Sydney to Coffs Harbour

Sat. Oct. 19 - On Sat. we left Sydney and began driving north along the Pacific coast highway on our way to Coffs Harbour. The speed limit posted had two different speeds showing, as follows: Speed limit 100 unless raining; Speed limit 90 when raining here. (These are in kilometers per hour.) We made two stops along the way. The first stop was at a coastal town called Port Macquarie (pronounced Port Mcquery). There we took a walk through the park and along a path that led down to the opening where the ocean comes into the harbour. There were lots of surfers out. (Note to Sarah: no sign of the King wave.) There were pelicans walking around in the park. Our second stop was a drive up a harrowing narrow mountain road to Mount Dorrigo Rainforest. There we took a short stroll along a "Skywalk" to see some fantastic views of the surrounding area. Who would have thought we'd be seeing so many mountain vistas in Australia! The trees and flowers here are absolutely fascinating and beautiful! The conifers are very unusual and are lovely. But the most beautiful flora of all is a purple/lavender flowering tree that is abundant. It is the most beautiful flower we have ever seen. It is a brilliant lavender almost with a blue hue that just seems to almost sparkle. I've never seen anything like it before. We drove down a street where a whole bunch of these trees filled both sides of the street and it was just absolutely breathtaking. I wish I could take some of these home with me. I have to find out more about these exquisitely beautiful flowers. We stayed overnight Saturday in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour. Another interesting tidbit here is that you cannot get ketchup in many restaurants. When Joe asked for ketchup to go with his fries, he was told "We don't have ketchup." Another place told us that the Australia version of ketchup is tomato sauce, so if you ask for ketchup, you will get little packets of tomato sauce - much less sweeter than American ketchup.