Port Stephens Trip

This weekend we went on a lovely getaway to Port Stephens. Port Stephens isn't actually the official name, it is Nelson's Bay and Anna Bay, but it is popularly known as such in Australia. We arrived late on Friday night and woke up early Saturday morning to feed sharks and giant sting rays! The sharks were mostly under 3 feet but a few of the nurse and zebra sharks were almost 10 feet long! The giant ray was essentially a giant circle with a diameter of around 7 feet.... in other words, it was HUGE! We all climbed into the tanks until we were waist-deep and used wooden sticks to feed them so they wouldn't bite our fingers off.

Giant Sting Ray

3ft long sharks or smaller

Nurse Sharks (~10 ft)

Super duper excited about feeding the zebra shark!!!

We went for a VERY steep hike up to a lookout point in Nelson's Bay and had amazing views of the beaches below. We also went on a whale watching cruise and while I wasn't quick enough to snap a picture of the whales, I did get a few pictures of the beautiful scenery from the boat. 

Nelson's Bay

After a long day of whale watching and hiking we relaxed by taking a tour of Murray's Brewery and the Skinny Dip vineyard. We went for a wine and beer tasting at the end and stuffed ourselves silly with pizza. The label for the beer is pictured below:

Lots of beer!

Skinny Dip Vineyard

The second day of our trip was filled with duneboarding and  camel riding! Duneboarding is a little bit like snowboarding but on sand. Also, when the hill is really high you have to sit on the board instead of stand up.

The beach next to where we duneboarded and rode camels.

Here they are folks...the camels! Camels are without question one of the grossest species on the planet. They have nasty teeth that they use to chew their cud over and over and over. Their teeth squeak and they tend to spit. They also make very disturbing noises and have lots of gas. Overall: I do not like camels...BUT I loved riding them! 

Here I am! 

The last portion of our trip was a quick game of costume bowling. Our team was the riot police but we stole the mustaches from the Mexican team because we didn't feel like real cops without a little bit of facial hair.