Hello Blog readers!
Sorry it’s been a wee while since I last wrote. I’ve been in Melbourne looking for work and somewhere to live, so haven’t had much downtime to write. But it’s Sunday morning here, I have a cuppa in hand and my hostel has a computer, wahoo.
We headed up to Port Macquarie on Christmas eve eve (no typo!), and I was feeling a little sad to be leaving Sydney, having really got into my groove there with work and exploring the city. When we were looking for accommodation in Sydney over Christmas back in November, we found it to be overpriced ($90 per night for a hostel dorm room) and that you had to commit to two weeks paying this price at most places. So instead, we picked a point up the east coast more or less at random. Byron Bay was too expensive and a bit too far and we didn’t know too much about other places on the coast. YHA had a hostel described as “more like a resort” in Port Macquarie and my cousin Tom and his wife Sinéad had lived there a few years ago and could vouch for it. It was about 5 hours on the coach from Sydney too, which is considered just up the road in this country.
The description of the hostel lived up to expectation- it had its own swimming pool and games, cinema and reading rooms. It was also close to lots of nice beaches. Christmas eve was mainly spent recovering from the coach journey (the drop off time was 1am, ergh!), then we all went out out in the evening to PM’s only nightclub. It was quite surreal waking up on Christmas day to the sun shining and it being warm. A few of us headed to Flynns beach in the morning for a swim in the surf, then the hostel held a BBQ for staff and guests, so about 30 of us. The afternoon was spent playing a competitive and long lasting pool volleyball tournament and in the evening, myself and Kate taught a German and a Canadian how to play charades. It was a really great day, but a little bitter sweet as I also would’ve liked my parents and brothers to be there too.
I wasn’t feeling too great on boxing day, possibly I had picked up a bug from a couple of very sick room mates in Sydney, so the day was spent chilling by the pool and napping. I had planned to have a surfing lesson on the 27th, but was still a little under the weather, so more sleeping in the morning. That afternoon, I visited the Koala sanctuary which was cute. But did make me chuckle a bit as it seemed like Koalas are slightly dim but cute sentient cuddly toys that accidentally get themselves into trouble by napping too much.
It was sad to leave Port Macquarie, and we headed down to a town called Newcastle to break up the journey back to Sydney. The annoying thing about public transport in Australia is that, outside of major cities, it’s not great. There was one train a day that left PM to go back down to Sydney, and it took longer than driving or a coach. Both the train and the coach from PM spat you out in Sydney at stupid times, whereas at least from Newcastle, the trains were regular and quick. Plus it meant checking out a couple more beaches. Life is hard eh. Newcastle itself was pretty grotty, but the beaches were ok. I had plans to meet with a pal from the UK there, but she had sadly caught that horrible flu that was going round the UK, so spent almost the entirety of her time in Aus in bed!
We then headed back to Sydney on the 30th for one final workshift and to stay in relative luxury in the Holiday Inn near Macquarie University in Sydney. As mentioned before, this was the only accommodation option we found for under £100 a night over New Years, but to me it felt like staying at the Ritz after couple of months in hostels. On New Year's Eve, we headed to Barangaroo reserve in the afternoon. Nearly everywhere in the city centre is now ticketed in this post covid world, but that was useful to control numbers. We’d had a tip off from a friend of mine that Barangaroo (a nature reserve west of the harbour bridge on the south bank) was a good spot and indeed it was. We rocked up 16:30ish, picnic in hand and managed to get a really good spot- right next to a British family who had been first through the door and the pick of the park. The weather was largely cloudy, which was a blessing really as spending hours in the sun with no shade might not have been that fun. There was a stage with a band, food and ice cream vans and a relaxed atmosphere. You had a good view of the bridge, but couldn’t quite see the opera house, but still much better than standing for hours on end. We were joined later on by Issy (who we had met in a hostel in Queenstown) and her friend Haylie and drank and danced the night away. At 9pm, there was some family fireworks, which were great. It also felt like you were getting twice the amount for your money ($70), so I felt pretty smug about that. It was useful too, as after that, a lot of the families disappeared so more space. The fireworks were great at midnight too, and it felt super cool and special to see in the New Year at such an iconic site. Transport home was easy too. Side note for all the transport nerds out there- Sydney has been building its first proper metro system for a few years now- the first branch opened up a couple of years ago (very conveniently right next to our hotel) and there are lots of expansion plans underway.
The next day (or rather from midnight!) it was my 31st Birthday. It was nice to wake up in the hotel and have a big breakfast before heading out to Shelly beach (near manly). I had a card to open from my family that I’d been carrying around since the start and Kate got me a towel (mine was stolen in Port Maquarie!) I bought a snorkel in the shop and a ben&jerry’s ice cream when we arrived in Manly and was very happy! Shelly beach is a bay about 10min walk from Manly beach and in my opinion, much better. It’s quieter and there are no 6ft waves trying to take you out every 5 seconds, so you can swim. It’s also a marine reserve so snorkling there is ace! We were joined later that afternoon by my friend Hannah from home (me and Hannah had worked together in Bristol) and some of her friends. In the evening, our room mate from Sydney came to join us with a couple of her friends. We had fish and chips on the beach- it was Mia’s (who is from South Korea) first ever fish and chips. So quite the occasion.
On the 2nd, we packed up our stuff (which is now getting increasingly harder as I gain things) and hopped on the overnight coach to Melbourne. I’d vowed to myself a few years ago that I wouldn’t do an overnight coach ever again, but it was like a quarter of the price of flying, so in my semi unemployed state, felt like a good option. On to Melbourne, which will hopefully be my new home for a few months!
