Canberra & Coastal New South Wales

Leaving the Alps we were on our way towards the Australian Capital, Canberra, mockingly also called 'Canboring' as people say there's not much going on here. We already heard the same about Adelaide but in the end we ultimately loved Adelaide so we were quite curious how Canberra would stack up.

The trip didn't start too well as Wookie didn't wanna start in the morning, the battery seemed to be flat although we couldn't quite explain why. As all other people on the campground were too afraid to jump start us (apparantly there's a risk in ruining your own battery by jump starting another car..??) we had to call a mechanic and pay him $80 to get us going again. So off we went. On our way to the Capital Territory we visited a little country town called Gundagai, known from various Aussie songs (This is our favourite :) http://youtu.be/XxYSegLL3Fk) and its landmark, the dog on the tuckerbox.

Dog on the Tuckerbox 5 miles from Gundagai

The first morning in Canberra, Wookie didn't start again and as he was due for a service anyway we took him to the nearest garage and in the meantime we went off to the city. On our schedule were the Parliament and a few museums. As the weather was starting to look very gloomy again, other options as a bike ride around the city's lake were ruled out again. The Parliament was quite interesting, lots of information about the Australian Government, which we thought will come in handy for our upcoming citizenship test (given the Austrians will give their OK soon). After the Parliament we made our way to the National Gallery and then walked over to the city center which we found completely deserted. The only place were we could get some food and a drink was an Irish Pub - thank God for the Irish :) - but other than that there was really not much going on.

Parliament House

War Memorial - Hall of Names of all fallen soldiers

We then picked up Wookie from the garage; turns out his second battery was broken and was interfering with the main battery. Other than he was all good. Friday morning, we again woke up to rain, rain, rain, so we decided to visit the National Museum (which was pretty disappointing and a little boring) and the War Memorial & Museum. We actually also wanted to play another round of Minigolf but due to the weather, we decided to move the Australian Capital tournament to New South Wales.

Pacific Drive South of Sydney

The following days we travelled up the New South Wales Coast, stopping at a few little towns along the way. Unfortunately the weather was not great again with rain every few hours so we didn't stay too long in each place. As we've already been to Sydney twice, we circumnavigated the city driving straight to Newcastle which is a pretty little town North of Sydney with great beaches AND very close to the Hunter Valley - the last wine region on our to-do list.

Hunter Valley

 We spent the entire Monday tasting our way through the Hunter Valley, known for its Semillon and Shiraz wines. At McGuigan Wines we tasted the 'World's best' Semillon (according to the International Wine Show). It wasn't too bad... :)

Port Macquarie Coastline

Sunset in Port Macquarie

After doing a few more km's up the coast via Port Macquarie (where we had a lovely picknick by the sea) and Coffs Harbour (home of the 'Big Banana'), we're now in Byron Bay. And all of a sudden we're in the middle of backpacker heaven, camperbuses, blond beach girls and surfer boys everywhere. And the weather's pretty nice and warm again as well. You can feel we're close to Queensland. We're currently sitting in our van trying to organise the upcoming few weeks, researching the best dive spots and Great Barrier Reef tours - pretty overwhelming as there's so much to do and see.

View over Coffs Harbour