Tathra + the Sapphire Coast
This year's January holiday looked a little different. We started making it an annual tradition to get away for the last week of January as a final reset before diving into the school year. The first year, we stayed at Tathra Eco Camp and loved every bit of it. We explored hours of bushwalking trails, coastal tracks, and stunning beaches on the Sapphire Coast. The second year, we decided to head inland and camped on the Yowaka River at an amazing private Hipcamp site in Nethercote, NSW South Coast.
I was really excited this year when Mum, who hasn’t been away for years, decided she was ready for a holiday. We booked into NRMA Beachfront Holiday Park in Tathra, a great spot for families looking for beachfront caravan parks in NSW. Mum had her cabin, Sienna had space to ride her pushbike, and we had direct access to the pristine beaches of the Sapphire Coast.
I want to begin by saying it was a great holiday, but so different from previous years. It was Australia Day long weekend, so the park was packed with caravans and kids riding scooters and bikes everywhere. I also ended up doing most of the setup on my own since some family things popped up, and Mick stayed home with the dogs. That meant I had to tow the camping trailer down, set it up correctly, and somehow wind down enough to enjoy my holiday. Mick very thoughtfully attached the bike carrier to the trailer before we left, so I got Sienna’s bike off straight away and sent her off riding—a blessing for any parent!
Everything was going smoothly (except for my total exhaustion and scattered brain). On Friday, we went for a drive to Merimbula, a must-visit town on the NSW Sapphire Coast, to show Mum around. At this point, I was feeling overwhelmed—stressed, exhausted, questioning my parenting, and clearly running on high cortisol levels from the weeks leading up to the trip.
Then came the costly mistake: I plugged the camp fridge (Mick’s fridge!) into the 240V power in the trailer but had a lapse of brain cells and put the plug straight into the fridge instead of the transformer. Result? A fried camping fridge. Ouch. Such a rookie camping mistake!
On Saturday, we spent the day around the Tathra caravan park. Sienna made a new friend and went for a bike ride, giving me a glorious 30-minute break from parenting duties. I took this as the perfect opportunity to jump into the ocean, bringing my cortisol levels back down, and then had a hot shower—a small but much-needed reset.
For Australia Day, we headed south to Eden, home to the famous Eden Killer Whale Museum and the historic Ben Boyd Tower. We had visited before, but I really wanted to show Mum the breathtaking Sapphire Coast landscapes. If anyone is ever in Merimbula for Australia Day, I highly recommend grabbing an inflatable tube and jumping off the bridge into the inlet—a true local tradition!
Monday was adventure day. We departed on a wildlife cruise from Merimbula Wharf with Sapphire Coastal Adventures, hoping for dolphin and seal sightings. What had been a calm ride on our last visit turned into a rough ocean trip with 1.5m swells. My camera gear was packed away quickly as we got repeatedly splashed. We didn’t see much wildlife this time, but it was still an amazing experience to be in the powerful open ocean, a humbling reminder to respect nature’s forces.
Tuesday’s plan originally included a visit to Bega, then onto Pambula for Wild Rye Bakery and the Pambula Chocolate Factory. However, I spotted a sign for a waterfall in Biamanga Cultural Area, and I couldn’t resist. This detour led us onto 24km of unmarked dirt roads, guessing our way to a hidden Indigenous cultural site. We arrived at a peaceful picnic area, home to a sacred waterhole once used in an Indigenous boys' coming-of-age ceremony—a stunning location rich in history and spiritual energy.
Wednesday was our Pambula exploration day, visiting the boutique shops, bakery, and chocolate factory, before packing up to head home the next day.
It was an eye-opening week filled with lessons—most importantly, don’t blow up the fridge! But the greatest appreciation came from quality time with Mum and Sienna, away from our everyday routines. I can’t remember the last time that happened.
I’ll leave this post with some photos from the Sapphire Coast, and I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t explored this hidden gem of NSW to do so. It’s a magical region abundant in wildlife (we even saw a seal swimming past us on the beach!), and the energy here is completely different from Sydney.
Until next time!
