Port Stephens
After a great time in Port Macquarie, we set off to Port
Stephens, which despite our initial beliefs, is not actually a town, but an
area. We arrived just after sunset
at Melaleuca Surfside Backpackers, which is an amazing place to stay! The hostel is on 6 acres of gorgeous
bushland, across the road from the beach, and they have designated sites for
kombis and campers that also include full use of the common room and all of
their facilities. More about them
in our next blog though – we did so much in Port Stephens that it’s going to
take two blogs to cover it all!
Horse Riding
Jeanette from Melaleuca arranged all
of our activities for us, the first being a horse ride through the bush and
along a lagoon with Sahara Trails.
Carly’s horse was called Meg, and
mine was Kaz, and they were both great to ride. It was a nice peaceful walk in beautiful surroundings, and
we also got to trot a few times.
Whale Watching
The next day, we headed out on a whale watching cruise with
Imagine Cruises and had a great time! We’re
beginning to think we’re whale whisperers, because we came within metres of
whales again! It was our third
whale watch of the trip, but our first on a bigger sailboat, so we made the
most of sitting in the net out the front and doing ‘Titanic’
impersonations. On the way back
in, we also had boat surfing competitions, to see who could stay on their feet
the longest. Overall, it was a
very cool trip, and Didg did the best & funniest safety induction we’ve
ever heard.
Trivia Night
After the whale watching cruise, we relaxed back at
Melaleuca for a while,
before heading to trivia night at Anna Bay Tavern, the local pub. Our team was made up of Teri from
Chicago, Elizabeth from the Netherlands, Carly and myself, and despite arriving
7 questions in, we managed to finish in equal second place. There were a few tricky questions,
including ‘What state of the USA starts with B?’ which had Teri puzzled for
ages, but thankfully her home country knowledge came through and we put down
the correct answer.* Our prize was
a $10 bottleshop gift voucher, and we then headed back to Melaleuca, where we introduced the French to
cheap Australian cask wine. They
were actually very impressed!
Ray and Shark Centre
Port Stephens also involved a visit to the Australian Ray
and Shark Centre, where we
donned wetsuits and got in the tank with rays and sharks, including an enormous
stingray that weighs over 300kg!
It was strange to be in a tank surrounded by so many ‘dangerous’
creatures, but they were all really placid, and let us feed them as they swam
around us. It was a pretty cool
experience.
There’s still a lot of our time in Port Stephens to cover,
so be sure to come back for our next blog! In the meantime, make sure you check out our latest videos
here: http://vantastic.worldnomads.com/index.php/about-vantastic-adventures/stage-1-active-nsw
*And for those of you interested in the US state starting
with B, there isn’t one!
http://vantastic.worldnomads.com
http://www.twitter.com/vantasticnsw
