Alan Williams

The whole of the Bouddi peninsula is really a paradise, but we particularly love Killcare Heights. Every time you enter the area through the climb up Wards Hill Road (or through the winding bends of the Scenic Road through Bouddi National Park) you feel you're entering a different and special place. A little bit separate, but well connected. With a sense of community and a village feel that's almost lost in most places now.

Having lived in two parts of Killcare Heights, and in two houses in Wagstaffe on the water, we've found Killcare Heights suits our particular preferences best. We particularly love the privacy and calm of Maitland Bay Drive, where you're just a short walk from the Maitland Bay trail head from where you can walk along the coast to Wamberal almost entirely on coastal bush paths or beach. Or to Box Head via Killcare, returning via Wagstaffe and Hardys Bay. The local beaches are outstanding. We can walk down the bush track to Maitland Bay (surely amongst one of the most beautiful beaches on the East Coast) in just over 10 minutes, and also nearby are Bulimah Beach, Killcare/Putty Beach, Tallow and Little Tallow Beaches and Lobster Beach. All drop dead gorgeous in their own way.

If you choose to live overlooking the ocean (and we have, once), it's incredibly beautiful - but watch the southerly winds, they're fierce. The bush blocks are large and peaceful. And there are still some smaller blocks along Maitland Bay Drive which are gradually being improved as they come up for sale.

The community around Killcare/Hardys Bay/Wagstaffe is close but welcoming. It's definitely LGTBI etc friendly, many of our wonderful neighbours are gay, and it's also great for kids. A couple of our kids went to Pretty Beach School in their junior years and loved it. There's the Bouddi Foundation for the Arts run by John Bell (amongst others), Killy Cares charity to help locals in trouble, a great surf club and RFS team, and an active progress association. There's also a community of helpers around bushcare and the National Park. There's a good mix of permanent residents and weekenders. I sense that there are more and more permanent residents nowadays, which is healthy for the area.

We're served by some really lovely restaurants - with fine food at Bells, Asian fusion at Lucky Bee, nice bistros at Hardys Bay and Spinnakers, and great cafes like Fat Goose, Killcare Surf Club, The View, and the gorgeous Impact Nursery cafe at the bottom of the hill in Empire Bay. And the often changing food available at the RSL as well of course.

It's hard to imagine a better place to live - since Killcare Heights is at the edge of the Bouddi Peninsula it takes ten fewer minutes each way to get to the main roads than from, say, Wagstaffe. It makes getting to/from Sydney for an evening that much easier - just over an hour away when it's quiet (which it is after most performances finish) so you can still access all the services of the city and live in paradise. Not a bad deal.