FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: 2020

Sunday, 20 December 2020

Newcastle

Today's post will be even more brief...end of holidays blues has hit us already.

The skies remained grey. We managed to motivate ourselves to get into our car and drove along the coastline to look at Newcastle's famous beaches and ocean pools. The rest of the day was spent doing errands in case Sydney went into lockdown...

And there ended our stay in Newcastle. We washed, packed and readied ourselves for the short drive home tomorrow with fingers crossed that Christmas and Boxing day celebrations will be able to proceed. Covid Coastal Caper part 2 hangs in the balance...

Sheltered pool perfect for littles ones

Newcastle Ocean Baths

Bogey Hole

Shame we weren't here on a nicer day

Saturday, 19 December 2020

Shopping & Cricket

Today really should have been about Newcastle, but instead it became coronavirus news, shopping and cricket. We blame the return of the grey skies...

The first NSW "community transmission" case first reported earlier in the week had become a well established cluster of over 20. We awoke to find the Northern Beaches being isolated from the rest of Sydney and read the news with great interest. We live not too far from the Northern Beaches area and our Christmas and Boxing Day plans may very well have to be cancelled, just when we thought the year of cancellations was over. Covid Coastal Caper Part 2 may also be jeopardy...The negative Nelly side of us were wary of schools and universities reverting back to an online hybrid. 2020 was the final year of primary school and high school for Jonah and Elliot respectively. However, more importantly, 2021 was to be the START of high school and university. Something where we felt face to face contact was vital to making new relationships. Curse you again Covid...

We visited the closest shopping centre which was disappointing small but had the requisite coffee shop for breakfast, Big W for shoes (Jonah had ripped his somehow), and Woolworths for supplies. We ate back in our apartments with grand plans to walk along the spectacular beaches of Newcastle, the free Newcastle museum before dinner at Foghorn brewery. We only made it to the dinner. Watching the Indian team crumble to only score 36 was apparently more important.

Dinner though was great! All the beers here was on tap, the burgers good, and the fried chicken amazing. The cricket was on the TVs and so Malcolm was happy. The children so far have not been impressed with Newcastle. "If they filmed Zombie apocalypse here, we would believe it".....harsh. Let's hope they give it a second chance tomorrow!

The working harbour of Newcastle

Albanys shop like pros

Now here's a worthy attraction...

Part of the Newcastle Museum complex

Newcastle University

Dinner at Foghorn Brewery

Of course this is healthy. We are eating salad with it

Only 700m walk from our apartment

Friday, 18 December 2020

Bye Bye Byron

And just like that, our time in Byron Bay was over. We never did bump into any Hemsworths or Zac Effron but we did have a great time! We savoured our very last hotel included breakfast and farewelled the Ongs, who were going to overnight at Port Macquarie. Our destination would be the city of Newcastle.

Over breakfast, we celebrated Elliot's HSC results, sufficient to get into his first choice of studying Data Science at the University of NSW. There was otherwise very little to report today as most of the day was spent driving other than the fact that the blue skies of course showed its face as we left Byron...

Our arrival and check in into our apartment rentals in Newcastle went smoothly enough. We were put into two 1-bedroom apartments side by side instead of our booked 2 bedroom but were given free parking as compensation. We took it as parking was going to cost us $20 per night! The apartments were good enough. It was well located, clean, spacious and had a full kitchen and laundry. The photos online however looked better than the actual apartments.

Goodbye Byron Bay!

Ramen home delievery for dinner

The living area

The unbelievably blue sky came just as we left. Hmmph!

Thursday, 17 December 2020

Byron Bay Day 4

This blog post will be extremely short. In essence, we wanted to relax and enjoy our villa and it was our last full day here. There were baths to be taken, drinks vouchers to be redeemed, a test cricket match to watch and streaming movies and series to catch up on...

Lunch was only sandwiches but it was a surprise hit! Unfortunately Malcolm could not remember where he got it from...other than it was a bakery and it was close to Munch. The servings were generous, the flavours amazing and the price point excellent!

Dinner was at the one hatted Pipit near Tweed Heads. Fiona had managed to get us a spot after calling and accidentally speaking to the chef...yay Fiona! It was worth the drive and the 5pm early dinner time. The food was superb and the best of our meals here whilst at Byron. The ingredients were fresh and combined well each other. They didn't try to be too fancy and we were grateful we didn't have to google any ingredients...The end result was amazing flavours! This is a place we would definitely go back to!

And so endeth our time here at Byron Bay. So many things to be grateful for...in no particular order:

It was busy but nowhere near the crowded mayhem that we feared (that may have been due to the weather!)
Whilst it has certainly developed a lot since we were last year, it was still a relaxing trip and Byron Bay hasn't become a major tourist trap (yet)
Although there was cyclone like weather, we were really only affected for a few days. There were enough breaks in the rain, and sunshine moments for us to see what we wanted to see. We still had wonderful time here.
It was great to travel with friends! The children got along well and I'm still perplexed as to how UNO can hold so much appeal after so many rounds...
The resort was awesome and a great place to get "stuck"

Cheers to an excellent last dinner at Byron Bay!

Refreshing lycheet sorbet, almond ice-cream and green mango. Amazing flavour!

Main was grilled mahi mahi

Starter of yellowfin tuna with macadamia miso and stonefruit

Sourdough with smoked macadamia and kefir butters. So nice!

Home made lemonade

Open kitchen

The signs of the times. As we dined, we discovered that NSW had a new corovirus cluster...

Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Byron Bay Day 3

Today we had a seven am breakfast booked so didn't tackle any "wellness" activities. We decided that retail therapy may be just as effective. The local crop of outlets at Habitat came with the Ming Loh seal of approval so we decided to check them out. Just about every item at every store had its origins fully documented. You could shop here and know more about the history of your lip balm than your family tree. Some things were a little wacky and way overpriced (like a $300 camoflague jumpsuit) and some were actually quite nice and even good value. Jonah and Cameron scored two pairs of shoes each and I scored a pair of "plant based" vegan scratchproof completely biodegradable sunglasses. Just what every girl needs. Fortunately, the rain stayed away and I was given an opportunity to use them. We dashed back to grab the kids and made use of our complementary solar train ticket into town. The train ride is actually a much nicer way to into town as it avoids the increasing busy single lane road and the need to find a parking spot. They might need to find an extra carriage come January!

We did a little more shopping with Fiona and Lara adding to the plunder before we gave up and visited the Poke bowl shop that we had spotted earlier in the week. We felt like good parents making the kids eat some green stuff and headed back as the weather changed again.

Never thought I would be one rocking vegan sunglasses

Steve and his purchases

The solar train

Apparently not that popular yet. Lots of seats

We could spread out in comfort

It was bright enough to wear sunglasess!

Let's have something green for lunch!

Very colourful poke bowls!

Service was a little dicey though...

Redeeming our discounted smoothies

Steve encouraged us to give the adult pool a go. It is amazing the difference that an extra three degrees of water temperature can make! Even with restrictions lifting we were allowed to swim up to the bar, but couldn't sit on the in-pool bar stools. Instead had to drift away to a safe distance to drink them. It wasn't a problem, of course, but was just another one of those things that just feels a little strange.

Dinner was at Bang Bang, a funky thai restaurant. The food was generally good although a touch on the sweet side and portion sizes somewhat small for the price. The service was passable, and rated as passable as no self respecting "Asian" restaurant wouldn't have white rice on the ready! We were told the dishes will just come when they are ready...umm...not white rice. They should have 4 giant rice cookers on rotation in the kitchen! The ambience was nice though and we did enjoy our meal.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of...will it rain or not in Byron Bay...

Time for the adult pool!

Sticky pork belly

Duck

Coconut sago

Malcolm's selfie attempt was so bad the waitress offered to take a photo for us

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Byron Bay Day 2

The Ongs were made of stronger stuff than us today backing up for Yoga and HIITS while we (one more than the other!) licked our wounds. That didn't stop us from bouncing back in time for the unexpected arrival of some sunshine. Should we brave a quick hike to the top of the lighthouse whilst th enews reports are still warning of road flooding? Probably not, but then today's blog would be a boring report of phones and board games. As it turned out, fortune favoured the brave.

We managed to score a couple of spots at "The Pass" carpark and began our hike. We encountered an interesting challenge at the very start of our walk. A tidal channel of 20m or so led to a vantage point with views of Clarke's Beach. The crossing required a balance of timing, bravery, leg length, attire and footwear so that diminished our potential contenders. In the end, there were just three... Malcolm - long of leg, Fiona - brave of spirit and Lara - brief of shorts. There were no spills and the obligatory photos were attained so we were able to move on without undue delay.

We climbed up and down the stairs past the glamourous Watego's Beach which somehow managed to escape much of the brutal erosion that hit the rest of the beaches in these parts. There are some very fancy houses with infinity pools, rooftop lounges and direct beach access. Hopefully their foundations stay nice and sturdy!

We powered on past the most Easterly part of mainland Australia and on to the lighthouse where Fi rewarded us all with lollies for our efforts. If we'd known rewards were on offer we would've whinged a bit earlier!

The return walk was much shorter by the footpath parallel to the roadway according to google. Unfortunately, Malcolm took Google a little too literally and led us along the road itself which was quite narrow in parts and ended up with quite a few drivers wondering why we were all wandering along a steep, windy, narrow strip with young children. He chose...poorly. A tip for future travellers... the correct path is the one to the left!

We returned to the resort and were able to enjoy lunch around the pool, cold drinks, ice blocks and UNO. Who could ask for anything more? Well actually we could so we ordered a pizza delivery dinner for the kids and partook in an adults only dinner at Elements' signature restaurant, Azure Dining Room. We had previously dined at the more relaxed Azure Terrace on our first night. The food at the dining was at a whole different level. We rated the food to be better than at Beach.