The cabins and tiny homes come kitted out with kitchenware, so we did most of our cooking in-house and made the absolute most of the lakeside BBQ areas. There is something quietly addictive about firing up the hotplate as the late afternoon light spreads across Lake Burrendong, kangaroos drifting past in the distance and the kookaburras getting loud about dinner.

The on-site kiosk became our daily stop. It is small but smart, stocked with ice, gas, snacks, cold drinks and basic fishing tackle. We grabbed bait one morning before realising we had forgotten the milk too and ended up walking out with both. It saves you the long run back into Wellington, which we appreciated more than we expected.

For a proper meal out, the drive into Wellington (about 40 minutes via the Mitchell Highway) is well worth it. We loved a long, lazy breakfast at Jespresso, a vibrant little cafe doing all-day breakfast, fresh juices and seriously good coffee. The smashed avo with bacon set us up nicely for an afternoon poking around the caves.

For something with more history baked into the walls, The Lion of Waterloo is one of the oldest licensed inns in inland Australia and pours a beautifully cold beer alongside hearty pub classics. The garden out the back is a lovely spot to land after a day on the lake. If you are around on the last Saturday of the month, the Wellington Farmers Market is a fun stock-up for fresh produce, baked goods and local honey to take back to the cabin.

The lake itself is the headline act and you will likely spend most of your stay on or beside it. Lake Burrendong is famously three times the size of Sydney Harbour, which means there is endless room for fishing, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, waterskiing and just floating about. The park's own boat ramp makes launching a breeze and we found the early mornings, when the water sits glassy and still, were our favourite. Cod and yellowbelly are the prized catches here and the fish-cleaning bay near the ramp is a friendly spot to swap stories with other anglers.

Just up the road, Wellington Caves is the obvious half-day adventure. Walking down into the limestone chambers feels genuinely otherworldly, and the guided tours through Cathedral Cave and Gaden Cave are pitched well for both kids and adults. While you are out that way, set aside time for the Burrendong Botanic Garden and Arboretum, a 164-hectare conservation garden with a hidden Fern Gully tucked beneath a thatched canopy. It feels miles from the surrounding plains.

Stuart Town itself is a tiny gold-rush village and proudly the home of Banjo Paterson's "Man from Ironbark". You can try your luck panning for gold in the local creeks on the Stuart Town common, and the nearby Goldfields at Ironbarks is a popular fossicking spot if you want to take it more seriously. We found a couple of tiny flecks and felt like outback royalty.

For a bigger day trip, Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo is roughly an hour's drive and easily fills a full day, with rhinos, giraffes and African painted dogs across its open savannah enclosures. Closer to home, Mount Arthur Reserve just outside Wellington has lovely bushwalks and panoramic lookouts that are perfect at sunset. Aim for the cooler months from April to October if you are keen on bushwalking, as the summer can really crackle out here.

We loved that the on-site kiosk stocks fishing gear, gas and ice alongside the basics, which saved us the 40-minute run into Wellington more than once when the cod were biting at sunset.