Parade’s dad is adamant that the vast majority of Bathurstians don’t fully appreciate the beauty of their city simply because they are too familiar with it all.

A Bathurstian sitting in Kings Parade is much more likely to be playing on their phone rather than staring at the soaring Carillon or the imposing court house, but that’s not really surprising.

It sometimes takes a fresh set of eyes – coming across a tourist marvelling over the Crago Fountain or a visitor to town photographing flowers in Machattie Park – to remind you of what you have in your own backyard.

Parade thought about all this during a recent visit with his significant other to Forster, on the Mid-North Coast.

Parade hadn’t been to this part of the world for almost a decade and when he saw some dolphins playing in the lake on the first morning, he was reminded of why it is such a beautiful spot.

Standing on the Forster-Tuncurry bridge, watching the dolphins swim through the water beneath him, Parade was absolutely entranced, though he couldn’t work out why the locals crossing the bridge didn’t share his sense of excitement.

One of them, carrying a couple of bags of groceries, gave just a cursory glance into the water as she passed by.

That dolphin sighting for Parade on the first morning was followed by another dolphin sighting on the third morning.

And then Parade saw some dolphins when he went for a walk on the fourth night and then he saw some more on the fifth night.

Each time, Parade was aware that he was watching the dolphins for a little less time.

And by the end, he had to admit he was watching more because he felt he should rather than because he really wanted to.

In a week, the dolphins at Forster had started to become like the Carillon in Kings Parade: part of the landscape.

Perhaps that’s the curse of having something special all around you. It’s there, but after a while you don’t really see it.