Port Stephens

At last Nick was given some leave over Easter. We had the long weekend to go and explore and, as the weather forecast wasn't that good, we booked a little cabin rather than camp. The forecast however was wrong and we were blessed with beautiful sunny days.

Port Stephens is three hours North of Sydney, about 250km away. It is a beautiful bay with numerous wonderful beaches and a national park making up the southern headland called Tomaree National Park. Our cabin was very cosy, small living area with kitchenette, a double bedroom and a bunk in an alcove. We took the boys bikes and they cycled around the park safely. Ollie is pretty much confident on his bike now.

If you look at the first map, we stayed on Shoal Bay, just to the West of Tomaree Headland. The beach was fabulous as it had a gently shelfing white sandy beach protected from swell as in the bay. The water was totally clear and teaming with fish. We hired a kayak and Ollie and I were lucky enough to be joined by dolphins, there is a resident pod inhabiting Nelsons Bay.

Here is Shoal Bay and behind you can see the peak that is Tomaree Point. We climbed to the top of this on the second day but had to leave Ed and Alex behind on the last stretch as, step metal staircase at the end. The views were well worth the climb. From May to November you can see humpback whales on their annual migration North.

This is the view of Shoal Bay from Tomaree Point

We spent a lot of time playing on the beautiful beach and swimming. Oliver and Nick also spent many hours on the jetty trying to catch fish, unfortunately with little success. Nick is very happy as he has discovered Oliver is happy to sit for hours staring out to sea and daydreaming so is perfectly suited to fishing. Something I have said we already knew taking into acount the proportion of his day spent sitting on the loo!. Alex, on the other hand, is your worst nightmare, hands everywhere, all over the hooks and bait, charging all over the place, hence the life jacket!.

We ventured over to Stockton Sand Dunes, the biggest moving sand mass in the Southern Hemisphere. Amazing to see as the sand stretched to the horizon. Also the boys enjoyed watching the camels taking tourists for a ride.

All Australians out of the cities seem to own a big 4WD and access is open to these dunes to take your vehicle out and mess around. So there was lots of noise and we didnt stay too long. We are gradually identifying the things that Australians hold close to their hearts and big is definately in here. Macdonalds is massive, tattoos, pie eating and Holden Utes ( imagine a Vauxhall Vectra cut in half with the back end replaced by a covered trailer you won't be too far off). Also they are not afraid of loud. Favourite car colours are bright red, vivid green and sky blue. Ok I have swung off on a tangent as per usual. Back to the weekend...

What I have failed to mention is that for the first time since Edward arrived in our lives he chose this weekend to be a little ill. His illness luckily revealed itself to Nick whilst I was out taking Ol and Al to the park. He stayed behind and fed Ed his supper. When I returned I found a whole load of food over the floor and walls and could hear Nick shouting help in the distance. On arrival at the shower room I found a smiling naked baby in the arms of his equally clothless father both covered in poop. 'What do I do, what do I do??'. 'Looks like you are doing well to me Daddy!!' I said. Edward was placed on a strict no food only fluid diet for the rest of the weekend and, in his usual way, he did not complain and this seemed to do the trick.

We also did a dolphin watching little boat cruise. Fabulous. This is where I took the following pictures. I have never seen dolphins in the wild and it really took my breath away. Oliver was equally impressed.

On our last day, and having seen so many signs warning of koalas on the roads, we decided we would go on a koala bear hunt. We headed to Lemon tree Passage as according to the guides this was where you were most likely to have success.

We entered the reserved and Nick then spent the next two hours looking up into the leafy canopies above us . At the end of the two hours we opted to have our picnic on the most peaceful beach. On our way we bumped into a friendly local who said chances of seeing a koala were pretty much zero as locals had been letting their dogs out overnight and these had pretty much wiped out the koala population. The best time to see koalas is at dusk when they come down from the safety of their trees. This ultimately had been responsible for their demise. Whilst we were listening to this tale we didnt pay attention to big eared Alex who was avidly taking this in. And because the man used the word die and dogs he then spent the rest of the afternoon stopping every passer by to tell them with lots of hand movements and great expression. 'All the koalas have died, they are all gone because of the dogs!!'. He still recounts this story even now if he hears the word koala. Here we are on the beach after the above said hunt.