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Sunday 15 April 2007, 11.40 a.m, EST Sydney Australia 4/14/2007 7:23:19 PM
Easter holidays - mid north coast of NSW Australia Holidays go so fast and yet workdays go so slow. Hardly seems fair :)
The week I spent on the mid north coast of NSW, in a sleepy little haven called Green Point, was wonderful. The rest and fresh air made the stay all that much sweeter, and the expansive view of Wallis Lake from the house was superb.
The house is called Green Gables Cottage and sits on the high side of Green Point Drive. The houses on the opposite side of the street are mostly built down the side of the hill so the view isn’t detracted much at all by them. The lake looked different each time I gazed out across it and the bird life in the area is a delight to listen to.
The house is built in the chalet design, with two bedrooms, a bathroom and a separate toilet upstairs. Downstairs it’s open planning with a secured lock-up garage, with access to the house from the garage. The kitchen was so well stocked that I found many of the items I took away were unnecessary. I can’t think of a thing that I wanted to do in that kitchen that I couldn’t find a utensil for or pot or dish.
The lounge and dining room were one area and one of the sofas became a bed. As I don’t like stairs due to my eyesight problems, I chose to sleep outside in the granny flat the first 3 nights. There was a sofa bed in there as well and it had it’s own bathroom with shower and toilet. Trouble was I felt shut in and cloistered as the windows wouldn’t open properly and the wooden door had to be kept shut as the wire screen door didn’t close properly. After 3 nights (it rained a lot the first 5 days) I decided to move indoors and slept on the sofa in the lounge room.
Forster is between 3.5 and 4 hours drive time from where I live in Sydney. Therefore, it’s not a long trip to an ideal destination. Green Point would be an great place to go for a writing retreat and I will keep that in mind for the future. The house has a double bed in the main bedroom, two single beds in the second bedroom, the double sofa bed in the lounge room and double sofa bed in the granny flat. So there is comfortable sleeping accommodation for 8 people. The only thing I found was that the sofa beds needed a quilt over the mattresses for a bit more comfort.
There was ample cupboard space throughout the house, with plenty of pillows and quilts, and even a cupboard of toys for children to use and a high chair. The person that put together the house and contents really thought things out so that if anything were missing, it would be something unusual. The only things I missed were my dishwasher, and of course, my waterbed. :) The laundry has a new washing machine and a working dryer and there’s a clothesline in the backyard. There was even a torch in the cupboard and sticky tape and extra light globes.
Shaye enjoyed his stay away too and as usual slept with me, or on the floor. Although the rental property is pet friendly, the owners don’t normally allow pets inside. I gained approval before I agreed to the rental. There is a small backyard, big enough for a dog the size of Shaye to have a run in, and he enjoyed poking around the garden and patrolling the fence lines :) When he was inside we mostly had to close the blinds so he couldn’t see out onto the road as he barked at all the people out walking, and at cars. He was just looking out for me/us, but it becomes annoying.
The only drawbacks to the entire week away were the mozzies and frequent dowpours of rain. The mozzies were black and vicious. We have come home full of lumps and sores. The only way I can get relief from the itch is to break the skin; hence the sores. The mozzies were there day and night so sitting outside to eat or just enjoy the views wasn’t an option. Even when we went fishing the mozzies found us, but that was mostly only at dusk. They aren’t as bad away from the lake.
We had 2 days of brilliant weather (the last 2). Shaye had a wonderful couple of hours on Tuncurry Beach the day before we had to come home, where he romped and swam and rolled in the sand. He also met up with a sweet Labrador girly and they played together in the water and on the sand. We were sad to have to take him away from her but he was starting to annoy her by sniffing her rear a bit too many times. It was his first encounter with a girly so of course he was curious :)
We didn’t catch any fish to keep and eat. I didn’t fish at all because I preferred to take Shaye out with us all the time and I had to look after him. You can no longer fish in NSW without a fishing license, which to me is a rip-off to the extreme. We always had to pay to catch fish like trout but never fish in salt-water estuaries or the sea. My son bought a license and fortunately my daughter and granddaughter didn’t have to buy them. If I had wanted to fish then I would have needed a license. It would have been nice to hang a line, but Shaye was a responsibility I took on and had to uphold.
Forster, about 7ks from Green Point, has grown in a way that I never would have imagined when my ex and I used to take our kids there for holidays most years until they were their teens. Progress – a shame really as it has taken away all that charm that was Forster. Sure, the water is still beautiful and the lakes picturesque, but the number of people and cars and apartment blocks and houses have taken away what endeared me to the area.
We arrived at Green Point on Thursday, the day before Good Friday. After unpacking most of the gear, my son and I decided we had better go into Forster and do some food shopping. The last time I was in Forster the shopping centre had just been built, and was really not much more than a supermarket. Now it is a huge Stockland Centre – just like home sigh*.
It was difficult to find a place to park and we thought that was due to the number of people who probably, like us, had landed for a holiday minus any food for a long weekend with Public Holidays. After battling our way around the supermarket and going through the checkout ($275 lighter in the pocket) we drove back to the house, and to Shaye, who had to stay home alone. That night on the local TV station we saw a story about the opening of 25 new specialty stores at the Stockland Centre at Forster – that day! No wonder we had trouble parking.
I forgot to mention we bought a kilo of Tiger King Prawns (medium size). They were almost $27 a kilo. My son peeled them when we hit the house and we saved them up for the next day, being Good Friday. Whilst I never really think much about not eating meat that day, it seemed a good idea as we were on the coast and had access to fresh seafood. My daughter and granddaughter arrived late afternoon Good Friday and I had curried prawns cooked for dinner. Some rice and fish added, and dinner was superb. The prawns in the area are just delicious.
The girls left on Tuesday morning and we stayed on until Thursday morning. After packing up and cleaning the house, we drove out, sadly :(
The drive home was uneventful until just after the bridge over the Hawkesbury River. We came to a sudden stop, and it was a stop that lasted for about an hour. Up in front, just around a bend, a caravan had jack-knifed, spun around somehow as it was toppling over, collecting the car towing it. Fortunately no one was injured or we would have been there a lot longer. The rescue trucks, tow trucks, ambulance and Police arrived in short time and once the caravan was on the back of a truck, and the car on the back of another truck, we were allowed to resume our trip. I can only imagine how many hundreds of vehicles were stacked up behind us.
My son took Shaye for a walk while we were stationary and of course, all the kids and females wanted to pat him. He really is very handsome and cute. Luckily he has such a lovely temperament that he soaked up all the attention, looking for more, as per the norm. The driver of the car in front of us was a young mother with a baby, about 3 months old I guess. I offered her water if she needed it as we had bottles packed away that we hadn’t opened. She was very grateful as she was breast-feeding and hadn’t packed anything to drink. It would have come in handy if we had been stuck there for longer than we were.
Back home to the dreaded unpacking and all the washing grrrrrrrrr. Shaye was pleased to be home again I think to his own place and the things he is used to. He was very good while we were away and other than excessive barking at times the only other thing that went wrong that I recall was that he drank the sea water at the beach. We kept telling him not to, but after all he is a dog and can’t understand too many words in one hit. About 5 minutes down the road on the way from the beach to the house, he threw up all over the back seat. I had covers on the seat but as it was water that flew out, the seat got a drenching too. But, it could have been worse. At least there wasn’t any food involved in the chuck-up :)
Tomorrow is back to work for me and I shudder to think how much work will have piled up in the 1.5 weeks I have been away. Oh well, keeps me out of trouble. My next blog will be about my new puppy :). Hope you have time to read it after this travelogue.
If anyone wants to contact the owners of Green Gables Cottage, here is the information:
Wayne and Karen Reynolds
Mobile: 0414092748
Phone: 02 9648 3439
Email: wjreynolds.optusnet.com.au
The cost for 7 nights, including Easter weekend and part of the first week of school holidays, was $850. Now that was a fantastic price as most places wanted close to $1000 just for the 3 nights over Easter. Taking into account that 8 people could have stayed there, it’s very inexpensive. School holidays are always expensive in Australia, as are holiday weekends. Most of the places I sussed out on the Internet that were pet friendly and otherwise, wanted up to $3,500 for the same 7 nights. In off-peak times it is much cheaper again.
