Half an hour from Sydney airport, we pass Cronulla, a scruffy, brash-looking suburb on a fantastic strip of beach, thronging with surfers. The name rings a bell, so I consult my partner, who is Australian.
"Was this where...?" "Yes." "On this very beach?" "Yes." I drive on pensively. The 2005 race riots on Cronulla beach, when friction between locals and Lebanese immigrants came to boiling point, were so distant from our normal perceptions of Australia that they made headlines 12,000 miles away. Hard to imagine now, with the beach a sea of smiling faces and the sun blazing down like a blowtorch.
But perhaps the riots were a reminder that even the Australian holy trinity of sun, sea and sand is not impervious to the social problems that can bedevil big cities - which is why, in a nutshell, we are putting a little distance between ourselves and Sydney, and exploring the less populated, more tranquil coast of southern New South Wales.
It is not a part of the country that attracts a huge number of tourists. Far more people on fly-drive holidays head north out of Sydney than south. But it has a charm and a variety and a kind of lazy grace that, for me, is quintessential Australia.
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