We had split this holiday into two parts, separating this Easter holidays into two different weeks on the road. It possibly wasnāt the best idea heading off on a 3000km roadtrip during an international fuel crisis, but we were determined to get out of Canberra for a while as the weather down here was starting to get colder.
After spending the Thursday getting thing packed up and ready, we set off on Friday morning. For a Good Friday there werenāt a lot of people on the road compared to other Easter travel weāve done. We made it up to Sydney without much issue, stopping in Goulbourn for a stretch and a snack, but we got stuck in the NorthConnex tunnel due to an accident that occurred much further down the freeway. They announced the situation over loudspeakers in the tunnel which was a bit of a surprise. The traffic continued on out of the tunnel and basically all the way to the Hawkesbury River. It was interesting looking out the windows on either side of the car to see other families ticked off and frustrated with the traffic jam. Overall we were stuck in that jam for about an hour, but once we hit the Hawkesbury River Bridge traffic cleared up and we headed down to the Ourimbah rest stop for a small break.
On the road again we continued up through Newcastle without any hassle, and then finally made it to Red Head, just north of Forster. We were visiting Rosieās uncle for Easter and most of that side of the family were coming up as well. Her aunt and uncle had flew over from Perth, and a lot of cousins had come from various places around NSW to catch up over the Easter period.
We got the camper set up in the front driveway of the property. Another family group already had their camper set up a further back. There were a bunch of kids for Ollie to run around with and the weather was lovely. The house itself was set back on a hillside with a great view of the ocean. Dan (Rosieās uncle) was a fantastic host, cooking great dinners for us and opening up his home to everyone in the family. We really appreciated our time there Dan, thank you.
That night the rain came through and stayed for most of that Saturday. The huge family group packed up and headed down to a great little cafƩ nearby for breakfast.
After that Ollie, Rosie and I snuck away into Forster to grab some diesel (just in case) and check out the town. Sadly it was incredibly busy in town with a lot of external visitors heading into town due to the rain.
Back at the house the kids had a go at decorating some chocolate rabbits, and then pretty much everyone had a go at creating some easter themed decorations for the back deck. Ollie and the rest of the kids got gifted some Peter Rabbit PJs. A few games of Uno No Mercy were played inside that afternoon and then again later that night.
That night the Easter bunny visited and managed to sneak a couple of chocolate eggs into Ollieās shoes which immediately woke him up and encouraged him to go searching the camper and house for more eggs. At 5.30am.
The Easter bunny might have gone a bit overboard the night before with hiding several kilos of eggs on the deck and around the garden. The kids had a great time searching for them, though considering we kept on finding new ones over the next couple of days they could have done a better job of searching.
After the sugar rush had died down a bit we headed down to Black Head Beach down the road for a swim and a play with the kids.
Once we were thoroughly waterlogged, salty and sandy, we parked up nearby to check out the Black Head Bazaar, a local market that pops up once a month. We wandered around for a bit and Ollie got a go with the fire hose thanks to the local rural firefighters. He found the horn and scared the hell out of a group of mums nearby.
The kids got reading books from Auntie once we were back at the house (boooo!) and we played a game of Kubb on the back lawn. The rest of the family turned up that night for dinner. It got a bit cold out so the fire pit was lit up and many drinks were consumed.
The next day Rosie had a plan, and despite her second guessing we stuck to the plan. It turned out great. After breakfast we went to her other uncle’s place to check it out and say hi, then headed to The Tanks, a cute little rocky area for swimming in Forster. This turned out great – it’s sheltered enough for kids, but the waves crash over the side rocks and the waves get compressed in the corridor you swim in. Ollie had a great time, but it was a bit cold.
After the swim we headed over to Beach St Fish and Chips for some truly amazing calamari, fish and chips. Highly recommended as a place to visit.
After that plan went well, we headed back to Dan’s place for some relaxing and a bit of sports ball watching in the living room. Expert commentary was provided by the ladies of the house, though the games were both a bit terrible. Dinner was fairly lowkey that night and held indoors as it was chilly again. We played Uno No Mercy, Beanie and Oh Sugar. Ollie and Rosie left early, but the rest of us stayed up drinking wine and playing cards for a good long while.
The next day we packed up, said our goodbyes and headed back onto the road heading north. We stopped in Kew for a bathroom break, but it was tricky to find a park so we didn’t grab breakfast there. We did check out the Big Axe there though. Continuing down the highway, we pulled into Nambucca Heads for a late breakfast at Wharf St Cafe.
The food was pretty good, then it was back on the road again to continue north. Just short of Coffs Harbour we called into the Coffs Harbour Butterfly House (at Rosie’s insistence). This was a good little break, though it wasn’t cheap. There were butterflies and a live ‘dinosaur’ show that Ollie enjoyed. All in all it breaks up a long car trip, so we recommend it.
We kept heading up north before pulling off just short of Yamba to head into the Yaraygir National Park. We’d been lucky and booked a spot at the Grey Cliff Campground there. Pulling in the site was a little sloped and tucked to the side of the road, but we levelled off the camper and got set up without any issues.
It was hot and humid, so we all headed down to the beach afterwards to check out the surf and explore a bit. The beach was really cool, with rough surf and a lot of polished stones about. Once the sun went down it got cold fast, so we headed back to the camper.
Dinner that night was (I’m told) a traditional ‘girl dinner’, including sausage, roast potatos, salsa, tuna, cabanossi and biscuits. It was pretty good. That night I insisted on a fire which keep the cold away and was a good way to de-stress after a full on Easter with a lot of family.
The next morning we woke up early. There was a lot of dew and sea spray on the camper, so we took our time packing up to let as much of it dry off. We even got a bit of an explore in that morning. Overall it was quite a nice campsite, and the on site caretakers made sure there were no loud or obnoxious campers in the area.
Back on the road we headed up north, stopping at the Ballina truckstop for a very expensive fuel stop. After a pie and a bit of breaky we kept travelling, stopping just over the QLD border for a stretch and some Subway for lunch.
We kept travelling straight past Brisbane and Sunshine Coast until we finally made it back to Hervey Bay around 5pm where we were welcomed by my parents and told we immediately had to head back out into town to catch up with my cousin that was leaving town the next day.
We ended up having fish and chips in Hervey Bay on the esplanade and it was good to catch up with everyone. Then, after a long day and quite a big drive, we headed back to sleep.
Not much happened the next day. Ollie spent a lot of time in the pool, we played some cards with my family, we opened the camper to let it fully dry out just in case. Generally, it was a chill day and a well deserved break.
The day after our little family snuck away for a cheeky breakfast out, then we headed to the beach for a bit of a swim. The weather was great and the water was quite warm, but we noticed that we were getting itchy and sore in places so we got out of the water pretty quick. It turns out ‘sea lice’ were in the area, and while they weren’t that painful they were uncomfortable. So we rinsed off and headed back for some more time hanging around the house and chilling. That evening a friend of my parents came over and we had a few drinks on the back veranda for some drinks and conversations.
The rest of the trip was more of the same. We had a child-free dinner at the Boat Club with my dad which was good fun. Rosie and I both worked remotely from my parents house for the entire week while my mum and dad looked after Ollie. He had a ball. We had booked him into some intensive swimming lessons each day, and then after that he had a different activity planned. He went to the movies, went fishing, went to a water park. Honestly it was a little discouraging after 8 hours working inside and then hearing all the cool stuff he got to do.
On the Tuesday night Rosie headed out for a girls movie night, seeing the movie Deb at the cinema. They were the only people in the entire cinema (popular movie), and after enough wine they were mucking up and posing in front of the screen.
Rosie and I got away for one night during the week as well, leaving Ollie with my parents and heading into Hervey Bay for an evening. We had a great time even if we did have to get back to work in the morning. On the final night with my folks we went out for Thai at a local restaurant.
On Friday, after work finished we said goodbye to my parents and headed back down south. We had a quick easy run down to the Sunshine Coast where we caught up with some good friends and stayed the night at their place. The next morning, we said goodbye and continued down south. Once were over the border we stopped for some food in Billinudgel, just north of Brunswick Heads. Here we enjoyed some fantastic Mexican food at a place called Rosefinas. Highly recommended if you’re out that way, it’s just off the highway.
We kept travelling after lunch and made it to our overnight caravan park in Emerald Beach. After setup we had a wander on the beach in the late afternoon. It was a lovely place, and very quiet as well.
That night we slept well until our neighbours packed up and left at 5.15am. We packed up at a much more reasonable 8.30am, and made it to Uranga by 9.30 for breakfast. Rosie found an amazing place called Anchors Wharf Cafe & Restaurant. Hands down the best meal of the trip for me with a great breakfast combo.
After checking out a boardwalk and park we filled up with fuel and headed back on the road. After a fairly easy run and a basic roadside lunch we made it to our last overnight location in Port Stephens.
This place was well off the highway, and on a Sunday night was quite dead. Our original location was too close to a nearby camper, so we asked the front desk to move us to site 6 well away from everyone. We’d got there relatively early in the afternoon, so after setting up we had a bit of time chilling out and snacking.
The next day we packed up for the final time, got back in the car and had a relatively boring and uneventful drive back down to Canberra from there.
All up we were away for over two weeks and we enjoyed all of it. Working from QLD for a week was a novel experience – with a built-in babysitter and pool in the backyard it was a great way to spend a week of the school holidays.
A big thank you to my parents for looking after Ollie while we were up in HB, and thanks again to Dan for inviting us to his house over Easter.
Boring technical stuff that Rosie very rarely reads
We managed to travel 3000 kilometres smack in the middle of a worldwide fuel crisis caused by an orange convicted felon attacking another country. It wasn’t so bad though – despite what the media was saying, diesel was still quite plentiful at least along the east coast. It was certainly more expensive though, with the highest we paid for fuel being $3.33 per litre in Ballina ($231 total to fill up that stop). As we were coming back down south fuel prices were dropping though, with our last fill up of the trip costing $2.91 per litre.
This was the first big trip we’ve done with the Amarok towing instead of the van. It went very well. It was strange not having to fill up so regularly; with an 80 litre tank we were getting almost double the distance the Delica would get us towing (600km vs 300km). Fuel use for the trip was about 13L/100km, while the same trip for the van would be around 16 to 18 L per 100km. That said, with diesel being so expensive it was a bit of a toss up on which car to take on this trip. The Amarok has more power and the cruise control is much better, but the van has a bit more room and seems to be a little more comfortable for the driver over long distances.
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