Nelson Family: Port Stephens Adventures (Dolphin Swim, Beaches, Sandboarding, and Tomaree Head)

I have been so excited to blog about this experience but have been waiting for the boat footage from Dolphin Swim Australia, and it just came yesterday! Such a blessing for me on a sobering election day.

The first time we tried swimming with Dolphins in Port Stephens I talked my mom and Jason into it last minute and we all went up for the weekend to do it. This was last April and I was ecstatic. I have always been incredibly excited about seeing any animal in their natural habitat but the idea of getting to swim with them blew my mind. We got up at 5 am with both kids and headed towards the boat. It was a beautiful morning, I was so excited. As time went on searching for a pod I started getting antsy, then desperate. Minutes kept ticking by, then a few hours. After a while it became sadly clear we were not going to find a pod to swim with that day. I was absolutely crushed. I felt so bad for forcing my family all out there, and was truly devastated.

5 AM so happy and unaware of my future heartache.

Incredible sunrise on our way out.

Since moving here and being on various boats we have discovered our sweet Liam is incredibly prone to sea sickness. Poor guy.

The Trip was not a total loss. Port Stephens is incredibly Beautiful and has some of my favorite beaches. It made it extremely easy to know we wanted to come back.

Fingal Bay

The company is kind enough to offer a discount if you choose to return and try a second time so we rescheduled for the next season.

A few months later we had everything booked and were lucky enough our friends Luisa and Gui said they would come so that we didn't have to try and handle the kids on the boat again. It was such a blessing. So we were off for our second try. I was so nervous we would have a no show again. On our way out we spotted a few whales and of course had a whale that I wrote about on my previous blog post. After that incredible experience it was only a few moments later we found a pod of willing dolphins that wanted to swim with our boat.

It was incredible! Below is the video from the go pros under the boat and it also includes some footage from our amazing whale interaction!

I am so grateful for this experience and that I got to share it with Jason. It is surreal being this close to wild dolphins in their natural habitat. I love that the dolphins are not forced in any way to participate and it feels so much better and more natural. I am also grateful that we didn't see dolphins the first time so we could go back and have an even better experience. Life is crazy like that.

Port Stephens also is famous for their large Sand Dunes and we got to experience sand boarding for the first time with Port Stephens 4WD tours. I have run down sand hills at Lake Powell, and played on small ones in St George, Ut but this was a new level of fun.

Sadly not everyone thought it was super fun.

But Liam thought it was the greatest thing ever!!!

Before heading home we hiked to Tomaree Head and admired the gorgeous 360 degree views of Port Stephens. It was also a fantastic place to Whale watch and see them breech and slap their tales.