“Home and Away” is a popular Australian soap opera and one of Australia’s most successful TV exports. It was first broadcast in 1988 and has been sold to over eighty countries. In Australia, it’s still on every night from Monday to Thursday and it is also still going strong in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. The series is about the lives of residents of a fictional town called Summer Bay, and the filming location of this spot is just under an hour north of Sydney, in Palm Beach. When Liam came over from Perth a couple of weeks ago, we decided to rent a car and head up to this scenic spot.
The Northern Beaches in and around Sydney are one of a kind. Although the beaches in Perth are still my favourite, the Sydney area is a lot lusher and hillier, hence the scenery is breath-taking to say the least. We picked up a cheap car for the day at Bayswater Car Rental just up the road from my place and went off to explore this famous filming location.
The drive to Palm Beach already is just beautiful once you get out of the city as the road winds its way along the coast. Palm Beach itself is a large stretch of beautiful sand, with a rock pool at the one end and a hill with a lighthouse at the other.
The Barrenjoey Lighthouse is one of the most iconic sights on Sydney’s northern beaches and was built in 1881 from sandstone quarried on site. The lighthouse, its oil room and keepers’ cottages remain unpainted in the original stone finish. It’s situated within the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Australia’s second-oldest national park, and it only takes about half an hour to ascend to it from the car park.
There are two tracks, one of them, the Smugglers Track, is a steeper ascent with many steps. We took this route to go up and went down the easier Barrenjoey Track after enjoying some spectacular views across Palm Beach whilst Liam was persistently humming the Home and Away soundtrack (and so did a lady in the bathroom just before we left. I promise. It’s a thing.).
On the way back, we stopped in Newport to visit possibly the biggest beer garden I have ever seen (and that means something, coming from Germany). Aside from the size, I’d definitely say The Newport features the best views across the ocean of any beer garden I have ever been to. Being that close to the sea also makes a meal of fish and chips taste even better and it was the perfect end to our day “home and away”.
