Port MacQuarie, Australia

Port MacQuarie is a big town by Australian standards (39,000 people) about 1/3 of the way up to Brisbane from Sydney. The reason we took this little endeavour up the coast was to see a koala hospital that is supposed to be fantastic as well as the great Australian scenery and possibly a winery or two. Our first day was at the koala hospital (it's more of a refuge). It was definitely cool. It was sad though seeing koalas that have been hit by cars or burned by wildfire. It was also hard seeing several koalas suffering from the effects of syphilis. Apparently, koalas aren't practicing safe sex and syphilis is a major problem in the population. To give the koalas a break though, I'm sure it's hard to put a condom on without opposable thumbs.

After the syphilis koalas we all went to downtown Port MacQuarie. There isn't much to Port MacQuarie except for some great views, a small downtown, and lots of painted rocks along the coast walkway. I guess it's a thing for tourists to come to Port MacQuarie and paint rocks. We left our paint stateside so we had to just look. In the evening the four of us stayed up on the deck of our hotel room and watched a storm come through, very cool. When the storm passed Lara and I went out clubbing in Port MacQuarie. The club scene in Port MacQuarie is made up of two people. 18 - 20 year olds who are in town to enjoy the beach during Spring Break and the local 40 somethings. Which made us wonder, how often has a kid come up here to party and bumped into his cougar mom on the dance floor. Ugh. We didn't stay out long.

We were only spending one night in Port MacQuarie so first thing in the morning we headed back to Sydney. We took a leisurely pace and decided to head to a winery first. The winery was off the beaten path and as we were driving in Lara noticed a small heard of kangaroos, about 6 - 12, 20 yards to the side. We slowed down to look at them and then one of them decided it needed to cross the road. It took a few hops and then tried to clear the wire fence. Unfortunately for the kangaroo it didn't see the top wire and it tumbled feet over pouch right in front of us. Fortunately for us, it was a great show. The kangaroo got right back up and hopped across the road. It was definitely the coolest wildlife experience in the previous 5 days. Although the winery was a great experience, it was kind of anitclimatic after the kangaroo incident.

Staying along the coast back to Sydney we stopped at an awesome dive restaurant along a small salt lake. While we waited for the food to come out Lara and I paddled around the lake in a paddle boat. The lake was crystal clear and we were the only people around. Best paddle-boat experience ever. The food was great at the restaurant, but as we have since found out, Australians don't know how to make milk shakes.