Family holiday to Sydney and Port Stephens... super fun!

20 years ago, mum brought me to my very first trip to Sydney... it was a great time we had then. Fast forward 20 years later, Sze Weng and myself brought mum back to Sydney for some quality family time with our boys and relatives in Sydney. 

We had so much fun exploring Sydney and trying out new adventures in Port Stephens 😍😘😊

Thank you Lord for your provision and supernatural favour for this 10 days 9 nights trip. Despite the winter season, we enjoyed many clear blue sky and sunny days, though inevitably the day is very short - often it got dark by 5pm.

On day 2 in Sydney, we visited the Powerhouse Museum - not totally impressed by it, marginally educational & ok ok only for our boys. If our memories serve us well, we remembered they had more things on exhibit the last time we were here.

Praise the Lord for a beautiful sunny day 3 in Sydney despite winter. 

We had a fun-filled day exploring Taronga Zoo, learning about Komodo dragon, koala bears, kangaroos, seals and many more. The short but entertaining seal show was informative and our boys loved it. 
The ferry ride to and fro Taronga Zoo was a new experience for our boys... 
We ended the night sitting at Opera House area to view the much publicised Vivid Sydney light show... which was ok only hahaha 😆😆😆

The few activities that we did repeatedly in Sydney were taking train rides to get to literally everywhere in Sydney, having picnics in various parks or even on benches at the Circular Quay area 😆, boys enjoying themselves at various playgrounds, had loads of fries in almost every meal 😬 and plenty of photos taken with Opera House and Harbour Bridge as backdrop 😘😍 simple fun just spending time with our boys 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

After spending 1 week in Sydney, we left on Sunday to Port Stephens. Along the way, we stopped by Watkins Family Farm at Wisemans Ferry to experience mandarin orange 🍊🍊🍊fruit picking. The boys also experienced feeding some sheep 🐑 there. What a wonderful surprise for all 👍🏼🤩😘😍

This is the view we woke up to every morning in Port Stephens @ Salamander Bay. The Airbnb we stayed in for 3 nights is nestled within a small forest overlooking the beach and the sun ☀️ rises right in front of the verandah 👍🏼👍🏼😆 

On the 2nd day here, we woke up to a cloudy and rainy day... that’s probably the only rain we saw throughout our entire holiday... praise the Lord for giving us perfect weather 🙏🏼 Later we found out that rain on day 2 was actually helpful for our activity on day 3 🤩 So on day 2 in Port Stephens, we visited the Irukandji Shark 🦈 Encounters where we learnt a lot about sharks and sting rays and fed them as well. We now know that jelly fishes are the ‘bad guys’ and sharks & sting rays are the ones getting rid of these jelly fish. But of course humans who throw plastic bags into the sea are the biggest culprits for sharks & sting rays extinction 😢 so let’s do our part by using biodegradable materials and reduce single-use plastics 💪🏼💪🏼 Our boys enjoyed feeding the sharks & sting rays... well even the adults find this experience very educational & fun! 👏🏼👏🏼 This place is highly recommended for families visiting Port Stephens 😊

Today’s adventure in Port Stephens was Sand boarding at nearby Sand Dunes along Anna Bay 😜😜🤪🤪😎😎 There was a mixture of feelings... from ‘yay let’s do this’ to ‘oppsie I think I made a mistake’ but we braved through and had loads of fun! Even our baby Ian.. hehe... at 7 years old did sand boarding all by himself 👍🏼👍🏼👏🏼👏🏼 well done boy 😁 so the rain the day before actually made the sand perfect for sand boarding, otherwise we may get sand in our eyes and that would be too dangerous for the boys. God’s ways are certainly much higher than our ways... thank you Lord for the rain yesterday... now it’s perfectly sunny for a great day outdoor, trying out new adventure.

After an exhilarating sand boarding adventure, we took it slow by heading towards the Zenith Beach to enjoy breathtaking views of nature’s beauty... sand, sea, mountain. Initially planned to do the full 2-hours Tomaree Summit Walk but we were all too tired and hungry from the sand boarding fun... so we just ended up monkeying around at the beach area and took some really nice pictures 👍🏼👍🏼🤩🤩☀️☀️

This Sydney & Port Stephens holiday has been filled with many pleasant surprises, we really felt God’s favour was upon us throughout the trip and the perfect weather He blessed us with... many testimonies to share from this trip 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 Praise the Lord! And praise God for the many family gatherings we had, many meals together and spending 4days 3nights with pak leong & Philip in Port Stephens was really a great pleasant surprise & fun adventure for all of us 🤩🤩🤩 and the rare occasions of seeing Sze Weng in the kitchen, helping to prepare breakfast, Isaac also helped out 👍🏼😆😆😊😊 

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