I love road trips. The planning is tedious but I love being able to plan my own travel route, visit only places I am interested in.
Booked a flight to Sydney and back from Gold Coast and the road trip began. This post will be a rough outline and itinerary of the road trip. I will go further into the details of each location in the other posts!
You can watch the entire trip in this video. A pretty amateur video. Both our action camera and DSLR died halfway through the trip (we suspected it was because of a short circuit in both the cameras when we were charging them).
We spent two days in Sydney. I'm not exactly the city traveler so two days was enough to explore the major attractions. We stayed in a really affordable airbnb accomodation which was near Bondi Junction. The host was extremely nice and even offered me some vitamin when I was feeling under the sun from the cold.
We rented a car and drove up to Blue Mountains. I definitely recommend staying a night here as it was one of the most memorable nights I ever had. The milky way was visible with our naked eyes and it was beautiful beyond words. It was definitely a lot more beautiful when you can see it.
Hunter Valley is the place for wine and good food. It's where we had the best meal in Australia, and tasted some of the best wines. My favourite wine tasting place was Scarborough Wine Co. Definitely one of the best.
Nelson Bay is the place to go if you want to whale watch. We got on a 3hour cruise and unfortunately, luck was not with us. We were near a whale but she was sleeping under the surface so there wasn't any show for us to see. We did see some seals though! And we had a free cruise again because even though we did see the whale blowing water, we didn't actually get to see much of it.
We did not make it to Port Macquarie before sunset so we missed that stop. A pity though as I was looking forward to it. Coffs Habour is the right in the middle of Sydney and Gold Coast, which made a perfect stop for the night. The weather was getting warmer for us by then so it was perfect to drop by the beach. I love my airbnb accommodation here so I'm highly recommending it! It was lovely and much better than the pictures have portrayed.
One of the locals I met there said he moved to Byron Bay after a short vacation there made him fall in love with the place. Byron Bay definitely has its charm. This was the place where I first learnt to surf and the first time I dived (and was within 3m away from a grey nurse shark!) Diving was definitely a highlight and was incredibly glad to be able to see the endangered grey nurse shark just when we were about to end the dive.
This photo was taken on the road to Brisbane. I highly recommend going to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout to have a view of the Brisbane city night skyline. If the weather is good, you may even get to see Gold Coast.
We ended at Gold Coast because we were flying off from here. We covered both Dreamworld and Whitewater (despite it being winter). It was close to 28 degree Celsius at noon time so it was a nice weather to play at the water theme park (also, there was no crowd because it was winter). We even made a day trip to Springbrook National Park and stayed to admire the glow worms under the natural bridge.
Booked a flight to Sydney and back from Gold Coast and the road trip began. This post will be a rough outline and itinerary of the road trip. I will go further into the details of each location in the other posts!
You can watch the entire trip in this video. A pretty amateur video. Both our action camera and DSLR died halfway through the trip (we suspected it was because of a short circuit in both the cameras when we were charging them).
Day 1 & 2 - Sydney
We spent two days in Sydney. I'm not exactly the city traveler so two days was enough to explore the major attractions. We stayed in a really affordable airbnb accomodation which was near Bondi Junction. The host was extremely nice and even offered me some vitamin when I was feeling under the sun from the cold.Day 3 - Blue Mountains
We rented a car and drove up to Blue Mountains. I definitely recommend staying a night here as it was one of the most memorable nights I ever had. The milky way was visible with our naked eyes and it was beautiful beyond words. It was definitely a lot more beautiful when you can see it.Day 4 - Hunter Valley
Hunter Valley is the place for wine and good food. It's where we had the best meal in Australia, and tasted some of the best wines. My favourite wine tasting place was Scarborough Wine Co. Definitely one of the best.
Day 5 - Nelson Bay, Port Macquarie
Nelson Bay is the place to go if you want to whale watch. We got on a 3hour cruise and unfortunately, luck was not with us. We were near a whale but she was sleeping under the surface so there wasn't any show for us to see. We did see some seals though! And we had a free cruise again because even though we did see the whale blowing water, we didn't actually get to see much of it.
Day 6 - Port Macquarie, Coffs Habour
We did not make it to Port Macquarie before sunset so we missed that stop. A pity though as I was looking forward to it. Coffs Habour is the right in the middle of Sydney and Gold Coast, which made a perfect stop for the night. The weather was getting warmer for us by then so it was perfect to drop by the beach. I love my airbnb accommodation here so I'm highly recommending it! It was lovely and much better than the pictures have portrayed.
Day 7, 8, 9 - Byron Bay
One of the locals I met there said he moved to Byron Bay after a short vacation there made him fall in love with the place. Byron Bay definitely has its charm. This was the place where I first learnt to surf and the first time I dived (and was within 3m away from a grey nurse shark!) Diving was definitely a highlight and was incredibly glad to be able to see the endangered grey nurse shark just when we were about to end the dive.Day 10 - Brisbane
This photo was taken on the road to Brisbane. I highly recommend going to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout to have a view of the Brisbane city night skyline. If the weather is good, you may even get to see Gold Coast.Day 11 & 12 - Gold Coast
We ended at Gold Coast because we were flying off from here. We covered both Dreamworld and Whitewater (despite it being winter). It was close to 28 degree Celsius at noon time so it was a nice weather to play at the water theme park (also, there was no crowd because it was winter). We even made a day trip to Springbrook National Park and stayed to admire the glow worms under the natural bridge.
Took a road trip in Australia in August and my first stop was Sydney. This is part one of the Australia Road Trip series which will be updated regularly on this site.
Bondi Beach is probably one of the more popular beach spots in Sydney. There'll be plenty more other beach spots being featured in the Australia Road Trip series. One of the must try in Bondi Beach is the Hurricane Grill. They started out in Bondi Beach and became famous for their other branch in Gold Coast.
There's a whole stretch of graffiti walls along the beach which made it an ideal place for some photos.
At that point of time, Bondi Beach was preparing for the City2Surf run so part of the beach was covered.
It's perfect to take a stroll along the coast as the sun sets, before heading for dinner. 
Sydney Fish Market has a wide selection of seafood and it's a feast for both the eyes and the tummies. It can be a little on the pricey side as it tends to lean towards the tourist attraction.
Syndey Darling Harbour is yet another attraction to visit in Sydney. There are plenty of shops and restaurants here, and within walking distance from the Fish Market.
And of course, the iconic Sydney Opera House.
The best view to capture both the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge would be Mrs Macquarie's Chair. If you want to splurge a little, you can always head to Sydney's 360 Bar and Dining. The bar is on the top level of the building which rotates 360 degrees. Imagine drinking while overlooking the Sydney Opera House. Pretty impressive sight.
Our first stop was at Glenbrook, Eureka Campgrounds. I wanted to see some wild kangaroos so badly that we took a detour and drove down to the campgrounds to spot some of these cuties.
This mother kangaroo even had a baby in her pouch.
We began our drive around Blue Mountains after searching for the kangaroos. Our first stop was Wentworth Falls lookout.
We tried having a mini picnic there, only to be ambushed by birds. I have a huge phobia of birds after living in Europe for a period of time. The birds here in Australia are pretty huge too.
The next lookout was at Blackheath, the Govetts Leap lookout. And then the Evans lookout where we took a 3 hour walk around the canyon. The Grand Canyon Walk was recommended to be a medium difficulty level hike but I would say it's pretty tedious for someone who does not hike. After awhile, the scenery becomes repetitive. The good thing about the walk was how quiet and at peace it was. There was hardly anyone doing the hike and we only crossed paths with three other couples.
Our last and final stop for the night was the famous Three Sisters at Echo Point lookout. By nightfall, it was cold and freezing.
If you fancy a unique meal in Australia, give the Kangaroo meat a go. I didn't particularly like it because it was too tough but I would say, give it a try.
And if you have time to spare, spend the night in Blue Mountains. It's beautiful when the night falls, especially when the milky way was visible with our naked eyes. We spent the night admiring the milky way and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
If you have more time in Sydney, drop by 
