Get ready.. Here it comes!

We had all agreed to wake up early and go to Kiama to see the blowhole. Riley and I were both very excited for this since we had never seen a blowhole before! Even though the night before was cloudy and cold the weather pulled through to at least be sunny. The ride to Kiama wasn’t too far, only about 15 km, so close to 10 miles. On the way we passed the Dapto fairgrounds which had some markets going on. Julie hadn’t known about this so she told us she’d look it up while we were at the blowhole and we could possibly stop there on the way back to town. Kiama was a cute little town, which is actually Julie’s favorite. We had also passed her favorite beach. The blowhole was at the top of the hill in a little park with another lighthouse right next to it. When we stepped out of the car it just sounded like another beach with the waves crashing against the rocks but we were amazed at what we saw when we came to the top of the hill.

The climax!

The water was seriously squirting out everywhere and going really high in the air too! It kinda really scared me at first so I let out a couple of squeals. Once we got close enough we could actually see the water building up under the rocks and then come shooting through the hole. Julie told us how it tends to run in sets of five. The first few will be really shallow and not too exciting and then the water forces just build up from there with the fifth one being the biggest. We tried to wait it out to get the best pictures.

Off to the left we could see that there were rocks just waiting for us to climb. Julie said that we could go out there and explore, even mentioning that she had never been that far out there. Riley took that as an invitation to make that day today. She followed us as we took off on the rocks and truly did get some great views of more water hitting the rocks as well as the shoreline of Kiama and Wollongong. I got a little scared at some points because we were literally so close to the water and it was rushing in all directions. The waters looked really rough and I wasn’t trying to test my luck with them. Riley on the other hand was like a kid in a candy store just hopping along all the rocks and having a grand ‘ole time. Julie volunteered to be our photographer to capture the moment for us, meaning we got some great pictures from all sorts of angles. 

He said he was 'relaxing' ;)

He look so small!

Unexpected visitor!

Right in the middle of our photo shoot a group of airplanes came flying through the sky. We had seen a sign at the train station that there was an airshow going on in a town called Illawarra. We had thought about going, but tickets were $15 and growing up near a military base we had seen a lot of air shows. The airplanes flew right over us though so it’s not like we needed to buy a ticket anyways!

Vroom Vroom!

Unfortunately, I had to ruin Riley’s good times to let him know we’d have to leave soon if we wanted to go to the markets. As we climbed our way back to the blowhole we could hear little kids squealing as each spout of water came through the hole. At first Riley didn’t know if they were children or seagulls. We quickly made our way to Dapto which was a few towns over to check out the markets. Basically it was just a huge collection of yard sales. We mainly just window shopped, but Riley and I were able to find another bracelet to wear, meaning we’d get rid of our old bowling alley ones that are starting to wear away. He also got really excited when he saw the Dapto Homing Pigeon Club!  Julie had to get back to get to work, but we didn’t mind since we knew we had to pack up our things and head back to Sydney anyways. It was bittersweet saying our goodbyes since she had been such an awesome host for us and was genuinely a nice person. She is originally from Tasmania, so she said she could help us plan our trip whenever we decided to go down there. We had shared a lot of traveling stories, or mainly she had told us where she’d recommend us going in Australia, so we will be ever grateful for her wisdom. The train ride back was a lot shorter than the one going and soon we found ourselves back at Central Station. We had made it back just in time to hit Paddy’s Markets before they closed for the week which was definitely a good thing since we were able to stock up on some cheap fruits and veggies. Once again it was nice to be back in Sydney and able to rest at our own places.