Christmas at Jervis Bay, NSW Australia

We had a new experience this holiday season…. Probably different from any we’ll have again. Having Christmas and summer at the same time is just crazy first of all. Hearing “Here comes Santa Clause” while grocery shopping in our shorts feels just wrong. We made the best of it.

We made reservations at a beach house in November for Christmas Day. We wanted something totally different since we were all screwed up in the head anyway about all of this upside down living. We arrived at our beach house (located on Sanctuary Point at Jervis Bay) on Dec 23 and stayed until Dec 26. While we were there we enjoyed making our own homemade crab raviolli, prawn on the barbie with mango salsa and lots of nice fruits and veggies/ avacados.

Jervis Bay is a really cool area with lots of beaches, St. George Basin (a saltwater lake that is fed by the ocean), a huge bay perfect for stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and snorkeling and also a National Park filled with hiking trails, more beaches and thousands of kangaroos of all sizes and beautiful parrots and birds.

With only 3 days to explore this diverse area so first we went to Hyam’s white sand beach.

Nikki trying out her snorkel gear.



Frisbee and volleyball.



I found this great fish shop and the owner wrote down a recipe for us to use for our dinner. While some of us was cracking the crab (and playing with the crab) others were making the dough and sauce. We also discovered the CD stash and on the decent stereo system, we listened to some funky music to match the funky beach house! Frank Sinatra, Aboriginal music, classical, jazz, Santana and tons more lost or forgotten music was discovered. Finally we had our perfect crab raviolli with a big salad and our great music. To top it off we indulged in the Australian/Brit tradition of “Christmas crackers”….. little decorated tubes wrapped like a tootsie roll. Everyone at the table gets one and you get someone else at the table to pull the ends with you. It “pops” and out comes a paper crown and some kind of silly joke or game.

Christmas Eve was a bit cool. We had crepes for breakfast and had a slow morning of reading our books and watching for birds. We got out and explored some beaches and decided we’d do some snorkeling. In the Boderee National Park we found an area called Green Patch. A nice picnic spot near the beach was perfect so we pulled out all of our food and a couple of red parrots showed up. Five minutes later we were surrounded by Red Rosalias.

Some little kangaroos were also curious to see if we’d throw them some food (we didn't).  The birds weren’t shy about coming onto the table to see what they could find. One also jumped on David’s lap… it was pretty funny!  We found a little cove for some snorkeling and although the water was super cold, everyone but me got in and had a look. At a little coral reef area they saw fish, an eel and also some jelly fish… exciting and glad no one got stung.



For dinner we had Australian Prawn on the grill with mango, potatoes and green beans. We stayed up late listening to our music and watching the possums outside on the deck look in at us. They were checking out the grill and when the kids went outside to see them close up, the possums were happy to socialize.

We were all happy when we woke up Christmas morning and saw sunny blue skies!

After enjoying some Christmas cheer, we were off to explore the beach. We headed straight to a beach we’d found in the National Park….. Caves Beach. The waves were perfect for body surfing and boogie boarding. The water was several shades of blue and turquoise and the sand was white/tan and amazing! David and I took a little hike around the rocks and found another beach that was also fairly secluded with just some surfers and some photographers. Unfortunately, the sun did some damage on our skin and we all went back with a sunburn… some mild and others had it bad! UV is terrible in Australia.

Our last night, we cooked Citrus Chicken with Apricot Couscous and had a nice music of Frank Sinatra and possum viewing. All of the kids were sunburned and energy depleted so ending this day with a book and an ocean breeze coming through the house was perfect for all of us. 

Driving back through Canberra was an interesting drive through a forest. There was just enough time to visit the Australian National Museum before driving back home. It was nice to be home to our own beds. It was raining and the house was nice and cool when we got home.

It was a great Christmas and we’re now getting rested up for NY Eve in Sydney. Since it may be our only NY Eve in Australia, we HAVE to just do it.