Jacaranda is a great beach house overlooking smiths lake. It is spacious, airy and bright and is well equipped with everything you need for a relaxing and comfortable stay.

The top balcony is fantastic, with a large BBQ, outdoor dining, and views through the tree tops to the lake. The surrounding trees are full of bird life and we were visited by some friendly (or hungry) kookaburras and rainbow parakeets.

Upstairs is lovely, modern, well presented and well furnished. Downstairs is a little tired but still perfectly functional - it has a separate seating area and TV, so it would work well for teenage kids to have their own zone.

Gerard responded quickly to any queries we had the admin side of things was very straight forward.

The area in general is absolutely beautiful. Cellitos beach is a 5 minute drive away and just totally stunning - completely unspoilt and one of the nicest beaches in NSW. Seal rocks number one beach is also within 20 minutes drive and is better for swimming and kids, with a very shallow descent into the ocean and rockpools ripe for sea life exploration. Best surf

One thing to watch out for, if you're travelling with young kids you'll probably want to take a stair gate as the stairs to the lower level are a little treacherous for toddlers. We were travelling from overseas so obviously couldn't take one, so it did mean we had to keep our eyes on the little adventurer at all times.

Finally, there's no WiFi. Nearest WiFi we found was in the cafes at Blueys beach around 15 minutes drive away. If you have an Australian mobile with 3G its no real issue, but with my UK handset I spent 80 dollars in about 10 minutes of using google maps!