Hello hello. This
is Carly. Kirsty mentioned in the
last blog that Port Stephens is an ‘area’, but it was decided on our final
night there that a more appropriate word is ‘destination,' We had a fantastic time.
The second half of our stay included sandboarding, a surfing
lesson and sunset kayaking. All
while we continued staying at the beautiful Melaleuca Surfside Backpackers.
Sandboarding
Pete from Melaleuca took a whole bunch of us out to the
Stockton sand dunes to go sandboarding.
My idea of sandboarding prior to this had been to go down about 10
metres of sand at not much less than a 45 degree angle. But when I saw the sand dune we were
going to go down I was freaking out cos it was so massive and so steep!!!! I couldn’t believe I was meant to be
going down that thing!!!
After I had climbed to the top I was even more scared, but we both managed to
find the courage to go down. And
boy am I glad we did! It was so
much fun!! I got one mouthful of
sand at the start because I forgot to keep my hands down for balance, but after
that it was more and more fun each time we went down.
Surf Lesson
The surf lesson with Anna Bay Surf School was great
too. It was at One Mile Beach,
across the road from Melaleuca.
Warren taught us how to assess the surf conditions, work out which foot
we should lead with and how to stand up smoothly. He even helped me to not fear waves anymore!! (well, small ones at least). The lesson involved a large number of
stacks – some funnier than others - and a few glimpses of what it’s like to
surf standing up! I had so much
fun, so I can’t wait to see how cool surfing can feel when I’m actually good!
Kayaking
I also got to do a Champagne Sunset Kayak with Blue Water Sea Kayaking in Nelson Bay. We
had great conditions for it. It
was so peaceful and we got to see some nice wildlife as we travelled along the
coastline. At half way we stopped
at a beach for some champagne before cruising back with the current to watch
the sunset!
Melaleuca
For our final night in Port Stephens, two of the owners of
Melaleuca – Pete and Jeanette - had us for a lovely BBQ with their family and
one of the other owners, Michelle.
We got to hear about some of their travel adventures and some of the
interesting characters that have stayed with them over the years. Pete and Jeanette’s youngest son,
Harry, sang and played some awesome chilled out songs for us on his guitar
before his gig the next day! It
was a fantastic end to our time at Melaleuca. We will miss the beautiful setting, the wonderful people and
the animals that also reside at Melaleuca such as the Josie the kangaroo and
Froggy the owl. Even possibly the
squawky little birds that wouldn’t stop following us!
Thanks to everyone in Port Stephens who made our stay so
enjoyable!
