Just coasting on the Sapphire Coast

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After hanging out a few more days after the wedding with everyone in Jervis Bay, we headed south down the coast about 5 hours to a beautiful spot we had been before, Merimbula. Merimbula is on the the Sapphire Coast and is about hour north of the border between New South Wales and Victoria. We stayed for 5 days at the Merimbula Beach Caravan Park which is directly overlooking a quiet little beach. You can rent some really great cabins there if you don't have a caravan, tent, etc. and they are a pretty good deal. The campground has 2 pools, tennis courts, cooking facilities, arcade, little cafe - all for $26 a night.

We didn't do alot when we were down that way - think everyone needed to relax a bit after the wedding, so that was exactly what was done. That, and eating alot of fresh prawns, and a few drinks and barbies while catching up, with a bit of swimming, surfing and running to work off all the eating over the past week or so!

We then headed back up to Wollongong and back to Brett's aunt and uncles, and all hung out the last few days before everyone was flying out. We went up for a day and night of sightseeing around Sydney the day before everyone flew out. We did a tour of the eastern beaches - Maroubra, Coogee, Bondi and then around to Watson's Bay, where you get a great view from the pub (of course!) of the downtown core of Sydney. From there we drove into Sydney, parked our car at our hotel and took the ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay, then walked up to the Rocks. The Rocks is nestled at the foot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and on the western shores of Sydney Cove. In 1788, Australia's first European settlers-British convicts and their overseers-claimed the land from the Indigenous Cadigal people, and built their camp atop the sandstone cliffs. Today, it is a mixture of restaurants and pubs, boutique shops, and galleries.

The day Brett's parents flew out to Vancouver (via a week stop in Fiji), and his sister and her husband flew back to South Korea, we had another arrival to pick up at the airport. Tarra (a.k.a. TP) was flying in from Melbourne for a long weekend, and it was great to see her as it had been awhile between visits. Think we got so used to all of our hanging out the previous year, that we were going through withdrawals and it was definately time to catch up!

And in the meantime, Brett' aunt and uncle who have been so good to us since we got here - allowing us to come and go when we need, storing some of our stuff, putting up half of Canada when they come, etc., are selling their house and hitting the road! They are planning to drive around Australia, with no real set agenda or time frame - only wish we were going! So this meant it was time to sort a few of our things, and get rid of a few, as we are heading up north again for Brett to do a skatepark for a few weeks in Tweed Heads, near the Gold Coast. And then we plan on a month or so back in a few of our favorite spots before getting a place in Sydney and real jobs...

At least that's the plan anyways... We have managed to stretch our original plan of having 6 months off and travelling around to almost a year and half (with a bit of work in between), so we are not doing to bad I guess....

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Photos

Tarra and us at Bass Point in Shellharbour.
This beautiful little cove is actually a grey nurse shark breeding ground. Freaky. Although nurse sharks aren't as dangerous as other sharks..... still a shark, and still freaky...