Beach holiday
Pack a picnic and your slip, slop, slap requirements and head to your favourite spot on the river every day, just as you would on a beach holiday. Buy takeaway lunch that morning from Hampden Deli, Maddison’s or the General Café or store, or pack your own thermos and sandwiches. Under Hampden Bridge is beautiful but don’t forget about Bendeela Picnic and Camping Ground or Beehive Point, which are great for older children, fishing and biking. (Check your fishing license and National Parks MTB trail info before setting off.) Or make like a tourist and pop up a slackline between casuarinas for a bit of friendly family competition.
Go West
Beehive Point is an adventure. Primary age children and older could cycle with the family down the old convict road or (for confident riders) MTB out and back along Griffins Fire Trail to the lookout spot. (Take plenty of drinking water.) This is a lovely walk, although longer on foot – a nice day trip for younger children, or a decent morning’s walk for teenagers and adults. Kangaroo River Reserve is a beautiful walk, as is Three Views.
Canoedling
Whether it’s a couple’s escape or outdoor family entertainment, the Valley’s kayak and outdoor adventure companies can put together a beautiful experience. From hiring a kayak to the wilderness-plus-water offerings of bushwalking, abseiling or platypus-spotting with K V Adventure Company or Valley Outdoors, you can go big with a camping experience or start small with a half-day connecting with each other and our beautiful natural landscape.
Camp at Bendeela
A lovely option for freelancers working remotely. Why not reduce your home office to a tent or camper and a laptop for the week? You can even continue with your regular coffee spots, tennis or gym commitments, but work, wake and sleep surrounded by the calming sounds of the river. (If you want a quieter vibe, best to stick to the Christmas public holidays or later January.)
Child labour
Capitalist awakenings can happen early to those with the opportunity. Anyone with a high-traffic front fence is perfectly placed for egg-selling, manure, bags of campfire kindling, jams, tin-can potted plants and all sorts. I hear scrunchies and loomband jewellery sales can be good on a day of high foot traffic and if you’ve got a beach trolley at home, kids could make some change carting purchases from the K V markets to shoppers’ cars. Try starting a while-you-wait carwash or dog-walking business based near a café and hear the ka-ching of those sales rolling in (especially with a Square reader option).
Village vacation
Mooch around the shops with the time to actually browse, and send some postcards or Valley merch to absent friends – Kangaroo Valley tees and sweatshirts from the post office, car stickers from Valley Vintage, tote bags from the Hive. Buy a sketch book and visit the Hampden Bridge Loop Walk or Pioneer Museum for some drawing, or bushwalk the Red Trail. Why not send the kids or dogs for a play date and take a date day strolling, drinking and eating, with nothing but time and each other? Try to catch a sunrise in the morning, or a sunset in the evening – especially beautiful if viewed from the Caterina verandah with pop-up beer or wine in hand. Follow the Endangered Species Walk along Moss Vale Rd.
Homebody hideaway
For those for whom a relaxed holiday means zero effort, you could pre-purchase your food and alcohol over the phone and ask a kind friend or neighbour to deliver it for a weekend. Terra Mare Pizza is open most nights. You could return the favour the following one. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to leave your book or pyjamas.
Luxe the list
Is one of the things you hate about holidays at home that you’re surrounded by your to-do list? Take this as your permission to outsource it! Live a couple of weeks in the luxury of having everything done for you by ‘luxing’ your list. Make a bingo card of your to-dos then see how many of them you can match to contractors. From gardeners to cleaners, plasterers, painters and caterers, the Valley pretty much has you covered.
Amazing moments
How do you make a home holiday memorable? Go simple. Kids like a cardboard box, right? Get a gang together and build a yard-filling carbdoard maze-tunnel from a pile of boxes and rolls of tape. (Thanks to Rob Sitch for this one, on ‘How Other Dads Dad’.) Tape is also handy for various teenage challenges such as best duct tape hammock or seat, or who can survive regular tasks longest with random objects taped to their hands. (Rural Supplies sells tape.) Grab some old-school yard entertainment like a giant bubble kit or a slip ‘n’ slide, or find some tubes or lilos for a family float down the river. Family karaoke or dance battles, especially costumed, or a simple round of celebrity head, even if bribery’s required to get them going, often rank highly among young people’s reported best family moments.
Farmstay fun
Would you be willing to have a family visit your farm over the summer? Pop it on the post office notice board or Facebook community page. If you know a family who has to be on their farm all summer and you don’t, offer to take the kids on your day trips out of the Valley, or see what you can do to help out. Remember: change is as good as a holiday and someone else’s unfamiliar chores can be fun. Plenty of people who don’t have working farms have large animals that need regular feeding and grooming, from horses and cows to goats, sheep and alpacas.
Pool party
Did you know the pool has a barbecue and one of the best afternoon views in the Valley? Perfect for a friend-family lunch or dinner. Try it to wind down after a ‘run, gym and swim’ fitness day or for breakfast. If you’re the parent who suddenly has a group of bored, grumpy spectators for your morning laps, get them busy cooking egg and bacon rolls. Know some yoga, tai chi, or simple stretches? Bring a casual group together poolside. It’s everyone’s pool, and as the saying goes: use it or lose it!
Happy house-hopping
Swap houses with friends for the week! This can be beautiful just swapping a family home for a family home for a change of scene but I would strongly suggest couples and singles also consider swapping with a family to have a bigger house for the week and some friends down for some relaxed catching up. Know some other local couples? All move to one house for the weekend and buy in some nice dips, wines and cheeses, like you would if you were heading to a different small town. Call up the Kangaroo Valley Bus Company and group-buy a bus tour! I had a great night enjoying the antics on Baz Farrington’s bus, and the delicious treats at table, years ago for a progressive dinner at different homes around the Valley. (Booking a people mover from K V Plan B could work for a small group.)
For more ideas, check out the new Tourist Information Centre located at Valley Outdoors, 2 Jenanter Drive. (Near Hampden Bridge.)
