Sunrise at Hastings Point

Hastings Point is located on the Tweed Coast of northern NSW Australia, around halfway between Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise. The area is known as the 'Jewel of the Tweed' as it is surrounded by what's known as the big 4 - the ocean, a national park and reserve, a beautiful estuary and a large stretch of native vegetation. The calm waters of Cudgera Creek make it a hugely popular holiday destination for families with young children and the soft flowing tidal waters provide a relatively safe place for the kids to swim. The area is also popular for surfing, fishing, paddleboarding and general watersports and as a result gets pretty crowded on some days. But definitely a place worth checking out regardless as the waters are crystal clear and usually warm and inviting. Due to the headland at Hastings Point protecting the waves from prevailing NE winds, the 600m long beach is popular with surfers during summer months and there is an excellent left running off the point as well as a righthander that breaks towards the rocks along the inside gutter. Hastings Point is somewhat of a swell magnet and thanks to the headland there is usually something to surf here regardless of which way the winds are blowing. Hastings Point is a spectacular place for bird-watching and bush walking, the two going hand in hand with each other. Here you can see a large variety of bird species including Indigo Buntings, Albatross, Australian finches and fragile shore nesting birds such as the Little Tern, Beach Stone Curlew, Red-Capped Plovers and both the Sooty and Australian Pied Oystercatchers. Being almost completely surrounded by water, Hastings Point is a fishermans paradise of sorts with every type of fishing on offer right next to each other. You can fish off the rocks at the headland, drop in a line straight off the beach on either side of the rocks or jump in a kayak or fish from the shores in the estuary system.