Phillip Island to Coffs Harbour

Sunday February 12

After the whirlwind tour of the Great Ocean Road, Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island we decide that it is time to hunker down somewhere and go slow.  We all need to press the pause button on the sightseeing for awhile. 

We decide to make a beeline up the coast and plant ourselves in a beach town for a couple weeks before we head to Yamba/Angourie (where some close family friends have generously offered their beach house to us for a couple weeks!)

Two weeks straight in one spot and two weeks straight in the next - perfect for some much needed down time.  There is only one thing standing in our way - 1550 km of highway.  We book ourselves into an apartment in Coffs Harbour (an affordable and family-friendly beachside town) for 5 days from today - that's an average of 300 km a day.  Ready, Set, Charge...

We drive 650 km the first day.  The girls are amazing.  Rusty is immersed in her DVD player and we have every song off the Wiggles DVD memorized by the time we pull into Gundagai.  Audrey sleeps most of the way - morning nap followed by a long stop for lunch and a play - followed by another nap.  We discover something awesome - the rest stops have playgrounds here!

We are able to keep them both fed, and either sleeping or happy for most of the drive.  I discover that I can squeeze and buckle myself in the small space between the carseats so I can feed or play with the girls while Clark drives.  I am even able to nurse Audrey on the go (albeit at a terribly awkward angle with plastic digging into my ribs).  But, that is how determined we are to make this charge as quickly as possible.  The faster we get somewhere the longer we get to stay put there!

Rusty sound asleep in her carseat

We decide to call it a day in Gundagai as both girls are loudly letting us know they are ready to get out of the car just as we pull in to town.  When we pull up to a local motel, Clark tells me to exit the wagon quickly so the proprietor won't hear the kids screaming!  He jokes they are bound to jack up the price, and by this point we would be more than willing to pay it!!

Monday February 13

We make it 575 km from Gundagai to Port Stephens and can't believe how painless it was.  Thank you once again Grandma for the portable DVD player - it was our saving grace.  We have arrived in a beautiful spot only 400 km shy of Coffs Harbour.  We find a caravan park located right on One Mile Beach with a fantastic pool and a reasonable rate.  We decide to stay here until we are due in Coffs on Friday.

Here is the pool.

And here is the beach.

 Ready, Set, Kickback...