Today is one of those ‘rare’ days that Marissa gets a day off. It’s a highly anticipated weekend, as we finally have a chance to a weekend thing together. The destination is Port Stevens, a good 2 hours drive north of Sydney.
Two days earlier, I have organised to use my Red Balloon Days voucher ($250) that I got from work on something fun. And I finally decided on quad-biking with Sand Safaris. It happens to be up near Port Stevens, so I thought I’ll give it a go. It’s for two, so Marissa gets to go on it as well.
Anyway, we woke up at like 6:00am, got everything ready and left at about 6:30am. It was 8:30am by the time we got to ‘Lavis Lane’ where the sand dune is. Stockton Beach Sand Dunes is supposed to be a 32km continuous sand-mass, and is the largest in NSW. When we got there, we noticed quite a few other couples there already. One of the blonde lady was actually quite ‘hot’ (looks like the young & crazy type though). We were soon all trucked into where the departure point, where we were introduced to our bikes.
The first sight of the sand dunes were simply amazing! Marissa was a bit nervous thinking she will not be any good with bike control. The instructor was helpful, although he is a bit stern & controlling (he explains this is necessary to control the group). Soon, we were split up, and was in the 2nd fastest group, while Marissa was put together with the slowest group. The next 2 hours involved visiting the Sygna ship wreck (from 1974), checking out a tin city where Mad Max was shot, doing steep drops and just plain cruising along the beach. These Honda four-wheeler bikes are definitely not slow. A few younger guys were on the ‘rebel’ side, but the instructor was quick to put them under control.
After 2 hours, both Marissa & I were definitely sun-burnt. We headed to Nelson Bay, where we had seafood-basket for lunch. It was definitely the ‘unhealthy’ choice with everything fried. We even had to pay for extra sauce!
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around Nelson Bay a bit. We bought a set of snorkelling gear, and snorkelleed around Little Beach which is right next to Nelson Bay. The snorkelling experience is definitely not up to Great Keppel Islands last month, but it was good enough as we did get to see bigger fishes here (but less colourful). A few small jelly fish stopped us from spending too much time there.
It was then time for Tomaree Head where we did approx. 1 hour of bushwalking to climb to the top. It wasn’t a particularly difficult climb for me but a tiring one for Marissa. Nevertheless, the view at the top is definitely worth the effort. The 360 degree view of the whole bay and the ocean is simply breath-taking! One the one side are the bays where we spent most of the day, and on the other side is the ocean where we haven’t explored. We will definitely wanna come back here to explore this side where Port Stephen island is.
Nelson Bay is also suppose to be good for dolphin watching. As we were out of time, and didn’t wanna spend any more money on a cruise, we’ve decided to leave this activity for next time. The late evening was completed with a cup of coffee to relax, and then started driving home just before sunset. It’s definitely been a fun little trip, and re-inforces why I like Sydney so much. There’s just so much to do!
