I second the advice offered by the other Ziners re buying a car, flying to some destinations (e.g. Uluru and Cairns), New Year in Hobart etc.

As a child I lived in Bega which is about 80 km south of Narooma so am very familiar with the area. In fact we stayed down there for a few days a fortnight ago. It has certainly grown in the last few years but is still basically a small coastal town. A car would be absolutely necessary as there is very little public transport. The nearest railway is at Nowra about 4 hours drive north and the airport at Merimbula (with flights to Sydney and Melbourne) is about 1.25 hours drive south.

As well as the National Parks there are some interesting towns where you could easily take day trips - Bermagui and Eden (both have large fishing fleets and charter boats for deep sea fishing); Tilba and Cobargo (arts, crafts & antiques); Wallaga Lake (Aboriginal settlement with a cultural centre); Bega, Kameruka and Bodalla (famous for their cheese); Merimbula (popular holiday destination especialy for people from Canberra and Melbourne); plus dozens of other small country towns each with its own special characteristics. There are no nearby cities. The closest are Canberra and Wollongong.

Sydney is about 7 hours north (an easy drive and you pass through quite a few small towns - the coastal route from Moruya to Batemans Bay is particularly scenic). Canberra is also only a few hours away as are the Snowy Mountains. I'm not sure of the exact distance to Melbourne but you could get there in a day or stay over en route and take two days.

If you decide to drive from Narooma to Sydney let me know and we'll try to organise to meet up with you in Wollongong (about 1.5 hours south of Sydney and an area well worth spending time in). If not, maybe a GTG could be organised with other Ziners in Sydney.

If I can be of any further please let me know.

Regards Josie Wollongong, Australia