Newcastle - Port Stephens

Sand dunes at Port Stephens - Newcastle, a slightly over 3 Hrs drive from Sydney. We woke up at 4.30am, left Sydney at 5.30am got there on time at 9am for the day trip. We had to find our way there, the turns, the exits, the rest, all was smooth. It was all worth it! Although I didn't drive, Clement did the whole way. I envy. Envy people who can drive. I just lack the confidence to do it. Practise. Practise makes Perfect. Hopefully...

There! That's us! and the SandBoard for the sand dunes behind us. It was such an experience. And the sight of being in a "desert" looking place yet cooling and breezy, was just pure amazing. The sand was sooooo fine... when the wind got abit gusty, the sand started to fly! Like it's moving from Position A to Position B [refer to Picture 1 above]. The guide aka Scruffy, told us the youngest sand dune was formed at least 500 years ago! I was like.... "C'mon!! You kiddin' me?!?!?!" No.. he wasn't. It just a magical formation. I was imagining if I was on a bird-eye view on this plot of area. Strip 1 = Pacific Ocean ; Strip 2 = Sand Dunes ; Strip 3 = Forest Vegetation. Tell me how amazing is that!! Ok, at least it is to me.

The guy at the back of me is Scruffy, as you can see from his looks you know why his name is Scruffy. He was our guide, and what he's doing is waxing the sandboard, so that it'll go faster down the dunes. *exciting~. "Hands behind, cups the sand. Dig into it if you want to slow down." Going down was SOOO MUCH FUN!! But what goes up, must come down... Climbing up was hell hard!! For all good fun!! YEAH!!

That's my video for my sand boarding down at least 15metres sand dune, as according to Scruffy. It was steep!! And yes, I fell for 1 slide. Butt was too big, slid out of the board, went out-of-control, i rolled off, tumbled 2 times over and fell flat facing the sun. Roller-Coaster ride! With abit more pain~ Kids don't try this at home. But try it at Port Stephens.

Above picture on the left is called "Meddes" (unsure the spelling) Seashells, a sacred site. It's the shells of pipis & bones of after-feast of "tribal" people who lived within the dunes. We were not supposed to drive over, walk over or move them. So this is a very special site. On the other picture with Clement's family, the background are the squatter houses after the ship wrecks, survivors built squatter houses to lived by the coast. Now these becomes a tourist attraction. Personally, it was not exceptional because it has been refurbished and newly "renovated" in other words commercialised. But the idea was there.

Behind us the South Pacific Ocean. What are we doing? "Where are the Pipis??" We are supposed to use our feet to dig into the sand till ankle-level and once we feel something hard, a seashell, that's supposed to be Pipi. Tough luck! Nothing. Blame it on the high-tide.

To end the day's tour. Dolphin-watch on a medium-size cruise boat. We did saw dolphins. Wild dolphins. [I can't define the magnitude of "wild" because everything nowadays are just too commercialised] But to wait-&-see that kinda of anticipation was overwhelming. You want to see it, yet you know it's a nature thing, but you still want to see it. I couldn't control myself when I saw it, I just pointed to it! and started screaming & blabbering! Yeah, true.. Don't know what got into me. It's animals.. I just get all-excited! Anyway, we did witness a couple of dolphins swiming front side together with the boat's current. I saw on the far end a wild dolphin did a jump. And that was it! My heart skipped! stopped! then thumped! Wide smile just got stuck on my face! And it just wouldn't drop. I pointed and screamed "THERE!!" and the whole boat just turned towards the direction! Captain: "Sharp pointing there girl. Slight towards to 10 to 11 o'clock direction." The feeling was just so amazing!! Dolphins.. they are my favourite!

And that's it! My "holiday" with Clement's family ended. They have left Singapore with good memories, I hope. Thank you to his family for coming to visit us and gave me the opportunity for this day trip to Newcastle. Hope I was a good host too.

Now, back to work! Back to reality. Keep smiling... Keep smiling....