48 hours in... PORT MACQUARIE

With more than its fair share of sunshine, windswept beaches, great bars and restaurants, plus top-notch spots to scoff oysters, Port Macquarie is the perfect location for a weekend away.

Day One

12.30pm

Arrive at Twotriplefour at Cassegrain Wines on a Friday and you'll find the rustic restaurant packed with locals starting their weekend early. The eatery, which has views of the surrounding vineyards, serves up estate wines with dishes designed around local, seasonal produce. Gather at Twotriplefour to graze on plates of Burrawong Gaian duck and pistachio terrine, plus sautéed Mother Fungus mushrooms with confit garlic and porcini butter. twotriplefour.com

2pm

It’s time for a tour and wine tasting at Cassegrain Wines

The Cassegrain family began winemaking in 1643 in France and they lean into that heritage by combining age-old French grapegrowing traditions with new world technology and technique. Enjoy a tutored tasting of wines that run the gamut from sparkling to white, rosé, red, fortified and single serve. Senior winemaker Alex Cassegrain is Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology’s (ASVO) 2021 Winemaker of the Year and he uses fruit sourced from established and emerging regions around NSW to produce a range of elegant wines. cassegrainwines.com.au

6pm

Port Macquarie has its own brand of coastal cool. It's a city that knows how to have a good time and that is obvious after a few fish tacos and margaritas at Little Shack. The people of Port Mac love Little Shack and if you get talking to them here you’ll learn about brilliant council initiatives such as the Wakulda immersive sound and light show projected onto Port Macquarie Historic Courthouse. The 10-minute projection is a profound, progressive and moving tribute to the Traditional Owners of the land, the Birpai people. littleshack.com.au; portmacquarieinfo.com.au

7pm zebu.com.au

The dining scene has been steadily growing over the past decade in Port Macquarie and Zebu Bar and Restaurant is one of the best examples of the new culinary landscape. The restaurant has a kind of retro-glam vibe with rose-gold and brass accents, pink and navy velvet chairs and walls of glass inviting views over the waterways that snake around Port Macquarie. Order a variety of dishes to share, such as barbecued prawns and tomato and pesto arancini, or stop for happy hour cocktails and some cheeky bar bites.

Day Two

8am wildnets.com.au 8 blackmarketbagels.com.au

Let the sunlight wake you up so you’re feeling zen ahead of your early-morning yoga class at Sails Port Macquarie, which is the ultimate coastal retreat. Sails Port Macquarie by Rydges had an extensive refresh a few years ago and, post-lockdown, we can better appreciate what has been on our doorstep all along. Sails is a hotspot for yoga tourists who like to unfurl their mats and get their downward dogs on at different destinations.

9.30am Owner Yesha Avsar will welcome you like Little Turkey. Kick off the day with some Turkish coffee before digging into a traditional breakfast made up of many small plates accompanied by pillowy soft rounds of Turkish flatbread. Sit cross-legged on colourful cushions around low tables to indulge in this extravagant banquet, which is like a magic carpet ride around the Ottoman Empire.

11am Guulabaa – Place of Koala is a new, world-first tourism experience located in Cowarra State Forest that, as well as showcasing local Biripi culture, will provide key facilities for the rehabilitation and breeding of wild koalas. The revitalised precinct, which will also include a cafe, elevated boardwalk and Australia's newest big thing, a 2.5-metre-tall Big Koala, will form part of Port Macquarie's hugely popular Hello Koalas Sculpture Trail. Australia's largest suspension playground, Wildnets, will also draw visitors to the precinct, with part-proceeds going toward conservation of the endangered marsupial.

Noon Australia is currently in the middle of a bagel boom, which the team at Black Market Bagels has helped drive since opening in 2015. This burgeoning business pumps out some of the finest sweet and savoury New York-style bagels on offer. While the traditional Everything Bagel topped with poppy and sesame seeds, onion, salt, pepper and garlic is its bestseller, the BMB team also innovates with flavours: choose between savoury (jalapeno and cheese) and sweet (French Toast). Holy moly.

2pm Enjoy a ceramics class with Aleisa Byfield, an artist specialising in ceramic jewellery, tableware, bowls, cups and bespoke pieces. Those keen to learn how to create homemade wares can come to grips with shaping, moulding and adding texture to clay to create organic pieces that are wonderful even when a bit wabi-sabi wonky. Artwork crafted during the session will be glazed for you in the studio. aleisabyfieldartisan.com hastingsriverhorseriding.com.au stick.bar

5pm You’ll get a different perspective on Port Macquarie when you see it on horseback. The few people you pass on your tour tend to be fishermen and the further along the beautiful beaches you get the more secluded it feels. You’ll be in the capable hands of Hastings River Horse Riding, which also leads scenic rides along the banks of Wauchope’s Hastings River and around Queens Lake.

6pm Walking along the breakwall makes for an enjoyable afternoon in town; it’s where to see and be seen. Continue your stroll into the city to Stick Bar, a rustic izakaya-style bar hidden down an inner-city laneway where you can get killer yakitori and cocktails, both of which are kissed with charcoal.

7pm hellosailor2444.com.au

Hello Sailor is a sprawling venue that fills up quickly. Housed in an old, unused boat mechanic’s shed at Port Macquarie Marina, Hello Sailor brings a party vibe to the Hastings region. It’s cosy and warm with fire pits and foliage, offering bar food such as po’ boys, “Hello-Peno” poppers and prawn buckets that pair perfectly with house-made cocktails and craft beer.

I hate putting air in my tyres. My fingers get rubber and road dirt on them. I have to squat to tyre level without putting my knees in the dirt in order to find the pesky tyre cap that rolled beneath the car. And did I miss the beep telling me the machine had reached optimum tyre pressure or will my tyre suddenly explode in my face? (I have a vivid imagination at times like this.)

A flat tyre coming back from my last road trip meant I was stuck using the skinny, bright yellow tyre of shame that is laughingly referred to as the spare. It meant I could only do 80 km on the motorway. Do you know how much ire this causes other motorists?

Blain, the nice Tyrepower man who I managed to find (they have 270 stores so they were my first choice to Google) told me in the nicest way that I was lucky the tyre hadn’t blown. My other tyres can’t keep a secret it seems and betrayed me by telling him they were underinflated too.

Here’s what I now know from him and what has made me a (better late than never) convert to regularly putting air in my tyres. If your tyres look a bit flat, it means they are very deflated. So what?

• Low pressure means your tyres can overheat, which can lead to tyre failure

• Low pressure decreases the longevity of your tyres

• Low pressure affects your braking

• Low pressure affects your cornering

• Low pressure affects your acceleration out of danger

If you’re heading off for an Easter getaway, checking your tyres for pressure, tread depth and damage from those pot holes we love to hate is even more important than making sure you have something to distract the kids from asking ‘are we there yet’ every 15 minutes. The latter may save your sanity but the former is the only thing that connects your car to the road surface.

As they say, that’s ‘where the rubber meets the road’ and that is what’s crucial to you and your family’s safety on the road.

CHECK YOUR TYRES BEFORE YOUR DRIVING TRIP AT TYREPOWER.COM.AU/STORES

ERINA, KINCUMBER, WOY WOY, LISAROW, TOUKLEY, WYONG