We are into our third day at Korora Village Resort and enjoying the downtime.  The resort is nice and the room has been newly updated, including large flat screen TV, Bosch appliances and a very comfortable king size bed.  We have met a lot of people at the resort including a couple from Summerland.  Our plan is to lay low for the remaining 4 days before heading ot our next resort in Cararra. 

We are getting conflicting reports on whether to go as far as Cairns.  It is a long drive north and from what we have heard so far, not a lot to see on the way up.  This of course brings back memories of the Murray River!!  I guess we will have a little time to ponder this over the next 10 days.  If we had to do it over again, we would have flown into Melbourne and back home from Cairns.  That would have eliminated the 2700 km return to Sydney, covering the same territory back tracking.  That being said, we may find a jewel that we would like to return to and therefore all would not be in vain.  Time will tell!

The drive from Macquarie to Coff's Harbour was a short one with a few detours.  We stopped at South West Rocks, a neat little town with a beautiful Lighthouse and park where we stopped for another lunch on the ocean.  From there we headed directly to our timeshare (thanks to Mel & Larry) for one week of luxury R&R!!  The resort is situated in a quiet residential area just minutes from Coff's and minutes from the beach.  We are definitely going to enjoy our week here.

We spent another great day in Port Macquarie, up at the crack of dawn for a morning run.  The morning was hot and looked like it could be a "Blue Blazer".  We packed a lunch and headed for Flynn's Beach, another beach within walking distance.  Spent 2 hours watching the surfers and people walking the beach.  Looks like schools offer the kids surfing lessons.  At 1 pm, the buses rolled in and the kids were frantically grabbing surf boards that were lined up along the rail and running for the water.  It looked pretty organized and that is one thing you come to realize when travelling this country, everything appears to be very structured.  It appears the lessons carried through for the rest of the day as we left at 3 pm and they were still going strong.  They sure didn't offer activities when I went to school.  If so, maybe I would have attended classes more often!!  Not to put a downer on things, but the last couple of days, Leslie and I have both noticed large dorcel fins about 200-500 yards from the beach, sometimes appearing very close to the surfers and swimmers.  We are hoping these are dolphins and not what I think they are.  Like I always say, I would sooner be attacked by a "Cougar" at the pool bar as opposed to a shark in the deep blue!!!

Tonight is schnitzel night at a few of the local restaurants and I just happen to love wiener schnitzel. 

Touring around Port Macquarie, spent the morning at the beach, lunch at Finnian's Pub, visited the Koala Hospital, very interesting and heartbreaking at the same time.  Great Day but still raining a bit.

Yesterday the drive from Sydney to Karuah was another long one.  Not much to see and once again, we encountered some pretty shabby accommodation on route and of course, at premium pricing.  After checking out numerous digs, we ended up travelling off the beaten track to the small town of Karuah and stayed at the Karuah Motor Inn, an older but updated unit.  The place was spotless, the price was reasonable and the service great!  Over the past two weeks, I have been tempted on more than one occasion to call our good friend Nancy at Trilogy to see what's available for April & May, but then Leslie sets me straight and puts me in my place.  It's a good thing because we always seem to score another great experience to counter the not so great. 

I firmly believe our luck has changed now that we have reached beach country along the East Coast.  Our first stop was Port Macquarie and we are booked into the Beachport B & B for the next 4 days.  It is a great little spot run by Paul & Tricia.  Paul is a real character and upon our arrival, he informed us that he just got back from buying a new LARGE flat screen TV after reading my blog on the Guest House.  For those that have seen our TV, this should provide you a good laugh!!  Rained a bit this afternoon, story of our lives.  If hotel/motel owners keep reading my blogs they may start banning us.  The media keeps promising us the weather is changing for the better but we will believe it when we see it.  Paul tells us that Shelly Beach is comprable to any of the top beaches in Australia.  You can even ride camels on the beach if you so desire.  Sounds like fun, maybe Leslie will give it a go!

After months of anticipation, my introduction to Sydney was a bit of a let down.  The weather wasn't great and that may have had something to do with it, but day one did not do much for me!  Darling Harbour was littered with "tacky tourist boats, most of them sitting idle waiting for the throng of tourists which didn't materialize, at least on that day.  Leslie & I have been commenting since we set foot on Australian soil, how clean the country is, I meant spotless!  Sydney...NOT SO MUCH!  Lots of gang graffiti, much like we witnessed in parts of Europe.  We walked the streets of the city and again not overly impressed.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

DAY 2...My tour guide got my bones out of bed at 7 am and by 8:30, we were on the train heading toward the harbour again.  Manley Harbour was our first destination.  We purchased an all inclusive day pass which gave you as many ferries as you could handle and unlimited use of the transit system.  Manley Bay was spectacular!  Thousands for locals and tourists took to the pristine beaches on a gorgeous, sunny day.  Surfing competitions, scuba lessons for anyone interested, surfing and swimming lessons.  It was truly amazing to see everyone having such a great time.  The beaches were everything we thought they would be and more.  Spent about 3 hrs there and then came back to the city where Leslie the tour guide walked my but off once again!!  It really was a great day but I think 2 days in the big city was enough for both of us.  On to the Gold Coast and some R & R.  We have two one week time shares booked for the next 3 weeks and it will be great to be settled in one spot for more than a day.

The past two days in Katoomba and the surrounding area have been fantastic.  Weather today was beautiful but calling for rain again tomorrow.  We are off to Sydney for two days tomorrow and are really looking forward to that.

We checked out of the nightmare "Kurrara Guest House" at the earliest hour!  It was pouring rain, cold and miserable just to add to the ambience.  As you can probably tell by this point, our trip to the South Pacific has been less then stellar thus far.  Me made up our mind to book some timeshare resorts along the Gold Coast & Sunshine Coasts for the duration of our stay.  Just cannot take the daily surprises anymore.  We drove to a couple of libraries to get some free wifi but drove for an hour to various libraries and most were closed on Wednesday and the ones that were open did not have internet, the first location we have travelled where libraries did not have free internet service.

About noon the clouds started to break and we decided we would try to stick around Katoomba and see the sites, Three Sister's, Giant Stairway, Wentworth Falls, Leura, Echo Point Lookout and a few more tourist traps.  Just when we were giving up hope in finding decent lodging in the smaller centres, we stumbled upon the 3 Explorers Motel.  Sounds suspect but we were very pleasantly surprised.  The rooms were updated, spotless, free wireless, and hot breakfast and they actually appreciated your business.  Our previous attempt after leaving the Guest House was the Katoomba Town Centre Motel, where owner/operator basically told us to "take off", she was too busy to deal with us and has bus loads of tourists coming today so she really didn't care about our business.  

The decision to stick around was well worth it as the sites were spectacular.  We met an English couple next door and shared a few coctails on the patio.  Their feelings about Australia were pretty much on par with ours and Hugh complained that the prices on everything were outrageous.  Can you imagine a "Brit" saying that, considering the costs in England, which we know only too well.  

Looking forward to another day in Katoomba before heading to Sydney tomorrow morning.
   

This is starting to feel like the sequel to Planes Trains & Automobiles.  Another very eventful day!  It started out great with Garry, owner of the Anchor Bay Motel in Greenwell Point giving us a route to follow that will take us through Kiama (beautiful), Wollongong (got a flat tire), another beautiful spot, Picton (crapper), Camden (nice) and finally to our resting spot at the Kurrara Guest House in Katoomba, the biggest S.H. we have ever stayed in.  We booked the accommodation on wotif.com (a very popular website down under) and gave them a 9 pm arrival.  We even upgraded to the superior model to get the flat screen tv, which Leslie initially thought was a computer monitor and it didn't work.  When we arrived the street was pitch black, NO SIGN, no lights on at the guest house which made it virtually impossible to find.  We fluked out by pulling into a driveway which was occupied with a number of vehicles and thought this must be the place.  I almost killed myself fumbling around in the dark, trying to get access to the place and finally found an open door. 

By now, you must think Glen is the BIGGEST WHINER on earth!!  I am telling you, in the 35 years Leslie and I have travelled the globe, I have never experienced more S.H. accommodations at the most exorbitant prices you have ever seen.  It feels like we continue to get reamed every day and both of us are growing a little tired.  We pay $85/nt for this dump and on the weekend we are staying at the Marriott in Sydney for $125/nt....GO FIGURE!   That is just what we have been encountering out here.  We have made a decision to book a number of time share getaways for the major portion of the remaining trip and this should be a whole lot better.  We have already booked 7 days at a very nice resort in Coff's Harbour, which is supposedly an amazing place.  On the weekend, we will try to plan the remainder of the trip and book accordingly.  Hopefully this will all but eliminate the "Bates Motel Syndrome"!!  The drive through the Blue Mountains to our precious guest house was quite impressive.  You are in the hinterlands but there are some huge shacks going up along the route.  They are upgrading the highway to 4 lanes and the train access looks pretty amazing.  We will be checking out of this dump first thing in the morning and try to find another hotel or motel in the area.  Things appear to still be extremely busy here even though we have apparently passed peak season.

For those of you that followed our European tour in 2007, you probably gather by now that we much prefer travelling in Europe...so far!  I can honestly say that I have not been overly empressed with our Australian visit thus far.  I am finding it much the same as New Zealand.  These guys have had it too good over the past several years and are now gouging the tourists.  People that we have spoken to in our travels so far are basically of the same opinion.  Our neighbours in the motel informed us that the Gold Coast was their favourite part of the country so we are hoping that our opinion will change from that point.  Like NZ, the people here are extremely friendly and even they think tourists are being ripped off!  On a sad note, we have seen at least 2 dozen dead kangaroos along the road side so far.  I have been told they are not the brightest animal on the block.

Canberra is the capital of Australia and like most capital cities, it is full of people bussling around, trying to look busy doing nothing!  One thing I have come to realize, GOVERNMENT is like a cancer.  It continues to grow out of control and feed off the taxpayers with no obvious benefits.  The opulence is shameful and disgusting, but it never ends. For example, the original Australian Parliament Buildings were impressive.  Old architecture and classy.  Then they build this huge Albatross, obviously to house the 1000's of additional useless staff simply to fill the empty space.  This is what governments do, they build fiefdoms that become a sanctuary for the many useless beaurocrats who never seem to accomplish anything? 

Then we have the Aboriginals setting up tents on these beautifully manicured grounds, destroying the surrounding area, just like they often do Canada.  They burn open fires (even burning a few trees), put up nasty looking signs about how they have been mistreated over the centuries and nobody has the guts or political will to come down hard on these law breakers!  If it were you or I setting up camp on government property, we would be arrested and fined within minutes.  Now lets talk about discrimination!