Our road trip to the Gold Coast

Travelling around, even just in Australia, during the Covid-19 era can be a bit unpredictable and you certainly have to be ready to cancel your plans on a short notice. We had a holiday planned to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria back in January but had to cancel due to a recent outbreak and lockdown in the area (as in we couldn’t even enter the state). When we heard that the Brisbane area and all the way south to Byron Bay went into lockdown near this holiday we again thought we would have to cancel… luckily the lockdown was lifted about 10 days before our trip!

Our trip started with a drive to Sydney where we stayed an afternoon/night with family before an early start the following morning. Our first destination was for a lunch stop in Forster but before we sat down for lunch we decided to climb the Cape Hawk lookout for some splendid views of the area, followed it up with some running along the dunes of One Mile Beach and finally sat down for a well deserved lunch!

After lunch we had a short play on the beach (not in the water for once) before we started resuming our trip north, however not before we stopped at the The Coastal Brewing Company to sample some of their products (and get some takeaways for a later date)… because of course we’re stopping at a brewery if it’s along the way 😉

We reached our destination, Coffs Harbour, just after dark so we checked into our accomodation and went out for a meal before driving down to the coast and watching a spectacular lightning show far out at sea. The next morning we made our way onto the Coffs Harbour Jetty, wandered the weekend market and continued our journey north (but not before an obligatory stop at ‘The Big Banana‘ of course).

Our way north took us through Ballina (where we stopped for a quick view of ‘The Big Prawn‘) before we reached Byron Bay and the Cape Byron Lighthouse where we spend some time admiring the views from one of the most easterly points of Australia before heading down for lunch (and a quick drink) at the Stone & Wood Brewery.

The rest of the afternoon we spent at Byron beach where besides some swimming and playing in the sand, Eloise also had a large turtle appear right next to her which was a unexpected but pleasant surprise.

We left Byron Bay late that afternoon and not long after crossed into Queensland where we suddenly found ourselves in some heavy traffic with a couple of very impatient drivers zig zagging through traffic. We eventually made it to our final destination, Hope Island, where we met up with our lovely hosts, Therese and Paul, who we hadn’t seen for quite a while.

Over the next week we hung out, saw the area, visited the theme parks (which we’ve covered here) visited a few breweries, saw some glow worms and just enjoyed our time away. We visited SkyPoint during the day and night where we had some awesome views over Surfers Paradise and also made it up to Tamborine Mountain where we got to see some Glow Worms.

We had a great time on the Gold Coast where we managed to mix meeting friends, relaxing, seeing a few breweries and visiting and fighting through the crowds at the theme parks, however eventually we had to leave and return home… Our trip home included an overnight stay at Port Macquarie, catching up with friends in Newcastle and family in Sydney before arriving back home!

A great time all in all, even though it included a lot of driving, but the kids were very patient and never complained!