When we were doing our rough planning on where we wanted to go on this trip we determined there was only so much we could do in one country. So when deciding what we wanted to do in Australia the three that filtered to the top of the list were the Great Barrier Reef, visiting with our YA friends, and going to the Sydney Opera House. The Australian Outback would have been interesting, but it would require a lot of travel and take more time and costs than we wanted to allocate. Instead, we decided to drive from the Gold Coast to Sydney over a few days to get a chance to see the East Coast of Australia a bit more. Julia had done some research on a few places to stop along the way but we didn’t enter with any high expectations. In the end, we really enjoyed this part of Australia and are glad we took the two and half days to drive it vs flying to Sydney.
Cape Byron Lighthouse Trail (Byron Bay)
It took us a while to find a parking space, but the hike was nice and went from coastal cliffs and a light house, to lush forested regions.
Part of the trail touched the most easterly point of Australia.
We got to watch a pod of dolphins go around this point, and got pretty close to this kangaroo hiding in the bush.
Emerald Beach
We arrived at the Emerald Beach area for our first night with enough daylight left to take a walk from our accommodations out to the beach.
As we walked along the beach we noticed movement on the hill next to the beach and realized it was a mob of kangaroos so we crossed the creek to head that direction.
As we walked to them , they started coming down the path towards us and a few even came down onto the beach.
Lovely views and sunset from the top of the hill. On our way back, we discovered where the mob had gone as they were grazing in the lawn beside the beach parking lot.
Tacking Point Lighthouse (Port Macquerie)
Another lighthouse stop on our next day down the coast which provided equally stunning views of the ocean and cliffs. We had lunch in a rocky bay under a tree as it was quite hot that day and enjoyed the waves crashing over the rocks.
