We couldn’t get out of our room quickly enough, and headed straight to the centre of Byron Bay in the car, for a some breakfast. At this point, we had a seemingly brilliant idea… we’d buy a boogey board! 2 weeks in Australia, we were bound to get some good use out of it, weren’t we.
Like two school kids, we headed onto the beach with our new purchase to try it out in the awesome waves (by this point, the Ozzie lingo was starting to take hold). Jumping into the water and trying to swim through the waves, it quickly became apparent why everyone using one had flippers. My size 11’s just didn’t give me enough thrust to push a board out through the waves. Well, they did, just very slowly, with a certain amount of backtracking when a big wave came in!
After a certain amount of trial and error (and sunburn again), we got the hang of catching the waves. What a rush! I love mucking around in the sea at the best of times, but this was fantastic! Next time I go there, I have to try surfing. It felt great being in the wave, riding along (almost as good as Jet Skiing).
We stayed on the beach as long as we could, but in the end we had to drag ourselves away. Anyone who goes to Australia, and visits Byron Bay has to allow themselves a few days. It’s a great place, and we were really sad to be leaving it behind.
A tearful farewell, saw us beginning the 3 hour drive up the coast to Brisbane, passing back through the concrete monoliths of Surfer’s, and into the early evening.
As we arrived at Brisbane, the sun had set, and the town was beautifully lit up. However, navigating at night is tricky, especially with Dan’s map reading skills! We found our hotel, slap bang in the middle of the city. Excellent!
Once again, we’d opted for the apartment option, and it didn’t disappoint! This had to be 5 star accommodation again, and we were living in the life of luxury we deserved!
The whole centre of Brisbane has a really modern, clean feeling. I think that in the last 10 years, the city has been regenerated as it’s fortunes have waned. Running true to form, we grabbed a few drinks, and then went looking for somewhere to spend the night. We ended up in the Treasury Casino (the law in Australia is that each city is allowed one casino).
