Nelson Bay holiday

As the Lugue family is back in Sydney for the school holidays, we took the opportunity to spend time with them again in a short holiday at Nelson Bay. Erin and Aliya use to be inseparable when they were young, so it was really great to see them together again after years apart.

Along with the Lugue family were the Mayamot's, Carungays, and the Madulis. 

It was a fairly short holiday, but we got to spend really good time with each other. Here's how the days went by.

2 Jul, Sunday

• After finishing up in our church duties, we left Sydney just past lunchtime to held to Nelson Bay
• Got to Mantra Aqua right around 5pm.
• The accommodation was wonderful - a generously spacious 2-bedroom apartment with a full kitchen. The living room was huge and was enough to accommodate 11 kids playing around. 
• It was raining so we didn't end up going anywhere. We just spent the time chatting and laughing over snacks, dinner and supper.

  

3 Jul, Monday

• Breakfast and Lunch at the Maduli's room
• After lunch, we all headed out for the highlight of our trip - Whale Watching
• The whale watching tour was a 3-hour round trip on a large 2-level ferry. It went out to sea, far enough where the whale pass by. We managed to see a few whales from afar. They were mostly humpbacks and we merely saw their backs and tails and the occasional water spouts. There were more than 100m away from the boat and we never got to see any breaches. We did see a few dolphins though swimming playfully alongside the boat. 
• While our family was enjoying the views, the rest of our group where downstairs feeling sick and nauseous. In fact, a lot of them spent the later half of the tour vomiting. Oh well, I guess it was an unforgetable experience after all, except for the wrong reasons.

  

4 Jul, Tuesday

• The Carungays and Lugues headed back to Sydney after having breakfast
• Us and the Madulis went to the Toboggan Hill Park to enjoy the local attractions. 
• We got to ride the "train" going up to the hill where the giant maze is. 
• After that, we queued up for Toboggan but then it started raining so they had to close the ride. 
• While we waited, the kids enjoyed the indoor activities like wall-climbing, inline skating, rides, and table games. 
• At around 3pm, the started closing down, so we headed out and decided to return the following day
• Early dinner at McDonalds on the way back to the hotel.

    

   

5 Jul, Wednesday

• Time to go home. But first, we're making the most of our holiday
• Early morning dip in the warm spa. There is a bigger pool but it's way too cold.
• Left the hotel at 11am and headed back to the Toboggan Hill Park so we can finally try the Toboggan ride