Port Stephens

So a few days ago, I went on a road-trip with my family (+ RA, who is basically family). 

We went down to Port Stephens, which was a 3 hour drive. On the way we stopped at several places.

First pit-stop was Terrigal beach (after ~1 hour drive), where we also had lunch and explored the rock pools.

Man, being in the water feels good. It's been so long since I've dived completely into the beach, and I can tell you, it feels great. Also something that was a bonus was the fact that it was on a weekday (Friday), and thus, there were a lot less people at the beach than usual.

Taken with my GoPro, using the burst feature.

Rock pools!

Afterwards, we drove another hour down to The Entrance.

We timed our arrival so that we'd make it for the daily 3:30PM pelican feeding show. Once again, bonus because there were less people, and we managed to get front row seats (only after camping there for 45 minutes, though.)

Though it meant that we could get great photos, it did also mean that we had really close contact with the pelicans. By that I mean that all of us (all of us) got hit in the face/head by a pelican wing (myself, at least three times), not to mention getting water splashed onto us and a drop of brown stuff onto my hand that I try not to think about too much.

But, the photos were good.

You know, I've never looked at a pelican up this close.

We also discovered that my brother is quite scared of pelicans.

"You wot mate"

The feeding was super cool though!

Also played in the water playground for a bit and I got a couple of nice portraits.

With a bit of time to burn on Day 1, we decided to try fishing. We hit up a spot that looked alright, but turns out there weren't much fish.

So after staying there for a bit and realising that there wasn't going to be any action, we packed up and headed on home to our rented apartment.

The place was on Beach Road, and I think the road name is pretty self-explanatory.

There were a good 4-5 beaches on that road, and so to watch the sunset, the three kids (brother, RA, and myself) went off exploring and stumbled across the closest one: Little Beach.

You can't see it in these photos, but the water was absolutely stunning. It was -- legitimately -- the clearest beach water I've ever seen. I was really amazed; it was almost like we were in pool water.

I vowed that I'd come back during the day and film some stuff because I was sure it would look even more gorgeous with daylight streaming through the water.

(We later did come back, and that's where I filmed us jumping into the water from the pier in the video)

Anyway, Day 2.

We woke up at 5:00am planning to watch the sunrise, but alas, it was raining and cloudy. So we all crawled back into our bunk bed and slept again.

At 7:30am we rose again and went hunting for fishing locations. Afterwards we went to eat oysters at Holbert's Oyster Farm (top qual oysters, not going to lie).

We demolished 6 dozen between the 5 of us. Yes. (which was already less than we expected)

But it was kind of a battle of interests because RA spotted a worm on the shell of the oyster (still alive) and we all became super cautious when eating the oysters. Although the shop owner did say that those were alright and natural, since the oysters are fresh, it still caused our stomachs to turn a bit.

And to top it all off, I then found another one inside the oyster itself. Except this time it wasn't a big worm, it looked like a parasitic worm. Which made my stomach itself flip even more.

But we kept eating them anyway, because they tasted so good. We were just really cautious. HAHA.

Afterwards, the sky cleared up (it was cloudy in the morning) and we went off sand-boarding at Anna Bay sand-dunes.

I've gone about 4 times in my life (I believe) and each time is still super fun and I love it. I really do.

It was weird this time because I basically wiped out every single time. Not even kidding. I don't usually; usually I'm able to land smoothly and everything's all good.

I think it may be have been because I was leaning forward (you're supposed to lean back), and thus when the slope leveled out, I flew forwards and would roll off each time. The reason I was leaning forward is because I was trying to cradle my GoPro in-between my legs HAHA. (In hindsight, this was probably very dangerous, but I survived. The things you do to get the shot.)

Also, as per usual, it was extremely tiring climbing up the slope to the top of the sand-dune. To anyone who hasn't gone before, climbing sand-dunes is one of the most tiring things I've done. It requires so much leg-effort, and each step you take, you sink back down halfway.

But was worth it. Definitely would do again.

"It's Day 5 in the Sahara Desert"

Afterwards was camel riding! (Lots of selfies)

This one's called Daisy. She was a darling.

Played around with angles, too.

Not going to lie, camel riding was expensive and probably not the most exciting thing.

It was good to do it once, but if I went back again, I likely wouldn't pay the $25 to ride it again.

Later on, we spent a good couple of hours at Anna Bay beach, where the waves are crazy. Like, seriously. They're very, very, violet waves, which makes for great photo and video (lots of slow-mo waves crashing and selfies), but also means there are a couple of rips which can almost suck you out (yes, first hand experience). There are a lot of life-guards though, and as long as you stay within the flags, it's fine.

As the sunset, we went off to a fishing location that we found earlier on and spent an hour or so there, where we caught a bream and a red snapper (there was also another, but I forgot what it was)

I love sunsets and piers. I swear, every time I go on a fishing trip, I always take a photo of a pier at sunset. (flashbacks to one I took a couple of years ago, that I still like)

Day 3!

Woke up at 5am (again) to try the sunrise. It wasn't raining, but it was still cloudy. None-the-less, we gave it a shot, and so we went off to a beach facing the east to try our luck.

No luck.

But I still took a time-lapse (in the video) and some photos.

With a couple of more hours to burn before check out at 10am, we went fishing again and caught a Luderick and a tarwhine (and I once again, forgot the other fish).

As my parents checked out, RA, my brother and I went to Little Beach (the sun was out!!) where I was super keen to take photos and video (!!!)

I didn't guess wrong. The water was so, so clear. It looked beautiful. (watch the video)

Afterwards, we went kayaking, which I enjoyed a lot. I shared a double kayak with RA (which I'm so grateful for; more on this later). The water there was super-clear too, and chucking my GoPro in the water whilst RA kayaked proved to be well-worth it because we got some stunning shots of fish (also in the video)

Why I say that I was grateful that I shared a kayak with RA was because we were silly enough to get caught in a rip. The man who set us off told us very vaguely the boundaries to stay in ("The two bouys" "Wait, which ones?" "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure it out.") and didn't explain why we shouldn't "go too close to the rocks". He merely said "See that guy with the paddle boat? Yeah don't go beyond there" (and let's just say there were heaps of paddle boats)

For the majority of the time, it was all ay-okay. Later on we went closer to explore and saw some other kayaks and paddle boats out near the rocks, and so we thought "Oh, if they're out there, then it surely means it's okay for us to go out there."

We also thought the boundaries were just a rough estimation to tell them where we'd be (incase we went overtime)

Not trying to shift the blame, because it was probably a miscalculation on our part, but the fact that all other people got told there was a rip out there whilst we didn't was probably a contributing factor too.

Long story short, we got caught in the rip. It was pretty scary. The waves got pretty intense and we felt unsettled, so we unanimously decided to turn back.

After turning and trying to kayak back, we realised that even though the both of us were paddling, the kayak wasn't going anywhere (there was a pole nearby for reference, and we weren't moving any further away from it). So we started to slightly panic (though, I was also laughing at the futility of it).

Thankfully though, after about 5 seconds of more vigorous and continued paddling, we slowly began to inch away and back to shore. I can assure you, "My arms are so tired, but we cannot stop!" is something I said aloud, in fear that we'd get pulled out to the ocean and never return.

I'm only exaggerating. But the rip story was real.

If I had been alone, I don't know if I'd have gotten back to shore.

Later on, after we'd returned, a man in another kayak came to check up on us. My father later told the back-story where this man had gone out to "save us" (the man had passed my father + brother's kayak and said he had to go out to help someone). Well. That's embarrassing for us.

Also it was funny because when this man paddled past my father and brother, he asked "Are you having fun?", to which my father replied "Yeah!" and brother yelled "NO!"

(My brother was also kind of afraid of kayaking, but it's a good thing he still gave it a shot.)

We made it out alive

Was pretty scary, but I'll never forget it.

Anyway, afterwards, we spent a bit more time on the beach (the water was clear, too) and spent a great deal of time with goggles underwater trying to spot fish.

I saw this big fish several times, but every time I tried to pass the goggles to RA and let her see the fish, it would be gone, no matter how fast we tried.

It was still great fun though!

With a bit more time to spare, we went back to Anna Bay to kill time. The reason for this was because my father was super exhausted from waking up at 5am, kayaking, and then spending time on the beach with my brother, and thus he needed to sleep before the 3 hour drive home.

Unfortunately, it was a good 40 degrees, and very sunny.

Despite slopping on layers of sunscreen, I could literally feel my skin burning whilst just standing in sunlight. Thus, as my parents kicked the three kids out of the car whilst they slept, we huddled in the shade, leeching off free wifi and eating cheap ice-blocks that melted faster than we could lick them.

Ahh, that's the life.

But then it was the long 3 hour drive home (of which I spent 94% of the time asleep) and the trip was over.

Not going to lie, I loved it. I got some amazing footage (I loved the underwater clips) and it was truly an amazing three days. Even though the video took ages to edit (An entire day! Can you believe it?!) for my standards, it was well worth it.

And even though I'm as dark as a brick (Legitimately. I stood next to a brick wall yesterday and took a photo; camouflage at its finest), I'd do it all again if I could.

Anyway, likely a short hiatus of updates/posts in the next few days because I've got interviews coming up (for medicine). Wish me luck!

A la prochaine.