Trent and Jess from Livin’ in a Van Down Under give us the rundown of their summer holidays. They’re travelling with their children and taking a break from school on the road to enjoy time in the sun.
While our writings will have a focus on our methods of educating our children as we roam around Australia, we too need a summer holiday! Therefore, our content will feature more on the locations and attractions, rather than educational content, until we return to our new normality. So, our journey kicks off four hours from home on the New South Wales South Coast.
South Coast, you took our breath away. A coastline of eternally rolling lush green hills sloping down to the sparkling turquoise waters of the Pacific Ocean – this little gem exceeded expectations. The charming seaside town of Kiama was the perfect stop off and we were blown away, quite literally, by the blowhole on the bluff which provided spectacular photos and video footage.
Holiday Haven Shoalhaven Heads was the perfect setting to spend our first caravan park Christmas with our close friends from home and Jess’s parents, before embarking on our ‘lap of the map’.
The park has a resort, chilled out vibe and is located in an excellent position, loaded with family friendly facilities including a tennis court, putt putt course, lagoon style swimming pool, playgrounds, pedal karts, and a well-equipped kitchen – perfect to cook the Christmas lunch in. With gender quotas now in place, it was a nice touch providing a female Santa on Christmas Eve to hand out lollies to the children. It’s these little things that make memories and parks stand out from the pack!
Holiday Haven Shoalhaven Heads was also a great central base for day trips to the beautiful little villages close by including the coffee mecca of Berry and the quaint seaside towns of Gerroa and Gerringong.
The caravan park was also located within a 45 minute drive to Jamberoo Action Park. The park is set amongst 40 hectares of landscaped gardens and parklands. It’s the perfect setting to relax or join the kids on a huge range of water slides and attractions! Rides included ‘The Perfect Storm’ – the tallest, longest, fastest water ride ever built. Not one … not two … but three tornadoes twisting and rotating around each other combine to create The Perfect Storm. We had a scary moment on this slide when Tommy lost his grip and fell out of the tube. Luckily, Jess was able to grab his ankle with a vice like grip and drag him the rest of the journey, sliding down on his bottom. We were bitten by the Funnel Web, the most exhilarating water thrill ride… and splashed about in Banjo’s Billabong, the largest Aqua play structure in the southern hemisphere. There was plenty of other action featuring the Taipan, Rapid River, Outback Bay, Surf Hill, Mountain Toboggans and The Rock.
Watching the Boxing Day Test match on the big screen, whilst floating about in the wave pool, was awesome. Although there are plenty of fast food options, we brought our own food to save money. It was a brilliant action-packed day and we’ve never seen a theme park set in such a picturesque setting. The view from the top of the chair lift at the summit of the mountain, reaches back to blue ocean. This was simply breathtaking!!! A word of caution: it is not a cheap family day out. They don’t offer family day passes – Adults tickets cost $70 and children’s $60.
Stay tuned for the next blog, featuring the Sapphire Coast of NSW.
–Trent and Jess Austin
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