The moment I remember most is not the Opera House. It is Norah Head: a white lighthouse, an empty beach and an ocean so blue it looked edited.
This was my first time in Australia and I came on my own. I landed on a winter night and spent the first evening in a warm bar in the city, jet lag and all. The next morning belonged to the Opera House. You have seen it a thousand times in photos and it still stops you. I watched it from the quay first, then from the water, on a ferry with the wind in my hair and my xCloud hoodie zipped to the top.
The same afternoon I was two hours west in the Blue Mountains, standing at Echo Point as the sun dropped behind the Three Sisters. The sky went orange, then pink, then gone.
On the last day, people I know in Sydney did the driving and took me north to the Central Coast. That is where the trip found me. I walked the coast path to Norah Head Lighthouse, took the wooden stairs down to the beach and stood by the rock pools with nobody else around. Just wind, waves and that impossible blue. In Terrigal, a seagull sat on the wall like he owned the bay. If Sydney is the postcard, the Central Coast is the letter you keep.
Give the Central Coast a full day. It is about two hours north of Sydney, quieter than any famous beach and the lighthouse alone is worth the drive. Winter here means blue skies and a cold wind, so bring a real jacket.
