My Coast - Halekulani
The A-Z of the Central Coast, NSW, Australia
Welcome to the eighth installment of my fortnightly photo blog exploring my local area, the Central Coast. This week's destination is Halekulani.
H-Halekulani
Halekulani is at the northern end of the Central Coast situated on the western side of Lake Munmorah. It's name is taken from a Hawaiian word meaning "house befitting heaven". This is a place on my blog location list that we have never ever been to before so I didn't really know what to expect when we arrived.
View from the reserve on Lake Munmorah
Halekulani is a very small suburb with a population of around 2,500. It is a mix of residential and caravan parks. The Hawaiian name influence carries through to the Walu Caravan Park, which has both tourist and permanent accommodation. There is a swimming pool on site to keep the residents entertained.
There is a general store, but most of the local shops can be found in neighbouring Budgewoi, which has everything. I got the impression that Halekulani is very popular with retirees due to its peaceful lakeside location, but still being within a few short kilometres of the coastal beaches.
Looking out on the waterways
We went down to Budgewoi to cross the bridge that borders onto the back of some of the more desirable properties in Halekulani. You can get good views from this little island up and down the waterways into Lake Munmorah.
The kids rope swing
The island is great for exploring with kids and we could see some of the more adventurous older ones had built their own rope swing to keep themselves entertained, presumably when the water was a bit warmer that it was during our visit in the middle of winter!
Looking over from Budgewoi to Halekulani
I spoke to a local lady who took great pleasure in telling me that there only used to be one waterway leading into the lake. That used to be free flowing and kept the bottom of the lake nice and sandy. When, the now decommissioned, Munmorah Power Station was opened they created another channel to feed into the lake and the water turned cloudy. The old coal power stations chimneys still loom large over the lake.
The “Hali”
We drove back round to the social centre of the suburb, the Halekulani Bowling Club, or the Hali as it is better known to the locals. Like most of the suburban clubs in the region it caters for pretty much everything entertainments wise with bars, restaurants, functions and live music as well as the multiple bowling greens outside.
Deep Fried delights to end the day!
We ended our family trip with a visit to the Fish and Chip shop across the water in Budgewoi. This was a really nice way to end our couple of hours of exploring on a Sunday afternoon.
Thank you very much for reading. If you would like to be notified of my next post in 2 weeks time, where the destination will be St Huberts Island, please click the link on the right.