Byron Bay!

On Friday our goal was to leave Sunshine Coast by 10:15am.  So we hit the road around 12:30pm and off to Byron Bay we were.  It is about a 3 hour drive from Uni so we got to our accommodation around 3:30ish because we passed the exit and went for a 20 minute side tour.  When we got to our hotel we called a kayak company that took tourists kayaking with the dolphins to see if we could go on one that day but they were done for the day.  Next we called a "snorkel with the sea turtles" company to see if we could go do that, but both of those were no goes so we brought all of our stuff into our room and drove about 5 minutes away to the light house, (best option, by far).

This was such a beautiful place I can't describe it and I suppose you will never really know unless you come visit me :).  I didn't take a 360 degree video of here but I should have.  This lighthouse is the furthest point East in Australia that you can be and I was there!  That is the closest I will be to home in 3 more months, haha!  There was a whole walk around 

this whole area with stairs and walk ways through trees and it was so beautiful.  We walked and walked and we eventually made it to the bottom where the beach was.  It was really cloudy out but it was a beautiful night to go to the light house and it was still warm outside.  From the top where we were we could see Dolphins and Sea Turtles.  We watched the Dolphins for a really long time and were able to follow them for awhile so that part was really awesome.  The sea turtle I never got my eye on but everybody else did.  I just couldn't make him out but he kept on coming up and back down over and over again and he was by a rock.  I guess I was just blind but I could not find him for the life of me.  Everybody else was able to follow him for like 5 minutes. In this same spot during the months of May-September there are always hump back whales here that are really visible.  So in May when Ian gets here we might have to head to Byron Bay to try and spot some!

Byron Bay kind of reminded me of Missoula a little bit.  In a completely different weird way it really did.  But there was a lot of hiking here and just a lot going on all the time and friendly, active, outgoing people everywhere.  Dinners in the park and on the beach and all kinds of things like that.  Except everybody in Missoula Kayak's, skies, or snowboards and the whole town of Byron Bay is all surfing.  Everybody surfs there.  It is one of the best places in the world to surf.  I didn't get the chance to but maybe next time.  Plus the weather was crappy all weekend there :(.  That put a damper on somethings but we tried to ignore it and not let it ruin our fun.  Another reason why Byron Bay reminded me of Missoula is because of this:  YEP, these vans EVERYWHERE!

And I have to admit... Byron Bay beats the hell out of Missoula in the painted hippy van contest!

Now that we are on the hippy topic I will tell you about our Saturday.  We signed up for a tour that included time spent in Nimbin, a waterfall visit, and lunch.  We got to experience the town of Nimbin.  It was like nothing I have ever seen in my whole entire life.  I cannot even believe that this town actually exists and even though I visited it, I still do not believe it is real! Nimbin is- as the tour guide describes it, "Australia's capital of the hippies".  So... if that doesn't tell you enough, I am about to.  This town was first a logging town, then it was a dairy farm town and both of those business's failed so after that, in the 1960's the hippies took over and made it into a hippy town. 

It is pretty much this little, tiny, colorful town in the middle no where. You could walk from the top of town to the bottom in 5 minutes (not including stopping in the shops).  So here we are in this little tiny town in the middle of nowhere.  The hippies painted the whole entire town in screaming bright colors so everywhere you looked pretty much blinded you.  And about that hippy van contest, Nimbin blows Byron Bay and Missoula out of the water.  Its pretty much- if you don't drive a painted van from the 1970's then you can't be in this town at all, haha.  All vehicles in Nimbin are hippy vans.  So... we stayed there for a little bit and we toured the Museum that was there (free entry) and that was also interesting and colorful, like I said everything is painted and colorful.  Imagine a tiny town that is all tidied...Even the business were tiedied inside and out. 
Krista and I were throwing out the peace signs like it was the 1970's in this town, haha :).

So we just walked around all of the colorful shops here for an hour and then we ate at a little cafe.  You could eat inside or outside but we were forced to eat outside under an umbrella because there were a lot of people inside.  There was a little puppy outside running around.  He was SO cute and he just wanted to play with everybody. He brought a stick over and dropped it at who ever's feet he could find and who ever smelt like they would throw it for him, haha! I played with him for a little bit but then I had to eat.

After we all loaded the bus we drove about an hour to the waterfall swimming hole.  It was beautiful.  There was about 6 or 7 waterfalls all in one area and people swam in the swimming hole.  Krista and I didn't swim but Ahmad and Anas did and they said we missed out.  I know that we missed out but it was rainy and cold out and if I got my swimsuit wet then I would not have been dry for the rest of the day and I would have froze.
After we left this swimming whole we went to this national park that was really pretty.  We ate a BBQ there and walked around a little bit but then it started pooring rain so we just stayed under the picnic with the group. Then I saw my first Kookaburra! She was really pretty but the pictures doesn't give much justice.

 We stayed there for about an hour and ate and then we loaded the bus to come back to Byron Bay.  It was a really fun trip and I am happy that I went but I am also happy to say that Nimbin didn't make my list of things to do twice while in Australia, haha! But only Nimbin, not Byron Bay, Byron Bay is on my list of things to do as many times as I want while in Oz.  Fraser Island is also on my list of things to do again but Fraser is so big that I could see a lot more cool stuff and not see any of the same stuff twice.  I will wait for Ian to come before I do Fraser again I suppose :).  But anyway, there is my weekend of adventures! I wish I could put up all of my pictures because I have some other really nice ones of the light house but I feel like this post has enough pictures.  The others hopefully will make it into my scrapbook that I make :).

Okay, GOODNIGHT, I am going to bed!