Everyone woke up early this morning keen to move on and move somewhere prettier and quieter. We were packed up and on the road by 9am and once we got beyond Newcastle the roads became quieter and the scenery prettier. By the time we got to Nelson Bay we were very happy - another stunning place and it would rank in our top 3 of places visited to date! We were allowed to pick our site from 3 available and set up in the sunshine all ready for lunch. Once we'd eaten we walked down to Shoal Bay Beach at the back of our caravan park. The beach was stunning looking out towards the mouth of Port Stevens and it had squeaky white sand. We walked to Nelson Head but couldn't walk round to Little Beach as the tide was coming in. Instead we went back to the van and collected everyone's scooters before walking into town. We got as far as Victoria Parade and stopped on the marina for a coffee and an ice cream. Katharine and I went into tourist information and picked up some maps for further up the coast and then met the others in the park. One of the books we picked up had some 'kids stay free' vouchers for any Big 4 park so we may not have to rough it further up the coast after all!! We walked home and the kids all had some fruit, eating it outside. Within minutes we had lots of little lorikeets hopping around the van so we began to give them a bit of apple. Next minute they were all over the kids much to their delight - we even had rabbits coming up for a feed! We pulled the kids away and went back for a walk along the beach heading towards Tomaree Head. Before we knew it Matty got caught in a wave and got his shorts wet. After that he decided to have a proper swim and jumped in fully clothed! That was fine until he had to walk all the way home dripping wet. By the time we got back to the caravan as the sun had almost set, he was frozen and needed a hot shower!! Nick made dinner for us all and the smaller ones were in bed by 715pm as they were shattered. We watched a bit of TV and I did some work before hitting the sack too. It seems like paradise here - no traffic noise just the waves to fall asleep too!