Port Macquarie - 3rd March

We arrived in Port Macquarie (our first stop north of Sydney) at 2am! We had our room key left for us in the postbox which was in an envelope with ‘Enter by the Bookcase’ written on it – it was like a treasure hunt! Well cool! Once we got in to the corridor of the room, we set our bags down so we could get changed and brush our teeth without disturbing others in the room. We tiptoed and whispered our way around and used the bathroom. Once we sneaked in to our room, we realised that there was no one sharing our room! Typical! We could have made as much noise as we liked!

The hostel was called 'Aussie Possie Backpackers' and was a lovely little hostel with a swimming pool, big TV room, table tennis table and games room. It was clean and the rooms were spacious. The owner - Richard - enjoyed spending time with the backpackers and getting to know them. He had a pet Rainbow Parrakeet which was very friendly. 

After catching up with our sleep we headed to reception to pay for our room. As we were sorting it all out there was a surfing lesson leaving the hotel – only $25 each for 3 hours.... we didn’t have any better plans so joined the group. Before we knew what was going on, we had a wet suit on, had been given a brief lesson and were in a van heading for the beach. In the group were 2 girls from Sunderland – Stacey and Sarah – and a couple from Huddersfield called Lee and Jessica. We all clicked and had a laugh about how rubbish we were going to be on the waves. When we arrived at the beach we grabbed a surfboard and headed into the rough waves. We had noticed that there were quite a few jellyfish on the beach but the instructor said they did not sting so we were not worried. After only a few wipe-outs, Gav managed to get on his feet on the board.... for about 3 seconds before the wave got revenge and flipped him off the board. He was well chuffed that he had managed to surf on his first attempt! Gav managed a few more stand-ups before his arms got too tired to heave himself on to the board. Amanda was persistent with trying to stand and most times managed to make it to her knees before the wave tipped her off. However soon after she managed to stand up – proper surfing.... cool duuuuude! She looked like a pro... apart from the screaming and laughter! As she came off she brushed a jellyfish and it gave her quite a bad sting on her leg! It felt like an electric shock! She ran out of the water and to the lifeguard stand, where they gave her some ice to sooth the sting. By the evening it had calmed down and was gone. Still not pleasant though. Both happy that we had managed to stand up we headed back to the hostel for some lunch.

The weather in the afternoon was a bit brighter than the morning so we decided to have a walk around Port Macquarie. It is a relatively small holiday town that a lot of Aussie’s go to, so there is a fair few hotels and touristy shops. From here you can normally spot dolphins in the harbour, however we didn’t get to see any – which was a shame.