We were on our way back from a week in Forster, well Green Point to be exact. (Now there's a lovely spot.) In an absence of paid work and my partner Jen having an operation we took some R&R and escaped Canberras' freezing bite.
We took the coastal tourist route south of Newcastle to have a look at Catherine Hill Bay, 'Catho', with half an idea of continuing my novice attempts at surfing. The surf wasn't great and I was stiff and sore from being pulled by the currents and rips in my earlier pathetic attempts at emulating Kelly Slater during the day at Boomerang Beach, so I gave it a miss. We did try to stop at the Catho Pub for a chip but they seem to have something against them there. On the bistro menu in bold letters was printed "NO CHIPS", so we drove on.
We meandered through The Entrance scouting for a suitable chippery and soon found ourselves exiting The Entrance without spying a single decent looking chip shop. I hung a random left to Shelley Beach (much to the consternation of our GPS guide, with an NZ accent) through the golf course and onto the the beach promenade. With the dull, squawking wit of a seagull I had managed to drive straight to a little beach shack cafe run by the surf life saving club.
We ordered a reasonable size serve of chips, coffee and chicken burgers. The coffee was surprisingly good, the burgers not too bad either but the chips were great! Served in an open cardboard shell they were big and chunky, nicely golden and not too heavily salted. I had to stop myself eating all of them to save room for my burger. On our week away these were easily the best chips we had and were a contender right up there with the Akaroa 'holy grail' of chips. Most impressive and a sublime finale to our week away, sitting on a beachfront park bench watching whales breach in the distance whilst crunching into a very good chip.
Chip score: 8/10 ALWAYS CHIP BETWEEN THE FLAGS
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