Monday 21st November – we got married on Seven Mile Beach in Gerroa on 12th November 2015 so decided we would always go down for a few days on our anniversary. This year it was a little late as we had only just got back from 10 weeks in Europe so thought we should spend at least a few days home first! We wanted to make the most of me still being off work though so booked a powered site at the Discovery Holiday Park, packed up the car and headed south for 2 nights in Norman the Nissan Pathfinder our beloved 4WD. Unfortunately, Norman didn’t seem to like being left in the garage for the previous 10 weeks and was playing up a little bit but with little other option, we continued on vowing to put him in for a service upon our return.
Our departure was also a little later than planned and we had a quick pitstop to buy some meat for dinner so we only really had time for one surf that day and we headed straight to Seven Mile Beach, our favourite surf spot which is pretty good in all conditions. Exactly as the name implies, it’s a long stretch of beach so there’s aways plenty of room and is a nice change from the crowds of Sydney beaches. The waves were pretty heavy so I only managed an hour on the body board and left Doug to battle on while I opted for a couple workouts on the beach instead using my new training buddy, the NTC app.
By about 6pm, Doug had outstayed most people in the water and we decided it was probably time to check into the holiday park and put up our tent especially as the clouds looked rather dark and there’s nothing worse than putting up a tent in the rain and/or dark! Obviously today wasn’t our lucky day as the heavens opened just as we arrived at our site and had got the tent out of its bag so we sheltered in the camp kitchen and put the tent together while we waited out the rain.
Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long and after much deliberation about where was the best place to pitch the tent involving moving the car multiple times, we finally settled on the flattest albeit hardest part of the area. Using the car jack to hammer in the tent pegs (must remember to bring a mallet next time!), we were finally set up and ready to chill out for the evening. 
Apparently we were the only crazy people to camp as the sites were all empty with everyone else taking the sensible option of staying in one of the many cabins in the park, oh well, just meant we had the camp kitchen to ourselves! This wasn’t entirely true as we were soon joined by a family of ducks and ducklings who we kept happy by feeding them bread.
We popped a bottle of bubbly as a belated 1st wedding anniversary celebration and cooked our sausages and steaks on the bbq. We watched TV in the kitchen (which meant ABC news as there was no remote and someone had removed the button you use to change channels!) and then at about 9pm retired to the tent ready for a good nights sleep before an early rise to surf. Unfortunately, we were out of luck again as it appeared our airbed had a leak and was decidedly less inflated than earlier but it was too late to rectify so we attempted to go to sleep. I don’t think either of us got more than a few minutes sleep as the airbed gradually deflated overnight and we were basically just lying on the ground by the morning although I think it would have been more comfortable to just be on the ground!! The early start didn’t work out too well with one of us particularly grumpy due to lack of sleep, so after a quick coffee and bowl of cereal, we were finally in the ocean by about 9am. The waves had dropped overnight so I flailed around on my bodyboard for about an hour while Doug managed about 2 hours of surfing. We were both pretty tired and cold by the end as although it was up to about 30 degrees air temperature the water was still cold so we headed back to the campsite to have the rest of the sausages with fried egg in a sandwich and then had to face the fact that we didn’t have a comfortable bed for the night.
Weighing up our options, I first went to the park office to see if we could stay in a cabin for the night but unfortunately they were fully booked apart from the expensive cabins which defeated the point of camping so we jumped in the car and headed to find somewhere that sold an airbed. The nearest big town is Kiama which has a few shops but unfortunately they don’t sell airbeds in Woolworths or the house hold shop and then only place that did have them was the Reject Shop but typically they had sold out a few days ago, made even more annoying by the shop assistant saying they were only $12 too!
Begrudgingly, we headed back in the car to Shellharbour about 16km north which at least had a lot more shops although I was still worried about Norman so not happy about the extra drive out of our way. Our bad luck didn’t seem to be getting any better as every shop we went into either didn’t sell airbeds (why don’t Bunnings sell them?!) or they had sold out of a double size. A king single wasn’t an option and we didn’t think a queen would fit in our 3 man tent so we kept on hunting until we eventually found one in King Dollar – yay for budget shops! Finally our mission was completed, so we swiftly headed back down to Gerroa realising we now only had time for 1 more surf for the day.
I usually body board and while I have had a number of surfing lessons and was getting on ok while we were in Nicaragua and Panama, I am still not the surfer chick I aspire to be. I do want to get promoted from a bin-lid riding chump though, and we had made the effort to bring down Doug’s 7’6″ learner board “Mandy” so the time had come for me to attempt to surf again. Luckily the waves were only small, the beach was pretty empty and Doug was in a better mood so we headed out with all fingers and toes crossed this wouldn’t cause an almighty argument and a very short marriage!! Thankfully, my luck or maybe confidence had improved and I wasn’t too bad even managing to catch a couple of waves myself (by that I mean Doug didn’t need to push me and I managed to kind of get up on one knee!) – oh well, I don’t think Stephanie Gilmore has anything to worry about right now!
We headed back to the campsite at about 6pm to test out the new airbed and hope we would be in for a better nights sleep. Annoyed that the bed had let us down and worried that it could have been my fault for not putting in the plug properly I decided to blow it up one more time. Lying on it while we snacked on crisps and more bubbles, we realised we could hear a slight hissing sound and saw a tiny hole in the airbed! With my frugal mind in action, I had a great idea that we could instead try to fix the hole and return the new airbed so set to work with some medical tape we had which seemed to do the job. I’m not sure if I was relieved or annoyed that the hunt for a new airbed could have been a complete waste of time and what happened next you can only laugh at – thinking the bed was all fixed, I used the pump to inflate it only to find it basically exploded in front of me! The patch I had put on stayed put but there was obviously a weak spot as an entire round section of the airbed flew off! Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of it nor our reaction but it just seemed to sum the whole day up really! It doesn’t end there though – relieved we had a new back up airbed, we quickly inflated it only to realise it was tiny! The previous one we had was obviously a queen after all and this new one was decidedly smaller – oh well, I guess a small but inflated bed is still better!
After all that debacle, it was definitely time for another drink and some dinner and we headed up the road to the Gerroa Boat Fishermans Club – the one and only drinking venue within walking distance and also where we had our wedding reception. It hasn’t changed a bit and after a lovely meal with massive portions, we rolled back down the hill to have a cup of tea in the kitchen and then hopefully have a decent nights sleep.
The second morning was a much happier experience and despite being woken a few times by the birds (which you can’t really be angry at) we both slept amazingly well and were ready to face another morning surf. The waves were pretty mellow at Seven Mile Beach so we drove about 5km north to Werri Beach in Gerringong. It looked a bit too rough for my body board so I opted for a run instead (Werri Beach run) while Doug had a surf. Thankfully, this was the best surf of the trip (insert multiple puns about the ‘Werri good waves…!) and he didn’t want to have to get out but unfortunately we needed to check out of the campsite and had already exceeded the 11am checkout time. We headed back to pack up our site and have a quick snack before we were back on the road.
The waves at Seven Mile Beach hadn’t improved and the waves had also died down considerably at Werri Beach so we decided to start the journey north back to Sydney and stop off somewhere on the way. Our luck clearly hadn’t gotten better as we drove to check out the surf breaks The Farm and Mystics in Killalea State Park near Shellharbour however neither were really working so with our tail between our legs we just headed back in the car hoping to try our luck further north.
Now we were really feeling unlucky as the weather took a turn for the worse and just as we were near the turning for Thirroul, the heavens opened and we found ourselves driving through a hailstorm! How crazy is Sydney weather – one minute it sunny and hot and then you’re driving through hail! It was definitely time to admit defeat and head back home! Definitely a very eventful few days!
The Holiday Bug 