Terrigal

Terrigal is a town some of you non-locals might know. Cashed-up Sydneysiders would know it too and so would some visiting celebrities. There are also some very good recording studios here and, I’m told, a small but buzzing community of Australian country music stars. Terrigal’s popular with visiting celebrities because of the nice beach, plenty of good walks, a luxury hotel and lots of good food within metres of the beach. And there’s a cafe at the SLSC too, the local Surf Life Saving Club.

By the way, the waves at Wamberal Beach, known locally as Wambie, are not usually that big. There were very big seas the day this photo was taken, about two weeks ago.

To get to Terrigal from Gosford go around that sharp corner at the bottom of Mann Street, straight through all the traffic lights until you get to the sign that says “Terrigal Drive” at the lights at the top of the hill at Erina and turn right into Terrigal Drive and then just follow it and go straight through all the traffic lights and roundabouts, including the one right on the edge of the lagoon where the bridge is. Over that bit of hill just there is Terrigal’s main street and beach.

To get to Terrigal from Sydney, get onto the M1 from the Cumberland Highway at Warrawee (near Hornsby) and get off it at the sign for Kariong then stick to Central Coast Highway all the way to Terrigal Drive in Erina and turn right there. Failure to notice the Terrigal Drive sign in Erina will see tourists ending up at Norah Head or, if sufficiently bewildered by the wrong turn, at the psychiatric hospital at Morisset.

Some locals (including this blogger) are still confused about exactly where the Central Coast Highway is because it’s made up of several connecting local roads: the Kariong Hill road, the road into Gosford from the West Gosford lights at the bottom of Kariong Hill, the road through East Gosford, The Entrance Road and Wilfred Barrett Drive up Norah Head way before it heads inland along the Scenic Drive at Budgewoi.

Programme your sat-nav carefully.

 

Meanwhile, back in Terrigal, if you like hill walks, Terrigal has plenty of hill walks gentle, medium and steep, and plenty of good views from the look-out at the top of the Haven and from the top of the Skillion. Hill walks make the legs nice and shapely.

If you have bad knees or hips, walk up the grass on the skillion rather than the steps on the left. There are good views from the top.

If you prefer ice-cream, eateries, pubs and shopping in a nice seaside village, there’s certainly plenty of that at Terrigal too.

The luxury hotel is behind those pine trees at the left-hand end of the beach. The ice-cream, most of the eateries, the pubs and the shopping are about 30 metres from the water’s edge. (About 100 feet) Therein lies Terrigal’s main claim to fame.

For fish and chips, go to the right-hand side of that building you can see in this photo and sit at one of the outdoor tables watching the waves as you eat.

Here we’re looking from the beach at the Haven, not far from the fish and chip shop, across the water to Wamberal Beach (left of the shaft of sunlight) then Forresters Beach and Cromarty Hill (to its right). There’s a lookout on Cromarty Hill, Wyrrabalong Lookout, with nice views down the coast and, from behind the lookout, down into Tuggerah Lake and then beyond into the hinterland behind the Central Coast. American readers, a lookout is lookover.

Let me know, in the comments section below, which are your favourite spots or things to do in Terrigal, whether you’re a local or a visitor.

To see the other 3 articles I’ve published today, scroll down past the bottom of this article, or click on “July” in the sidebar to the right.

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