We don't do the whole sit still over a long weekend thing very well and in Australia both Good Friday and Easter Monday were holidays, so that meant a four day weekend! Yes, Morgan was only five weeks old or so, but that seemed old enough to get her out of the house for a few days. So we planned a short driving trip a couple hours north of Sydney along the coast. There are several different areas to explore, so we decided to book a hotel centrally located so we could spend each day exploring a different area.
We headed out early Friday afternoon after attending a wonderful Good Friday service. Somehow we managed to fit everything needed for three nights away with a 3.5 year old and 5 week old in the back of our new to us hatchback and we were off for the 2.5 hour drive. We expected the heavy holiday weekend traffic or a fussy newborn to be our only delays, but instead found ourselves at a rest stop with a dead battery after not fully turning the key to the off position in the ignition when we stopped to feed Morgan. Lucky for us we found a nice gentleman with jumper cables who helped us start the car (I am not sure he would have volunteered the knowledge that he had jumper cables though if it had not been for his friendly wife)!
So while we had hoped to be able to explore Newcastle, the second largest city in New South Wales, during the late afternoon and early evening our time was quickly gone due to our delay. We did however find a great spot along the ocean for dinner before calling it a night with hopes that Saturday would go more according to plan.
Waiting for dinner.
Someone thought it was funny to test out Morgan's bed and see if she still fit inside!
Saturday could not have been better. While it still took us awhile to get going in the morning (it always seems to be a process to get out the door of a hotel with kids), we found our way to beautiful Port Stephens by mid-morning. Port Stephens is full of several touristy beach towns with plenty of water activities, nice beaches and a variety of outdoor adventure activities. As it was early autumn we didn't know what to expect out of the weather in planning our trip so we didn't count on it being warm enough for the beach. While it ended up being a beautiful day to play at the beach we thoroughly enjoyed the other plans we made. Our first stop was the Tomaree Head Summit Walk. About a one kilometer walk to the summit, it was well worth the effort for gorgeous views of the area. We were very impressed with our little hikers as well. Emma managed her first real hike without being carried at all (especially impressive considering the number of stairs it involved) and Morgan settled right into the ergo for her first hike despite us both being more than a little sweaty by the end.
View from the top of the hike.
Me and my girls.
Gorgeous views over Port Stephens.
Family of four!
After the hike was a well deserved ice cream break before making our way to the Stockton Sand Dunes for Steve and Emma to try their hand at sandboarding. The sand dunes are part of Stockton beach, which stretches for over 30 km in length. It is an impressive sight with sand as far as you can see. Besides sandboarding and 4wd adventures, camel rides are a popular activity, leaving you feeling as if you are in an entirely different part of the world as you take in your surroundings. I had gone sand boarding one time before when I was in New Zealand during college, so I happily enjoyed a picture perfect afternoon enjoying the view with Mwhile Steve and Emma spent a couple hours out in the dunes. Emma has been asking about going sledding for quite awhile so this seemed like a pretty good substitute. And in typical Emma fashion, she hadn't been there long before she found another little girl about her age to become best friends with while they boarded down the dunes.
Sand as far as the eye can see!
What country are we in?
Someone's excited on the 4wd bus drive to the sandboarding hill.
Sand, sand and more sand.
Steve said she walked to the top by herself every time!
Getting ready to go down...
Taking a bow.
We could have done this all day.
We were all more than ready to find a nice spot for dinner by the time the sun was setting. We headed back to the town of Nelson Bay. When traveling with Emma in the past, eating at the best restaurants has never been high on the priority list (due to obvious reasons) and we certainly don't expect that to change anytime in the near future. However, we lucked out that night as we quickly scanned Tripadvisor's top 10 list and found our way to one on the list, Sandpipers. We got one of the only tables available without reservation, had a very friendly waitress and enjoyed a great dinner of fresh fish with a very compliant Emma and an awake, but calm Morgan who sat peacefully in her stroller throughout all of dinner (seriously, who is this child? Emma would never have let that slide as a newborn). By the time we made the 30 minute drive back to our hotel we were all ready to pass out and that's exactly what we did. You can be assured that you amply wore out everyone when no one wakes you up even once prior to 6 am.
Bedtime!
To Emma's delight, the Easter bunny found his way to our hotel on Sunday morning and then we later found him at the Hunter Valley Gardens. Yet, to our delight, Emma for the first time was able to tell us the real reason why we were celebrating Easter as she reminded us several times throughout the day that "Jesus was risen!"
No fear, only hugs!
Hunter Valley was about a 40 minute drive in the opposite direction from where we had gone the previous day. It is a well-known Australian wine region located in New South Wales. Our expectations were low to really enjoy any of the wineries. It was instead about letting Emma enjoy the Easter activities at the Gardens and for us to just enjoy the day as a family in a beautiful area of the country.
Emma thoroughly enjoyed the egg hunt in the "Storybook Gardens," which was a cute area designed for children with statues and characters from all of the most popular nursery rhymes. While our entire visit in the gardens was nice, I do find myself hard-pressed to believe I will cough up the $25+ per adult entry fee just to see some beautiful gardens anytime in the near future again.
Checking the tea party for eggs...
Just holding hands with Mary...
I was a little afraid of the bunny's teeth!
We had a very late lunch in Hunter village before making a stop at one winery. We contemplated for awhile where to go as we wanted it to have a good space for kids to run around. While we were relieved to find out at our earlier stop at the Visitor Centre that no winery would look at us like we were crazy for having kids in tow, there weren't really any that were all that child-friendly. So instead we opted for one with plenty of good outdoor space and a beautiful view of the valley. Audrey Wilkinson winery did not disappoint. And oddly enough of all the wineries we could have chosen, I realized as soon as we pulled up that it was one of three wineries I had visited when I did an internship in Sydney during college. Out of 150+ in Hunter Valley we could have chosen, this was it. While a beautiful setting, we are quickly realizing that Australian wines seem to still have a ways to go to catch up with many other famous wine regions in the world in terms of taste. Unfortunately with that goes the fact that importing alcohol is very expensive and heavily taxed, making it difficult to find a very extensive non-Australian selection at the local store. Oh well, that's not why we moved to Australia. So after the stop at the one winery we made our way back to the hotel at a decent hour, and to Emma's delight she was able to go swimming in the hotel pool before bed.
Monday morning came too quickly and we were sad to know that our short holiday was almost over. However, since we hadn't been able to explore the city of Newcastle on Friday afternoon we made our way back there for the first half of the day. We enjoyed a coffee, finally tried a staple item on the Aussie cafe breakfast menu - an egg & bacon roll (pretty similar to an Egg McMuffin at McDonald') and watching Emma blow bubbles in front of some monster waves at the beach before taking a walk along the popular Memorial Coastal Walk for some beautiful views of the coastline. As always, high on the priority list was a stop at a park for Emma before a lunch at a cafe on the beach (I could really get used to this eating by the beach on a regular basis thing along with this country's love of avocado, smoked salmon, amazing coffee and many other yummy fresh ingredients that you find around every corner at a new cafe or restaurant).
Simple pleasures at the beach.
View looking north on the Memorial Coastal Walk.
View looking back south.
Nobbys Beach near downtown Newcastle. The strong wind, waves and current made swimming inadvisable, but it still made for a great spot for lunch.
The trip home was much quicker and uneventful, and we considered the weekend to be an overall success. You're never going to accomplish everything you set out to do with two little ones in tow, but if at the end of the day most everyone is happy and you got to see and experience something new, then I think it was a good trip. We'll report back after our next long weekend trip in June!
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