Finally, our first long distance trip to somewhere very far (further than Blue Mountains) - 200km from Sydney city. 7 of us made the trip. Hazel, me, Kevan, Max, Judy, Chris and Wini. Kevan and I had to rent a car to make the trip as there was not enuff space in Chris' Toyota.
What a good car we got.. though it came at a price (abt $240 for 3 days incl. insurance). It's a relatively brand new Toyota Corolla and it feels good and safe to drive in.We set off at 620am and reached Port Stephens (Nelson Bay) at around 10am. Our very first planned activity was the Quad Biking guided tour at one of the huge natural sand dunes at Willamtown (part of Port Stephens). What a great experience it was!
Heard of Quad Biking? Alien? It's basically riding a bike-like machine on sand. U would be amazed at the sight of the natural sand dune that stretches tens of kilometres...
We had great fun! An experience that I would highly everyone visiting NSW / Port Stephens to try... even though it may be a bit costly (AU$129 for a 2 hr session). Even though it rained slightly that day, nothing could spoil the experience. It was indeed a bumpy ride for some of us, riding over the uneven sand, free falling in the bike down a very steep sand slope and riding up full speed up the slope and speeding up to 65km/h on the sand. Phew! U will only understand until you have experienced it! Haha.. Here are some of the photos of our quad biking experience:
(below we get wet and 'sandy')
(posing in front of the shipwreck by the edge of the beach)
(who are they? Judy, Hazel and Chris)
(the 3 secondees, Max, me and Kevan)
(the daunting free-fall from the slope.. can you feel the anxiety we felt up there facing the slide down?)
After the exciting experience, we were all hungry and we set off on the road to find someplace to eat and to discuss our next place to explore. It was really not easy to find a simple eating place along the way back to Nelson Bay and we drove a further 20+km to Salmander Bay to makan the good ol' Mcdonalds.
It was nearly 3pm when we were done eating. Not many choices it seemed as the nearby Tobaggon Park was opened til 4pm and it seemed not very worthwhile to spend on the entrance fee to go in for 1 hr. We looked around the map of Port Stephens and decided to find the Gan Gan Lookout.
It was a great choice! Scenary was great on this hilltop lookout. We can see the bays around Port 
Stephens and the sight was just awesome! Check out the pictures we took. Just a couple... =)
(we had our quad biking at the sandy beach behind us!)
It was back to the serviced apartment after this as all of us were tired out. We had our dinner just slightly after 7pm at a NSW award winning Indian restaurant that served delicious curries and naan (roti). Just so finger-licking good! Haha..
We stayed up till 11pm playing Texas Hold 'em (a poker game that is very challenging and fun! - wil intro this game to you when I'm back).
Whale-watching morning! Such an exciting thought! Getting up close to the largest mammal on this planet! What a wonderful sight it would be! Such was our expectations as we reached the dock for boarding at around 945am Sunday morning for the 3 hr whale-watching cruise.
It was such a sunny and great day! Really sunny! See how Hazel was blocking the sun from her eyes when posing for the photo? Tat's why sunglasses are essential.. haha.. We were so expectant, so optimistic that we would be able to catch sight of whales and we had our cameras and video camera (me only) ready! We were thinking aloud that luckily we did not go on this cruise yday as it was raining.
The first 45mins into the cruise out, we were straining our eyes for potential whale-sighting! Fully focused. As the cruise went on, we got tired of coz but we stil pushed on. Until the 1hr 30min mark, hopes dwindled. And we ended up with nil sighting of whales and a sighting of lazy dolphins out on their daily swim. Nothing fascinating! Disappointed we were very! Whale watching season is from May - Nov every year. Most likely to spot them during Sept we heard. We would be back! Trust us! And keep a lookout on this blog and I promise to bring you photos of real whale sightings by Hazel and me! 
Cheers! A great Port Stephens trip this is! More to come... =p
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