Welcome to this week’s editorial, As I write the sky is blue, the winds are soft and the weekend ahead looks as if it intends to behave itself, delivering sunny days that might dry out our region, and our lawns that now pass as bogs. There is much to celebrate this weekend. Yes, it is Easter and that is an opportunity for chocolate, buns with crosses and the opportunity to watch the reruns on TV of Pasolini’s film, The Greatest Story Ever Told while the kids look for Easter Eggs in the garden that you claim to have hidden, but didn’t. The Easter message this year is to all of our locals who normally hunker down knowing that there are lots of visitors to the area. This year, don’t. Across the region the numbers of visitors is much lower than expected. While it is Easter, school holidays and then another long weekend with ANZAC Day that would normally see numbers swell the impact of fuel prices and the concerns around household finances mean that the folks who might normally come, the families from the West, are baulking at spending $200 or more to fill the car and make the journey. We had bushfires that dealt our tourism a blow, then Covid, then La Nina with her endless bloody rain that has turned the Eastern seaboard into a quagmire. Now we have fuel prices that are having a dampener of family holiday budgets. But for those who do make the journey, and for all of our locals, there is much to do this weekend that is affordable. There is the Tilba Festival on Saturday, the From the Forest Festival at Eurobodalla Botanical Gardens all weekend, the Tuross Head Easter Fair on Monday and 85 beaches from north to south that don’t costs a cent to explore and enjoy. Mogo Wildlife Park have declared Kids are Free in April and you can use your Discover Vouchers to cover the entry fee for parents. Simply purchase an full-priced adult, concession or senior ticket and you’ll get up to 4 children into Mogo Wildlife Park for free. This week is a massive week for our local businesses as they approach the long winter ahead. Our local cafes have put on extra staff to cover the anticipated demand. If you can, over this weekend and the coming week, please review your Discover Vouchers and your Dining Vouchers. And if you have any in your Service NSW App please consider using them to support our local businesses so that they can continue to thrive and employ our own community. If you are venturing out please stay safe. There are still lots of potholes, the seas are deceptive, the shire is covered in leeches and gumboots are the new chosen footware. And be Covid aware—it is out there and really is more than “just the flu”. Until next
lei
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