BUNDEENA, NEW SOUTH WALES -- I lift my kayak paddle and pause at the end of a tidal inlet.
From the surrounding gum trees, two whipbirds call to each other. The sound is as distinctively Australian as the call of a loon is evocative of northern Canada.
These backyard possums need to watch for diamond pythons, after one was recently spotted in the same fork of this gum tree.
My companions and I are alone in a pocket of wilderness in a national park only 90 minutes by train and ferry south of downtown Sydney.
This is the kind of place Sydneysiders come for their weekend getaways, although admittedly, there's not that much to get away from in a city full of beaches that happens to be one of the most beautiful urban areas in the world.
If you're not interested in lining up behind other tourists at the Australian equivalent of Niagara Falls (Uluru, formerly known as Ayer's Rock), covering the entire continent at breakneck speed or competing for space at a crowded resort, slip away for a slower-paced holiday in some of the spots up and down the coast that Australians pick for their own family vacations.
From a bed-and-breakfast in the village of Bundeena, you can walk for an hour through the coastal heath of Royal National Park to stunning sandstone cliffs from which you can see the skyscrapers of Sydney in the hazy distance. Spend the day puttering in tidal pools and exploring aboriginal rock paintings or take a book and watch the pattern of water spraying against rock between chapters.
In the evening, sit on a verandah as the sun sets and watch fearless possums in a gum tree or wake early to see the raucous Australian birds that won't let you sleep anyway.
Bundeena is a 20-minute ferry ride across the Hacking River from Cronulla, where you can get a AU$9 return train ticket into downtown Sydney for a day of shopping, museums, fine dining or a visit to the world-famous Taronga Zoo.
There's no need to rent a car, since so many locals commute to work daily along this route. One medium-sized suitcase on wheels should be enough for two people on a warm vacation, but if you don't want to carry your suitcase on the train to and from the airport, it's only a $50 taxi ride.
In Cronulla -- famous, unfortunately, for racist beach riots in 2005 -- you can buy fresh seafood from the takeout menu at Notava's fish market.
A three-hour cruise from Cronulla for only AU$20 explores the picturesque Hacking River and allows you to see the national park's impressive cliffs from the ocean. Or rent kayaks at Bundeena's Bonnie Vale beach, but make sure you time your trip to paddle upriver with the tide and back down as it washes back out towards the sea.
Serious hikers -- bushwalkers in Australian lingo -- can backpack for two days along the Coast Track, with its spectacular views.
The best time to visit Bundeena, population 3,500, is mid-week when Australian kids are back in school after their six-week Christmas break. In early March, take in the local Art of Living festival with free live music.
In the Sydney area, summers are not as hot as in Australian cities like Brisbane and Perth to the north and far west, making for an easier transition from a -30 C Winnipeg winter.
Royal National Park, created in 1879, was the second national park in the world -- after Yellowstone in the U.S. Australia now has many national parks, and I visited several others during a month-long stay in the country in February.
I worked my way from Brisbane south to Bundeena, with a side trip to Tasmania.
Here are stopovers I can recommend:
-- The Gold Coast, south of Brisbane in Queensland. I flew there directly from Sydney for AU $87 one way, then did most of the rest of my trip by train. The Gold Coast is known for long-stay resorts and surfing beaches.
-- Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, is Australia's third-largest city after Melbourne and Sydney, with a population of about two million. The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art is one of the latest additions to the arts district along the river. Some outlying suburbs have pockets of urban wilderness. On a short walk in the Scribbly Gum Conservation Area, I saw two sleepy koalas, a wallaby, giant spiders in tough webs and a plethora of colourful birds, including rainbow bee-eaters. However, humid subtropical Brisbane is hot, hot, hot from December to March, so I prefer visiting in spring or fall.
-- Byron Bay in northern New South Wales is a popular vacation spot for Brisbane residents. A family can rent a small cabin very close to the beach in First Sun Holiday Park for about AU$160 a night and keep teenagers busy at surf school. One evening on the verandah of our cabin, I sipped Australian wine with my sister-in-law as we listened to the music of a didgeridoo-based band drifting over from a nearby pub and watched more than a hundred noisy rainbow lorikeets roost in a tree.
-- Wingham is a country town of about 5,000 on the express train line between Brisbane and Sydney. It's the oldest settlement on the wide Manning River and is full of historic buildings, including the Bank Guest House. See threatened grey-headed flying foxes in Wingham Brush and visit nearby Ellenborough Falls, the second-highest falls in the southern hemisphere.
-- Make a side trip by train from Newcastle west into the Hunter Valley, where some of Australia's best wine is produced. I dined on baked barramundi fish with Australian spices and roasted bunya nuts picked from a nearby tree.
-- Stop at Gosford on the Central Coast north of Sydney for easy access to gorgeous beaches bordered by sandstone cliffs. They are less crowded than those in the city. Cycle around town or mountain bike in Brisbane Water National Park.
-- Sydney, population four million, is one of the world's great cities. We booked online an adequate hotel in walking distance of the Central train station for AU$160 a night. At Central Quay near the opera house and harbour bridge, where ferries depart for beaches and the zoo, have a fancy seafood dinner at Wildfire while cruise ships head out to sea.
Helen Fallding is a Free Press assistant city editor born in Sydney.
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