I stood in utter disbelief when we arrived at the camp sight in New South Wales, (funnily enough called Hastings Point) and watched them set up their adjoining sites.
Out came huge mats, tables and chairs — that’s okay, everyone needs somewhere to sit and a table to put their drink.
What followed were air fryers, toasters, a coffee machine, an ice maker — I kid you not. But the last thing one of my daughters pulled out of her caravan had me in fits of laughter — a vacuum cleaner.
Yep, no broom for my girl even though she was a little witch when she was younger.
Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / Warren Buckland
Turns out that was just the beginning of the glamping experience.
This place had adult-only hot pools, a children’s playground, a games room, complete with arcade games and a pool table, a children’s water park, more hot pools for the entire family and a restaurant that just happened to have a happy cocktail hour on Friday nights.
Lucky for us it was Thursday. Already we had a plan for the following afternoon.
Five minutes’ walk away was the ocean and a river where my grandsons spent hours fishing, one time with a pelican chasing them for their catch.
We were only there for three nights but we managed to pack in a lot of fun.
We swam, soaked in the hot pools, ate a lot, went for walks and played games.
As usual, there were plenty of birds. Ibises were everywhere we went. My daughter told me they call them bin chickens because they are always scavenging in rubbish bins.
There were also a few bush turkeys at the camping ground.
After going to the happy cocktail hour we came back to the campsite to find all the rubbish out of the bin on the ground.
My daughter exclaimed, “It must have been the bin turkey”, to which I replied, “it’s not a bin turkey, it’s a bush telegraph.”
Hysterical laughter followed that statement. Finally, someone managed to stop laughing enough to say, “what the heck is a bush telegraph”. My reply of course was “it’s a newspaper”. That set everyone off again.
I related this story to Mr Neat when I got home. He looked at me and said, “I guess you had to be there”.
I think it’s more likely you had to have had a couple of half-price cocktails .
Anyway, the vacuum cleaner came out and the mess was cleaned up in a jiffy.
My trip was the first since 2019 and we all know what happened after that. To be honest I was a bit weary about travelling. I have heard so many stories recently about missed flights, late flights and lost luggage.
My flight home from Brisbane was delayed by 45 minutes so, yes, I did have to run to the domestic terminal but I made it and every other part of my travel and holiday was simply bliss. Can’t wait to go back and do it all again.
Linda Hall is a Hastings-based assistant editor for Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 30 years of experience in newsrooms. She writes regularly on arts and entertainment, lifestyle and hospitality, and pens a column. She travelled to Australia on her own dime.
