Byron Bay = Austin + Ocean. It's fabulous. The only downfall? Schoolies. Apparently once a year every high schooler in the country makes a pilgrimage to the East Coast and consequently a bunch of drunk kids take over the beaches (and bars. The drinking age is 18). About 20,000 of them showed up in Byron Bay while we were there.
While we were avoiding the schoolies...
Old man in Speedo count: 15
Last Thursday we packed up and drove from Surfers Paradise down South to Byron Bay, New South Wales. On the way down we made a couple stops. Mount Warning is located near the border of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. It is the highest peak (3,793ft) and the first place on mainland Australia that the suns rays hit each morning.
It took us about 4 hours to hike the mountain and it wasn't easy! The last bit literally required some near-vertical bouldering. The view at the top was phenomenal though. Still no koalas.
After the hike we were on our way to Byron. We stayed at Amigos Guesthouse, which is run by a sweet old lady named Anny. There were two couples already staying at the house when we arrived - one from Melbourne and the other from Belfast, Ireland - and within a few minutes of our arrival we were all headed out the door to enjoy the evening out on the streets.
beer that Aussies really drink, are brewed and bottled. The brewery was really phenomenal though - the #1 most "green" brewing facility in the world... unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside. Sorry!
The property where the winery is situated in the foothills of Tamborine Mtn, QLD. So it was gorgeous. Unfortunately two busloads of Chinese tourists had just pulled up so we grabbed a bottle of Sav Blanc and went outside to play with the sheep. Asians are afraid of livestock.
have lunch at a spot called the Currumbin Beach Vikings Supporters Club. From the map above we started at Surfers Paradise and went South to Currumbin, about 13 miles. No big deal, right? 13 miles? But try it on a broke-down hired single-speed bike... It was hard. The picture below is from Miami Beach.
On Monday we - and by "we" I mean "Kevin" - decided we should play golf. Kevin found Carrara Gardens Golf Course, which is about 20min from our hotel in Surfers Paradise. I explicitly asked that we make sure there were Roos on the course. The old man who felt so bad for me he gave me a pull cart for my clubs assured me there were none around our course because of the nearby motorway. THEN out of nowhere at the 4th hole we look over and two roos just poke out from the brush. They hopped over to a little creek nearby for water and hung around for a bit! SOOOO Cute. Then I went on to tie Kevin at golf. True story.
h is right underneath our hotel (which, we just found out is not really a hotel but rather a residents-owned condo). A little history on my obsession with Hibachi (or Teppanyaki) food: It was the ONLY place I could ever convince Davis Ford that I needed to eat other than Luby's or Golden Corral. Kabuki in Amarillo, TX was my best friend growing up. Kamikazi was absolutely amazing though. They really have some great Asian food in Aussie...
They were jamming Kings of Leon as we boarded, b) There is disco lighting in the cabin (aka red fade to blue fade to yellow and so on), c) There is a bar on the plane, and d) The air stewardesses were all super-hot Aussies dressed in semi-inappropriately tight clothes. Oh, and they serve meals in Tiffany Blue serviceware. Branson and I are totally on the same wavelength.
We're still substantially jetlagged. We woke up this morning at 5am... but it turned out pretty neat because we got to see the sunrise then we went for another run on the beach and had brekkie (breakfast) on the balcony overlooking the water. Our hotel is in the middle of the most amazing part of the town. I absolutely love this place. And Kevin's only tried to kill us one time by going the wrong way down the road...
