Christmas with the Seals in Narooma

For our first holiday season in Sydney, we wanted to stay close to home so we could be back for the legendary Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks. When we moved to Sydney in May, one of our first tasks was to find a cattery. We travel quite a bit, and our two very senior cats require a bit of extra attention when we are gone. We found an amazing place, but they were already booked for the holidays. This is how we wound up taking two cats on a road trip to Narooma to dive with the seals for Christmas.

Narooma is about a five hour drive south of Sydney, and is the jumping off point for day trips to Montague Island (home to a large Australian fur seal colony). We stayed at a pet-friendly AirBNB, which was about three times the size of our apartment in Sydney and was walking distance to the golf course and beach.

Narooma is just far enough from Sydney that it doesn’t get too crowded. The town has a Woolworths and an IGA, a few places to get fresh fish, a very protected place to paddle board, and a few boat ramps.

The Aboriginal translation for Narooma is “Clear Blue Waters”, and you can definitely see why. Montague Island is a 20-minute boat ride from Narooma, and we did four days with the legends at Underwater Safaris. You can dive or snorkel the site, and we did a mix of both depending on the conditions.