is your place. We might have been the only non-tattooed, dreadlockless, synthetic-clothing wearing family there. Regardless, it was a fun excursion and we had a fantastic vegetarian lunch before heading out to explore the rest of the town.

A couple days later we left Bogangar/Cabarita and went north to Tweeds Head. The Tweed is a fairly large suburban town at the southern tip of the Gold Coast region which is about an hour south of Brisbane. We walked the beach, watched the surfers, and went to a funky cafe with an amazing art gallery adjoining it. I loved everything they had on display! This again was a beautiful town -- one I could actually live in. It was big enough to have all of the conveniences of a city, but still had a fun, beachy vibe without being touristy like Byron Bay.

Our final day trip from Cabba was into the hinterland to Springbrook National Park. This was a real Australian highlight rivalling the Blue Mountains in my opinion. It was a gorgeous drive up a 'mountain' and through the rainforest to our picnic/hiking spot. From the top of the mountain you could see the coast in the distance, just beyond what I think was the city of Surfers' Paradise (yes, that's what it's called). Even the kids were impressed. We had yet another great hike through the rainforest to see some pretty spectacular waterfalls, a couple of which we walked behind. The towering gum trees were monstrous and Tarzan vines were hanging from tree to tree while others had shaped tree trunks and branches into tight corkscrew configurations. My favourite part was the flock of bright red parrots we saw on our way in and again on our way out. We stood and watched them eating on branches right over our heads for several minutes. I just can't get over the rainbow colours of these Aussie birds. I get very excited every time I see them!

Very quickly, the week was over and it was again time to move on another three hours up the coast into Queensland. Next stop: Noosa.