Easter Roadtrip!

With Easter weekend approaching I was feeling a little bit sad that we wouldn't get to spend it with family back home. I was also sad because, after looking high and low, we could not find mini eggs anywhere in Sydney! It was the best surprise to receive a package from my mom with a nice little note, and a whole lot of mini eggs! To celebrate, I baked an Easter cake and decorated it with some of them. Thanks mom!

While we couldn't spend time with family, we decided to do the next best thing, and spend the weekend with friends. Five Canadians (including Kurtis and I) set out on the Thursday before Easter on our first road trip in Australia! We started our weekend off in Newcastle. This was my first hostel stay ever, and all in all, it was fine... well, apart from the odd stain on my sheets. At first I was really nervous about leaving our stuff in a shared room, but after meeting the 3 other people in the room I was ok. The two guys were from Canada (one from Kelowna and the other from Vancouver), and the girl who accompanied them was from Maryland, where we vacationed a few times growing up! They were really nice and had their stuff all over the room, so I figured our overnight bags would be just fine, and they were.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to our final destination: Port Macquarie. We met up with five other friends for a weekend of exploring. The first thing we did was head out for a rainforest walk. We had a volunteer guide: a friendly older man who knew all there was to know about the plant and animal life in the rainforest. I was amazed at the strangler figs! When the seeds of a fig are dropped by a bird onto a tree, they take over a host tree by spreading their roots all around it. Over a long period of time the host tree eventually dies, and all that remains is the fig tree. It's a beautiful phenomenon to see. 

Kurtis was trailing a bit behind the group, when we heard him yell, "snake!" I couldn't help but laugh, because of course the person who has the biggest phobia of snakes would be the one to see one! We all stopped to watch the snake from the safety of the boardwalk. We weren't sure what kind of snake it was, though the guide thought it might be a red-bellied black snake (not poisonous!) As it turned out that was the only animal we spotted on our walk, apart from the wild turkey running around the parking lot! We also saw a stuffed bird inside the information centre (the green one in the photo). This is a "catbird" and gets it's name from the awful sound it makes - like a cat in distress or a baby crying. It just so happens that one of these birds lives right outside my window, and now I know the culprit!

Our next big event was to drive into a nearby valley to a vineyard. There was live jazz being performed and we sat and relaxed, picnic style, with cheese, crackers and olives, while listening to the music. There was a really neat hedge maze there that kids could run through. The area was peaceful and beautiful and it was really neat to see how they grow the grapes.

On Sunday, while we were driving to go go-karting, I was enjoying the views of the area, when all of a sudden I saw it! I tried to tell the rest of the car, but I was so excited I could barely get the words out: "A...is it? It's a... KANGAROO! " My first wild kangaroo sighting!!! Unfortunately we were driving by and I didn't get a chance to snap a photo, but it was so cool to see the kangaroo grazing in the field - just like deer or elk! There was actually a few of them all sitting together, and as we drove we got to see many more in the fields.

Our final weekend event was go-karting! All ten of us were zipping around the track, along with some kids who were spinning out all over the place - yikes! Around and around we went, and while it was fun, I think that going fast in a little car is not my very favourite activity... Kurtis loved it though, so that's good!

Port Macquarie was a really beautiful place to stay and we had lots of fun while we were there. The best part of the weekend was getting out of the city and seeing another part of Australia, and of course spending time with new friends! Now that we've ventured out we are excited to plan our next road trip!