Easter Break in Port Stephens.

Deirdre, Allen and two of Deirdre's friends Andrea and Kate and I went up to Port Stephens for the Easter break this weekend, it's about a two hour drive north of Sydney. The weather for the weekend couldn't have been better really from Saturday to Monday. We only had two nights booked at a motel which was just across the road from a great beach in Shoal Bay. You could literally get up in the morning and run across the road for a quick swim before breakfast and Allen and Andrea did too.

For our first night there on Saturday we decided to pop into the next town along the coast Port Nelson. It was slightly bigger than the bay that we were in as it's only a very small seaside town really. After eating there we decided to look for some sign of night life there. We could initially only find one pub there and that was a pub, hotel bar, betting shop and fruit machine arcade in one.

We wandered around the place looking for other drinking places but couldn't find any. After asking a couple in a shop they were struggling to name more than three places to drink in! It turned out that Shoal Bay had a livelier night life than Port Nelson and that was only because it had a small strip with three pubs or so.

Anyhow we still had a good time with a few beers in the only places available and the following night was to prove much more fun when out in Shoal Bay.

We planned to try to go dolphin watching on Sunday morning then to see the sand dunes and go sand boarding in the afternoon followed by a walk up a nearby hill to get a good view of the area.

The boat we went on for dolphin watching was a small boat capable of carrying only 18 people and was ideal as it wasn't crowded at all. Strangely enough the boat was made in Southampton where I was born!

This is a picture of our tea and coffee making crew on the boat. (Big smile) From left to right, Kate, Andrea and Deirdre. The skipper of the boat was very easy going and didn't even mention any safety aspects of the boat in case of the worse.

We initially saw a large turtle on the cruise which even the crew were fascinated by as they said they rarely ever see one on the surface. It bobbed up and down a bit probably thinking what on earth all these people were interested in so much.

After that we did manage to see a few dolphins on the tour. You aren't gauranteed to see any so it was quite a sight to see some. They briefly swam along with the bow of the boat and I managed to get this great shot of one of them.

It was exciting to see the dolphins and everyone on board was much happier after seeing them. It would have been a really pleasant cruise around the harbour even if we handn't seen them but was quite special after seeing some dolphins.

After lunch we booked a trip out to the sand dunes to have a go at some sand boarding and to see the large beach there too.

Once at the sand dunes I had to do my final scene in Capricorn One impression. You have to watch the film to know what it's all about, but basically I just run towards the camera from a distance while someone takes some photos of me.

The sand boarding was excellent and I really enjoyed it. It's much simpler than snowboarding as all they did was put you on a small long board like a small snowboard and you slide down a big steep sand dune sitting down with your arms outstretched to balance. The only disadvantages compared to snowboarding is that you aren't strapped to the board so can't turn on it and you have to walk back up the sand dune after each go. Seeing as I was getting a rush of adrenaline after each go it wasn't difficult for me to run up the sand dune and want to have another go.

After a couple of goes I wanted to have a go at it while standing on the board. At first the instructor asked whether I wanted to spend the night in hospital or back at my hotel. I said hospital so he let me have a go while standing. Again because you're just standing bare feet on a wooden board it's impossible to turn and once the board starts to turn while sliding down you either have to do a controlled bail out or uncontrolled one when you catch an edge.

I tried standing up on the board twice and bailed out about 3/4 of the way down both times but it was still lots of fun. The falls while standing up were much more spectacular though and I do have this snapshot image of me spinning in the air just before landing on the sand thinking it wasn't such a good idea to stand up. In the end nothing was broken and I had a great time with an insane grin on my face afterwards.

The only other disadvantage of sand boarding is the sand. It really does get everywhere and after the second big fall I was covered in it. I spend most of the next two days pulling sand out of my shorts pockets and ears! Still it was all worth it in the end.

After the sand boarding we were taken to the nearby beach which was a very gentle sloped beach with quite rough waves. Walking along it was very pleasant even while totally covered in sand from sand boarding.

We still had just about had enough time to walk up a nearby hill next to Shoal Bay when we got back from the sand dunes, before the sun set.

The walk up the hill was quite easy as there was a well laid out path. Here's a shot from about 1/4 of the way up while the sun was setting.

We eventually got to the top of the hill but unfortunately the sun had just set by the time we got to the top. It was still a great view of the surrounding area as you can see from this shot of Shoal Bay.

We went out for food and beers in Shoal Bay on Sunday night. The place where we ate was more of a hotel pub bar and they were initially showing some plastic surgery program on the TV screens which didn't go down so well and then some late night rugby league game. Everyone in the pub was totally obsessed by watching the rugby game, even all the women.

Later on in the night the bar next to the pub had some live music and we went there to watch it. While there we met an Aussi guy called Ron. He was from the Liverpool district in Sydney and was quite a stocky bald guy who did martial arts. He happened to remember me from the previous night as he was one of the people that we asked where the bars were in Port Nelson! He was quite drunk at the time and was quite funny. I think he's the first stereo typical Australian that I've met here as he was very blunt and to the point with me but in a very friendly way. He was telling me how to chat up women in Australia and the method that worked for him was to be very direct and ask them whether they wanted a f%$&! He sweared by this technique too. I didn't try it out.

The following day Andrea had to get back to Sydney to meet a long time friend and the rest of us went to look for wild koalas. I think Allen wanted to hunt them for sport. :-) We walked for quite a while in a nature reserve which should have had some koalas but unfortunately they were a no show that day. We looked for them in the trees and even looked out for their poos to. Maybe news had got around that they were being hunted that day so they went away for the Easter break.

After this we had lunch at Hunter Valley and everyone else took some time out to sample and buy some wines from all the local vinyards in the area. Not being a big fan of wine I just took the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep in the car.

All in all a fantastic weekend and much fun was had by all.