New Years in Coffs

Frangipani flower outside our Airbnb stay.

We took a short trip to the coast over New Years, back to our usual haunts around Coffs Harbour. We had two cooler, cloudy days with passing showers, so we climbed Muttonbird Island and went to the botanical gardens, caught the new Star Wars movie and watched fireworks on the beach on New Years Eve. We finally got our beach holiday as New Years Day was bright, sunny, and beautiful, the most perfect day for swimming.

I have been meaning to post these photos for the past two weeks but have been lacking a bit in motivation. It didn't help that we had an electrical storm pass through a week and a half ago which put my mobile service tower out of service. I had no phone service for a week in Uralla, and even now I don't have internet at home. :/ It is a little inconvenient, but I have regular service when I drive to work in Armidale so it hasn't been too much trouble.

Cloudy day on Muttonbird Island

Where you would find muttonbirds/short-tailed shearwaters (in season)

A blue-tongued lizard on the path on Muttonbird Island.

New Years Day was a really beautiful day at the beach! The conditions were perfect and it was a high high tide. There were a lot of swimmers and a few surfers, probably one of the most crowded days we've ever seen at the beach and along the river--which is still to say, not very crowded.

A little island off the beach

Muttonbird Island in the distance

When the tide is low you can walk out to the island just off the beach; but this was the first time we've been that I ever noticed the waves coming in such perfect criss-cross patterns. It was really neat. It may have been that the tides were just right: it was a full moon and a very high tide, one of the roads by the river in town was completely flooded. I took a video of the waves coming in but unfortunately, accidentally deleted it off my phone before saving it to my computer.

Unfortunately our holiday had to come to an end, but it is always a lovely drive through Bellingen Shire. We stopped in Bellingen for gelato of course, which was a good way to end the weekend.

Green pastures of Bellingen Shire

A good end to a long weekend.