Brisbane Trip Day 8: Coffs Harbour

My cold was still hanging around but I was in a much better frame of mind today. We had a very quiet morning hanging around the campsite – I did some washing and optimistically hung it on the clothesline even though there was still a bit of rain around. AMelie played in the playground and once the kids had had breakfast they headed to the office to get equipment to play in the games room.  I stayed at the tent waiting for the auto electrician and tidying up a bit – our hectic set up when I was stressed meant that things were really messy. The auto electrician arrived and was able to fix the window easily – and explain another problem I’d been having with the window and gave me some tips on fixing it. I really appreciated this as the last time I had the window fixed the problem started and the guy didn’t want to know about it – this guy said that the problem should have been anticipated and fixed when I had my switch replaced.

Feeling very relieved that my window was now working, I joined the kids for a game of mini golf. They’d also played pool and table tennis and were hoping to play air hockey when the equipment was returned. We snacked on cold sausages and salad from the night before, then the kids had a swim while I sat at the pool edge and caught up a bit on my blog and email and started to search for accommodation options for the next parts of our trip. It was hot and humid again, with occasional rain showers.

Around 4pm we got out of the pool and headed up the coast for a look around. (Some of my washing was dry and I grabbed that off the line before I went). We went one headland north of our beach to Moonee Beach – apparently voted No 3 on the 101 Best Australian Beaches of 2017. We waded across the river – Amelie and I found a shallow crossing,  the others went a bit deeper and it was a little scary/exciting – there was a slight current and the sand was very soft, but at no point was it too deep or strong for us to handle. On the main beach we played in the edge of the surf – again, it was too rough to go out far, but there was a wide shallow area of knee deep waves and that was a lot of fun. What we could see of the beach was quite pretty, but the rain had set in again and combined with spray from the surf we couldn’t see very far along the beach, it was just mist. There were sea birds on the shore who were interesting to watch, and the water temperature was beautiful. It was great to be in the ocean, even if it was just at the edge. Eventually we wandered back through the river to the carpark – the current was stronger this time although we found an easier place to cross. We played on the sand for a while, investigating the little crab holes that appeared to all be in pairs. We wandered over the bridge that led out to the headland and saw lots of fish in the water, and the kids saw an eel.

We got back in the car and headed back to Coffs Harbour. It was weird - looking out from the car the day looked cold and miserable, but when we were outside the temperature was lovely - just a bit wet. We drove to Boambee Beach which looked beautiful but still too rough to swim, then out to the break wall on the southern side of the harbour and walked out a little way so we could see the waves breaking on the ocean side - they were big and were making awesome thumping sounds as they hit the wall. We were all still in our swimmers because we'd hoped to find another beach to swim at, but by this stage no one wanted to swim again so we got changed into dry clothes in the car. We sat and watched the harbour for a while - little waves on the rocks, fishing boats going out, birds flying around. I did a bit more research on accommodation options and discovered that Sea World Resort had a deal on, because their main pool is closed, which meant we could get accommodation at the resort, plus entry to all the theme parks, for less money than it would have cost us to get theme park tickets on their own! I decided to think about it for a bit and check the details again once we'd eaten.

We ordered fish and chips from Sea Salt Fish and Chips and drove around to pick them up. We'd wanted to sit near the jetty and eat them but it was raining pretty steadily by now - we found some covered picnic tables, not with a view to the jetty but in the vicinity, so sat there to eat. The food was delicious - fantastic chips and the seafood was great. Possibly the best fish and chips I've had.

Back at the caravan park we found that the rain had pooled in the roof of the annex again so I spent some time rejigging everything to prevent that happening overnight. The seam above Liam's bed also started leaking, which happens when the roof just gets too wet, so Caitlin and I put a tarp over the tent to try to cut down the amount of water coming in - it slowed to a slight trickle so we just put towels and a bucket underneath and hoped it didn't get worse.