Dec. 26 – Boxing Day at Springwood

Today was Boxing Day, and I wish I could say, after asking many Australians, that I understood what the point of this holiday is. The best I could understand is that because all the servants (back in the day) would work for the rich people on Christmas Day, the rich people gave the servants the following day off to celebrate their own Christmas, hence Boxing Day. Still searching for a clearer definition…

For our Boxing Day, we rode quads around the back yard while the little guys rode their motorbikes off of jumps and around turns (they’re only 4 and 6 years old and looked like mini pros).

We then drove outside of Springwood heading towards Wollongong up in the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The roads were incredibly windy and steep, but gave us awesome views before plunging us down the cliffs into small coastal towns (Coletown, Clifftown, etc.). It was too windy to swim, but we enjoyed a seafood lunch outside at the Scarborough Hotel. Stuffed full of prawn and oysters, we walked off lunch along the Sea Cliff Bridge, which is a massive bridge built right against the cliff to avoid the falling rock from the ledges above. The view was great but the wind was so strong that we saw birds attempting to fly and just being blown straight backwards.

We made our way back to Springwood by driving through more tiny towns and the Royal National Forest, which was dense with jungle plants and mist as if a dinosaur could stroll through at any moment. The parks in the forest were packed with families celebrating the holiday with barbecues, camping, and canoeing.