On The Road To Woy Woy

Got in the car, took a mate and went out and discovered the NSW Central Coast at the weekend.

It's great. Beautiful beaches without highrise apartments blocking the sun and carloads of cruisers blocking the streets.

I wanted to get to Woy Woy because it's the little town Spike Milligan's folks fell in love with when they arrived from the UK. It's not hard to see why. They must have truly believed they were in paradise, or at least you could see it from there.

We motored in and around Gosford, Erina, Terrigal, The Entrance and ended up in a pub in Wyong for the night. Then toured back via WW to Sydney. We were really not more than two hours from home the whole time, but it felt much further, because it was so completely different.

Mostly these are beachside towns. There are cute cafes, board shops and homeware stores selling beach toys. Lots of retirement villages. Nice organic honey. We found a fruit winery, and I was thinking 'oh this is going to be bad' but I was proved wrong. So wrong I even bought some. The winemaker was planning a trip to NZ so she ended up with one of my 'Guide Rangi' tour maps written on her desk calendar. I can't help myself. She seemed grateful. Didn't get me a discount tho. I hope there are whales at Kaikoura in May?

Getting in and out of Sydney is a bit of a drag. It's at least an hour from where we are, and would be a whole lot longer from the east of the city. If you time it right, leave really early and come back mid-morning, the traffic's not too bad. Although it helps that it's a) not summer and b) not school holidays and c) the price of petrol is still rising.

If you like self-drive holidays - now is the time to get out there!

Even though you are on the coast, it's easy to turn towards the inland and you'll find yourself in rolling green farmland within minutes of leaving the highway. Fruit stalls, reptile parks and art galleries. There's not much sign of drought here. So different to the NSW central west countryside I saw two weeks ago. It's so dry out there ... they don't talk about it anymore.

We came away saying we will have to go back - always a good sign for any holiday/trip/minibreak. Apparently there is a ferry boat restaurant at WW that takes you out on the estuary, feeds you, gets you pissed and brings you home. Next time we will find it.

Milligan would approve.