Road Trip! Melbourne to the Gold Coast

Here is a post I started, oh, nearly three months ago! I've had time to finish it off while waiting for Cyclone Alfred to hit. It's a long one - you've been warned!

As soon as Andy and I finished up at work this year, we left Melbourne for our next chapter in the Gold Coast (GC). My last day of work was a Friday and the next day the removalists came to pack up our house. Andy and I have never paid movers to pack our stuff in all our moves together (and there have been a lot). We've always done this part ourselves. However, when being quoted to move our house contents from Melbourne to GC the cost was already so high (we are talking around $10k) the additional $1200 to pack for us seemed reasonable. And let me tell you, it was worth every penny! The mental load that was reduced by knowing someone else would pack our stuff in the lead-up to the move alone was worth it. And then on Saturday when the packers arrived and I realised that truly I did not have to do anything the weight that was lifted off my shoulders was immense. I am never, ever packing my own stuff again!

Saturday was the packing day but they left our beds intact and we had a box of food and some kitchenware to get us through the weekend. The movers returned on Monday to load everything into the trucks. My dad and Andy stayed behind in Melbourne Monday night to facilitate the move and the end-of-lease cleaning on Tuesday. To make the driving a bit easier on the kids, my mom and I left with the kids on Monday, stopped in Albury, and then continued to Canberra on Tuesday where we met up with my dad and Andy. 

We took 7 nights to drive to the GC, breaking up the drive with some non-driving days to make it a bit of a holiday. This was mostly guided by the removal company and when they could deliver our contents to our house in the GC. Read on for a day-by-day breakdown of our road trip!

Day 1: Melbourne to Albury (3.5 hours, 323 km)

My mom, Ella, Ollie and I left Melbourne around 10am and headed north out of the city towards Albury. Once out of the city this was a pretty easy, and boring drive, nearly 300 km on a two-lane highway, which thankfully had a speed limit of 110km/h. Speeding is heavily penalised in Australia, so people generally drive the speed limit. This is very unlike Canada where I learned to drive, where if you drive under 120km/h on the highway (which has a speed limit of 100km/h) people get very annoyed with you.

We made two stops on our way. The first one was less than an hour in, but I had asked the kids to give me plenty of notice if they needed the bathroom, and that is what Ollie did. The kids had a quick paly in the McDonald's play area while we waited for some fries (for the kids) and hash brown (for me!) before we hopped back in the car. 

Our next stop was about an hour outside of Albury for some lunch. This stretch of highway did not have many places to stop but we managed to find a small service centre with a choice of... McDonald's. We stopped for lunch along with everyone else on their drive and waited a record-breaking 45 minutes for our "fast food". This was such an unnecessarily long break from our drive and unfortunately, it was about 40 degrees out, so way too hot for the kids to play in the outdoor McDonald's playground.

Once we finally got on the road again we only had about an hour left to get to Albury. We arrived at our motel around 2pm and headed out to some nearby shops. Ella wanted to start a scrapbook for the road trip, and we also needed to get some sunscreen. Albury seems like a nice town! 

Once back at the motel, we went for an evening swim and picnic dinner by the pool. It had finally started cooling down after the VERY hot day. We stayed in the pool until about 8:30pm and then got the kids ready for bed - Mom and I followed soon after!

Day 2: Albury to Canberra (3.5 hours, 342 km)

I woke up much earlier than everyone and had a relaxing morning in bed reading and then headed out to a nearby cafe for an iced latte. Once I got back everyone was awake and we repacked the car for our drive to Canberra. The benefit of staying in a motel meant that packing up the car was super easy as it was parked right outside our door.

We stopped for a picnic lunch and a play in a park in Gundagai, about 1h45 from Albury. We had a pretty long break here but it was nice for the kids to be able to run around to break up the long stretches of car time. 

We arrived in Canberra in good time, this time staying in a 3-bed apartment close to the CBD. Once we arrived we dumped our stuff and headed for the outdoor pool. 

My dad and Andy left Melbourne pretty early that morning. They let in the cleaners to do our end-of-lease clean, dropped off our keys to the real estate agent, and then were out of there! I think they ended up arriving in Canberra only an hour behind us and joined us for a quick dip before dinner.

My parents offered to make some pasta for the kids for dinner while Andy and I went out to eat that night which was nice. We ended up at an Ethopian place and then had some churros nearby for dessert. We were only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment, but on the way home we ended up walking for nearly 45 minutes as they are building a tram line and everywhere we tried walking was cut off from the construction. It was quite funny as we could see our apartment but had no direct way to get there. 

Day 3: Day in Canberra

For our day in Canberra we started by visiting Questacon, the national science museum. This had been recommended to me by many people and it did not disappoint! We had a very fun few hours here exploring the various exhibitions and displays, starting with the Lego exhibition in the first gallery.

There was plenty of hands-on activities for everyone, and I also really loved the Lego periodic table. 

There was also a great maths problem about how many different combinations you can make with six different coloured 2x4 lego bricks. 

Other fun things of note were an earthquake house, a show about energy, and the Excite gallery which had a lot of fun challenges, like a reaction game, a free fall slide and four-way air hockey.

We left Questacon just after noon and headed across the street to the National Library for lunch in the cafe, stopping first for this photo op:

Ollie was keen to visit the actual library and read a book so we spent some downtime in the children's area reading and doing some word search activities.

Next, we headed to Parliament House, taking a look at the Senate and House chambers, and getting a great view of the city from the garden rooftop.

After this week took the kids back to the apartment for a bit of a break while my parents did a bit of sightseeing. We met up with one of Ella's friends from school for dinner that night, who also happened to be in Canberra that day which was fun!

Day 4: Canberra to Newcastle (4.75 hours, 435 km)

This was the longest drive of the road trip, and honestly I have no idea really what happened on this day! Except we had a girls car and a boys car. Always good to split the kids up!

What I do remember is arriving in Newcastle to probably the worst Airbnb I've ever stayed in! It was a 4 bedroom apartment in a good location - walkable distance to water and places to eat - but honestly it was like being in a sharehouse. It was old and mostly clean if you didn't look to closely. It was bad! We ended up staying there as it wasn't bad enough to drop hundreds of dollars on new accommodation... but we were glad to leave when we did. 

We basically dropped our stuff and got out of there as quickly as we could to get some food and go for a walk along the water. We ended up eating at a lively pub with $5 tacos and then found a free ferris wheel to go on, so in the end the night was a win, kicking off my love affair with Newcastle. 

Day 5: Day in Newcastle

Andy and I started our day bright and early, heading out for a walk at 6:30 am. We walked along the river taking in the calm morning views and continued along to the end of peninsula until we looped around to the ocean side of Newcastle. What a stunning site! Along the way, we discovered one of Newcastle's "ocean baths"—a public seawater pool built into the coastline, where waves crash in dramatically. I love the concept of these ocean pools, and the best part? Newcastle’s ocean baths are free! What an incredible resource for the community. Even at that early hour, the baths were buzzing with swimmers. Feeling excited about the day ahead, Andy and I headed back to our Airbnb to get everyone ready for a day exploring Newcastle.

Our first destination was the Merewether Ocean Baths, the largest ocean pool in the southern hemisphere. This impressive spot boasts two pools: a shallow one with a beach-style entry and a larger, deeper pool with lanes for lap swimming. 

We spent several hours here. Ella, however, soon decided to venture to the adjacent beach, but the waves were rough—even in the lifeguarded area. After getting dumped by a particularly rough wave she decided that swimming at that beach was not for her that day!

Meanwhile, Ollie and I stayed by the baths. He was thoroughly entertained playing with rocks on the steps beside the pool for over an hour, while I enjoyed the chance to relax and read my book. He is so easily amused sometimes!

Next on our itinerary was the Bogey Hole, a heritage-listed sea bath that is much more rustic compared to the Merewether Baths. Built in 1820, it’s the oldest purpose-built pool in Australia. At first glance, the waves crashing dramatically into the pool made it seem far too risky to enter. But after watching several other swimmers take a dip, we realised the pool was only about 1.5 meters deep. Andy decided to give it a go first, and then took each of the kids in, one by one, carefully holding onto them as waves splashed over the pool’s edges. I didn't end up going in but I kind of regret it!

Next up we headed for some lunch at Newcastle Beach and then moved on to Nobby Beach for a swim (as Newcastle Beach is generally closed to swimmers as it's too risky). We stayed at Nobby Beach until about 4 pm before heading back to the Airbnb, stopping first for a beer at one of the many restaurants dotted along the river on the way back. 

By the time we got home it was after 6:30 pm so we had a quick and easy dinner (pasta for the kids, cheese plate for the adults) and headed to bed for an early night.

Overall, I absolutely loved Newcastle. With its beautiful coastline, mild weather, ocean baths, and huge variety of restaurants and cafes I can imagine it would be a fantastic place to live!

Day 6: Newcastle to Coffs Harbour (4 hours, 386 km)

Andy and I woke and went on another early morning walk before returning to our Airbnb to pack up. This was our quickest pack up of the trip, probably owing to the fact that we couldn't wait to get out of the apartment! We left Newcastle before 9 am for the next leg of our drive.

I felt very tired at the start of this drive, and I think Andy was feeling the same. We'd optimistically thought we could do this leg with only 1 stop, but after about an hour and a quarter I was feeling the need to stop. Unfortunately, there was not much on this stretch of the highway. We ended up just stopping at a rest centre: no food, just washrooms. Fortunately, I checked google maps at this stop and realised there was some sort of eatery called The Artisan Farmer about 10km up the road. We hopped back in our cars, renewed by the thought of a decent coffee. 

What an absolute treat this place was! Amazing fresh food and pastries, tons of seating (it was packed, probably both due to the fact that it was delicious food and there was no where else to stop along this stretch of freeway) and there was a small playground outside with a gorgeous view. What more can you ask for from a food stop on a road trip?

Fuelled from our stop food stop, we drove straight on to Coffs Harbour in the late afternoon and checked into our (thankfully) very pleasant three-bedroom apartment at the Pacific Marina Luxury Apartments. We lucked out with a ground-floor unit—our back garden had direct access to the pool complex, and as if that wasn’t enough, the family with two girls staying next door meant Ella and Ollie had instant playmates.

A five-minute walk from the apartment, there was a quintessential Aussie fair with rides that felt a teensy bit unsafe, expensive tickets that made you wince, and games you know are impossible to win. The kids love that kind of thing though, and even I got in on one of the more wild rides with Ella.

Day 7: Coffs Harbour

The next morning, before the heat cranked up, Andy and I took an early morning stroll around the harbour. Like Newcastle, the area was buzzing with early risers—mostly swimmers, walkers and coffee lovers—all out enjoying the gorgeous morning. 

Later that morning we rounded up the rest of the family and headed to the local Saturday market. With cute stalls, delicious food, and the relaxed vibe of the community, it was exactly my kind of thing. The kids of course would have rather been at the beach, so the adults took turns swimming with them and checking out the market. As the afternoon went on the temperature was rising and the sun hot, so we left the beach and went for a relaxed lunch at a local pub right on the water. Back at the apartment, the late afternoon was spent with Ella, Ollie, and their new neighbours, all laughing and playing together.

Day 8: Coffs Harbour to the Gold Coast (3.5 hours, 320km)

The next morning, it was time to hit the road once again—this time for our final leg to our new home on the Gold Coast. In a mix of hustle and a touch of holiday chaos, Andy and my dad left bright and early to beat the arrival of the movers, ensuring as many boxes as possible were already sorted before we got there. My mom and I, with the kids in tow, took a more leisurely departure, all the while secretly hoping that our dad and Andy had managed to tame the mountain of boxes.

And so, after days filled with unexpected stops, memorable markets, and genuine moments of family fun, we wrapped up our road trip with the promise of new beginnings in our Gold Coast home. Stay tuned for more adventures in this next chapter of our journey!