Wandering Coffs bluffs and the road to Newcastle

DAY 14
Location: Coffs Harbour/Newcastle
Temp: 20 C
Weather: Beautiful clear morning, to rainy afternoon.
Activities: Walk to Muttonbird Island, and another long bus ride
Accommodation: YHA Newcastle

I got up late in attempt to recover from the evening prior but remembered I still needed to check out. It was 8:30 a.m. and I woke my roommates, my two new French friends, just before 9 to give them a running start as well. I packed up and went to the kitchens to eat where I ran into my Japanese friend and we ate breakfast together. I now had toast and he shared his butter and milk. These guys, they were just so great!! I gave them some momentos from Hawaii and they loved them.

I gave my friends hugs and said I hoped to see them in the islands someday before going to check out.

Thank God I had the milk because I went on quite a walk to Muttonbird Island on the far end of Coffs Harbour. The morning was beautiful and I wasn't about to waste this little blessing after the inclement weather yesterday. So I took off down the road around 9:30 a.m. or so, walked through the park, over the Coffs Stream, through the south part of the park and through the boating harbor to the island. The ascent was pretty verticle but manageable and I walked over this narrow brick trail hunting for Shearwater birds, only to learn they'd all gone for the year. But the whales would be here instead. I followed the path until it ended on the very eastern end of the island in an overlook. I watched the waves crash on the rocks awhile before going to sit on the bench and debate whether to buy lunch here or get it somewhere during the bus ride at 2:00 p.m.

I spotted a puff white over the sea in the distance and there were whales breaching out there! They were breaching like crazy! Every few seconds I'd see a body and a splash of white. It was neat to watch even though it was a little hard to see since they were so far out. I frowned on a fishing boat spying the commotion and arcing toward the gentle giants. I headed up and out of the island then and back on the far side I saw the boat had reached the spot the whales were playing, but the whales were no longer breaching. So fishing boat, take a cue and leave the whales alone--you ruined their fun with your noisy dingy.

I wandered back and at around 1:20 p.m. I popped into the reception to see if the man in charge was ready to take me back to the bus station. He told me to come back in 15 minutes and I went to the restaurant in the corner where I asked the girl at the counter if she could have a meal out in short order. When did I have to leave? I had 10 minutes to eat lunch. Yeah, I knew it was impossible, but she stopped me and pulled a chicken parmigini off the line and pushed it into my hands where I thanked her profusely for allowing me to cut ahead of the waiting lunch pack like that.

I tucked in to my meal, grateful to eat something instead of hoping for the best and cleaned my plate. Then I headed back to reception where Frank was ready and out we went to the stop. I inquired a bit about the money woes he seemed to be having and he told me about his grand designs for the Howie Mowie. I'm not normally all that interested in business, but his ideas were fascinating.

I thanked Frank for the ride because it was pretty far from the hostel and lugged my things down the walk to drop them next to the other backpacker waiting for the bus. It had been late yesterday, it certainly would be again today. And it was by 45 minutes. But I was fed and made a friend, so I'm not complaining.

The bus was supposed to show at 2, it came at 2:45 p.m. and we piled in for the long haul to Newcastle due to arrive at 9:10 p.m. We stopped at a BP for a dinner break and I got a burger. I just wanted some meat to tide me over to tomorrow, and I sat down with my friend from the bus stop to eat where a new girl joined us and I discovered we were both going to the same hostel. Sweet! I didn't have to walk Newcastle alone at night!

Despite the delay, we actually reached Newcastle on time and didn't quite know which way to go. I went over to some backpackers down the way to ask directions and they pointed us down one street. My Netherland friend and I went that way and could not find the street, but some guy walking up the street asked us if we were lost and led us to a hostel on Pacific St, where I knew the hostel was located. But we went in and the guy at the counter said this was not the YHA and directed us a little further up the street. We finally found it, yay! Normally I would have been agitated by the whole thing, but I just rolled with it, surprised and happy to have received so much willing help.

This YHA is cool! It's like this old English style school building! I was supposed to be in a 6-share, but got upgraded to a 4--and there's NO one here but me! I might actually have the place to myself tonight. Yeah! I'm really excited to check out Newcastle tomorrow. I'm glad I cleared up some time in my schedule to get a rough n' tough idea of the place before hitting Sydney.

Coffs Harbour harboring my friends

DAY 13
Location: Byron Bay/Coffs Harbour
Temp: 10 C
Weather: Rainy
Activities: Making new friends
Accommodation: Howie Mowie

A bitter cold morning in Byron Bay made for a slow checkout, but I got up early enough to catch the first morning shuttle to town at 8:30 a.m. so I could visit the Travel Bugs conveniently located across from the bus stop!

Happily chewing up the hour or so wait for the bus online, I skipped right back out again to make the 10:40 a.m. bus to Coffs Harbour which would arrive at 2 p.m.

The nasty weather chased us all the way down the coast and it was rainy and cold in Coffs too which didn't bode well for much exploration. Our bus was also late, dumping us off at 2:30, so none of the shuttles were around to get us. And since we were behind schedule, we never stopped for a break to grab lunch or anything, so I was absolutely starving by this point. I went up to the information station on the corner and got bounced by this old Aussie codger who more or less told me to shut up, sit down and wait, the shuttles would be there. Sheesh, easy guy! Too much to ask for a ring just to be sure?

But the shuttles did appear and the guy actually in charge of the hostel was the one who picked me up, drove me to see the local sites, checked me in, and showed me to my room. Talk about service. I dropped my things and teetered over whether to walk the 10 minutes to the Woolworth for food or just eat now because I'd suffered on the bus ride there, my stomach was very unhappy. I snagged the last of my emergency noodle stash and went to the kitchens to prepare a late lunch.

My decision was instantly rewarded. Check this out.

A small group of folks sat jamming around one computer in the kitchen and I announced myself by asking if this was indeed the kitchen. They all replied in the affirmative and I went about cooking up my last saimin. My first snag struck when the stove didn't light--but one of the girls lent me her lighter and I got a fire going! It was apparently her birthday and she wanted to do something exciting, but the weather was misbehaving. The boys suggested she skinny dip in the ocean and she refused as it was cold. I laughed along over my cooking and the group took notice as I brought my bowl over to eat.

"You hungry?" The big New Zealander said. Yes, I was! And he left and came back with sausages, bread, and package of noodles. "I'm leaving tomorrow and it'll all just go to waste. You eat it." I was so touched! I tore into the already cooked sausages until I was full, thanked my benefactor profusely,  and we all got to talking the usual hostel exchange. I now had four new friends--one from New Zealand, one from Japan, and two from France. When I belted out some simple conversational French, they both got so excited!

I suggested we go to the mall for something to do and the idea floated. So not long afterward, we wandered the mall I'd intended to run to right away, but I went in a car with four new friends. We spent about an hour there before returning to play several rounds of card games with a five liter box of wine. I'm happy to report I learned a fun new card game gambling on ace "horses." It was so much fun. We ate carrots, again because our Kiwi was leaving, ordered a pizza, and just had good times all around!

We debated on all going to a club, but the group dispersed somewhat and I hung back to shower and get some sleep.

It proved to be quite a night!