Not far from home

We have travelled around the entire country and found wonderful places. It's lovely to think that sometimes, you don't need to travel very far to find special places and have special times.

Myall Lakes - one of Suzy Q's last camping spots

Myall Lakes was one of those places for us. A stunning National Park not far from Sydney, where we were able to relax, have fun and enjoy the natural surroundings. Camping next to the lake was lovely as there was only us and two others, plus plenty of pelicans, kookaburras and brilliant sunsets. I still can't work out why more people weren't up here to soak in the winter sun at the start of the school holidays.

We did a 2km walk through the littoral rainforest and the kids spent a whole afternoon playing imaginative games around the lake and climbing trees while I got to sit and have a cuppa and read.

Another morning was spent climbing the massive sand dunes on the ocean side of the park and sliding down them on bottoms, bellies, boogie boards, heads and anything else that got in the way.  Lukas really wanted a 'cool' surfing video like Dylan, so here's a future super star in action (turn the sound up loud!):

We made our way out of the national park for the serious business of the Super Rugby semi-finals and Hawks Nest provided us with a perfect location. A pub with delicious food and Foxtel right next to a caravan park, right next to a a playground, right next to a beach. Unfortunately, as those of you who watched it will know, the rugby was less serious business and more seriously disappointing. Rugby aside, we all really want to spend lots more time in this part of the world.