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Long Weekend in Port Stephens

All in all, it was a fun weekend up in Port Stephens, despite awful traffic getting there and back, a flat tire, and my burgeoning cold and headache. But we ticked off a couple sunrises, sunsets, some night photography action, and lots of whale watching – both from the beach and on a boat.

Sunset at Birubi Beach
Sunset at Birubi Beach

I had a concept for a picture of us sitting with BB8 (yes we couldn’t help ourselves but bring it out to play) with the milky way in the background. Figured it would make for a good Christmas card. But it turned out too difficult to execute without use of Photoshop. Haha so it’ll remain a project for another time, when I’ve finally bit that bullet to use the tool.

 

Star gazing
Star gazing
We also managed to explore Morna Point for a bit of a hike. I had to go back for a long nap after though to get over my headache. But Jeff spent a relaxing afternoon alternately splashing about in the waves and reading on the sand.
We also managed to explore Morna Point for a bit of a hike. I had to go back for a long nap after though to get over my headache. But Jeff spent a relaxing afternoon alternately splashing about in the waves and reading on the sand.

 

Sunset at Fingal Beach
Sunset at Fingal Beach, where we spotted a very active pod of whales just off the coast that spent long minutes breaching and breaching and breaching. So cool!
Sunrise at Zenith Beach
Sunrise at Zenith Beach
Zenith Beach
Not much color – well zero – at sunrise, but we saw a lone whale just milling about close to shore.

We signed up for a whale watching cruise too! We actually had outstanding tickets we could use for a cruise in Newcastle since we spotted ZERO whales when we went out with that cruise in August, but because we’d changed our car’s flat tire to the rather bald spare, we decided not to take the detour and just booked another cruise locally in Port Stephens. Turned out great, as we saw at least 3 different pods of whales splashing about. 😀

Whale breaching at Port Stephens
Whale breaching at Port Stephens
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Australia Day up by Nelson Bay

Fabulous weekend in all. Of hiking the dunes, soaking in the brilliant sunrises and sunsets, and a perhaps not well thought out adventure of deciding to kayak in crazy rip tide conditions where we ended up assisting three snorkelers.

It’s a place we definitely want to spend more time at, and can’t wait to return to. During whale season!

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Sunset at Birubi Beach

Sunset at Birubi Beach

Another shot of the amazing sunset we witnessed the other day at Birubi Beach. We loved the beach so much, we went back two subsequent times during our long weekend up by Nelson Bay – once at sunrise and another at sunset. I really love the light here.