OZ-Travels 2018-2019, Stage 4 - Coffs Harbour/Raleigh to Sydney/Rozelle

Stage 4 - Coffs Harbour/Raleigh to Sydney/Rozelle = 516km,  6 1/2 hours including 1 stop

We started out today with a sad farewell to Kath and Jeff Porter and a promise to return soon on our way back home. It was easy driving into Sydney thanks to Mic’s suggestion we leave early to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic. We started out a little past 7am and made it to Sydney by 130pm. The Fur Babies were amazing travelers again! We made a short stop Off the highway at an Olivers for a bite and some coffee. It’s supposed to be a healthy food choice, but yuck the food had no flavor! We found our next AirBnB easily thanks to Miss Google Maps and happily found “The Artists’s Cottage” in Rozelle exactly as it was presented online. Check in was easy with a lock box key.

Our host left us amazing chocolates and fresh baked olive bread as a welcome gift 💝. We are starting to see the differences between AirBnb homes that are used strictly as vacation rentals and those that are truly sharing their homes with you and actually live there in between traveler visits. Chantal, The French Artist’s home was exactly that, her home. It was incredibly charming multi level vintage cottage equipped with everything we could possibly have wanted/needed including a big fenced back yard and beautiful little breakfast deck off the kitchen all perfect for Kobi and Lani.

We had never stayed in this part of Sydney before and were pleasantly surprised on how quiet, clean, and safe the neighborhood was. We had really nice neighbors and there were a million cafes, restaurants, pubs and grocery stores within easy walking distance.
There were also some great parks along the harbour that we could walk the kids too and many had off leash areas too. Lani even went swimming in the harbour preferring to swim along the side of the path we were walking on. She had a blast!! Kobi, our scary baby, is getting braver by the day and barely gets spooked anymore by the loud noises, traffic and men in high vis with hats, lol 😂.

This area of Sydney, just 4km from the city center, was pretty hilly. We choose not to ride our bikes in Sydney for obvious reasons but did run everyday. We definitely got our hill training in!!

Our main reason for stopping in Sydney was for the Scorpions/Def Leppard concert on Saturday night. We had bought tickets back in April for this concert as we love the Scorpions. We didn’t much care about Def Leppard even though they were the headliners. Just as I was telling Mic how excited I was about seeing the Scorpions again after over 20 years (Mic had never seen them and I last saw them in LA at the Greek Theatre, outdoors with Foghat and Deep Purple)
Mic reads me a post on FB from Klaus, the lead singer of Scorpions, that he is so sorry but they are cancelling their performance tonight because he has been sick and his voice is not up to the performance. I/We were devastated!! Hoping is was a hoax or maybe he would feel better, we went off to Darling Harbour to the ICC Sydney for the concert only to have confirmed the bad news :-( What to do? We asked if they were giving refunds but were told we had to contact a mirage of other ticket vendors associated with the concert and no one seemed to know for sure. We decided to go check out Def Leppard anyway. Glad we did as they put on an awesome performance!! They really rocked and brought the house down!! These guys are between 56 and 60 y/o and most still have their long rocker hair and the 60 y/o lead guitarist and the most ripped abs!! Sans hair though, lol 😝. We had amazing seats 5 rows back from the right side of the stage. You can check out Mic’s FB posts with lots of live recording of some of the concert. Still sad no Scorps but happy we still went.

Our last day we finally made it to the Zoo! Mic and I have been talking about going to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney since his first visit to Australia to see me after we met at Hawaii Ironman in 2008. Mic arrived on NYE 2008 :-) Ok, I’ve digressed down memory lane for a moment......
Anyway we walked from our cottage to the Darling St Wharf to take the ferry to Circular Quay and then onto the Zoo. We did the famous gondola ride up the hillside to the Zoo entry. We have always heard amazing things about the Zoo here but were a bit disappointed. There was a lot under construction/renovation which is apparently always the case. Overall it did not seem well kept. The routes for viewing the animals was very disjointed and did not have a flow to it, making for a lot of back tracking to see the animals you wanted. Our visit did get better as we winded our way back down the hillside to the ferry. We saw the giraffes, Pygmy hippos, tigers, sun bears, elephants and more. We definitely need to start planning that African Safari on our bucket list :-) We made it to the ferry just in time to run on for the 430pm departure.

We stopped in Balmain on the way walking home from the ferry at this cute little sidewalk cafe and had an early dinner before returning home to our Fur Babies. It’s just a really cute area with really nice people.

We packed up the next morning, went for a short run and doggy walk and waited for the morning traffic to subside before starting our journey to our next destination, Palmula Beach, NSW on the Far South Coast of NSW.

OZ-Travels 2018-2019 Stage 3 - Raleigh NSW (near Coffs Harbour)

Stage 3: Peregian Beach QLD - Raleigh NSW (near Coffs Harbour), 539 km 8hrs+-

The choice of this destination was actually quite an easy one. Sherry used to live and work in Coffs Harbour before we met. We got lucky enough to stay with our good friends Kath and Jeff at  their beautiful property in Raleigh, just 20 min south of Coffs.

The packing on travel-morning was done quickly and easily, and as usual we did a last run, walked the puppies and had a short breakfast before leaving.
Traffic was pretty easy till Byron Bay, where we had a break for some food a coffee fix and walk for our furry babies. The stretch of highway in between Byron and Coffs is in the process of being upgraded all the way as a 2 lane highway. As such that part of the travel was painfully slow with all the work in progress.

Never-less we made it to the outskirts of Coffs and turned in to Korora Bay. Korora is a beautiful suburb north of Coffs where most homes (including Sherry's Ex Home/Practice) sit up high and have a fantastic panoramic view over the Korora Bay. We drove past the house (not much has changed in 10 years) and down to Korora Beach, where Sherry used to walk her two old Collies Simba and Koa.
Sadly an incoming Thunderstorm with heavy winds stopped our visit to the beach abruptly.

It was so amazing to see our good friends Kath and Jeff after so many years. Their Staffy Buddy and

our dogs got along very quickly. We enjoyed a fantastic Dinner with (too much) wine and beer and shared 10 years of great, good and bad experiences. We shared also our travel plans with Kath and Jeff and they asked us if we had already planed how to get across the Nullarbor Park (1675 km  of deserted and boring stretch of road, which includes the longest straight road of the world- 146km! Also good to know, Nullarbor translates to "without trees" in Latin). Despite we knew there was a LOT of NOTHING in between Port Augusta SA and Esperance WA, the talk scared us quite a bit and we wondered if travelling through the Nullarbor with our dogs would be doable. Food for thought.

The next morning the weather presented itself as very typically Coffs Harbour = rainy, cold and

windy. Best weather to read up about the Nullarbar and starting to organize dog friendly stay solutions. Stay tuned for our go for in our future posts.

Kath and  Jeff took us out for breakfast to a nice little coffee place in Uranga called Pomegranate. Very cute, good coffee and great food including GF options. Urunga sits where the Bellinger River and Kalang River join into the Urunga Lagoon and short after flow into the Pacific.
While poor Kath had to work Sherry and I went for a run along Bellinger River and continued to plan our Nullabor project.

We had a late Lunch at Cedar Bar and Kitchen in Bellingenwith Jeff. Cute Restaurant with a nice garden and great food and service. I'm sure Jeff and Kath will go there again. Bellingen is surely worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.

We had another great dinner with Kath and Jeff and their friend Celia (came with her partner Michael), a Coffs Chiropractor. Celia and Sherry, being a Chiropractor herself, had common base for lots of talking. Sadly the time was already up again for the next destination, Sydney.

Big shout out to #taffyporter and Jeff for having us. We will be back in February:-)

OZ-Travels 2018-2019 Stage 2 - Peregian Beach QLD

Stage 2: Zilzie QLD to Peregian Beach QLD, 570 km, 7h20

After our beautiful stay in Zilzie we packed up the car up again. It seems already to get quicker and easier to store all the luggage and bikes. Mic was even able to create more room for the dogs. After a last walk along the beach the doggies were happy to jump int the car and settled very quickly.
After 4 hours we made a short stop in Childers QLD. Childers has a  some little coffee places and a few small parks. We had our coffee fix and the dogs went for a little walk. Although they were happy to escape the heat (36 degrees) back into the acclimatized car.

After an other 3 hours we arrived to our accommodation called Pet friendly holiday house Noosa (Peregian Beach) to stay for 3 nights.
A beautifully presented, two-story home close to Peregian Beach and its super-chilled village square. The house has a partial ocean view from the upstairs kitchen & dining area, a BBQ in the courtyard and a small pool. The Beach is 1 km away but walking the dogs is not allowed every where. Look for the signs or, as the locals told us, walk the dogs on the forbidden beaches only by high tide as the patrol vehicles cannot drive on the beach.

The house had everything you needed. Being it was only two of us we didn't use the downstairs, only the large open upstairs. It was a beautiful open living room, dining, kitchen area with a guest toilet and huge master suite with ensuite, double shower, soaking tub and walk in closet. The fur babies had a secure outside area next to the pool. There wasn't any grass for them but a nature area up the hillside. They just waited to go walking to do their business :-) The house was located right off David Low Parkway which after coming from super quiet Zilzie was a bit loud with road noise during the day and night. But not so load that you couldn't still hear the ocean :-)

We went to Peregian Village for dinner the night we arrived. Just happened to be the day of Noosa Triathlon (funny as you get away from racing you don't even pay attention to such an iconic event, lol). Town was still swarming with the leftover triathletes with their tatooed race numbers and categories still on their bodies. We had an awesome pizza dinner at Pizza Mi Gourmet. Service was awesome and the gluten free pizza was even better!! Mic thought my gluten free pizza was even better than his normal one. Go figure! That never happens :-) We walked to Peregian Village the next morning with the kids to have breakfast. We choose Raw which was OK. Cool thing about the whole village was all the doggy water bowls and the acceptance of dogs everywhere!!  One afternoon we stopped for a beer after grocery shopping at The Peregian Beach Hotel. They even had gluten free beer!!! Wicked a pale ale which wasn't too bad. Have tried this in Emu Beach too. BUT the big revelation here was the bartender telling us he had recently seen a documentary about Corona Beer being gluten free. Of course I have done lots of googling since to find out that it is theoretically gluten free as it contains less than 20ppm of gluten which is the Gold Standard for gluten free. However for celiacs it can still be an issue as technically Corona is made with wheat with the gluten removed/broken down. Celiac sites will say this is a NO GO. But for us non-celiac auto immune disease peeps, I can't see a reason why we shouldn't be able to toss back a Corona or two once in a while. Happy Days! I could have kissed the bartender :-) 

Our last go-out was at a cute little Sardinian (Italian) restaurant, Cinque Terra in Sunshine Beach. We had a long beach walk with the kids and walked up through the village for an Apertif. We had a couple of glasses of Sardinian Vermentino along with some marinated olives and Bresaola. Everything was very yummy. Cute place run by a Sardinian couple expecting their 2nd baby. We had some great conversation too talking about Italy and differences compared to living in Australia. I think they are here to stay :-)

Of course we did some cycling and running along the sunshine coast and spent some time at the Beaches of Noosa and Peregian Beach. Sunshine Beach and the village is still our favorite place in the Sunny Coast

Next stop for us is Coffs Harbour, NSW

OZ-Travels 2018-2019 Prologue and Stage 1 - Zilzie QLD (Capricorn Coast)

Prologue:
Finally Mic and I, along with our 2 fur babies (Kobi and Lani), are starting a long wanted bucket list travel. Exploring Australia Part 1(Not sure yet when part 2 will happen) will get us from Townsville QLD on the Northern part of the East Coast over to Perth WA on the West Coast. We will follow the coast line as much as possible.
We choose to head South because starting at the end of October the North would be too hot and too prone to dangerous cyclonic weather.

We did put lots of thoughts into what the easiest way would be to travel with the dogs. Camper Trailer? Camper Van?  Our own Car and Airbnb? We opted for the Car and Airbnb option as we felt it was the best value for money and most importantly the best choice for the dogs and for our piece of mind, that they would have a secure place to stay. That would also give us the opportunity to explore the regions without the fur babies when required.

Stage 1, Townsville QLD- Zilzie QLD (Capricorn Coast), 743 km:

After packing the car including a POD (470 lt) and our 2 bikes on the roof, we started our journey towards the Capricorn Coast. The dogs did really great and way better than expected. They were very chilled out most of the time. We had to stop only once at a truck stop south of Mackay. Just shy 9 hours including our stop and we arrived to Zilzie at the Capricorn Coast.
We used to race Triathlons in Yeppoon a while back and we never really explored the region, that was one of the main reasons we choose this first stop.

We choose our very first AirBnB accommodation ever for our first stop. We have heard mixed reviews about AirBnB accommodations so was not totally confident in what to expect. We had

narrowed our search to an entire house, dogs allowed and close to the beach. Wow, were we ever surprised and impressed with our first stop, The Zilzie More Inn for 4 nights!

The keys were waiting for us in a lock box so super easy check in. Our hosts left us wonderful goodies in a bottle of Villa Maria Sav Blanc, cheese, crackers, chips and everything else we needed stocked as standard in the house. The house was a groovy beach shack with a great veranda with an ocean peek equipped with a comfy day bed, outdoor  dining and BBQ. Inside was a great open kitchen dining and living area. Upstairs were the 2 bedrooms. 1 for our clothes and 1 for us :-) You could hear the ocean all day and night. Music to our ears! The dogs had a fully fenced back yard to run around in but were mostly too tired after our very long beach walks so they slept a lot on the deck. Kobi loved to lie on the veranda with the wind blowing through his fur. Both Lani and Kobi were in heaven! We were only a short 2 minute walk to our very own beach. Almost no one  ever there so had it for ourselves most of the time.

We explored lots of other beaches in the area too. All were amazing! Miles and Miles of virtually

deserted beach with beautiful water. Mic and I had some great bike riding too. Took a little trip down memory lane and rode to Yeppoon and rode the old 1/2 Ironman course. Last time I raced there is when I tore my hamstring off my pelvis. The memories were bitter sweet but despite that, the ride was epic and so happy to be riding some different roads outside of Townsville. There were even hills!!

Very sad to see that the Capricorn Resort was closed a few years back, but great to hear as well that it has been purchased by some investors who want to to revive the complex. Yeppoon and the coast up toward Emu park has developed nicely without becoming too Gold Coast like. The new Lagoon in Yeppoon is absolutely gorgeous and coastal towns like Townsville should use it as an example how to attract more tourists and keep the locals happy.
If you want a great coffee and snack in Yeppoon stop at Lure Living Cafe. The Mexican/vegetarian Sweet potato fries were really amazing:-)

We definitely liked our stay at the More Inn and at the Capricorn Coast and we might come back for more on the way back in February.

Our next stop: Peregian Beach, Sunshine Coast

Laguna Beach, California US, October 2018

On our way back from Mexico and before starting the long haul back to Australia, we stopped for 1 night in Laguna Beach California. We stayed at a small Boutique Hotel called Casa Laguna.
We booked one of taste full furnished Deluxe Ocean View rooms situated at the crest of the property overlooking the small gardens and the Pacific Ocean. The staff was very helpful with the luggage and also in organizing a little fridge for the room needed to keep Sherry's medication cold.

We arrived in time to enjoy a splendid sunset accompanied by a snack and a Peach Bellini.

 

The hotel is situated a few kilometers away from the center of Laguna Beach and 10 min walking distance from the beach. If you don't want to walk there is a trolley bus available (stops in front of the hotel).

We had Dinner at the Wine Gallery, just a short stroll away. The Restaurant  offers cheese & salami boards, bruschetta, small plates, pizza and more to complement the outstanding wine selections. (Gluten Free options available). The service was great and the Manager Andrew was very knowledgeable with the wine suggested.

Our flight back to Australia wasn't scheduled till later in the evening of the next day. That gave us the opportunity to explore the neighborhood  including Victoria Beach and Vasmos Beach. Laguna Beach is definitely a very wealthy place with some impressive mansions overlooking the Pacific Ocean . 

If you are visiting go check out the Montage Resort and go for lunch to the Mosaic Bar overlooking Treasure Island Beach.

It was our second time in Laguna Beach and at Casa Laguna. We definitely like the place and we will be back again.