Half moon bay.

My new swimming togs, $54 from Myer

This weekend was a bit of muddle. For some reason unknown to me, I have been so tired recently, that even lying in bed seems like a chore. I only spent a few hours out of the house on Saturday, before I started to long for my bed. Those few hours were spent constructively though, finding treasures at the Melbourne theatre group garage sale, and buying goodies at the Prahran markets...mmmm. Then I was a sad sack and spent the night curled up on the couch.

I LOVE my friends new bikini, isn't it awesome! She got it online somewhere.

Sunday was more productive, with the morning spent at the always terrific Camberwell markets. I got almost all my Christmas shopping done!
Afterwards we drove about fifteen minutes from our house to Half moon bay, in Black rock. We live near the famed St Kilda beach, but the water is pretty mucky and the beach is covered in litter, so we have been searching for better places to spend these unseasonably hot days.
Last weekend we went to Williamstown beach, it was better, but incredibly crowded. It is a lovely place to have fish and chips though, and has a quaint town centre, well worth visiting.
Half moon bay is the perfect beach, sheltered with clear, calm water and soft soft sand. We will definitely be returning. To all those who live in Melbourne, I would recommend you check it out!

Looking up the beach towards the marina.

I have, perhaps an unhealthy, obsession with the jellyfish all over the beaches here. There is literally hundreds of these small bodies washed up on every shoreline. Apparently the extra warm weather we are having at the moment has caused a surge in jellyfish numbers, or something along those lines! In New Zealand I rarely ever swam at the beach, I'm not a fan of sand and salty water. All of my summers were spent swimming in the many lakes and rivers throughout the south island, which were pleasantly free of jellyfish....
Here in Australia it seems everyone goes to the beach to cool off, and we are having a hard time finding some fresh water to swim in!

Another convenient thing about growing up in New Zealand is the fact that there is only a small handful of poisonous/dangerous creatures, and the few that we do have tend to hide from us.
Not so in Australia. There is so many creatures to be scared of here that I now just choose not to think about it...if they get me THEN I will start to worry. None of the locals seem particularly concerned swimming in the "jellyfish soup" that the water has become, and have informed me that the jellyfish are not poisonous. Apparently only the brown ones sting...

This little fellow was swimming against the tide, trying to stop its self from being washed up on the shore....

I would have tried to save it ( I often pick up snails etc so they don't get stepped on), but it was brown....

The rock pools are full of them....
But they are so pretty and delicate, even though they are dead. Weird huh!

I tried to make friends with this starfish in his wee rock pool home. But my Australian friend pointed out to me that they also have poisonous starfish in Australia, and that I probably shouldn't touch it.
Party pooper.

Strolling off to inspect the rock pools.

Once the sun started to set we drove to Brighton to have the obligatory fish and chips...mmmmmm