Nelson Bay & Port Stephens - A Coastal Paradise in Australia, with Dolphins and Pelicans

I promised to answer some more questions about my big journey, but I cannot resist showing you a little where I am staying right now before I do so. 

As I write this, I am in an apartment overlooking Lake Macquarie in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Last weekend my son and I took my grandsons, who are three and six, to Port Stephens at Nelson Bay, which is north of Newcastle and about a 2-hour drive from here. Nelson Bay is a large, picturesque bay with bright turquoise waters and golden sands and occasional sand dunes. It is well-known for the pods of bottle-nosed dolphins that live in the bay, and for the humpback whales that migrate past here and sometimes enter the bay. 

Port Stephens is a bustling coastal town on Nelson Bay, which has a large marina, a very modern shopping area, lots of cafes and restaurants, and luxury hotels and apartment buildings. Right at the marina there are a number of eating places, the specialty in many being fish and chips. The real estate here is really expensive, but despite that many Australians retire here. 

We went out on a large launch to see the dolphins and were delighted to see at least a dozen dolphins close to the entrance to the bay. The rules here are that no boat is allowed to get too close to the dolphins - there is a minimum distance boat operators must respect. When a pod of these wild dolphins is spotted, the boats creep closer to them until they are as close as the regulations allow, then they usually stop. It is just a bonus if the dolphins then choose to swim towards the boat.  Unfortunately the ones we saw did not, and my photos did not work well. Nevertheless, it was a joy to see the excitement on my six-year-old grandson’s face when he saw the dolphins blowing off their small water spouts and weaving their way into and out of the water - in unison. This was part of my late birthday gift to him, as I had been away for his sixth birthday. 

At the big marina there were many launches dedicated to taking people out whale watching and dolphin watching. (The whale watching launches go out into the open sea.) This is where we boarded our launch. There were many fishing boats as well. We were fortunate enough to see pelicans and other sea birds whilst waiting for our trip. 

As I have said before, I plan to continue my blog talking about some wonderful journeys I have made in Australia. That will start after my next post. But in the meantime I hope you enjoy this little glimpse of my trip to one of Australia's coastal ‘paradises’. 

One of the pelicans.

Notice the first pelican has a bulge in the pouch under his peak. He had caught a fish near the pier. The others started chasing him trying to get his fish. 

Another water bird drying off its wings. I am afraid I did not know what species it is. 

A pelican drying off its feathers.

Unfortunately the dolphins kept their distance and only faced away from us. 

Near the end of our cruise, a net was lowered and the older children were allowed to slide down into it and enjoy the water. There were squeals of delight, as you can imagine. 

This photo and the next one show Lake Macquarie at sunset.