Lake Macquarie, Swansea

Welcome 2013!

2012 has been a really busy year for us, with the moving, new jobs and 2 weddings. I didn't really have time to travel, and even less time to blog about the trips. And the trips are more R&R rather than the sight seeing ones.. so there will be a change in the way the trips are told.

We did however start the year (or rather, the end of 2012) with a trip to the north of Sydney, at Lake Macquarie in Swansea. It's about 1.5 hour from Sydney and a pretty easy drive up the freeway.

We initially thought about heading to Noosa but it was too expensive as we didn't plan much ahead so we decided to go to Lake Macquarie as it was much more affordable. And of course, much less of a hectic trip.

Day 1

 

 Caves Beach Spa Suite

We stayed at Caves Beach Hotel which is a relatively new hotel in the area. The place was really nice - it had a bar, a lounge, a restaurant and a cafe all in the one spot and yet the rooms/suites were far enough to be quiet and private.

 Our room 

Open concept bathroom 

Love the double basins! :D

 

 The tub is just behind the wooden frame

*This is the absolute best thing!*

 View from our balcony 

Looking right onto the beach

The good thing about being in this suite is that it is only catered for adults and strictly no children allowes. So there's not much noise on the deck and one can really sit and enjoy the view and breeze for hours with a good book! Families with children can book at the villas located just behind the suites.

Quick walk to the beach before dinner!

 Loving the feeling of water rushing through my feet

We made a last minute reservation at Milano's at Pelican which was only 10 minutes drive from the hotel. Didn't look up any recommendations, was just the spur-of-the-moment decision and it turned out to be a good one. 

The restaurant is just by the lake, and we had a sunset view which made the dining experience all the more enjoyable. The food was also pretty good and an excellent service to complete.

 His entree terrine

 My quail starters - really yum!

 The pork belly with scallop

 His main 

And the wonderful sunset!

The restaurant also has a seafood platter but one will need to give them at least 24hours notice so that they would be able to pick out the best fresh seafood from the Sydney Fish Market... perhaps it's worth a try.

The whole dining experience was one of the nicest we've ever had and I would recommend everyone to head that direction if they were in town.

Day 2

We had a relatively lazy day on day two, heading out to Belmont for the walk around the lake and then settled for some pizza by the beach. 

The lake is really clean, and the water was quite clear. There was plenty of people out fishing, kayaking, jet-skiing.. it looked really enjoyable and we wanted to do those things too, but we didn't manage to find anywhere that rented the equipments out (minus the fishing... plenty of places to rent a boat for fishing)

 The clear waters

We did go on one of the walking trails in hope of seeing the waters from a cliff/hillside, but it was not that nice and after walking for about 45 minutes, we headed back. No pictures from that hike... it was too .... boring.

We were quite tired after the walk so we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest and then went down to the beach to look at the caves at the beach. We could only go during low tide as these caves are partially or fully submerged under the water at high tide. 

 One of the many sea caves..

 I love the beachhhhh!!!

Day 3

We got a walking trail guide from the tourist information centre in Swansea the day before and there's about 20 walking trails in Swansea and we went to Watagan National Park for the Gap Creek Falls. I was so excited about going to see a waterfall. The last one that I've been to was in New Zealand and it was beautiful.

 But oh my... after hiking up and down many rocks, what a disappointment!! The waterfall is definitely the saddest one I've ever seen. There was barely any water... it definitely wasn't falling... it's probably best described as water-drip.

What a sad day.....

 

 Probably the saddest waterfall in the country...

Feeling so disappointed, sad and tired we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest before our New Year Eve's dinner.  

*there is another trail recommended called the Boarding Dam Walk which had quite a pretty mini waterfall on a picture, but after this disappointment, I couldn't be bothered going on another hike. Maybe someone heading there can let me know if it was nice*.

 

 Something to make us feel better

And then we were off to our dinner! I made a booking at the hotel's C Restaurant about 2 weeks earlier. The dinner was $90ppax for a 3 course meal and a firework to complete which was a pretty good deal in my opinion. 

 His main

My main - really good piece of steak!!

His - Pannacota *oh so good!*

Just before the mains, we had the fireworks which was really quite nice. The restaurant was nice enough to keep our mains till we got back to our table which kept the food warm. The area for the fireworks wasn't too crowded and it was just outside the restaurant so we were really close and had a fantastic view~ Wasn't the biggest and grandest firework show but I really enjoyed it. A good end to 2012 and a great start to 2013.

Happy New Year everyone!

May more trips come my way!!