Two-week trip to Australia in June 2010, covering the states of Queensland, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory. The plan was to travel to Sydney from Coolangatta over 3 days, with overnight stays in Ballina and Coomba Park. 4-night stay to explore Sydney and surroundings. Another 2 days travel back to the Gold Coast with overnight stay in Armidale. The last 4 nights will be spent in the Gold Coast with short travels to Brisbane and the theme parks in Surfers Paradise.
Flight : D7 2702 KUL-OOL 04/06/2010
Aircraft : AirAsia X Airbus A330-300
Reg. : 9M-XXA
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| The waiting lounge at LCCT where all the passengers were anxiously waiting to board the plane. Ours was a red-eye flight and were scheduled to arrive at Coolangatta Airport early the next morning. |
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| Our ride to Gold Coast, Australia. AirAsia X Airbus A330-200 9M-XXA |
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| It was the mid-year school holidays, so the flight was quite full. |
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| 1st Day. Arrived Coolangatta early morning. Picked up our rental car and head to the nearest shopping mall in Tweed Heads for our food supplies. Will be spending the night in Ballina. Since it was less than 150km journey, opted for the longer journey through Murwillumbah and Lismore. A nice countryside drive. Should have been an interesting introduction to Australia for the kids. |
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| Our accommodation for the first night in Australia. This was in Avlon Gardens Motel in Ballina, New South Wales. Good enough for our family of five. |
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| The local seafood shop in Ballina which also serves the best fish and chips in town, as recommended by the motel's operator. |
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| Prawns, prawns and.....more PRAWNS! Well, they didn't construct the Big Prawns statue here for any other reasons. Anyway, we did not take any photos of the infamous Big Prawn as it was in a very sorry state and about to be demolished. They are going to build a replacement soon! |
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| Our meal for the night - fish and chips and scallops (surprisingly no prawns). Yummy... |
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| Australian rockmelon. Look at the bright colour. Delicious!! |
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| 2nd day. A long 500km journey ahead today. From Ballina to Coomba Park. With stops at Grafton and Coffs Harbour. |
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| Town of Grafton. Being a Sunday, it was deserted as most of the shops were closed. |
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| A 'must-stop'. The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. |
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| A quick lunch at the Big Banana's cafeteria. |
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| Fancy seeing a fellow Malaysian in Coffs Harbour. |
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| It was a long and tiring journey to Coomba Park. We reached there quite late. The bungalow that we rented was nice and spacious. It came equipped with a fire place, a blessing because being winter, the night was quite chilly. |
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| A very bright and crisp morning. The children getting acquainted with the local fauna. |
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| Friendly rainbow lorikeet perched on our balcony. |
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| Feeding time. |
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| On the way out, we found our first sighting of wild kangaroos. |
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| After a short detour to Williamtown, we finally reached Newcastle. That's Nobbys Head in a distance. |
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| It was cold and windy and the were high waves pounding the shore. This was somewhere near the Newcastle Bath where I used to frequent. |
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| The Foreshore on left, Newcastle Railway Station straight ahead and Hunter Street Mall to the right. Wished we could spend more time, alas had to rush to Sydney for the night. |
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| Ferry terminal to Stockton on the other side of the Hunter River. Brought back a lot of memories. Used to fish here. The only drawback was that you have to reel in your lines whenever the ferry came to dock. |
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| Made a short detour to the university to show the kids where mum and dad used to study and then off to Sydney. Today's journey was over 350km. Had arranged for a 4-night stay in an apartment in Campsie, It was close to a train station for the trips to City Centre and a short drive to Lakemba, where we were able to purchase halal food. |
Next installment - Sydney Opera House.
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