Where did January go??

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Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, been having a few technical difficulties…

The month of January has gone by pretty quick with some really hot weather, and we have for the most part stayed in Wollongong at Brett’s Aunt’s house, until last week when we decided it was time to get back in our caravan as it had been quite awhile. We had been sticking around Wollongong because Brett’s sister, Megan and her boyfriend Dusty are coming over to get married on February 14th, so we have been doing some wedding coordinating stuff for them since they are in living in South Korea. We were beginning to think we could maybe take up wedding planning as a side business. But don’t think so…

Since Meg and Dusty are coming on February 1st, then Brett’s parents on the 4th, we had about 10 days to head up the coast, so we decided to head back up to one of our favorite spots, Crescent Head to test out the long board a bit more...

The first 2 nights we stayed in Hawks Nest, which is about 2 ½ hours north of Sydney and is on the northern side of Nelson Bay, which is where Port Stephens is. It is a nice quiet little spot with long stretches of open beaches, freshwater estuaries for fishing and kayaking, and there is also a large koala population there supposedly, but unfortunately we didn’t see any. They are hard little buggers to spot! We did see lots of dolphins swimming just off shore and lots of kangaroos, just no little koalas. The weather has been great since we have been up here, and it has been extremely hot in some areas of Australia right now, but luckily where we are there has been a nice breeze from the ocean. Down south in Melbourne and Adelaide, temperatures are reaching the low - to mid 40’s, which is hotter than it’s been in over a century. Adelaide reached 46 degrees yesterday, and is supposed to stay that way for a few more days. It is still hot around Sydney as well, but sticking into the mid 30’s.

Things have died down now a bit at Crescent Head with school holidays ending on Australia Day for most states, so the caravan park has cleared out a bit. You couldn’t even get a booking for all of Decemeber and January as gets totally booked a year in advance. It is really great to be back in our caravan, surfing, bbq-ing, happy hour and all that. The waves have been pretty small all week so Brett had a go on a stand up paddleboard that a guy was demo-ing. Said it was a pretty good workout! It is basically like a big surfboard that you stand on with your feet beside each other, instead of more of a sideways stance like on a normal surfboard or snowboard, and you have a paddle to help get you around. A lot of older guys are doing it and saying they have never been in such good shape.

We have another couple days up here then back down to pick Megan and Dusty up in Sydney and back to Brett’s aunts for a week before we all head down to Jervis Bay for the wedding, and a week of camping. It should be a lot of fun, and we are really looking forward to having some visitors again and seeing everyone.

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Photos

The entrance to Lake Illawarra near Windang in Wollongong where we were watching some little kids surf, just moments before this whole stretch was closed for a shark attack about 1 km down the beach. Guy was ok, just about 40 stiches on his calf).
(Guy was ok, just about 40 stiches on his calf).