Sand Surfing in Stockton Beach

(Part 3 of Exciting New South Wales series)

I long have been amazed and been into the water sport of surfing that when someone mentions the word "surfing", I instantly know that they meant getting stoked on the waves out at sea; whereas before I would link surfing as synonymous to browsing the WWW.  Can you imagine what a complete dork I was?  Not that it changed, obviously I am still an Internet junkie.  But now it seems that a new kind of surfing is here to haunt me: Sand Surfing; and of course, Australia has a place to do that (act surprised).  As that country/continent where riding the waves is a natural past time, it is inevitable that those surfing skills will find a way in the massive sand dunes of Stockton Bight in Port Stephens, NSW.

Dazzling Orient Cave at the Jenolan Caves

(Part 2 of Exciting New South Wales Series)

Image capture taken from http://www.jenolancaves.org.au . All rights belong to jenolancaves.org.au

There was a  previous post about Blue Mountains in NSW last month and in it, I mentioned Jenolan Caves as among the national parks you can visit in The Blue Mountains Heritage Site Area.  The Jenolan Caves is one of the world's oldest and astonishing cave systems in the world.  It consists of ten caves open for tourism but there are also many other caves in the area only accessible to cavers as they are quite complex .  Some are even believed to be undiscovered.

The Blue Mountains, NSW

(Part 1 of the Exciting New South Wales Series)

Tourists from all over experience a different Australia with the Blue Mountains.

By: KC

I have to admit, scenic mountain ranges is not what comes to my mind when Australia is mentioned.  Instead I have always pictured the great outback with a legion of Kangaroos and Wallabies hopping around, or maybe long stretches of sandy beaches with cute surfers bumming around.  Blame it on Outback Steakhouse and Billabong ads. These are, after all, perceptions coming from me who also once thought that Japan is where inter-galactic monsters take residence when on earth and that everyone at Alaska lives in igloos (I was in pre-school, alright?  I assure you I do not carry these views up to now).

Exciting New South Wales: a prelude

Pardon my brother.  This was my best Harbour Bridge shot and he is in it.

When people came to know that I will be in Australia for holiday and to attend a cousin's wedding, most quickly asked, "Where? In Sydney?". Perhaps its what comes naturally; most know a country from its capital.  Like when Filipinos abroad asks some Filipino tourist "When are you coming back to Manila?" and you answer knowingly that they meant Philippines because you are really from Bulacan.  But there's definitely a whole lot more to Australia than the city with that famous Opera House.  Quite specifically, there's more to New South Wales than Sydney.

In the upcoming posts, I prepared a journal of sorts of places I have been taken to by my lovely relatives in New South Wales.  Of course like any first-time tourist in Australia, The Opera House and Harbour Bridge are my must-see and a photo-op is inevitable on these landmarks but surprisingly there's so much more to see and take pictures of, places that I haven't even read about.  This is probably because I was obsessed in planning to get that perfect night shot of The Opera House (which I believe I didn't.  Oh well, there's always the next time).  Blessed with a cosmopolitan city, limitless beautiful sceneries, resplendent beaches and adventure in every corner, New South Wales has something for everyone and everyone will definitely have their own part of New South Wales that they love.

Watch-out for our related posts...