Picture shows funky dinasaur exhibit at the Brisbane Modern Art Gallery

More pics can be seen in Google Pics; https://goo.gl/photos/Fh1JzRiLnsHQT8cC8

Leaving Katoomba in the Blue Mountains we had a long drive; almost all the way back into Sydney and then up the east coast to Coffs Harbour.

We’d actually requested a small rental car but had been given a big green monster – however it turned out to be a good thing as we had a comfortable ride.
The Pacific Highway was a little disappointing as it runs up the coast just inland, with few views of the sea. We did turn off to look at various places – in particular that well-known surf spot, Byron Bay. Fabulous beaches for sure!

We stopped for a couple of days in Coffs Harbour, a touristy town with a lovely sandy estuary. Another overnight stop was Mermaid Beach, where we discovered we’d driven back into an earlier time zone and we gained an hour’s rest on arrival! From there we drove into Brisbane and dropped our car off.

What struck us about Brisbane is that it’s a lovely clean city, at least the parts we saw. We made use of the free hop on/hop off ferry to see the sights along the river and again wandered around the cool interior of the Modern Art Gallery.

We’d managed to book a ‘suite’ in an ‘apart-hotel’ at a reasonable price, so we had a small kitchenette where Kit cooked a lovely curry! ..and the hotel had a pool so I was happy!

Soon it was time to leave Australia and fly to New Zealand for the second part of our Antipodean trip!

We’d enjoyed seeing the southeast ‘corner’ of Australia, although of course it IS only a small part of such a large country. I guess younger people will fall in love with the surf beaches on the east coast, but we’d particularly loved the Great Ocean Road with its wonderful rugged coastline.