Australia - The Sapphire Coast (Dave)

December 21st - 24th - Melbourne to Sydney

We headed back to spend the day in busy Melbourne just before a Christmas weekend and it was busy but fun. We did a self guided audio tour of Melbourne that was really cool and added some historical perspective to visiting the city. I would recommend air pods or headphones to be shared since the city noise may interrupt the dialogue. Melbourne has a variety of really cool alleyways with street art and interesting restaurants all over the place which made going on walkabout there really fun. 

We really enjoyed our day in the city and then drove on to Philip Island to see the Penguin Parade. The Penguin Parade is the emergence at dusk of the Philip Island Fairy (Small) Penguins. They are super small but it is really neat to see them coming out of the water. One consideration if you ever think of going is to dress warm...I mean ski suit warm! It was freezing waiting for an hour with the wind at the beach and as soon as a first then a second group of penguins came ashore once is was finally dark, the entire crowd (who seemed as unprepared as we were) made a mad run for the visitor center and warmth. I was amazed at how such a small penguin can hike so far up the beach to their nests, waddling diligently towards home. It was overall very cool and the kids loved it. 

Waking very early the next day, we started a 10 hour run to connect with Angie's sister Michelle all the way north to Narooma 682 km into NSW. As soon as the cousins saw each other they were soooo happy and excited. We had a combo fish & chips and spaghetti dinner out of the back of the Jucy Van for dinner at Quota Park which was very nice.We had booked a really nice holiday park there, (Discovery Parks Narooma Beach) but the kids were so geeked up they ended up sleeping all together with Michelle in her small motel room and Ang and I slept in the Jucy Van on the street outside. 

The Next day in the morning we went for a morning paddle board in the Wagonga inlet and then headed up the coast to Bendalong where Michelle had a surprise for us. Along the shores of Washerwoman's Beach small, medium and huge sting rays mill about the people in the water at the beach and some people have obviously been feeding them for years because a few of the rays are huge and fat. It was crazy to have them rubbing up against your legs, snuffling like a retriever for food but it was a neat experience. That night we divided the girls and boys up and took Simone and her cousin Naya camping with Angie and I at Jervis Bay. It was real in the bush camping and there were some tame Kangaroos that other campers were petting. We saw a few more possums trying to get after our food and the skies opened up with rain just after we went to bed but lulled us to sleep. 

We awoke late and packed up a wet campsite and headed to catch up with Michelle and the boys in a very cute town called Kiama, where she had spent the night with the boys at her old friend Stacey and her partner Erryn. Erryn had two boys around the same age as Davie and Loki and all of them went for an early morning surf, first by swimming across a bay, then tromping barefoot through a forest, then to get to a beach that had good waves for surfing. Epic. Met up with them later at the Kiama Blowhole which is super cool and had lunch at The Hungry Monkey which was a delicious spot. After Erryn took us to the Little Blowhole which was much lesser known, but you could stand right over it and get soaked, so or course, that is what the kids did. Said our goodbyes for now to them and headed up the highway to Sydney to meet up with Michelle's husband Stix so we could get together and celebrate Christmas eve. We even had a bit of time to take in Freshwater Beach on Christmas eve!