Arriving into northern NSW, we are hitting familiar territory again. For our first NSW stop we park ourselves at Fingal Head which is on the southern side of the Tweed River.

The river itself feels like a logical point for the border between QLD and NSW but this isn’t actually the case. Instead, the border crosses through the twin towns of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta, just north of the Tweed River. It’s like an imaginary line has been drawn in the sand somewhere and I can imagine this being a strange place to live during COVID when the rules and lockdowns in each of the states differed. As we drive over the border into NSW time jumps forward an hour at this time of the year as QLD doesn’t recognise daylight savings.

We enjoyed three fun nights at Fingal Head, exploring the surf beaches and enjoying seeing waves again. All the toys came out as Andy re-assembled his foil board and the kids got out the surfboards and boogie boards. We bumped into a family we had met in Port Douglas so the kids were happy to have some friends to play with for a couple of days again. The northern part of this coastline has certainly seen a lot of development since we were last here and there is a feel of Sydney’s northern beaches to the area – perhaps because so many people have left the cities over the last few years. Whilst more houses may have appeared, the area still has that quiet feel about it and the beaches still untouched as there is no development along the beachfront and the dunes remain intact. It really is a beautiful part of the coast.

Over the last 17 years we have explored the NSW coast many times but our next camp at Brooms Head was a new find for us and a place I am sure we will re-visit. Set amongst National Park, we had a camp on the headland looking out over the ocean.

We finally spotted a humpback whale and calf – our first sighting of the trip! We all enjoyed lots of water time with kiting, surfing and snorkelling on offer at the surrounding beaches and Brooms Head was a super fun spot for little miss K to celebrate turning 7! I think the favourite pressie was the giant polar bear we managed to secretly buy for her from Sea World and keep hidden for a few days – there are only so many places you can hide things in a caravan, we especially when they are almost as big as Kiera!

Whilst we have been travelling through familiar ground, we have still found new places to explore and perhaps even seeing the same places but through a different lens. Next stop, a family favourite place at Emerald Beach.