Wintersun on the Gold Coast

Coffs Harbour has many things for visitors to go and see: -

- There's the Butterfly House.
- The Porpoise Pool.
- Plenty of Arts and Crafts shops dotted around the beautiful countryside.
- The Big Banana is where you can find out all about bananas and also has other activities.
- Visit Mutton Bird Island and view these seabirds in their natural environment.
- The Botanical Gardens has a spectacular walkway lined with Orb spiders and also has a wetlands walkway.
- There's always the Beaches and the usual beach activities.

The Gold Coast has something for everyone - no matter what your age is or whether you're male or female.

The choice of activities include but are not limited to: -

- Surfing, Swimming, Sunbaking and other beach activities.
- Theme Parks in the form of water parks (White Water World and Wet 'n' Wild), big ride parks (Dreamworld and Movieworld), Movieworld, wildlife parks (Seaworld and Dreamworld).
- Shopping for the shop'a'holics.
- Pubs and Clubs for those who enjoy the night life.
- Plenty of walking tracks and bike tracks for the fitness fanatics.
- National Parks.

And so much more

Quick Tips:

Don't expect to see everything in either Coffs Harbour or on The Gold Coast in just two days. There is why to much to see and do. Try to spend at least three days in Coffs Harbour and at least a week on The Gold Coast.

If you're planning on going to Coolangatta for Wintersun—don't forget it's on the first weekend in June (check on the Coolangatta Website) and don't forget to book accommodation way ahead of time. Most accommodation is booked out for the two weeks of Wintersun (the week preceding and the week after the event). Try Rainbow Reality or Coolangatta Reality or The Oceanview Apartments (direct)

Best Way To Get Around:

You will find it easier if you have your own transport to get around due to the distance of travel to some of the site seeing attractions.

Both Coffs Harbour and Coolangatta have airports close to them. Flights to either of these places are cheap from Sydney or Brisbane.

There are numerous tour firms that can arrange transport and packages to the theme parks and the more popular attractions.

If you're staying in the Coolangatta area, there are plenty of coastal walking tracks and cycle tracks that will take you from bay to bay. A nice area to walk is from Rainbow Bay point (just around the corner, just to the southeast of Coolangatta), through Kirra to Belinga (a good hour's walk north of Coolangatta).

If you want to absolutely waterfront, for a reasonable cost, then Apartment 4, Level 1, Oceanside will be ideal for you.

Located not far from the Coolangatta Airport (a short taxi ride), about 10 minutes drive from Coolangatta (1 hour walk along the beach) and about 1/2 drive to Surfers Paradise (you can see it on the near horizon) Oceanview Apartments provide a pleasant place to stay while you're visiting the area.

Apartment 4 is the Apartment we stayed in and is owned by an Artist who lives in Melbourne - hence the walls are adorned with many of her works of art.

The apartment has two bedrooms, an ensuite, a main bathroom, a lounge/dining area, a kitchen, and a laundry, and there is a single car park available in the garage. Modern day conveniences such as washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, fridge/freezer, oven, microwave, TVs within each bedroom and in the lounge (PayTV), stereo, and the usual kitchen items are all available for use.

There is no need to bring linen or towels as they are all provided - the only item not provided is a beach towel. The Apartment complex has a communal swimming pool, spa, and BBQ. There is a small convenience shop next door that sells the basic needs - other than that you will have to go to Coolangatta for more shops.

Best of all - there's just a couple of stairs to descend in the back yard and you're on Bilinga Beach.

Dolphin Sands Holiday Units are located at the northern end of Coffs Harbour, not far from the beach, the Jetty, Mutton Bird Island, and the Pet Porpoise Pool.

The Units are relatively basic, consisting of two bedrooms, a bathroom/toilet, a kitchen, and a lounge/dining area.

There is room for one car to park at the side of the unit. Three additional visitor car spots are provided at the entry to the driveway or there is plenty of street parking.

The units have the usual array of appliances: fridge/freezer, oven, cooktop, microwave, miscellaneous kitchen appliances, and TV. Linen and towels are also provided.

There is a small pool located at the entry to the unit complex and a common BBQ area great for hot summer days.

Not far down the road, if you walk toward the ocean, you will find a large Bowling Club. We went there on the night we stayed for dinner, a couple of drinks, and splashed out on raffle tickets. Dinner was yummy; I had a roast dinner which came with the usual roast meat, roast potatoes, and other veges and Dale got the surf-and-turf (seafood and meat with chips and salad).

The good things about the bowling clubs is that they are cheaper than pubs or restaurants.

Other places of interest within the vicinity of the units are the beach, approximately a 15-minute walk down the road, the Pet Porpoise Pool, approximately a 5-minute car drive around the water front towards the jetty, the jetty and Mutton Bird Island located just past the entry to The Pet Porpoise Pool and the Big Banana, approximately a 10-minute drive, on the highway, going north.

The Coffs Harbour main shopping centre is about a 10-minute drive from the unit complex.

It was Saturday morning and we didn't have to be in Coolangatta until 4:30pm that day - what to do to fill in some of the spare time?

We had stopped of at the Pet Porpoise Pool, as we drove past it, the previous day and asked about the entry times for the joint. The lady was very helpful and said the best time to get there would be for one of the shows - they have two (one in the morning and one in the early afternoon).

This was where we headed. We paid the admission price and walked through the gates not fully knowing what to expect. Wow, were we in for a treat. The first friendly critters we met were two cockatoos sitting on their especially made perches. These guys love a good scratch under the wings.

Then we were told that if we make our way around the side of the Porpoise Pool we could play ball with the four dolphins that resided in the park. We spent about 20 minutes throwing soccer balls, gently, into the mouths of the dolphins - the dolphins would sometimes bring the ball straight back to you or sometimes they would do a couple of laps of the pool before they did.

We could also stroke the dolphins as the went past, if they were close enough to the edge. It was great - loved every minute. Next we were given seal kisses and/or hugs and handshakes from a couple of seals the staff bought out. Nice fish breathe - especially if the seal snorted in your face - still great fun being so close to these wonderful creatures.

Next thing to delight the crowds was a kiss on the cheek from a dolphin. If you were lucky you might even get a bit wet from a stray tail flick. This was a crowd pleaser. And then we got to hand feed the little Ferry Penguins with tiny fish - so cute. They gobbled them up eagerly and stood around waiting for more.

Then we hand fed the large fish (snapper, etc), rays and gummy sharks (don't have big teeth, just suck you to death) in the large salt water aquarium. Lastly we were entertained by the dolphins and seals in a 1/2 hour show where the seals preforms all sorts of balancing tricks and other acts whilst the dolphins leapt from the pool through hoops or to reach targets.

We got to take part in all the above things for just the cost of the entry admission - $36 - cheap. You could pay a bit extra and go swimming with the dolphins - I am unsure of the price but there were different prices for kids, adults and pensioners. This is a great place to bring the kids - young and old - for a couple of hours.

White Water World is the latest extension to Dreamworld Fun Park. It is totally separated from Dreamworld and we have to pay a separate price to enter it's gates - $48 will gave us entry to White Water World for the entire day and we got to go on as many rides as we wanted however many times as we wanted.

As we can imagine from its name, White Water World is a park full of water rides, pools, and water slides. There were four big water rides on offer. One called the Cyclone that was like being whipped around in the middle of a whirlpool.

Another called The Green Room - this was the worst and if you had four heavy people in your raft I could imagine you could, possibly, do some damage like we almost did - still fun though and went back for more of the same several times over.

Then there was the ride that was like a water roller coast - one this ride the water seemed to defy gravity. The last big ride was a number of steep slides where people raced each other to get to the bottom first. Additional to these big rides/slides were smaller, tamer, slides more suitable for the less adventurous.

There was a large wave pool central to the park and a couple of children's play areas/pools for the little tackers. The kids be lucky enough to meet Dora, Sponge Bob and their friends. There is a large cafe/take away restaurant rear for those who didn't bring their picnic lunches with them and the prices of the food and drinks didn't seem to be too back - not like some places.

Well we’re on the road again, but this time we’re going a lot further than Port Macquarie—we’re on our way to the Gold Coast, Queensland.

Since it is about an eight-hour trip we decided we would like to stop at Coff's Harbour on the way (just over halfway).

Dale and I left our house on the Central Coast at 9am on Friday, 1st June—not too early and not too late. Because it was a working day, the highway was deserted except for a small amount of traffic in the towns we passed through on the way to Coff's Harbour. We stopped at a small town on the Myall River, Bullahdelah, for a bite to eat and something to drink. While we were there, we looked around a couple of the local arts and crafts/café shops that were there and then were on the road again.

The traffic picked up somewhat when we reached Coff's as it is a relatively large city and the time was approximately 2:30pm—mothers driving to schools to pick their kids up, etc. On our way into town we passed a sign that indicated that the Coff's Harbour Butterfly House was on the next turn to the left. After a quick discussion, we decided that a trip to the Butterfly House was a good idea as it was still reasonably early in the day.

We paid our $12 each per adult and entered the hothouse that housed the butterflies. The air within the hothouse is kept at a constant humid temperature as these are the conditions the butterflies live in out in the wild.

There were several butterfly species flying around the area; large ones with blue or green/yellow wings, smaller ones with blue spots, green stripes or orange spots on black wings, and small ones with yellow wings or orange and black wings. They were all lovely.

If you stood still long enough they would land on you, especially if you had red clothing on.

We stayed in the hothouse for about ¾ of an hour and listened in as an employee told other visitors all about the butterflies' life spans, species, etc. Upon exiting, we bought a sandwich and a drink each from the Butterfly House café and sat outside listening and watching the birds.

Back to the car again and down to our accommodation for the night, The Dolphin Sands Holiday Park.

It’s coming—the first weekend in June—and it’s time for the Wintersun festivities to kick off.

Things all start on the Friday night with the Wintersun Cruise.

The streets of Coolangatta are teeming with souped up cars, hot rods, American cars of all makes, low riders and rat rods, just to number a few, and Friday night is when they all cruise the streets and show off.

Cruising the streets there are cars towing 1950s caravans, there are cars with cardboard cut-outs of Elvis mounted on top, cars and trucks with performance enhanced motors installed, cars with wild paint jobs, and low riders with lowered suspensions.

For the rest of the weekend, Saturday, Saturday night, and Sunday, the cars either continue cruising around the streets or are parked, lined up, on both sides of the main streets so the public can stroll past looking at them and appreciating them.

Spectators line both sides of the main streets to watch the cruise, while others stroll along the footpaths looking at other cars parked there. Some of the spectators are dressed in 1950s rock n’ roll outfits and hairdos.

There are several stages set up at different locations around the streets, in shopping arcades, in marquees and in pubs where rock n’ roll singers, Elvis impersonators, and the like entertain the crowd while dancers perform for small audiences.

The event even has its own fairground with sideshows and rides.

While Wintersun is on so are the markets.

The entire length of the Coolangatta beachfront is decked out with market stalls, several stalls deep.

If you’re into Rock’n’Roll music, clothes and shoes, 1950s stuff and memorabilia, Betty Boop merchandise, Rock’a’Billy music, clothes and shoes, cars and trucks small parts or even just arts and crafts it’s all here – stall after stall after stall of the stuff.

There are stalls selling rock’n’roll clothes next to stalls selling car mirrors, window winders and dash board knobs, there are stalls selling old rock’n’roll records next to stalls selling Betty Boop merchandise, there are stalls selling rock’n’rock two tone shoes next to stalls selling old 1950s gear (old prams, record players, etc.) so many stalls.

Bring a lot of cash with you. There’s also a couple of excellent antique/second hand shops down the Northern end of Coolangatta, the Kirra end.

The antique shop is huge and is crammed full of small shop outlets with heaps of antiques of all types (jewelry, clothing, furniture, kitchen stuff, toys, porcelain, etc.).

Next door to this shop is a retro surf shop which has surf boards, billy bob teeth and the like for sale and a couple of doors down is a small second hand shop.