Over the last week, we have spent time at two of our favourite Sydney ‘getaway’ spots. It seems strangely appropriate I guess that we are finishing our amazing year of adventure at places which are close to our hearts.

Emerald Beach sits just north of Coffs Harbour. A few years ago we spent a wonderful week at Emerald with some good friends, and it was probably this location that really sparked the discussion about some day moving ourselves away from Sydney. There was something about the area and the amount of open space that really appealed.. well, that and just the spectacular coastline. I mean, who doesn’t love seeing kangaroos whenever you go for a walk?!

An Aussie road trip isn’t complete without a photo at many of the ‘big things’ around the country and the Coffs Region is home to the ‘Big Banana’ which was apparently the first ‘big thing’ to open in Australia in December 1964! Originally a road side banana stall, the owner of the site wanted to build something which would stop traffic and, after hearing about the Big Pineapple in Hawaii, he decided to build the giant 13m long banana. The site gradually expanded to include surrounding plantations and some 25 years later a theme park style fun land was opened with a water park amongst other attractions.

Over the last 12 months we have driven past the ‘big prawn’, the ‘big cane toad’, the ‘big croc’ and even the ‘big gumboot’ but our trip to the Big Banana was much anticipated by little miss Kiera after her disastrous visit there a couple of years ago when she wasn’t allowed into the water park due to her arm being in plaster thanks to a fractured elbow. Sadly a trip to the water park at the big banana was not meant to be for K as this year the park was closed for renovation…. Ooops! Thankfully they still had some fun rides which took away some of her disappointment…. Well, kind of!

Our time at Emerald revolved around beach time, skateboards/ roller boots and headland walks. It’s a pretty idyllic place to be to be honest but the end of the trip is drawing closer so time to keep moving south.

On the way south we stopped in at South West Rocks for a night to visit some friends we met whilst travelling. It was fun to see them again and share a little piece of their own slice of paradise on the mid north coast. The kids had an awesome time catching up with their travel buddies, with shared passions for all things outdoors for the boys and building cubby houses for the girls.

A short drive from South West Rocks, we hit Crescent Head – another family favourite. We had hoped to camp out in the National park at Point Plomer but the weather / surf forecast wasn’t the best so instead we opted to stay at the camp site by the beach in the town. Even arriving on a Sunday afternoon, the camp site was pretty full and has remained pretty busy for our time here – even mid week. We are well and truly in driving distance of Sydney and Newcastle now and this little coastal town is a favourite holiday get away for a lot of people.

It’s a shame the surf hasn’t been up for our time here as I know Andy would have loved nothing more to spend the last week of our trip surfing the fun waves out here but it has still been a nice place to spend time and think back to all the fun adventures we have had over the last 12 months.

Everyone has this idea in their head that Australia is filled with dangerous animals, especially snakes, but the reality is that we have hardly seen any snakes on the entire trip. How funny that it’s during our last few weeks, and within short driving distance from our home in Sydney, that we encounter a big brown snake! We had taken a walk up a headland to look at Back Beach. Andy was walking ahead when suddenly I saw him stop and leap backwards, only to see a large brown snake slither off into the grass a few metres ahead of us. Thankfully the path is well cleared so snakes are easy to spot if they are around, and the reality is they really are more afraid of us than we are of them. Still… I was with K when got to the top of the hill and keen to hop on the bench!

Our time at Creso is almost up… time for the final leg of the journey to complete our lap. Still time for plenty more adventures I am sure!