Day 32 - 4/10/22 - Port Macquarie to Sydney

Final day of thre trip! Return to Sydney, unpack the van, drop it back to Taren Point & then drive home again - whew, what a big day fo finish!

We had an AWESOME time! It was better than we could have hoped. It was great to see so many new places and enjoy some great experiences, but the best part by far was spending time together. This is a trip that Taemar, Eva, Pippen and myself will remember fondly for a long time!

6,067km - the total distance of our trip!

Pippen in her standard travelling spot in the van

Dee Why - home again!

Day 31 - 3/10/22 - Port Macquarie

A walk on the dog beach at lighthouse beach, cofee & cake at the Bittersweet cafe (amazing range of treats!), a visit to the shops in town for Aela & Eva, and more food & drinks in the evening with great friends - a pretty good way to spend the last full day of our trip!

Bittersweet cafe

Love the Stick+Ball library at the dog beach at Lighthouse Beach!

Van on holiday (Lighthouse Beach)

House at Lighthouse Beach

Van on Holiday, Part Macquarie Town Beach

Day 30 - 2/10/22 - Tiona to Port Macquarie

after a morning walk on the beach behind the Tiona park, we headed back up the highway to Port Macquarie to stay with Sean & Karen. This wasn't the original plan but a combination of factors led us to this change:

1. We didn't spend anywhere near enough time with Sean & Karen yesterday
2. We didn't get to see Aela who was away on a trip in Tenterfield performing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
3. Parramatta made the Grand Final (Sean's team) and the game was on today
4. The Tiona Park wasn't as great as we expected, plus the internet was virtually non-existent and watching the Grand Final at all was going to be a challenge
5. Predicted rain that would make the Tiona park quite wet

What a great decision! We had a great day & evening. Unfortunately Parramatta was outclassed and poor Karen was quite sick, but we had a very enjoyable day including playing many games of cornhole with Sean and his mates from Baseball, plus living vicarously through the guys and their multi bets on the Grand Final!

Cocktails were required, of course!

Pippen in Archie's bed!

Beach at Tiona

Day 29 - 1/10/22 - Woolgoolga to Tiona

Woolgoolga to Tiona. Tiona (near Forster) was the park we were going to stay on our very first night of this trip, but due to the very wet weather we went inland to Orange instead. So we finally made it to Tiona for our last stop on this trip (so we thought) and it was a wet & rainy day anyway, although nowhere near as bad as what it would have been at the start of our trip!

We went for a walk to the Headland and stopped for breakfast at Bluebottles Brasserie for brekky which was a lovely start to the day.

We also popped in to see Sean & Karen in Port Macquarie on the way and it was great to catch up with them although it was far too short a time!

Tiona by the lake

Tiona - "Green Cathederal" with a photobomber!

Green Cathederal

We just missed a wedding of some quite interesting folks at the Green Cathederal

Camp Fashion by Mike Handes

Tiona - very tight camp sites and this was site 2 as site 1 was impossible to fit our van

Woolgoolga lighthouse art on a wet & windy morning

Day 28 - 30/9/22 - Sandalwood to Woolgoolga (Woopi)

Travelled the fairly short distance to Woolgoolga where I was dropped at the Golf course to play 18 holes - it was very windy and I put my rain jacket on 5 times!

The shipwreck is visible at the moment on the beach right out the front of our caravan park.

The weather has turned cold and rainy - really our first period of wet weather on this trip, so no outside fire tonight!

Day 27 - 29/9/22 - Tweed Heads to Sandalwood

Travelled back to Sandalwood where we stayed earlier in our trip. It's a great park and we really enjoyed another night outside under the stars with a fire.

On the way to Sandalwood we stopped in at a few spots along the way:

• Byron Bay where the ladies enjoyed some shopping at the fancy and the Hippy Dippy shops
• Zentfeld's Coffee Farm & Roastery. They grow coffee on their farm and have been since 1989 - best coffee in Byron!
• Duck Creek Macadamias because you can't have enough chocolate coated macadamias!
• Harvest Newrybar for lunch and coffee
• Patchs Dog Beach - Pippen's favourite beach for running crazy all over the place!

Zentfeld's Coffee Farm & Roastery

Pippen at Patchs Beach

Day 26 - 28/9/22 - Toowoomba to Tweed Heads

 We went to the Japanese Gardens in Toowoomba and then back to Queens Parks gardens to see the flower display in the daytime. We then pushed on to Tweed Heads.

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Day 6 - 8/9/22 - Crystal Castle Adventure

Written by Eva Handes

We stopped at Crystal Castle on our way to Byron to take in the sights.

Mum and I explored the gardens and wonders, which included multiple beautiful statues, a bamboo walking trail, an entirely hand-planted forest walk and a massive Buddha statue.

We also got to enjoy a beautiful crystal intention meditation and sound cleansing, as well as a wonderful cafe and bookstore filled with delicious food and knowledge.

Finally, we marvelled at the stunning amethyst geodes, caves, statues, and carvings. All of the paths and tables were lined with rose quartz. The workers at the crystal shop were lovely and helpful, willing to share all of their knowledge to assist you.

We discovered that the entire experience was soul cleansing and healing; anyone interested in magical, beautiful, or educational sites should definitely go.

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