Byron Bay - Newcastle

We arrived in Byron Bay and decided to spend 2 nights here, as we'd heard it was a lovely beach town to relax in. We went to the beach first, but weren't up for a day in the sun after Wet 'n Wild the previous day. It was pretty though and the sea looked very inviting. Instead we spent our time relaxing at our caravan park which had a pool and tennis courts and a tv room. We also drove up to the lighthouse, but couldn't get up there as there wasn't any parking available on the lower level where you hike up from and the parking on the upper level was too expensive, so we left it.
From here we were told about another little beach town, Arrawarra, just further south that had a great caravan park right on a beautiful beach. So we went to Arrawarra and weren't disappointed. We had a nice walk along the beach and watched a massive group of people learning how to surf... they weren't very good and it was funny to see them fall sometimes (says me who hasn't tried it myself). Here we met a family with the 3 cutest little girls and by the time we'd sat down for dinner we had 3 new little friends that were possibly the most talkative little people I've ever met.

From there we went to Port Macquarie and found a campsite on the edge of town. Next to the campsite was a school grounds where we saw kangaroos sitting and eating. We didn't want to get too close and disturb them, so unfortunately our photos look like brown dots on grass, but we did see them.
The next morning we went to a koala bear hospital in town. Here we saw quite a few koalas and although they had caged areas where they could get food and water, the top was totally open and the koalas are free to come and go as they please. They really are sweet looking, particularly the small ones and also when they sleep, but they're very hard to spot. We got some perfect pictures of them, but unfortunately we didn't get to hold them, it was still really nice to see them though.
After a nice morning with the koalas, we headed to Newcastle. We quite liked the town, as it looks different to other towns in Oz, with beautiful old buildings and a nice feel to it. We didn't actually stay here, but went to Stockton just over the river but from here we could still see Newcastle. Here we were right on the beach again and we had a lovely evening for walking on the beach and took some nice photos.
The next place down the coast from here is Sydney, but we're planning on going there at the end of our trip to Australia, so from Newcastle we headed inland.