summer holiday

After saying goodbye to our last visitor of the year - bye, Harry - we packed our many baby bags, stuffed it all into the car and took off direction Barrington Tops, a beautiful national park some four hours north of Sydney, or eight if you take the scenic route we ended up on. There, a couple of friends had organised accom (thanks, Nicki) and were planning to celebrate New Year´s Eve. It ended up being a lovely evening on the veranda, and one of the quietest NYE celebrations I´ve experienced - no fireworks anywhere in sight. Great escape from the big city extravaganza. Nevertheless, Vivien managed to drink enough to need some serious recovery the next day, which we spent in a posh hotel in Foster on the coast. Feeling sufficiently detoxed and slightly more adventurous we then decided to throw in some camping in Booti Booti National Park, also on the coast. What we didn´t know (at least I didn´t) is that camping in summer is a pretty permanent affair for many Aussies, meaning they pack up two-thirds of their households and relocate to a camping site. TV, microwave, lounge tent are just some of the bare essentials everyone sets up. Sporting not much more than a small tent and a picknick mat and getting some pitying looks from our neighbours, we felt rather like the poor cousins from the wrong side of town. And even though it doesn´t look like it in the picture, Zoe actually enjoyed hanging out on the campsite - after all there were plenty of people to visit. Getting her to sleep was slightly more complicated as the new environment was full of strange noises - but Papa´s chest eventually did the usual job. One of the cool things about the site and the park in general is that it is situated right between the ocean and a lake, both not more than a two-minute walk away. The - salt-water - lake was quite shallow and very calm so we ended up renting a canoe and taking Zoe for her first paddle.