Byron Bay

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.

See the lighthouse behind our sweaty faces?

Whattttttt?!

Pretty psyched about this so I had to do a few different poses...

The one with Peter Jackson's home town

I've heard rumor that Sir Peter Jackson has a replica of Bilbo Baggin's hobbit hole in his Wellington backyard for his guests to stay in so I tried to contact him and asked if we could stay there but never received any reply :( womp womp. Since that never panned out, we found another family to couch surf with who lived in Upper Hutt, which is about 30 minutes north of Wellington. Our plan was to stay two nights there and then take the ferry to Picton in the South Island but we quickly realized that we were grossly unprepared to pack all of our possessions (which were strewn all over the rental car we had gotten in Auckland, I might add) back into our bags, try to see Wellington and surrounding areas all while trying to get ferry tickets, and make accommodation and transportation plans for Picton/South Island etc. So...we decided to stay a couple extra days in Wellington just to do some planning and logistical stuff.

Back to the cool stuff, like what we saw and did while in Wellington...

Our first afternoon there, we walked through the Wellington Botanical Gardens before we went to the top of Mount Victoria to see the beautiful panoramic views of the city. We both love seeing gardens in the different cities and towns that we visit, even back in the US, so since we've been in New Zealand, we've tried to visit every garden that we could find.

Some adorable ducklings that we saw in the botanical garden

It's springtime in New Zealand!

A field of poppies...I was in heaven

View of Wellington harbor from the top of Mount Victoria 

Winter Gardens

Our last couple days in Auckland were spent wandering around Auckland Domain in the Winter Gardens and climbing Mount Eden to get view of the city from higher up.

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Posing at the Mount Eden crater

Later in the day it started sprinkling and we holed up in adorable coffee shop called Remedy Coffee in the heart of Auckland CBD where I had my first experience with drinking chocolate, which is chocolate, ice cream, and cream...delicious. Don had his first iced coffee, which, here in New Zealand means that it has ice cream and cream in it as well. Much more indulgent and fattening than iced coffee back home but also much tastier :)

While in Remedy Coffee we planned out much of our journey through the rest of the North Island, deciding that we needed to rent a car.