Sunrise

Day 5:

Even though we aren't technically jet-lagged, I'm having a bit of trouble adapting to the time change.  I'm normally a morning person anyway, but I've been getting up at 5am or before every day.  This isn't especially great, but it does give us some unique opportunities.  This morning, we decided to get up and walk down the two kilometers to Nobbys Head at the breakwater of the port of Newcastle.  It was a great vantage point to watch the sun come up over the Pacific.  We had to hustle just a little bit to make the time, but in the end it was totally worth it.  (As I write this, the kookaburras are laughing up a storm outside.)

This was a great way to start a long day of driving from Newcastle to Port Macquarie up the coast.  We decided not to go the most direct way possible and instead stopped at a couple of places.  First, was a town called Nelson Bay.  It was a nice sleepy little holiday town and we had a very nice walk around their main shopping area and the port itself.  Incredibly we forgot to take pictures while we were there, but if we had you would have a seen a harbor with the clearest water I've ever been witness to.  The water right there next to all of the boats was as clear as any I'd ever seen in the Bahamas or elsewhere.  It was almost unnatural.

A couple more stops later and we arrived at Port Macquarie.  Even with the slow pace of our drive up the coast, we don't have nearly enough time to spend in places.  Port Macquarie is easily a town that you could spend a day or two just hanging out and walking the beach or cruising around seeing the sights.   As it was, we got in had time to lounge in the spa for a bit, got dinner and hit the sack.  In the morning, we ran down to the beach real quick just to get some picture before we headed out for the days drive.

Jill Update:

Small problems today, but nothing I can't fix.  In other words the bets don't pay out yet. ;)  I also learned something new about Jill.  No amount of wishing is going to make her into a morning person.