Byron Bay, NSW

Blog 5 of 5!

We left Brisbane in our rental car and decided to stop by Surfer’s Paradise in the Gold Coast on our way. Overall we really weren't impressed after seeing the Sunshine Coast. It would be a good spot of you’re interested in Amusement Parks but overall it was very touristy and a little underwhelming. We stayed there for lunch and then decided to keep driving.

We ended our amazing holidays at Byron Bay. Byron is well known for being an idyllic Aussie town. It is quintessentially “strayan” with its laid back, hippy vibe. You can’t help but feel relaxed once you arrive since everyone is really friendly and in no rush to get anywhere.

We stayed at Lili Pilli B&B with the very friendly Mouna from www.airbnb.com. It was approx 4km outside the town centre and because the town was so busy with the Byron Music Festival that was on over New Years we ended up walking a lot to town. Thankfully there was “The Roadhouse” located a 5min walk up the road from our B&B that we went to for Breakfast, Dinner and for Neal’s favourite the whiskey tasting. The Roadhouse has the largest selection of Whiskey in all of Australia. Neal was able to do a tasting that allowed him to try Whiskey’s from the various locations in Scotland as well as South Korea and Japan. I stuck with the wine!

On our first day we did the famous Lighthouse walk that takes you to the most Easterly Point in Australia. The walk was beautiful and we saw plenty of beaches and heaps of people catching waves. We missed out on doing a Kayak trip here but it looked incredible and guaranteed dolphin, turtle or whale sightings (depending on the season).

On our second day we crossed off my biggest goal on the bucket list and did some surf lessons. Neal and I have been fortunate enough to surf in Tofino, Canada; Dingle, Ireland; San Sebastian, Spain & Cabarete, Dominican Republic. However, since High School it has always been my goal to surf in Australia and I finally accomplished it. It had been 5 years since our last surf so we were a little rusty. We started out on some baby waves and were being out performed by some 5 year olds surfing the same waves but once our technique came back we were standing up on every wave. We now have the surf bug back and are planning to catch some waves back in Victoria.
(We forgot our Go Pro at home so we ended up filming this with a non waterproof camera and therefore stayed very close to shore for the videos)

We had fantastic weather while in Byron and some days it was 40 degrees with 90% humidity. We loved our time here and felt so relaxed by the time we left. On the morning we were driving to the airport I was even eating Granola as we left! I guess it rubbed off on me!

Here is a video of a unique sport played in Byron called Bubble Football!

That’s it for the 2013/2014 Christmas and New Years Adventure. Thanks for checking in and next I will be filling you in my ‘Dirty Thirty Birth Month Down Under!’

Love Laura & Neal