In and around Coffs Harbour

On 14.12., so last Wednesday, we drove from our rest area towards Coffs Harbour in the morning. Just before the city, there was an amusement park called 'The Big Banana', where you could play mini golf, summer toboggan, slide down water slides, ice skate, go to the theater and play laser tag. Very diverse! We stopped there and treated ourselves to a game of mini golf. We hadn't done that in ages and we felt like it! For German standards, the $12 per person for one game were quite expensive, but we considered it a normal price and since we are currently not spending money on accommodation, we treated ourselves. The courses were quite squeezed together in a small space and more like a miniature golf with grass, water and sand holes than the case with German mini golf courses. That's why the individual courses were not as diverse, but it was still fun. Andi even managed to score a hole-in-one twice and I only needed one stroke at least once. But there were also holes where we scored 6 points :D So all in all, an interesting game and in the end, the 18th and last hole was decisive for the victory. I reached the goal with 2 strokes while Andi didn't hit it at all and received 6 points. So, I won with a lead of 3 points. Wuhuu!!

After mini golf, we drove a bit further south along the coast and wanted to stop at Sapphire Beach. But unfortunately, we somehow couldn't find it and ended up at Bells Beach, a neighboring beach. There were beautiful colorful stones on the beach and we took a little walk and some photos.

After the experiences in the morning, we drove to the botanical garden directly in Coffs Harbour for lunch. It's called 'North Coast Regional Botanic Garden' and is located in a bend of the Coffs Creek, so it is surrounded by water from 3 sides, just like the botanical garden in Brisbane. In the garden, we found a picnic table and ate our leftovers from the day before, surrounded by a naturally maintained forest and mangroves by the water. After that, we went back to the small café at the entrance of the botanical garden and got ice cream. Actually, it was only supposed to be for the winner of the mini golf match, but I didn't want to be stingy and allowed Andi to have some ice cream too.

With the ice cream, we strolled through the garden, looked at some flowers, and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere. The park there was really a beautiful botanical garden with many different areas and old plants! The glasshouses with the bromeliads, orchids, and cacti were a special highlight. It just looked amazing.

At the herb garden, one of the gardeners even took a photo of us. As soon as you are traveling in pairs and one is taking a photo of the other, you are immediately asked if you want a picture together. That's always really nice and we have only declined once so far, at the Mini Farmers Market in Ballina, because a posing photo would have been exaggerated :D

After the Botanic Garden, we briefly drove to the harbor of Coffs Harbour and checked out the beach there, but the wind was quite strong and we preferred to continue to the library. When the library closed, we went shopping and then drove to our overnight spot in Macksville, 60km away. This time it was the parking lot of a gas station in the middle of the city because there were unfortunately no other free spots. A consolation was that we could shower for free and there was a nice park next door for dinner, where we could watch a bunch of birds. Unfortunately, it was quite loud at night and Andi could hardly sleep. On the other hand, I strangely slept really well :D

The next morning, there was the surprise that the toilets (and thus the showers) were closed because there were problems with the drainage. We had to go to a portable toilet next to all the trucks... For breakfast, we then drove to a park next to the Nambucca River because we thought it would be quieter there. Unfortunately, they started to lift and load the precast parts of a jetty out of the water just as we wanted to have breakfast, so it was noisy again. We really had no luck. But what can you do, so we just finished breakfast and then threw ourselves into the day. And there should be something really great to see!