The caravan parks continue to be packed and there are still no spots available on the eastern side Big 4 Easts Narooma caravan park, although there are now one or two spots in the “Van Village” on the western side of the highway.

Easts staff expect the town to remain busy until the January 26 Australia Day long weekend and then there should be a whole new round of visitors in February, usually older people who wait until after the peak holiday season.

Narooma eateries like the Quarterdeck Marina, The Inlet and the Narooma Ice Creamery have all been packed out each day.

Kristy and Troy Beecham and their staff of 15 have been flat out with Kristy acknowledging this has been one of the busiest seasons she can recall.

The great crowds have come even though the fishing has been better in previous years.

Melbourne’s David Kramer, host of the 3AW Fishing Show, has been coming to Narooma for 26 years and also said this has the busiest he has seen it.

“I reckon, there is not one empty site at all,” said David, who stays at the Big 4 Easts Narooma park.

“There are a lot of families and I have notices a whole new generation of families enjoying all what Narooma has to offer.

“You certainly have turned on the weather for us too and it’s been sunny and the pool at the park has been packed every day, now if only the fishing at the island could have been better.”

He fished Montague Island earlier in the week, getting one legal fish out of 40 that were just undersize.

But even with the fishing bit lacking, he said there were still 70 to 80 boats at the island.

Both the presidents of the Narooma and Bermagui chambers of commerce report good number and healthy trading for shops and accommodation.

Narooma chamber president Orit Karny said she was hearing the week leading up to New Year’s Eve and this past weekend was one of the busiest ever, but that trading this week had dropped off to normal levels.

She had also received feedback that people would like to see local business stay open longer during the crucial period, while another disappointing reality was the number of thefts from campgrounds and shops.

Bermagui chamber president Scott Bradley also said trading and visitors had been good but that was expected for the 10 to 14 peak period around Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

The real test of a good holiday season would be whether the crowds continued through the rest of January, he said.

One person banking on continued bumper crowds and also more hot, sunny weather was Julian Domaracki from Dalmeny Ice Cream a Plenty van.

He had a forced day off on Monday after running out ice cream.

“All I had left was about four scoops of lemon gelato after running out of all nine flavours,” he said, as he was preparing another 150kg of homemade gelato, Magnums and other ices.

He had been coming to Narooma for 30 years and had his ice cream van for the last four years and had never seen it busier.

“Usually you only see 12 people on Duesbury’s Beach but this holidays there have been a hundred at a time, and I’ve never seen that before,” Julian said.

The sunny weather and bumper crowds had also resulted in busy times for Andrew “Macca” and Leichelle McAughtrie from South Coast Stand-Up Paddleboarding.

Leichelle said they had been doing two or three classes a day for everybody from beginners to refresher courses for the more advanced, and they had not seen the local waterways busier with kayaks, boats and other SUPs.

“It’s great to see so many people around,” she said.