Loves Day in Loves Bay

Hi there! We made it to the East Coast! It was an uneventful drive across the Southern tip of Australia, with the exciting exceptions of tumbleweeds, sheep, red dirt, red dust, and several cleanings of Olga’s interior and exterior, and even her engine bay... there was A LOT of dust. After 1200km, we made it back to civilization.

Our Valentine’s Day on the East Coast started early, as we were already at a 35° angle from our parking spot for the night, so getting the next 55° was pretty easy. Just a short walk from our inclined campsite was a beautiful view of seaside cliffs and our first sighting of the Pacific Ocean! We made it!

Our morning walk was followed by a quick drive into the picturesque town of Kiama. We had breakfast at a bumping cafe called the Hungry Monkey. The eggs Benedict and breakfast burrito were really good, and Katie enjoyed them even a little bit more, with her convinced that her coffee had booze in it (despite her not ordering an alcoholic beverage).

We LOVED Kiama. Katie in particular. The trail along the water, the marina, the cute shops, the post office with a clock tower, the beautiful parks, the lighthouse, the super cute cafes, the pelicans and stingrays right at the docks, all made it the best place. The only downside: the 2.2 million dollar price tag (minimum) on any home.

Leaving Kiama (reluctantly), we headed to the nearby coastal town of Minnamurra. We checked out their beaches, rock formations, and most importantly, tennis courts. After a quick match and a spider scare, we made our way to the next coastal town of Shell Cove.

This was an exciting stop as it was our time to right the fatal packing mistake of not bringing our dive masks to Australia. How silly were we! After testing out all the masks in the entire city, we finally found the facial Cinderella slippers.

It was time to take our new gear for a test drive, or rather a test dive (see what we did there?). Unfortunately, the spot we had chosen had scheduled asphalt difficulties, which meant our dive turned into a hike to dive. The hike turned out to be incredible, barring the improper footwear for the sharp rocky terrain. BUT it was all worth it as we got a spectacular encounter with an octopus, if only we had an underwater camera for amazing photos… oh wait, we do, and we brought it… but we forgot to put an SD card in it… so here is our best evidence of the event, but the image doesn't nearly capture it.

Finally making it to our original dive destination, we hopped in the water, proceeded to find another octopus, many brightly coloured fish, at least 6 rays, and Katie even nearly stepped on a venomous flathead fish, whoops. Once again, we were missing having a camera to record these amazing finds…

Dried off, we headed to the last Valentine’s Day spot, not surprisingly, a brewery. But even better, not one, but two!! The first was Seeker Brewing, located in an industrial area, explaining the lack of patrons. The location was really weird, but the beer was not, it was SO GOOD, the best of Australia so far!

The second was the Reub Goldberg Brewing Machine. Still good beer, but the tacos here were INCREDIBLE!

All in all, a fantastic Valentine’s Day full of all the best things: brunch, walks, tennis, snorkelling, and beer.

Oh, we should mention, while the drive across the Southern tip of Australia was fairly lacklustre, it did make the arrival in Canberra and the surrounding areas much sweeter! Canberra, Australia's capital city, was really cool to see, and while it didn't seem to have much besides politics going on, it was beautiful and had some nice breweries too! We also went for a hike around Fitzroy Falls and the west rim, which was stunning!! We spotted some super cool birds like the lyrebird (YouTube a video of their call - it's awesome), a laughing kookaburra, yellow-tailed black cockatoos, and a cheffing James!