Port Stephens, Australia

I spent 3 days 2 nights in Port Stephens to enjoy the sea, sun and sand. Port Stephens was rather inaccessible via public transport. To save me from the hassle of lugging my luggage through trains and buses, I took a coach from Port Stephen.

I booked my accommodation with Port Stephens YHA and the YHA staff kindly arranged for me to take the Port Stephens coach from Sydney Central Train Station to Port Stephen YHA. Here are the details:

Depart : Sydney Central Train Station Eddy Ave, Bay 14

Time:   2pm

Arrive: Samurai Beach Bungalows

Time: 5.20pm

AUD $46 return. Pay at the hostel.

Depart:  Samurai Beach Bungalows

Time:     9.10am

Arrive: Sydney Central

Time: 12.50pm  

Take note that the timings are fixed. There is only one bus commuting between Sydney and Port Stephen everyday.

Here are some photos of Port Stephen YHA located in the middle of forest! There are a few of such bungalows. Imagine having your meals in the kitchen which is in the middle of the forest!

Back to nature at Port Stephens YHA

Morning call by wild animals! I heard some howling in the middle of the night which sounded quite scary though. 

The bus timetable is not reliable though. Use google map for bus timetable instead. 

Technically, I only had one full day at Port Stephens. To maximize my day, I signed up for 3h Moonshadow Whale Watching + Sandboarding 4WD tour. Note that this can be spreaded over 2 days if you stay longer at Port Stephens.

The Moonshadow whale watching tour departs daily at 10.30 am and 1.30 pm from Nelson Bay. I went for the morning tour. If no whale is spotted during the tour, the tour operator offers a free return cruise.

Nelson Bay

Onboard Moonshadow cruise

Caught a seal sunbathing

Spotted a few dolphins along the way

We waited patiently for the whale!

It was a fruitful trip. After I had lunch at Nelson Bay, I took a bus to Anna Bay for sandboarding. The bus frequency was low and from the bus stop, I had to walk quite a distance before I reached Anna Bay beach and took a shuttle from Anna Bay beach to the sand dunes. Do not have a full meal before you hit the sand dunes because it is going to be a super bumpy ride.

Finally, I reached the sandboarding area. Based on personal experience, I'd recommend anyone interested to do sandboarding to wear sunglasses to protect the eyes from the sun and sand and not to open your mouth when sliding down (unless you would like to taste the sand). The up slope climb was pretty tiring. Even though we are allowed unlimited attempts, most of us called it a day after a few attempts. 

Sandboarding 

Hunter Valley, Australia

I signed up for a day trip with Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Tours. It was a full day trip with pick up  and drop off at Sydney Central YHA (the hostel which I stayed in). I paid AUD $100 for the trip, exclusive of lunch. As the name suggests, it is a wine tasting tour! We were brought to a total of 4 wineries. At each winery, we were presented with an average of 6 glasses of wine samples for tasting. Note: you don't have to finish drinking everything, you can discard it if it is not your glass of wine. 

Wonderful weather at Hunter Valley!

Wine sample. Not a full glass.

I found James Estate the most interesting and engaging. We were each presented with 4 glasses of wine as shown below, 2 white and 2 red, and a wine list. We were to match the name of the wine to the correct glass and the person who gets all 4 correct answers wins a free bottle of wine! Sounds simple! Yet, nobody in my group managed to get all the correct answer. However, all of us had lots of fun guessing and matching.

Here is a sample of the wine list with the price stated in AUD.

If you intend to buy more than 2L of wine back to Singapore, do check the amount of tax which you have to pay.  

Blue Mountains, Australia

I went for a day trip from Sydney to Blue Mountains in September 2015. To get to Blue Mountains from Sydney, take a train from Central station and alight at Katoomba and take a bus to Blue Mountains. The train ride took around 2h and I strongly recommend you to visit Blue Mountains on a Sunday. This is because travel fare is capped at $2.50 on Sunday. You can take unlimited rides on trains and buses using your Opal card at only $2.50! 

Breathtaking scenery. Fresh air. You won't regret it!

The Three Sisters

I went to Scenic World which offered unlimited daily rides at $35! It got pretty crowded from lunch time onwards, so, if you would like to take the rides, go early! 

Scenic Skyway

Scenic Railway was the most fun out of all! The waiting time was the longest though.