Australia - Byron Bay

Driving up to Byron Bay from Sydney, we knew we had a long and beautiful route, so we equipped ourselves with only the finest transportation medium: a Wicked van.  This thing was a beaut and packed to the brim with people, food, and junk.

The drive up North took around 10 hours, but wasn’t too bad as the van had a cool sleeping area in the back. We arrive into Byron Bay in the morning, and it is packed. Bob Dylan, Ben Harper, and Elvis Costello are in town for some blues festival, so it’s a major hippie fest, and I am offered drugs I’ve never heard of from jolly 50-year-old drug dealers. Byron’s got charm.

We make a stop at the grocery, pick up a bunch of sausages, eggs, toast and oatmeal and head to the beach. In Australia, they have these electric grills for free everywhere, and I am pumped to have a huge warm meal right on the beach.

We spend the whole day surfing, hiking around, and relaxing in the sun. It’s a nice change from the uber-fast paced lifestyle in New Zealand (sure), and I am able to amass a pretty impressive sunburn.

Apparently Byron is the Easternmost point in Australia, so I decide to take a picture with it.

That night, we park the van on some suburb backstreet and hit the town, spending most of our night at this great bar called “The Cheeky Monkey” which played 90’s rock till the wee hours of the morning, and kept us highly entertained with a raucous wet t-shirt contest (I made good friends with the winner, real charming Canadian girl).

We head back to the van after the night is done, and Jake’s friend Kyle decides to just sleep on top of it to avoid the crowd inside. I’ve missed sleeping in cars.