The New South Poettckers: March 2019

Kevin and I decided a while back that we would try to plan a weekend away every other weekend, as long as we were all feeling up to it. We suited ourselves up with camping gear (with the help of some borrowed gear from our exchange partners) to make this plan more affordable. There are so many state and national parks, as well as holiday and caravan parks, that our options are quite numerous in terms of new places to explore that are not too far away. I think that this is a great plan, so far. Of course, packing up the car every other weekend may get a bit old after a number of months, but until then, we will enjoy our affordable getaways. This weekend, we chose to head to the beach - Blacksmiths Beach near Newcastle (about a 4 hour drive from us) - and stayed at a holiday park. We invited some fellow Canadian exchangees (from London, ON living near Forster, NSW for the year) to join us on our adventure. We all had a fantastic weekend of connecting with new friends who felt like old friends, and enjoying a gorgeous Australian beach (seriously, are there any non-amazing beaches here???).

Some highlights:

waves, waves, waves - jumping over them, crashing through them, ducking under them, riding on top of them, being knocked around by them
flying foxes everywhere - they are so cool to watch at night
falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves
falling asleep to the crash of thunder
watching our kids connecting with other kids
watching our kids falling in love with the ocean - Calla took a little while to warm up after a face full of sand but warm up she did, for Rylan it was love at first wave, and Joey was happy to play in the sand and the waves

Photos of highlights (I forgot our camera, so my phone had to do this time):

Did we make a wrong turn somewhere!?

Lots of tag was played at the playground.

We make sure to follow the rules and swim between the red and yellow flags where the lifeguards are watching. It's quite easy to wander outside of these flags in search of the most fun waves.

Beginner body surfing.

I focused on Calla to start, then caught Rylan and Kevin catching a good one. This old mama caught some good ones too, but nobody likes to catch the mama bear on camera. :)

Farewell for now, beautiful ocean!

This past weekend, we finally had the opportunity to check out Warrumbungle National Park, which is less than a 2 hour drive from our house. The Warrumbungles are small mountains created by many years of volcanic activity and erosion. It has been a sacred place for Aboriginal groups throughout history, and remains so today. For us, it was a magical place for us to discover Australian wildlife, and to do what our family loves doing best together - having outdoor adventures. Warrumbungle National Park is also Australia's only Dark Sky Park, and the stargazing was one of the most spectacular I have ever experienced, as the moon was new. After our weekend away, it is safe to say that this will certainly NOT be our last weekend excursion to the Warrumbungles. The hiking opportunities are fantastic, and Kevin and I hope to be able to escape there by ourselves to do some of the more lengthy, challenging hikes that are beckoning to us. I didn't look into the details, but it looks like a large portion of the Warrumbungles were burning when High River was under water in 2013. I suppose we could count that as a distant bond that we have. It is amazing to see the regrowth in the vegetation, as well as how some of the eucalypts just keep on growing green leaves, even after being blackened by fire. It's a beautiful place that will serve as an excellent fill-in for our Kananaskis-Country-itch over the next several months.

We arrived at our campground just as it was getting dark, after meandering through kangaroos at a very slow pace. We quickly set up camp, and then headed to the awesome Aussie gas BBQ's (that are everywhere!) to make dinner. We were greeted by our first big hairy spider, who apparently eats the venomous ones for breakfast, which makes him our friend. I did not get a photo of the even bigger hairy spider that hung out on the ceiling above Calla and I as we brushed our teeth one night. Eeeeeeek!

The kids enjoyed riding their bikes all around the campground. There were only a handful of people there besides us, and it was dead quiet in the evenings.

After a pretty crumby night (it did not cool down much) we decided to keep ourselves busy so we wouldn't think about how tired (and potentially grumpy) we were. (Yes, this is actually our technique, and it kind-of-mostly works, a lot of the time. And yes, going on adventures that we absolutely love does include grumpy times too, just in case you think it's all fun and games.) We went on a hike to a cave after being promised by the park ranger that we would see ancient Aboriginal drawings. I'm here to tell you that we were disappointed, as there were no drawings for our reward. Unless you count the drawings that we imagined were there, and the smoke stains on the ceiling that we thought we saw. However, it was still a great hike with fantastic views, a beautiful bridge, and a lovely golden orb weaver hanging out in the stillness.

Our best disappointment faces.

All the creeks and rivers we crossed were bone dry.

If you think this is cool, you should have seen our campground - heaps and heaps of roos!

If you know Rylan, he loves all creatures great and small, and he especially loves reptiles. He has been talking about seeing a goanna lizard (monitor lizard) every since we discussed the option of coming to Australia. We were told (by the same park ranger who told us that we would see Aboriginal drawings at the aforementioned cave) that there were heaps of goanna lizards in the area (alright mate, I'll believe that when I see it). I told Rylan that there was a remote possibility of seeing one. This time, the park ranger did not disappoint! It was Rylan who spotted the first and second one that we saw. The third was spotted by Kevin.

We thought that he was thinking, "Blend with the tree! Blend with the tree! They can't see you if you are one with the tree!" Or else he was surrendering.

More creatures hanging out at our campsite....

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Merry merry king of the bush is he....

During our first night, I got up in the middle of the night, and in the pitch black I heard something growl beside me. Later, I found out what it was. The struggle for water here is real.

Our second hike of the day was beautiful. Great views, and thunder was cracking in the distance.

Our reward after our hike - yummy!

After our delicious dinner, we headed to a viewpoint to watch the sunset. Our friendly ranger pulled through again with this recommendation. 2 out of 3 ain't bad!

I can see how bird watching is fun after this weekend. The ones we found were so colourful.

More goannas!

Our last hike before we went home. It was HOT! And we ran out of water. And, our navigator (I won't name any names) sent us the wrong direction. We ended up going 7 km without the views we were expecting. We will come back and try that one again - maybe when it's a bit cooler!