Category: A day in my Life

No walk  this morning and as you can see I was up early enough to watch the full moon set.

Today we went to the Australian Shark & Ray Center. Unfortunately Athena wasn’t feeling the best so she stayed home. This was our 3rd visit here and as always we enjoyed it. You can either feed the rays from the side…

or don wetsuit/waders and go in with them.

These eagle rays are my favourites. They are just so cute.

Love how they come to check out if you’ve got food.

Christy also spent a lot of time with these rays.

And got the give the big black ray a cuddle and kiss.

I have mixed feelings about the center because I found out most of the rays are caught just to be here, even a huge shark (that has no business being in such a small tank 🙁 ), but then I know how important education is as well. Just because of shark I don’t think we’ll be back.

After our time here Christy went for a toboggan ride…

We then picked up Amy and went out for lunch at the Boat Shed. This used to be a cafe but is now a restaurant.

Not a bad view, but we waited a LONG time for our food and some was great, some just average.

Christy’s turkish bread was a winner and she got two serves.

We got back to the apartment about 3pm and relaxed for the afternoon. It was a pretty hot day and I really didn’t want to be out in the sun.

Tonights dinner was my Bangkok special – egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato & mayo toasted sandwich.

Can’t believe it’s our last night and we head home tomorrow.

Another gorgeous morning walk. Today I walked  to Duchies Beach – about a 50min round trip.

Back home (via Baker’s Delight) there was a berry smoothie for breakfast.

Then it was time to get ready for todays adventure.

Yep, we’re going on a private sand dune safari in this here Hummer (from the US Army).

It was so beautiful on Stockton Beach.

Christy did the pipi dance…

but only Warren, our tour guide, managed to find some.

We then got to watch them burying themselves back in the sand.

There were quite a few seagulls and turns on the beach, and these oyster catchers (who catch pippies here).

There was also a few bluebottles on the beach.

There was lots of sand and bright blue sky.

And there was the collecting of some shells.

We also got to the visit Tin City.

It started out as a fishing village in the 1930’s but currently only has one fulltime resident.

Scenes from Mad Max where filmed here.

We also saw the collections of pipi shells. These are leftover from the fishermen, but there are some from a much older aboriginal settlement.

Then there are the sand dunes themselves. So amazing. No idea how Warren was able to see the right path to take.

The highlight of the tour for Christy was getting to go sandboarding. She had a lot of fun going down but really struggled coming back up. You can’t really see the height of the dunes but hopefully the photos give you some idea of the scale of the place.

She went down & up just twice.

You can see by the bright red face what hard work it was.

After our tour we got a family photo.

Then headed over to Salamander for some lunch. I just had some honey roast vegetables. So yummy.

We then took a stroll down to the wharf – something we always do when eating here.

 

The remainder of the afternoon was spent lazing about, trying to stay cool. Dinner was nachos made by Athena.

The girls and I then went down to have a swim. But it was quite windy, and the with sun now gone, we quickly headed into the spa, which was considerably warmer. It was a very nice end to what has been a lovely day.

If you’d like to see more our Sand Dune Safari don’t forget to check out the video below.

 

I was awake at 3.30am and got up about 3.50am, when I realized I wasn’t going back to sleep. I didn’t go for my morning walk today but I did finally manage to actually spot the kookaburras we had been hearing all week.

Today Christy really wanted to do some snorkelling so we went around to Shoal Bay.

We couldn’t get parked near the rocks so we had to hike up the beach.

Unfortunately it didn’t really look safe enough for Christy to snorkel on her own.

But another man was in, so she went in where he was. She only saw one school of fish that swam away when she got near. So it was a bit of a fail. Plus her finns are a bit small and hurt her toes :-(.

So it was back up the beach to our “base” where Nan was. We sat for a bit, enjoying the sunshine & view.

We went home via the bakery to buy lunch, but I just made myself a salad when I got back.

After lunch I showered & changed before Athena & I went into Nelson Bay (town) to do some shopping. We didn’t buy much but I picked up a few things (shown in the vlog). We also stopped at Gloria’s for afternoon tea.

I did some reading in the afternoon, and had another snooze. I must have been really out as I didn’t even hear Christy come in to get changed for a swim. I guess I was up since 3.30am!!!

Didn’t tonight was a BBQ cooked by Pop. It might not look the most appetising, but it tasted good.

After dinner there was a game of Tribe with Pop & Amy, before heading to bed about 9.30pm.

I didn’t seem to take a lot of photos today but you can always see more in the daily video.

Loving my daily walks by the water. Much as I love the lake at home, I think this might be a “little bit” better :-). Today I just walked to Baker’s Delight & back, as my legs were still feeling the effects of yesterday’s 3 hill walk.

Today we took the ferry to Tea Gardens, as no trip to Port Stephens would be complete without sometime ON the water.

We sat outside (except for Athena who is still dealing with some bad sunburn from our trip to Jamberoo) and enjoyed the sunshine & fresh air.

It is an hour trip across the bay. We didn’t see any dolphins as apparently they feeding on some schools of fish just outside the heads. But it was still a very enjoyable trip.

Tea Gardens is a quaint, sleepy little riverside village. There are quiet a few restaurants & cafe, a hotel and a few shops.

Being a Sunday the restaurants were full but we ended up finding a little cafe to have lunch in. Unfortunately the family mood wasn’t the best. With having a teen and tween in the mix, need I say more? My meal was quite nice. I ordered a roast pumpkin slice which was just okay and a chocolate milkshake which was way to big. I haven’t had a milkshake in years and didn’t realize quite how big they were. Think I got through about half of it!

After lunch we had a little wander but only found one shop to go into. It was the kind of shop where the longer you browsed the more you found. The name is a bit misleading – we almost didn’t go in thinking they just sold beads.

Pop bought both the girls something. Christy got a dolphin ring & glass horse (made on a little island off Crete) and Athena got a necklace with 2000 year old Roman Glass, so both girls were rather pleased. The couple of things I saw were a bit more than I would spend on them.

The ferry ride back was equally pleasant. Back home Nan, Pop & Christy went for a swim. I really felt like I couldn’t afford to get any more sun today so sat on the verandah for a bit before it got too hot and I moved inside. Not to worry, I still got to enjoy the view.

Later we had some visitors.

Athena made dinner again tonight. Our Mexican potato was especially good.

And I finally found the perfect place to see the sunset – from the little verandah off my bedroom.

After a few rounds of UNO, I ended up going to bed quite early,  just after 8.30pm. I read for just a little bit before falling asleep. I think it’s all the fresh air and sunshine.

Don’t forget you can also watch the daily vlog.