Byron Bay

We were up bright and early Friday morning and after our good byes, we headed off to Byron Bay, via the Gold Coast. 

We stopped for a short break at Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast. 

Just a short rest in Surfers

The last time I visited Surfers was about 1978, if you look closely I'm sure that's me sunbathing!

It was better than I'd expected, pretty tacky but in a fun family, kiss me quick hat, kind of way, not sleazy. Although I expect it's a different story during schoolies week.  We had a brilliant fry up breakfast for $4.50 - gotta love that.

After a pleasant 2 hour drive we reached Byron Bay. We spent the first evening with the ever gorgeous Kristen. She is as positive and energetic as ever. 

Rum Raisin ice cream  and the lovely Kristen

We met at the Balcony Hotel for a few drinks and had dinner at the Railway Friendly Pub. Throw back city. I thought I'd stepped into 1976. Checked lumbur jackets, long scruffy hair, beards, thongs - the pub even had a chook raffle - fabulous! 

Kristen lives in a quite remote house with two other lovely girls (Candy and Josie) and after she made us a rice milk chai (Richies new favorite drink - well after beer) we slept like logs, on a mattress on the lounge room floor, covered in very warm sleeping bags. 

View from Kristens' balcony.

Next day was blessed with sunshine so we made the most of it. We drove up to the lighthouse, which has fantastic views. We were pretty lucky and spotted a whale, a huge pod of dolphins and one lone wallaby. 

We met Kristen at the raw food cafe she works in for lunch, visited the beach market and generally hung out in Byron. 

Fundies, lunch break with Kristen.

Love Byron Bay - it's really hippyish and a bit feral. Everyone keeps saying "hello man" to Richie - he's has suddenly become very cool.

We caught up with Kristen and her mates Candy, Josie, Misaki and Ross for dinner. The restaurant was seriously in the middle of nowhere - in a town called Tintebar - FGS! However, even though we got royally lost and it took us forty minutes navigating pitch black roads, it was worth it. 

The restaurant was called Che Bon and we enjoyed a fabulous three  course meal for $37! Yes $37???? I had a huge piece of salmon for main course and Richie had steak, it was a great meal. The children, oops I mean Kristen and co. were only drinking water but Richie and I had a bevy or two, just to show them how it's done.

On the Sunday we decided to stay an extra night, so after booking the room, we wandered into town for breakfast. Whilst it's great than Byron is so green, vegan, hairy, hippy and health conscious, it can start to wear a bit thin, especially at breakfast. I mean who wants coconut husk in place of sugar and egg plant gollop instead of perfectly respectable HP sauce ? Enough already, I'm old, I need a few preservatives.

We followed breaky with a massive beach walk, it was freezing cold and really windy - certainly blew the cobwebs away. We followed this with a shared BLT lunch and a delicious bottle of SBS back at the Balcony Hotel, we had a lovely spot in the sunshine...perfection. 

We followed that, with a huge apple pie from the bakery, a tub of rum 'n raisin for Richie and a frozen yoghurt with everything for me. 

Preservatives, sugar..... yummm

With our systems restored with preservatives, we retired for a much needed afternoon nap (which turned into an evening nap - basically we went to bed at 4.30 in the afternoon). This is what holidays are all about - eating, drinking and sleeping - with a bit of exercise thrown in - just so you can fit in a bit more food!

First Stop Brissy with Frossie

Ahh completely forgot to take pictures of the luggage - let's see if I remember on arrival! 

Yes the luggage!

Anyway 'coz it's cold we ended up with more stuff, so we took the bigger silver case. Funny how, the shorter the trip, the bigger the luggage.

We used Uber, for the first time, to get to the airport. It was great, our driver arrived in 7 minutes, as advised, and the cost was cheaper than usual taxi and we didn't have to worry about paying and receipts on arrival, as it all goes through the App. Very civilised.

Check in was painless, and now we are enjoying a big glass of red and a cold one to help us sleep on the flight. Got to love my fellow sandgropers, the usual WA winter wardrobe is on display - hoodies and thongs. 

WA formal flight attire.

We had a uneventful flight, although I didn't sleep a wink, even with the usually trusty Stilnox, but Richie got a few hours.

We collected our car from Apex and drove to Coralie and Adams' place. We had a lovely first day. Adam drove us into Brisbane and we had lunch at the South Bank, it was a moderately warm, sunny winters day. 

The kids frolicking at the South Bank beach seemed to think it was the middle of summer, ditto the semi naked, sunbathing Europeans.

first lunch at Southbank, Brisbane

 We took a long walk across the city, from one side to the other side and then got the free red ferry back. 

Unfortunately, I suffered the Holt curse and had a migraine the first night. I was awake all night and kept Richie up for a good part of it. 

The Holt curse strikes again

So we didn't go out until 1pm the following day because it took me all morning and several cups of tea to feel human again. 

When I did arise, we visited the Botanical Gardens (perfect venue for recuperation), was nice, not the best gardens we've seen but the bonsai section was very impressive. We had coffee and cakies and then headed off to Mt Coot-tha lookout that had fantastic views of Brissy.

view from Mt Coot-tha

In the evening we collected Coralie from QUT. She had just handed in her final thesis amendments so was very happy, and headed back to South Bank for dinner. 

We had a pleasant evening and a great walk along South Bank to admire the city at night.  It's really cold in Brissy - the forecast temps are the same as Perth but it feels much colder. Still, we have electric blankets on the bed which are delicious!

The Frossies slept very late on Thursday so we only had a short time in Noosa, but it was a delightful time. It was much classier than I'd imagined. 

We arrived after a frantic two hour drive, had a nice lunch, delicious coffee and cakies, a short walk around town and along the beach and then drove back to Brissy.

Our last night was spent celebrating with Coralie, as her final amendments for her PhD thesis were approved. 

The gorgeous Dr Frossie

Hurrah its finally over!

Trying out a roadtrip

After our fabulous fourth months in Asia last year, we decided to stay a bit closer to home in 2015. But winter is here now, so it's time for the Ajayis to hit the road. 

In the spirit of all things 'Willy' we are going on a road trip  - but with a hire car, not a camper van. If this trip is a success, we may work our way up to that. We are flying to Brissy, picking up a car, spending a few days with Coralie and Adam and possibly going north to Hervey Bay and Noosa.

After our visit to QLD we'll head we'll head south to Bryon Bay, to catch up with the lovely Kristen for a day or two. Depending on how the mood takes us we'll visit Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle but not necessarily in that order and finish in Sydney.

I expect it's going to be a bit chilly, so packing warmly - although planning to give the old red (Sri lanka) suitcases another outing. I wonder how many cakey and second hand shops I can drag Richie into?