Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, NSW

Today we went diving for the first time in many months. Fly Point at Nelson Bay is apparently one of the best shore dives in Australia. Well, as South Australians we have Rapid Bay to compare to, sooooo...... OMG it was fantastic. a) we haven't been diving for AGES. b) the water is WARM !!! What a difference 100 nautical miles makes! 4 degrees Celsius apparently. c) beautiful soft corals and colorful sponges, big blue gropers, free-swimming rays, nudibranches, crayfish... d) today we saw the largest flathead THAT EVER LIVED. Bom-Bom-BOM! Seriously. Photo evidence below.

The amazing thing about this part of Oz is it is the temperate waters start to integrate with the tropical waters. We have hundreds of dives under our weight-belts and today we saw fish we've never seen before. Soooooo great to be back in the water!

PS  Michael to our cat: "Kitty, the world is good, you just need to know where to find the good."

Here's a few photos from today. As it was our first dive in a while I didn't bother with strobes or anything. It was a point-and-shoot kinda dive, so be kind!

World's biggest pufferfish - 50cm-ish!

These guys were everywhere, chillin' in the basket sponges.

Slightly blurry photo of a big Eastern cray. 

1 metre Wobbygong.

Michael and the biggest flathead we have ever seen. We mistook it for a wobbygong shark to begin with! Well over 1 metre length. What a beauty. Tell Tony Abbott: marine parks clearly don't work... ;o)

Pretty fishies.