Coast-to-Coast...to Coast: byron bay

On our way out of Byron, we stopped in a small town called Lismore to see their koala sanctuary and hospital and to take a tour. I can't get enough of koalas and I just want to take some home in my suitcase!

From there, we continued up to the Gold Coast but decided to just pass on thru because there were more schoolies there than at Byron Bay. So we headed up to Brisbane, which was a disappointing city to say the least. Really not much there...except for a spectacular art gallery that we saw our first day there. We did some couch surfing with an older guy named Barry who was very generous in opening his home to us despite already having a young french couple staying with him. Aside from putting us up, he also had breakfast for us and between us and the french couple, we each made an evening meal to share.

We spent a large portion of our time in Brisbane doing planning for the rest of our trip up the coast.

The only photo I took in all of Brisbane...the Brisbane Wheel

Noosa was next on our list of towns to stop in but the morning we woke up in Noosa, it was pouring buckets! So we continued on and stopped at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, which was absolutely phenomenal! Any place where you can hang out with and pet kangaroos and koalas is amazing in my book. But I'll leave that for my next post...

The day that we drove to Byron Bay, we decided to play it by ear as far as accommodations so we ended up pretty much homeless...not realizing that schoolies were in town. What's schoolies, you ask? Hmmm, how to explain it...just imagine a bunch of high school graduates away from home and all parental guidance for a week in a beautiful beach town filled with nightclubs and bars in a country where the legal drinking age is 18. Pure chaos.

Anywho, we found ourselves in Byron Bay with absolutely no place to stay. Every holiday park and hostel is called just about laughed in my face that we had waited till 8:30pm to find a place to stay. Thank God for the Byron Bay police...and for the couch surfing website. A young Byron cop messaged and asked if we had a place to stay, and we of course took him up on the offer. Best way to have fun in Byron?! Be friends with a police officer! Ha, kidding, but he did help us find our way around.

The next day, we put on our bathing suits, found free all day parking close to the beach and leaped and bounded into the water. We had been informed that the most recent (September 2014) shark attack (great white, fatality) was the first in 30 years so we were safe till about 2044.

After wandering around a few of the shops, we sat down for coffees at an open air cafe to do a bit more planning for our travels up the east coast.

The next day, we drove again to Byron Bay, only after I made Don stop at a few (5) yard sales :) I have a weakness for secondhand clothes, especially in stylish beachy surf towns like Byron! I purchased a Nixon watch for $2 that normally retailed for $200!!!

We parked again in the free spots we had found the day before and started the walking track that leads up to the Cape Byron Lighthouse. It was a beautiful walk up and around the lighthouse. It was on this track that we found the most easterly point in Australia!! Went to the beach again after we finished the walking track and then got some food at a great restaurant right on the beach.

That night, our host, Ben (the Byron police officer) had invited us to his to younger brothers costume party. It was 'm' themed since his brother was named Mitchell, so we went as 'mericans! Pretty good, right?

The next day, a distant relation of Don's named Doug Greene and his wife Tiffany, took us to a giant farmer's market about a half hour from where we were staying. Doug and Tiffany own a absolutely breathtaking house in Lennox Head, which is about 15 minutes from Byron Bay and after the farmer's market, they took us to spend the afternoon at their house.