Emerald Beach

Since Sunday we have been camped at Emerald Beach Holiday Park. The town of Emerald Beach is about 15km North of Coffs Harbour, and is a sleepy little place about 500m off the Pacific Highway, which boasts its own corner shop, video store, nail salon, massage therapist, four star restaurant, and financial planner - along with some of the prettiest beaches of the North Coast (see picture). The caravan park itself is really nice and shady, and has a great feel about it. They have lots of cool things here - a nice pool (saltwater, solar heated in winter), games room, massive jumping pillow (which has been deflated since the day after we played on it - coincidence?), and a nice quiet natural setting. The grounds sit just behind the sand dunes which line the beach, so you get the constant sound of waves crashing on the beach in the background. To get to the beach, you walk about 100m down a sandy track, and you're smack bang in the middle of Emerald Beach itself. Very nice indeed.

Last night just after dusk, we were visited by a couple of wild kangaroos, who decided to feed on the grass about 6 feet from the front of our annex. Although we've both seen 'roos at the zoo and hopping along by the side of the highway, we were still impressed to see them lazily picking their way through the park, completely ignoring the fact we were so close. I was tempted to try and get some photos, but being reasonably dark, I didn't want to freak them out with a camera flash.

Grace has, in the last few days, got at least 2 new teeth through, and as such has been very grisly. The poor thing - I dread to think how painful it is, and considering she's too young to understand, it must be quite traumatic. Still, she's a great tooth brusher, so I'm hoping she ends up with better teeth than her old man does!

The other impressive thing that has happened this week is the addition of an awning coming out from the front of our annex - this shall now be referred to as "the beer tent" (for obvious reasons). It's great on those hot days to sit under canvas instead of inside the annex - the annex's walls tend to block a lot of airflow, even with the windows wide open. The beer tent doesn't, however, give you any kind of protection from your toddler wandering off and having an explore when she feels like it. Ups and downs, swings and roundabouts...

Coffs Harbour seems like a great place to us - big enough to have all the things you need to live comfortably (all the major shops, airport serviced by the major airlines, hospital, schools, public transport, etc), yet small enough to feel like you're not part of the rat race of the big city. It's also very beautiful, with lots of walks to go on, and plenty of things to explore and look at. We like it a lot.