In our opinion, this is the jewel of Australia. Where do we even begin? With easily over 150 surf breaks and some of the most picturesque beaches you really can't go wrong with any detour in this area of the country. We found so many amazing places. It would be hard to list them all. So we boiled it down to our 5 favorite places on this stretch of coast.
1. Smoky Cape and Arakoon National Parks - These two parks are pretty much combined into one NP. If you head out to this area, you must check out Little Bay Beach were you will find the most amazing miniature beach and by far the most friendly kangaroos that you'll meet in all of Australia. While we were there, we were fortunate to see at least 5 joeys in pouches. They were hopping around so curious of human life that they would come right up to you. It was one of our most memorable Aussie experiences.
2. Dorrigo National Park - If you're into rainforest, waterfalls, and exotic bird calls then, you'll be into this park. The drive into Dorrigo is amazing on it's own. It's even deemed "Waterfall Way." If you catch it on the right season, you'll pass by multiple cascades flowing down the mountain and under the highway. We stayed overnight in the park and woke up at sunrise. Then, we watched the sun come up over the Gondwana rainforest from the Skywalk that extends over the forest. After sunrise, we walked down to Crystal Shower falls and had it all to ourselves for easily an hour. We had walked to the other falls but, Crystal Showers was easily the best falls in the park. There is also a bird watching platform with plenty of cool information that we checked out in the evening after we used the amazing picnic facilities inside the park.
3. Seal Rocks and Myall Lakes National Parks - In order to get to Seal Rocks, you'll have to drive through Myall Lakes so we just decided to spend a night in both of them. Seal rocks has some amazing surf and that classic turquoise water you've come to expect in Australia. We stayed the night in Seal Rocks and watched the sunrise over the pacific and just had an incredible time walking the beaches and surfing the point there at seal rocks. You can even walk to the lighthouse and see a fairly large colony of seals on the "seal rocks". Once we had enough sun and sand, we headed about 30 minutes inland to the quiet campgrounds of the Myall Lakes where we spent another night in solitude and watched the Milky Way reflect off the glassy waters of the Myall Lakes.
4. Crescent Head - The quiet surf town of Crescent Heads was just what the doctor ordered. We arrived to relatively flat conditions, but received a hot tip form a local to head around the head down to Goolawah National Park. We found some amazing surf and indulged in the Aussie laid back beach lifestyle. If you continue down Point Plomer Road, you'll run into Point Plomer Campground and if you're lucky enough to score some waves here, you just might not leave.
5. Port Macquarie - Just a way down the coast from Crescent Head is the town of Port Mac. Per usual, chill as and amazing beaches. This area caught us off guard, usually we kinda fly through the more "major" areas of Oz on our way down the coast but, we stuck around Port Mac for a few days. The beaches and parks here were so amazing, we found friendly surf for all levels and advanced waves as well. We also found small parks with amazing picnic areas and had no problems staying at the beaches overnight.
