On the Road to Kiama

Seven Mile Beach at Sunset

About 800 kms north of Melbourne on the Tasman Sea coast is an area made up of several communities, Gerroa, Kiama, Wollongong and Shell Harbor. While researching Australia we stumbled across what is called the Grand Pacific Drive which stretches fro these 4 communities north to  a rebuilt bridge called the Seacliff bridge that takes you all the way to Sydney.

So Kiama, near the southern end of the highway 800 kms north was our first destination. Not knowing whether the M31 motorway could be travelled north in 1 day left us unsure about how much time to dedicate, so we gave ourselves lots of tie and did the road in 1 day, easily. However we arrived on a Saturday night and Kiama is the Banff of New South Wales. It was hopping. Fortunately we found camping at the Gerroa Top Holiday Park, and the receptionist there recommended for supper we try the Fisherman’s Club, their version of the Surf Club’s we tried in Southport on our first bike ride.

Our View from the Fishermans Club for Supper

We knew we had chosen well when this was the view from our table and our lamb cutlets, mash potatoes and veggies came on an overflowing plate. Coupled with cheap but excellent draft  dark beer we sat back and enjoyed the evening.

Sunday we began exploring and found the “Little Blowhole”

Little Blowhole

in the south of Kiama. It was performing well given the wind direction and I asked another person there where the Big Blowhole was. He explained it was at the lighthouse but due to the wind direction it was a bust that day, and we returned today and the wind still wasn’t from the east, the direction necessary for it to be great. We did sightsee around the lighthouse area and found one of the Rock pools that the towns will create an actual swimming pool from the seawater splashing over the area dependent on tide. This is the one in Kiama.

The Rock Pool

The area was so nice we decided to use the extra day and stay over and enjoy the beach and scenery. From the drives we took in the area it is apparent there is a lot of money here, and likely many people from Sydney have their weekend homes along this stretch.

Kiama Lighthouse