Australian Getaways

Day 2: mini-break at the coast and exploring the local area 

The day started with more dog beach time. It’s about a 4 min walk from our pet friendly rental house down to the dog beach. Another few mins takes us to the people beach as well. 

Bear’s highlights this morning were: making a new husky friend, romping through other people’s beach towels (naughty!) and walking out to the top of the cove with B.


We left a very tired Bear at home and went off to explore some of the surrounding area. Mogo Zoo was only a 5 min drive and was a nice visit, we got to feed animals and explore. 


After a few hours of zoo fun, we drove into Batemans Bay (another 15mins) and ate fish and chips on the beach. The fish and chip place is the same one as in Canberra (Bernie’s) and is just as good.


Batehaven Beach was a beautiful spot to enjoy the food. 


We arrived back to Tomakin Beach around 4pm to a doggy who definitely wanted to go back to the beach again….he’s been working hard at perfecting his “pleeeeeease” face! Who could say no to that? 

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Day 1: Mini-break on the south coast of NSW

This was our first ever trip to what is commonly referred to as “the coast” by Canberrans…much to most of our friends horror. We know a lot of people who spend every weekend in summer at or around Batemans Bay. It’s about a 2.5hr drive from Canberra and Bear had a very clear opinion on the length of the drive.


I booked pet friendly accomodation in Tomakin Beach based on a recommendation from a friend as you get the small town feel with the convenience of a 24 hr dog beach. 

After the drive, we spent the first afternoon and evening at the dog beach. Bear’s first beach experience left him a very happy doggie: 

He really loved playing chasey up and down with B as well as rolling in the sand then flinging himself at the waves. 

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Mini-break at Thredbo 

Snow, snow, snow, snow….snow!

5:30am wake up on day 1 (bleh) for the 3hr drive up to Thredbo, which included a stop for snow chains. Because….snow! SNOW! 

When we arrived at 9am, B happily went off to frolick on the mountain while I went had a massage at Edelweiss Day Spa (90 min hot stone). It was glorious. I did have to prebook 2 weeks in advance though, they fill up quick. Sandra was amaaaazing and even went slightly over time because I was early. 


After the massage, B and I ended up having lunch together at the bistro pub because some of the chairlifts were closed. Then he went back to his happy place (up the mountain, with the snow) and I relaxed on the lounges at one of the local bars while waiting to check in to our accomodation. See, this is me…relaxing….

Below is what B did all day. Not relaxing at all in my opinion. I like to look at snow but not actually ski or board in it….I’m more a snow bunny these days than a skier. Give me warm cider, a book and a comfy lounge by the fire any day. 

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We went with new accomodation this time because I was fed up with paying $550 a night for such shitty guest service and soundproofing at River Inn. Celesial 3 is a self contained apartment in the Thredbo Village and was cheaper than River Inn. It’s a bit of a hike (it’s on Bobuck Lane, to the far left of the village) but there is a bus every 15 mins and it’s walkable. Sort of. Well, it’s not the worst walk anyway – there were definitely other ones higher up! So far, I’m very happy with the view and the layout of the apartment. 



Dinner was at “The Mad Mexican” at House of Ullr which turned out to be quite close to our apartment. Being a Friday night in school holidays, I made sure we had prebooked a few weeks ago which was a good move – they were fairly busy and were turning people away. The food was DELICIOUS with the cheese and chicken quesadilla the absolute highlight. 


After dinner came the walk back up the hill to the apartment. Arrrrrrgh. Should have caught the bus. Never again. 

Day 2 started off with beautiful blue skies up on the mountain and me REALLY looking forward to half a day at the day spa. 


Unfortunately, Mr Snowboarder had other plans! 


He managed to fall awkwardly and break at least two of the bones in his wrist, probably all of them. More scans and follow ups to come this week….poor fella 😕 we checked out a day early and drove straight back to Canberra so he could have a comfy bed to enjoy his good drugs. Oh, and (carefully controlled) doggy snuggles.

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Blue Mountains Getaway – Day 3 

Today started bright and early (7am) with buffet breakfast at the hotel and an early checkout. We then headed back to the echo point lookout for some photos of the mist in the valley. 
  
Our entry to scenic world was booked for 9am (early bird) but when we arrived at 8:30am they were letting people in already. Excellent! Our first trip was on the skyway over the Katoomba Falls. The iPhone photo doesn’t do it justice, it only captured about 1/3 of the height. 

     
We then took a brief walk to the mouth of the falls whereby I agreed to hike down to the bottom. My theory was…it’s all downhill so how bad can it be? 

 
Answer: pretty bad! Turns out it was a hard trail (sucks to be me) and my knees were aching by the end. Some beautiful rainforest on the way down though and as we were out quite early, very few people around. 

   
    
This last photo is taken about halfway down. I’m still smiling which means it was BEFORE the bloody Furber Steps which must have been put there by someone with a very mean spirit. B loved the hike though. 

  
Eventually we reached the bottom and walked over to the scenic world railway. After some brief wandering around the scenic walkway (we saw Lyre Birds) we caught the scenic railway back up to the top. Worlds steepest railway apparently (video shows the first part, it actually got even steeper from here). 

 

 
 It was around 11am when we arrived back and the hordes of people everywhere were CRAZY. We left not long after. The wait to go on the skyway or railway would have been over an hour for each…eek! I highly recommend early bird entry.

Hiking complete for the morning and step goals well and truly met, we headed for home. 

Next planned getaway (at the moment): Gold Coast for the 2016 Easter long weekend! 

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Blue Mountains Getaway – Day 1 and 2

We headed off to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba) for a little NYE getaway on the 31st of Dec, 2015. Katoomba is about a 3.5 hour drive from Canberra.

Along the way we stopped for lunch and a leg stretch in Berrima which was very pretty. 

  
We arrived at the Mountain Heritage Hotel and Spa at about 4:30pm. The grounds and the building are lovely and the room size is very good. 

  
The first thing we did after a brief wander around the local area was fill up the private spa bath with far too many bubbles! 

  
After a relaxing spa bath and some red wine, we had our New Year’s Eve dinner at the Jamison Views Restaurant. While the view was nice, the food was spectacular and the guy playing piano for all the diners was also pretty amazeballs. 

  
We saw in the new year while watching the Sydney fireworks on ABC.

  
January 1st saw us enjoying a lazy lay in and then heading off for a couples massage at Yindi Day Spa. Lunch was nothing worth mentioning, needless to say we will NOT be revisiting Katoomba RSL. The day spa was lovely with a mud run, steam bath and one hour essential oil massage each. Pricing was good too – I recommend these guys over the designer spas attached to the local hotels. 

Dinner was at Darley’s which is a gorgeous little restaurant down near Echo Point lookout. I got so excited about the food I forgot to take photos but I highly recommend the duck. And the veal. And the tortellini. Actually…just go the degustation. I have included a photo of one of the courses – it was a mini vegetable garden on my plate! 

   

Darley’s restaurant

 
After dinner we finished off the evening with a short walk and some nice photos at the lookout point.

   
   

Tomorrow: scenic world, Katoomba Falls and the skyway! Then back home. 

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