Day 7 - Gold Coast to Sydney

Gold Coast, Queensland to Sydney, New South Wales - 830 kms, 9:15 hours.

This was the last day of the trip. Breakfast came with the room and a very luxurious breakfast it was. I spent some time with the family and we both headed back home - them by air and me by road. It took a while to get going and it was 12PM by the time I left. I headed out to the motorway and reached it, only to come to a halt. It was chock full with more cars than I have seen on the entire trip. But past Emerald Beach, things opened up a bit. But that was right until I reached New South Wales. Then things started slowing down a lot.

There were long stretches of roadwork with the speed going down from 110 to 80. It was also a single lane road, a single slow driver can bring the entire stream of traffic to a crawl. Every now and then, I had to pass through a town where the speed would drop to 50kmph. The old maps on the car GPS did not have all the new town bypasses. I tried using the phone occasionally to find them. About two thirds of the way, things improved. The road was good, there were two lanes and the speeds were 100 or 110 kmph.

It was starting to get dark. My family had already reached home. It was New Year's Eve and we had been invited to a party at a house with a good view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the New Year's Eve fireworks. But I had to get home in time first.

But I was on the home stretch now. It was 10PM by the time I got home. Just enough time to get ready for the party. The theme was hippies so I quickly changed and did not even have to tie my hair. Peace, man!