Port Stephens

The sand dunes....

This is a gun emplacement from WWII on Tomaree Head.

Laurel said these cute little things are a disease...

We went to go watch the sunset and we were lucky enough to see the dolphins swimming by.

This was taken from the balcony of our room.

Our second night away was spent at Port Stephens. It was just breathtaking. We stayed in a really nice hotel that was right on the water. There were beautiful powder-sand beaches with clear blue water. There were so many great places to take a walk. We hiked up Tamaree Head and got to see a 360 degree view of Port Stephens. We then drove over to the sand dunes which are the largest sand dunes in the Southern hemisphere...and they're right off the beach. We didn't do the tour, but I guess you could go sand sledding too. It was a great little getaway that kind of felt like a second honeymoon!

The sand was so soft that sometimes you'd sink into it like snow. The drier parts made squeaky sounds when you walked on it.

Hmmm....

I don't think this ice cream bar would sell well in the States...

We thought this sign was funny. It's a woman holding up her pinky finger...no one thinks big of you...

Hunter Valley

Chris wanted to take photos of the police cars...

Chris- marveling at the beauty of the bare trees...

Our hotel room looked like a page out of an Ikea catalogue.

bare grape vines...

For our first day away from the kids, we went to Hunter Valley. This is basically wine country, but we didn't go on any wine tasting tours. We liked the pretty countryside. We visited the Hunter Valley Gardens which is Australia's Largest Display Gardens. It was nice, but would have been more impressive- possibly even spectacular- in the Spring. It had "8km" of walking paths, so we enjoyed just walking around while there was no one around (everybody else is smart enough to come in the Spring/ Summer. Since it is Winter here, they were just adding annuals to brighten up all the bare trees and shrubs.


ANYONE FOR THE SOOTHING SOUND OF BIRDS IN THE NIGHT???