Whitewater Rafting,
Swimming with Dolphins & a Night of Luxury!
Coffs Harbour
After a brilliant few days at Global Carnival, we headed to
Coffs Harbour, where we spent our first couple of nights at the Coffs Harbour
YHA. The
International Buskers & Comedy Festival happened to be on while we were
there, and we saw a few different acts, performing both in the mall and at the
local pub.
Whitewater Rafting
Our first Coffs Harbour adventure was whitewater rafting
with Liquid Assets Adventure Tours. We met at the early hour of 7am and set
off for a drive into the mountains with the rest of our group. The drive seemed a lot shorter than its
2 hours, either because we were asleep for half of it or because our guides,
Rocky and Steve, spent the whole time telling us the history of the area and
pointing our different sights. We
saw old cedar trees, a flame tree, and even a lyrebird (just so you know,
Rocky, I checked, and we don’t have
them in SA)!
The rafting itself was heaps of fun. It took us a little while to sort out
our tandem paddling and avoid getting stuck on rocks, but the arguments we (and
everyone around us) had were hilarious.
The water level in the river was fairly low, but there were still some
really fun rapids, which we navigated successfully, for the most part. We also managed to also have a
magnificent fall, where we both ended up in the water with our raft upside
down. The calmer areas of the
river had such amazing scenery that we kept looking around thinking we were in
the middle of a movie.
The weather was gorgeous the whole way down the river – it
was so warm that we even spotted a brown snake and a couple of red bellied
black snakes sunning themselves on the rocks. Then right as we got out of the rafts at the end of the
afternoon, the clouds came over and a hailstorm began! I’ve never seen so much hail in my
life. The stones were the size of
marbles and they fell everywhere, even
smashing our sausages to pieces on the barbeque! The whole ground was covered in white, and the river started
steaming up. It was a great end to
a fantastic day.
Swimming with Dolphins
Our other amazing experience in Coffs Harbour was at the Pet
Porpoise Pool, where we got to go swimming with
dolphins! We started the day by
getting our photos taken getting kisses from seals and dolphins, which everyone
who visits the park gets to do. We
then saw the fantastic dolphin and seal show. Neither of us could believe how smart the dolphins and seals
were. Some of the things they did
were amazing, including flips, singing, dancing and balancing balls on their
noses.
After lunch we got to go swimming with two of the dolphins:
Calamity – the mother, who is also pregnant, and Bella – her daughter. Calamity and Bella were both amazing to
spend time with. Their trainer,
Adam, taught us so many different facts, and we got to rub their stomachs,
tickle their tongues and play with them.
Bella caught every basketball we threw to her, as well as spinning one
on the end of her rostrum (nose).
We were both very impressed!
Make sure you watch our Coffs Harbour video to see how clever these dolphins
are!
Pet Porpoise Pool is a great place to spend the day. Everything they do is interactive, and
there are so many opportunities to see, touch or feed all of their animals,
including dolphins, seals, penguins, turtles, fish and reptiles.
Living it up in Luxury
On our last night in Coffs Harbour, we were invited for a
luxury stay at the Novotel Pacific Bay Resort. Not only did they put us up for a
night, they gave us separate spa suites, which each had a kitchen, dining room,
laundry, king size bedroom and ensuite bathroom with a spa! The grounds were amazing – it really
lives up to the “resort” part of its name with a golf course, three swimming
pools, gym, tennis courts and beach access. We even had a full buffet breakfast in the morning – yum!
In our next blog, we’ll be checking out all that Port
Macquarie has to offer. In the
meantime, make sure you check out our latest videos here (including the clever
dolphins!): http://vantastic.worldnomads.com/index.php/about-vantastic-adventures/stage-1-active-nsw
http://vantastic.worldnomads.com
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