Before leaving Port Stephens for the next leg of our “Brisbane to Sydney Road Trip – The Central Coast NSW” we got up early to do a dawn shoot at Shoal Bay. We took a short cut through the the caravan park while it was still dark to get to the beach. Luckily there was a lovely young couple that were going for a walk on the beach to watch the sunrise at the same time because when we got the gate to get out of the caravan park you had to enter a code which we had no clue about. Once we got down onto the beach we found some beautiful red rocks to use as foreground interest and we got set up and waited to see what the sky was going to do. We got talking to a lovely old man who was photographing the area too and he said that the beach had been badly eroded due to the recent bad weather. The sand was usually a meter higher than what it currently was.
After the sun had come up we headed back to the hotel for a shower and some breakfast. Then we hit the road again for the Central Coast with a stop at Newcastle on the way as I had never been there before. I was really impressed with Newcastle. I had always envisioned it to be a dirty, industrial town from what I have been told but its actually a really cool place. The town is really pretty with historic buildings and beautiful autumn trees and lots of buzzing cafes around the place. We kept driving to Mereweather because I wanted to check out the famous Ocean Baths. Unfortunately it was all fenced off and half drained due to it being renovated. But that doesn’t stop me. I still snuck in to get a pic and it is a beautiful old ocean bath. I hope they do it justice with the renovation!
From Newcastle we kept driving until we got to Terrigal on The Central Coast of NSW. We had an awesome lunch at Bella Natural Food Co. If you know me, you know that I am a big foodie and particularly with healthy food. This place was the bomb. We refuelled with a green jucie each and some smashed avo on organic sourdough. If you are ever in Terrigal, try this place out. It was so busy and I can see why. The food is amazing. After lunch we went for a bit of a walk around town which was pumping as it was a beautiful day and it was Easter Sunday. For sunset we decided to go have a look at Tuggerah Lake where the famous Long Jetty is. We got told off by some old man for parking too close to his house so other cars would have to drive on his nature strip to turn around. What he calls his nature strip is just grass growing down onto the road, so we begrudgingly moved the car. And we will alway remember Long Jetty for the grumpy old man that lives there and laugh about it! Sunset was a bit of a fizzer and it was hard to get a shot of “Long Jetty” due to so many people stopping and taking photos on it.
The next morning we got up early once again and went to photograph MacMasters Beach. We found an Ocean Pool there that was calm and still so I photographed the reflections on the top of the water. It was quite a nice sunrise and I just love the feeling of being the only one around at that time of the morning. There was also some really cool rays shining into the sky as the sun was rising.
After sunrise we had breakfast at Bella Natural Food Co (had to get my fix again before moving on!) and headed off to Sydney! Are you from the Central Coast region? Did you enjoy this blog post? Feel free to comment in the section below. I would love to hear from you and stay tuned for the next instalment of our Brisbane to Sydney Road Trip! And don’t forget to sign up below to catch all my posts and handy hints about capturing amazing photos for yourself! You can read Part 3 of our Brisbane to Sydney road Trip here!
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