On Thursday we will have a long awaited break.
We have a relaxing break planned in Berry, NSW. We passed through Berry on our last road trip over the Christmas break.
We were impressed by this quaint little town and decided we would like to look around a bit further. There is lots to see around Berry. It is just inland of Shoalhaven and Kangaroo Valley is just to the west.
Learn more about this lovely little town here…..http://berry.org.au/
We decided that as we live in a pretty special part of the country, we would stay on the coast for Christmas and spend some time looking around Noosa.
We chose to do the usual “touristy” things – a walk along Hastings Street and then a River Cruise up the Everglades.
We had a relaxing day with a lovely BBQ Lunch. The peace and quiet was broken on the way back into Noosa when we encountered a couple of speed boats.
Throughout 2008 I have been doing a few trips to Yamba for work, so it was a good idea to spend Easter in this gorgeous seaside town and have a look around properly.
For this trip we had a large unit at The Cove Apartments and was a nice surprise to be able to take Mick’s parents away with us.
There was a lot of relaxing and doing”not much” on this break. We took the ferry across to Illuka nd had HUGE hamburgers for lunch.
Each morning we were able to feed the visiting lorikeets.
If you have not been to Yamba, do yourself a favour 🙂
We spent a week in New Zealand to celebrate our daughter’s 21st birthday in September 2007.
We arrived into Auckland and found our accommodation at a self-contained apartment in the centre of Auckland.
We had not been in the apartment long when it got really foggy and we were amazed as a cloud literally went through the building. I was glad that I made hubby quickly close the glass door to keep it out. Even then, we could feel the temperature drop significantly. The fog was so thick we could barely see the building across the road. Thankfully it moved away as quickly as it arrived and the sunshine came out again.
As hubby had not been to Auckland before, I took him for a walk around town and showed him some sites, including a fun afternoon watching penguins at Kelly Tarleton’s
We had a lovely birthday celebration dinner at a local restaurant.
After the celebrations, we had decided to take a 3 night roadtrip from Auckland, up to Dargaville, across to Whangarei then back to Auckland.
In Dargaville, we came across a museum that showed all about the logging history of the area. It reminded us a lot of the history we had seen in Tasmania. Also in the museum is a display of the Indian motorbike that was the “star” of the movie “The Last Indian”
We checked into the local caravan park, where we had booked a cabin and had a look around. In the park, we found a cage with some cute black bunnies. Being Queenslanders we rarely get to see rabbits. We spent a pleasant few minutes feeding them grass and water crackers 🙂
Our caravan park was located on Bailey’s Beach, so we went to have a look.
Bailey’s Beach is a lovely long beach and it was nice walking along it.
Leaving Dargaville, we headed cross country to Whangerei. The paddocks in New Zealand are so lush and green in comparison to our sometimes very dry landscapes. We took this shot of some very content sheep 🙂
From Whangerei we headed south back to Auckland, checked back into the same apartment we had been at earlier, ready for our flight home the next day.
As you may have guessed from out mid-winter Tasmania trip, we both really enjoy cooler climates.
The closest we can get to “cold” is the Queensland town of Stanthorpe in the Granite Belt region.
We have holidayed in this region many times. Sadly, we have not ever had snow (missed out by one year), but we have had good frosts on a number of occasions.
Our favourite cottages to stay in are Accommodation Creek Cottages. and have stayed here a few times.
Here are photos from a few of our winter trips 🙂
1: July 2007
This was our first trip to Stanthorpe and we stayed at the “Apple & Grape” Motel for just 2 nights. We had a lovely crisp weekend as you can see by the frost on the car 🙂
Not far south of Stanthorpe is the Queensland – New South Wales border and the first large town in NSW is Tenterfield, home of the “Tenterfield Saddler” of Peter Allen fame.
We stopped at a park for lunch and saw this ‘weather rock”. 🙂
Of course we could not have spent the weekend in Stanthorpe without the obligatory Wine Cheese and Nibbles 🙂
2: July 2008
We went back to Stanthorpe in July 2008 to another frosty weekend. A cozy fireplace is always a lovely touch.
For the Easter break in 2007 we chose to visit Mackay.
We flew from Brisbane to Mackay – a short 90minute flight, then hired a car for the 4 days.
We had found Ocean Resort Village , a nice little resort with self contained apartments.
It turns out, there is a fair bit to see around Mackay. We took a short drive to Sarina to explore the “Sugar Shed” and learnt a lot about the growing of cane and processing sugar.
To the north of the city is the Mackay Harbour and stretches of wide beaches. From the top of Lamberts Lookout, we got a great view looking south down the beach.
Not far from our cabins was this cute park full of “story book” characters for kids to play in.
On another day we headed inland with the intention to see Finch Hatton Gorge. Unfortunately, the road into the gorge was unsealed dirt road, and not suitable for the small 4cyl hire car we had. Further up the road at the top of the ridge was the historic Eungella Chalet Hotel.
This ridge is also where daredevils with hang gliders throw themselves off the mountain and fly.
Back at the cabins, we were entertained each night by the local possum. We even went shopping especially for fruit to feed him.
We had a lovely 4 days away and really enjoyed Mackay and its surrounds.
