I guess we’re going bowling!

Sandboarding was first on our list of things to do in Newcastle. Kevin had offered to drive us to Port Stephens once he found out we wanted to go sandboarding, so we had booked a departure time of 10 o’clock. The drive to Port Stephens wasn’t far, since it just consisted of crossing over the bay into even more bays. We saw a few things along the way like a rugby game, koala and kangaroo crossing signs, windmill, and lots of dark clouds. We were afraid that we were going to get rained out of sandboarding since it had started sprinkling whenever we finally arrived at the 4WD pick-up location. The lady told us not to worry though since we would go even faster on the dunes, which got us a little excited although we were still worried since it was rather chilly. We boarded a van which took only the two of us into the dunes and over to the right dune owned by the company. The ride was a little bumpy as you can imagine since we were in a van going over sand dunes, but it was a pretty short ride so it wasn’t too painful. Upon arrival the workers showed us how to properly sandboard with the board and soon we were heading up the huge sand dune to get our first ride.

Gotta love the random camels!

Showing off her board!

Life on the dunes

Seemed like they stretched for miles!

The sand was really smooth and wet, which did make us go pretty fast like the lady had told us. We were also thankful for the clouds since we had to climb up their huge hill to slide down again, which was already making us hot. Within fifteen minutes we were the only ones on the dunes and really got some quality sandboarding in. Every time we got to the top we would see this even bigger dune just calling to us. Since we were the only ones out there and the workers obviously weren’t worried about us we ran over to the dune (which was pretty hard) slid down this huge dune and then ran back to slide down ours. This completely exhausted us since running through the sand and up hills isn’t easy. We took a rest and watched van after van return with more and more people. We struck up conversation with one of the workers that had just returned from Sydney that morning and he informed us that their would be a group of 89 people coming soon. We couldn’t believe that, but he informed us that over Easter Break they do over 1200 in one day! We couldn’t believe that since the dune really isn’t that big and would obviously get overcrowded. The huge tour group eventually did arrive, all wearing the same shirts and more interested in taking huge group pictures than actually sandboarding. By the time that some of them had made it up the hill it had started to sprinkle and they all ran for shelter. Then they started catching the shuttle back out of the dunes. So it didn’t stay busy for long, but we were already pretty exhausted at this point and decided to call it a day. We had gone down the dune many times and had even tried a double seater (when we both go together on one board) and found that to be more fun! Kevin met us at the bay and we told him all about our adventures. He had wanted to originally join us with another friend, but it ended up not working out. He was keen on taking us to a national park that had a great view of Newcastle and surrounding bays so we set off. It was only a kilometer walk to the summit which wasn’t bad, especially since we were keeping our eyes peeled for koala bears the whole time. We had read that Ecalyptus Trees were the best nest for koala bears, but we weren’t too lucky in finding any. We probably didn’t know what to look for, or they are just good hiders. But Kevin commented that koala bears are actually becoming extinct anyways because we keep cutting down trees, so we might not see as many as we had originally thought throughout our time here. This is a little bit of a downer, but the view at the top was great anyways. We saw even more padlocks on the fences at the lookout. The trend had obviously gone coastal. Lauren and I were exhausted from all the sandboarding we had done all morning so we had a hard time staying asleep in the car ride, but didn’t matter since Kevin kept asking us what we wanted to do. It was a little obvious that he’s new to the hosting deal but we were able to find another tourist attraction that had putt-putt, a toobagan ride, maze, rock climbing and arcade games. Unfortunately, the place closed fifteen minutes after we got there so we weren’t able to participate in anything, but we didn’t mind since that meant money saved. Kevin was keen on going ten-pin bowling that night with a girl that had contacted him through the couchsurfing website. She was from Chili and staying in Newcastle for about a year. We are fans of bowling so we were excited until we found out it was going to be $28 for 2 games! And he wanted to go to a healthy burger joint that was famous in Newcastle beforehand. That wasn’t really in our budget, so we hated to be party poopers and were fine with just watching but he wasn’t having that. The burgers were pretty good, but not great for the price that we paid. We’re obviously still not used to the Australian prices. Luckily, the bowling place was booked out for another hour and a half so we thought we were free from that commitment. However, Kevin remembered there was another bowling place closer to his apartment, so yet again we were back in the sticky situation. This place was a little cheaper, but it was still $20 per person for unlimited cosmic bowling. We felt bad if we didn’t participate since apparently it was our idea in the first place, but it was obviously not a price we are used to paying. We ended up just sucking it up and playing which was a blast. I had been missing my bowling, so it was great to throw a ball down the lane again. The day was starting to catch up with us though and we were both starting to get sleepy and weak. We bowled about five games though and had a great time laughing with Francesa who had just learned to bowl (although she was a natural) and Kevin learning how to spin his ball like I do. The night ended rather early for us considering we crashed right when we got back, although Francesa and Kevin kept going.