Checking out of the hotel and heading for a big fat greasy brekkie, we checked out the road maps and decided on a basic route for the first day on the road trip.

Packing up the town car and heading out of Sydney took longer than we figured - especially as the signs to get to route one were a little bit on the random side (cue me frantically cutting people up and running red lights to make a turn - oops, sorry!) we finally made it out onto the open road (after driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge - something I'd never done before) and were soon out in the Great Dividing Ranges and trying to decide where to make our first stop of the trip.

Sue had borrowed an excellent Rough Guide book from a friend and it was devoted to the east coast of Oz, so checking out a few places about the right sort of distance away from Sydney, we decided that Tea Gardens would be our destination for the night.

The drive up there was amazing - the scenery changed from city to mountains to farming country. The Pacific Highway (Route 1) follows the coastline right up Cairnes. The stunning views as we headed around corners were highly distracting as a driver :oP I just about managed to keep my eyes on the road for long enough to make it to our destination for the night.

Having advised both of my lack of work (and therefore lack of funds) we had set budgets for our rooms, and decided that pubs (hotels) are the way forward. Finding a pub in Oz is never a problem, but the pub in Tea Gardens is highly recomended by me if you are ever in the area - cheap, clean, stunning views of the ocean right outside the door. Bliss I tells you!

The next morning, we packed TC up again, scraped the ice off the windows and headed out for a ferry ride from Tea Gardens across the water to Nelson Bay.

Didn't manage to get photos, but saw dolphins on the ride and also in the harbour in Nelsons Bay - my first out here, and stunning to see.

After a deeply pleasant morning, we headed back to TC and off to our next destination - Seal Rocks. On the night before when we first arrived in Tea Gardens we had gotten chatting to a couple who told us it was their favourite spot on the coast. As they had been there each and every year for the last 12 years, we figured it would be rude to not go there and check it out.

They were right: View image, View image.

After walking up and down the beach for a while, we returned to the TownCar for our last leg of the day - destination Wingham.