Cave Beach & Catherine Hill Bay

For the last day of the long weekend, we woke up early to catch the sunrise. It was a little overcast on the drive to Zenith Beach but thankfully there was a break in the clouds and it was quite a gorgeous sunrise especially as we were the only ones on the beach.




On the way back to Sydney, we stopped at  Cave Beach. However as it was high tide, we didn't manage to visit the caves.




There was also a quick stop at Catherine Hill Bay Beach to visit the historic jetty that used to transport coal. Apparently it was damaged considerably in a fire however I didn't believe it was too obvious. Catherine Hill Bay felt like it was a world away from the rest of the central coast. It is a coastal village and it really did feel as though it was in the middle of no where.

Not entirely sure why there is a noose there.

This was my fifth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here.

Mount Tomaree & Kayaking

Shortly after sunrise, Mr Paella and I headed up Mount Tomaree which was a reasonably easy hike to the lookout. It was a 45min walk up however wasn't as challenging as some other lookouts (namely Barrenjoey Headland in Sydney which is a short 15 minute walk but quite strenuous). It was at the lookout that I truly realised and remembered how beautiful Australia can be. The view was breathtaking. The coolest part was seeing an elderly woman (probably 60+) who was slowly making her way up to the lookout. I want to be her when I am older.

Newcastle & Stockton Sand Dunes

I am very much someone who unconsciously thinks that grass is greener on the other side. Life and the world is more interesting overseas and Australia/Sydney/NSW is boring. However since starting a full time job, my time is quite limited. And in fact, so many people think that Australia is so interesting and would love to visit. So why do I feel this way? It really comes down to the fact that it's familiar and, sadly, I am a little desensitised to the beauty of it. I have been making a conscious effort in 2016 to see more of Australia or the very least, more of NSW outside of Sydney.

Long introduction aside, that is why over the ANZAC long weekend I headed up north to Port Stephens. The furthest north I had ever been was Newcastle many many years ago as a day trip and honestly, I don't remember too much about it. Mr Paella and I headed onto the Pacific Highway which was quite frankly a very very boring drive. It is really the only road up the coast so taking the smaller highways wasn't an option.

Newcastle was the first stop and it was so incredibly windy! The photos don't capture how strong the winds were and I really felt that I was being moved by the wind. As the photos show, it was a beautiful day. We also discovered the Memorial Walk by accident as we were driving by and it was definitely worth walking on! It provided stunning views of the ocean and I believe the best vantage point of Newcastle. Something that I didn't know prior to the trip was that Newcastle has the largest coal exporting harbour in the world. It was insane to see the size of the machinery and equipment at the docks.

Riverina Roadtrip - Mount Wilson

This was my last day on my Easter trip (it has taken me a while to write all these posts...) and I knew that I would spend the rest of my trip driving back to Sydney. My aim was to beat the usual long weekend rush back and thus I aimed to hit Sydney at around midday.

First stop was heading to the highest point in Bathurst to watch the sunrise however I couldn't figure out how to get to the top of Mount Panorama and only managed to get to the bottom of it. It was such a gorgeous sunrise as the photos below show.

Peak Hill, Milthorpe & Bathurst

I had only highlighted one attraction in this region as I knew that I would be spending most of my time driving. This attraction was the Peak Hill Open Cut Mine which I had never heard about prior to my research. After my stop in Forbes, I continued my journey to Peak Hill which is a town with a population of 800.

Riverina Roadtrip - Forbes

For my last full day, I wanted to eventually end up sleeping the night at a place close-ish to Sydney. My reason was so the drive back wouldn't be too long and I would be able to beat the usual end of long weekend traffic back to Sydney. Subsequently I settled on sleeping at a free campground at Bathurst. It isn't accurate to call this and the next few posts as Riverina roadtrip since I left the Riverina region on this day.

The 240km drive from Ariah Park to Peak Hill was actually really enjoyable. I really enjoy waking up at sunrise and driving since the roads are quiet, the day hasn't started for a lot of people and it is just so peaceful. It also means that I can reduce the car's speed to a crawl or even stop it completely in my lane without fear of being hit by a car behind me.

Riverina Roadtrip - Lockhart & Ariah Park

There really isn't too much to do in the Riverina region and I went through all 15 pages on the Riverina tourism website looking for things to see and do. Something that I stumbled upon was the Pastoral Shadows of Brookong located in Lockhart.

Riverina Roadtrip - Along the Road to Gundagai

If I had to pick a year, I would say that Year 3 was probably my favourite year out of primary school. My teacher was Mr Bluett and he had this scruffy beard and played the piano every time we weren't doing our scehduled maths/ science/ English lessons. Now in hindsight, a lot of the teachers had their little quirk; some focussed heavily on arts and crafts whilst my Year 4 teacher was a grammar Nazi. For Mr Bluett, it was Australian folk songs and poems. One of the songs that has stuck with me all these years is "Along the Road to Gundagai" by Jack O'Hagan. I still remember all the words and I haven't met anyone else who knows the song.

And that is really my rationale behind my Riverina road trip. Yes. A folk song I learnt when I was 9 from my Year 3 teacher. Bizarre? Yes, quite I believe. Here is the song for those who are curious.

On the way, I drove through Tumut and saw many cars parked next to the station. At the time I didn't know what it was and decided to stop for a quick look. Reading about it later, it was the Camaro-Firebird & US Muscle Car Nationals. Knowing nothing about cars or the event, apart from the fact that they were super shiny and lots of proud owners next to them, I headed back on the road.