21.09.2018
i should probably start by listing the reasons why we decided to drive to queensland instead of fly...
- we had the time. leachy has a month off work so we knew we wouldnt end up rushing
- we wanted to see the east coast of australia. we have driven to sydney numerous times and up the northern beaches, where we have looked over at the central coast and always wanted to explore but have never had the time. by driving we could make the time.
- we are explorers. we LOVE new adventures and we aim to leave no stones unturned when we are seeing something new, and that is just so much easier with our own car.
- we like to pack lots and lots when we go on holidays and it is just so much easier having the comfort of our own car.
- we thought we would end up hiring a car alot in QLD to explore so we figured it just made sense to have our own.
- parking is free with accomodation in most places in QLD, unlike sydney where most places charge roughly $50 per night on top of accomodation, which can make it very offputting.
- kobe has a weak stomach, and the thought of her getting sick on the plane gives me anxiety, let alone having to actually deal with it, so this way we avoided that possibility all together.
- we are total beach addicts and didn’t want to fly over the top of all the amazing beaches we could see along the way.
DAY 1: HOME TO UMINA BEACH.
12.5hrs travel including breaks.
1000kms
we got up at 2:30 and were on the road by 3.
we had a pit stop at albury for breakfast, dog on the tuckerbox because - tourists, Goulbourn for lunch and the Sydney airport for some plane watching.
getting the kids through the long car stints was ALLLLL about the food, arts and crafts. we had sticker books, journals, scrapbooks, magnetic scenes, foil art, lots of snacks and so on. they only got to watching a movie on the ipad in the last hour of the trip. they really didn’t complain at all the whole way and I feel like a liar saying that, but I swear its true. our kids are so car fit, as we travel a lot as it is.
DAY2: UMINA BEACH
travel rest day, exploring the local and secluded beaches.
DAY 3: UMINA BEACH TO PORT MAQUARIE (via the central coast and newcastle).
8hours travel including breaks.
361 kilometres
This was a 3.5hour travel day that we seemed to take 8 hours to do with the looking around we did. The kids continued on with their crafts and movie watching between stops, as well as both having a bit of a sleep. again this day really didn’t seem too tedious on the kids
DAY 4: PORT MAQUARIE TO SURFERS PARADISE (via the big banana, byron bay and cabarita beach).
9hours travel.
499 kilometres
This was a 5.5 hour non stop stint, but we stopped at coffs harbour for lunch and the big banana, and then spent a few hours exploring Byron bay, before travelling the last stint via the beaches, rather than on the pacific highway, so the trip took 9hours.
DAYS 5 TO 15: SURFERS PARADISE (lots of local travel)
we were very glad to have our car while in surfers. it was nice to be able to jump in the car and head to the theme parks rather than catching a bus. we were able to go down to coolangatta etc with a split second decision rather than some planning, annnnnnnnd, judd wasn’t well so we took him to the doctor who said we needed to take him to hospital immediately, at which point i had never been so relieved we had our car with us. (judd is fine, he had a raging temp that we couldn’t get down so took to the dr suspecting croup, but doctor was concerned it could have been pneumonia and was not confident in treating judd with such a high temp so said we needed to go straight to hospital with a letter from him. hospital ruled out pneumonia, found a random ear infection that judd had not complained about once, and sent us on our way with some antibiotics, 6hours later - crisis averted.) we had lots of car free days too but were just so happy it was there.
DAY 16: SURFERS PARADISE TO PORT MAQUARIE (via byron bay).
9 hours travel including breaks.
511 kilometers.
this was where to kids started to get a bit over the travel. there was excitement on the way up but they knew what they were in for on the way back. there was lots of movies watched on this stretch.
DAY 17: PORT MAQUARIE TO UMINA BEACH (detoured to balmoral beach and manly).
8 hours travel including breaks.
483 kilometers
the kids were happier travelling this day than they were the day before. we spent good breaks on beaches and having milkshakes which really broke it up, and there was craft and movies going down also.
DAY 18: UMINA BEACH
no real car travel, but a ferry from patonga to palm beach, where we spent most the day. all on foot.
DAY 19: UMINA BEACH TO HOME (via manly).
15hours travel including breaks.
1063 kilometers
a huge travel day, but we spent the morning through to 2pm on foot in manly, so by the time we left we had a tea break and then pushed hard to get home through the night while the kids slept. we got home just before 2am.
For comparisons sake, I have jumped on virgin today and pretended to book a holiday to gold coast, with no discounts, and for the four of us it would cost $2760 if I were to book right now. we would require the Queensland equivalent of a myki and also we would hire a car for a few days at the very least so we would be looking at well over $3000.00 for transport.
We logged all our travel expenses, from how much petrol we put in at each stop, and how many litres it took and how much we paid for petrol. Our final petrol (and therefore entire travel) figure, was $615.03. The highest we paid for petrol was $1.59 per litre and the lowest we paid was $1.38 per litre. The money we saved on airfares we put into extra nights accommodation and that way we could afford to stay away for 2.5 weeks.
I would do it all again in a heart beat. x
