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Holidaymakers have stayed close to home this summer break as ongoing travel restrictions and border closures boost travel to regional NSW.
Caravan and camping sites have also welcomed more visitors, with a surge in bookings at coastal holiday parks and Jindabyne.
The Toowoon Bay Holiday Park on the Central Coast has been busy since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.
Credit:Edwina Pickles
A spokeswoman for Discovery Parks, which operates holiday parks around Australia, said its top destinations were coastal and close to Sydney, with guest numbers up more than 35 per cent at resorts in Emerald Beach, Gerroa, Harrington Beach and Forster.
Terry Durack s top 20 moments in food 2020
Terry Durack
Photo: James Brickwood
From laksa dumplings to hiking for a bucket of prawns, our Sydney chief restaurant reviewer, Terry Durack, has found many food highlights to salvage 2020.
2020, you ve been a lot to swallow. But whatever else happens in life, there will always be good food, and a great deal of pleasure to be had in finding it, cooking it and sharing it.
These are the magic moments – some stolen, some surprising, some you saw coming – that got me through this extraordinary year.
Oh, the joy of having a negroni made by someone else. It was my first meal out of captivity for 67 days, 6 hours and 15 minutes, and I felt both worried and excited, wanting to dive straight in to the world of dining that I had missed, yet wary of exposure to risk.
For Jill Osthoff, watching her grandchildren open their presents is a highlight of Christmas Day.
But now the Elanora Heights grandmother faces the prospect of her festive tradition being dashed as the northern beaches community, of which she is a part, races to keep the spread of COVID-19 under control.
Jill and Joachim Osthoff at their Elanora Heights home.
Credit:James Brickwood
If the local government area remains in lockdown beyond Wednesday, the idea of not being able to see her extended family will be cruelled by the fact that her daughter Pippa, and her husband and two children, live just 20 minutes away in East Lindfield.
Christmas Trading Hours 2020
Westfield
Not all Westfields are keeping the same Christmas trading hours, and indeed stores within particular centres may decide to close earlier.
It s best to contact your local centre if you re planning on burning the midnight oil to get all of your shopping done:
Mon 21st Dec: 8:00am â 9:00pm
Tue 22nd Dec: 8:00am â 9:00pm
Wed 23rd Dec: 8:00am â 11:59pm
Thu 24th Dec: 8:00am â 6:00pm
Fri 25th Dec: Closed
Sat 26th Dec: 8:00am â 6:00pm
Some centres, such as the massive Westfield Chermside in Queensland, will be open until midnight on the 21
st, 22
Sydney s Northern Beaches COVID-19 cluster has grown again after a close contact of one of today s new cases tested positive to the virus.
The partner of an aged care worker at the Pittwater Palms retirement village in Avalon is the latest person to test positive to coronavirus, bringing the number of confirmed infections in the area over the past 24 hours to five.
LIVE UPDATES:
Large queues at Mona Vale COVID-19 testing clinic after new cases were diagnosed.(Nick Moir)
Today s new cases include a man in his 60s from Frenchs Forest; the aged care worker, who is aged in her 60s; and her partner, a man aged in his 70s.