Byron Bay and the Gold Coast

Before I start, I have to post this picture of the purple flowers. We all love this bush as it bursts out from amidst the lush green forests and from the edges of people's yards everywhere we turn. I have no idea what they are called. Aren't they gorgeous?


Okay, about Byron Bay. Just to let you know, we researched Waldorf schools in Byron Bay and found out that there is one (established in 1988) with a very good reputation for its music department and we've been looking at real estate there. Now THIS is a place I could live.

I'll start from the beginning. We drove about 9 hours up the coast leaving at 4:00am because we were warned that the only highway that goes north/south narrows into one lane at a certain point and because it was Easter weekend, we'd have quite a bit of company if we didn't leave really early. The one lane was not because of "road works" (construction). That's just as big as the highways get in many places here. We did beat the traffic, if in fact there ever was anything that could be compared to American traffic. We were warned that the whole weekend would be a madhouse up north but other than saying excuse me a few times as I ran past people on the bike path by the beach at noon on a Saturday, we were not remotely overwhelmed by crowds, even as sensitive as we are to them.

We stopped in Coff's Harbor on our way up where Gabe and Mark got out and played 9 holes. Mark told me later that this was the first time that playing with Gabe was just as good as playing with "the boys." He said Gabe's behavior on the golf course was more mature and appropriate than ever before. And he shot a true 60 on a regulation course. And Gabe shot a 41. Oh, okay. Mark had 41 and Gabe had 60. Did I get you? Even for a second?

This picture is not of their round at Coff's Harbor Golf Course. This is Gabe and Mark playing a serious game of putt-putt at the petting zoo you'll hear about in a bit.

While Mark and Gabe played golf, Jordan and I went for a treasure hunt on the beach (shells and rocks) and had a lovely time. I'll talk more about the water and beaches in a moment but I just have to tell you that we are often rendered speechless by the turquoise water and light sand and vastness of this coastline. Truly remarkable. Mark keeps saying just about every time we visit a new beach, "Now this is what an Australia beach is all about."

We drove up the coast some more until we reached Byron Bay. I have to say that we didn't actually spend much time here because it was the weekend of the Blues Festival. It was packed with pedestrians and cars from all over, wall to wall festival-goers like Telluride gets. What we did was drive through the town on our way up and stop there for lunch and a quick beach visit on our way back home. You can just tell that it is a liberal, hippie, alternative, casual, outdoorsy kind of town (admittedly more my speed than Mark's but I'm sure they have a golf course.) And there was the weather. It was 30 degrees (about 80) and sunny with a bit of rain in the mornings and at night to keep the rainforests flourishing. And then there's the water temperature which was significantly warmer than the ocean in Newcastle. So warm that I could have played in those waves for days. Heaven, I tell ya.

So we passed through Byron Bay and made our way a bit inland to a town called, hold on, this always takes me a minute, Murwillumbah. That's it. Murwillumbah. In that town is a house. And in that house is an exchange teacher from Colorado Springs and her boyfriend, Amy and Dave. We stayed there with them.

They directed us to a beach on the Gold Coast that we visited on Saturday called Rainbow Bay. We didn't realize we were going all the way up to the Gold Coast when we left home. I didn't really have a desire to visit that part of the country as I heard that it was built up with high rise resorts. Well, let's just say they don't put high rise resorts in just any ol' place. The high rise developers did well sniffing out this coast. And where we were, it wasn't quite as overdone as Cancun or places like that.

Rainbow Beach was gorgeous. All these beaches are, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to convey that there is something about the color of this water, the size of the waves, the feel and color of the sand and the expansiveness of the stretches of beach that just never ceases to please us. But how many ways can one talk about turquoise water and expansive white sand? I think I ran out a while back.

We are all significantly more comfortable in the ocean than probably any of us have ever been before. Gabe is daring himself to go out farther and farther into the water with his boogie board. He will still only boogie on the breaking white water. He's not quite up to venturing out to the real waves one row back but he'll go out to get the white water where it starts now which entails getting thrown about a bit and it is fun to watch him pop up and smile after his little black head disappears for a second or two. You have to remember or know that this is a kid who gets very excited about go-carts and can't wait to drive them all by himself so he can go speeding around the race track. But when we send him off into his own car and wish him god's speed, he consistently gets lapped by all the other drivers and putts along at 5-10 mph and then gets out of the car and comes running over to us saying, "did you see how fast I went?" We trust his ability to be cautious when necessary.

Jordan is now allowing me to carry her out "past the waves" where we can bob along with the undulating water that breaks between us and the beach. She will boogie right near the edge of the water as long as there is absolutely no chance that any of the white water will come remotely close to splashing up over her head. The other day, Mark convinced her to boogie a bit farther out than she would choose to and she told him that she really didn't want to go under water or get thrown around by the waves. Her board got away from him and she fell off and comletely submerged, coming up gasping. Mark scooped her up and she said, "THAT'S why I don't want to be in the big waves." Case in point.

Mark is getting better able to read the waves which I think was most important to him. He is having much more fun on the boogie board now as he can find fun waves and is learning how to ride them in without getting pummeled.

I am learning how to surf, slowly but surely. What a hard sport that is. I'll write more about it another time because I didn't surf while we were up north. What I did was swim in the waves diving beneath them like a dolphin. I wanted to swim to California and felt like I could. What an amazing feeling of freedom to watch a huge 6-foot wave about to break right on top of you and then dive smack-dab into the middle of it, knowing that it is crashing directly on top of you but all you feel is a gentle lift and lowering. Brilliant.

After Rainbow Bay, we made our way back up to the house, about 20 minutes from the coast, because there were Easter eggs to paint and sleep to be had to get ready for our double whammie day: Easter and Gabe's 8th birthday. I hate to write about every detail as I know you have other things you need to get to today, but I just need to tell you that Australia does not seem to sell white eggs. Dying brown eggs is nothing if not anti-climactic. For me anyway. The kids were very pleased with their muted yellows and blues that all sort of looked the same to me.

We woke up on Sunday morning to find that the Easter Bunny had found us all the way on the other side of the world. I am still trying to figure out how Australian parents explain to their children why we celebrate the coming of spring in autumn. Baby ducks and bunnies are six months away. Strangest thing. But I suppose since Jesus lived in the northern hemisphere and apparently resurrected right around the same time the chicks were hatching and bunnies were multiplying, the Aussies just have to make do. On the other hand, don't chickens and rabbits reproduce all year round? Oh, the life questions we have come up with on our world travels...

So we found jelly beans and eggs and baskets. And we opened birthday presents. And then we ventured out to follow Gabe's plan for our day. The first stop he picked was the Tropical Fruit Farm, believe it or not. Because I was only impressed with one part, I will breeze past the bus tour, the 10-minute jungle boat ride and the petting farm and take you right to the fruit tasting. We got to taste fruit I'd never seen nor heard of before in my life. There's this one called the Jakfruit which is the biggest fruit in the world. It is the size of a watermelon--hey, wait a minute. Isn't watermelon a fruit? They lied. Or maybe Jakfruit are a bit bigger than a watermelon. Or maybe it is that they grow on trees and watermelon grow in the ground. Anyway, they are yellow, spikey, bulbous growths hanging heavy off the pour trees who bear them. Every stitch of them is edible and the pods inside taste like bananas. In case you ever run across one, you should try it. We ate mangoes and papaya and passionfruit and dragonfruit and grapefruit that wasn't bitter and watermelon and star fruit and some of the more common fruits as well. What a mouth-watering time we had.

Our next stop was the beach. Surprise! We spent the afternoon at a more remote beach than Rainbow Bay. The unique thing about that beach was watching a few guys kite surf. It's big down here. They have a big surfboard that looks more like a snowboard with straps for your feet and a parachute they attach to a harness around their waist. Then after about a half hour of preparation to make sure everything is attached correctly (which was enough to help me come to the decision NOT to take up kite surfing) they basically ride their surf board with the parachute carrying them all over the ocean waves like they are on a boat or jet ski. They steer themselves, using the wind, up over the front of waves and sideways along the waves and out past the waves where the sea is calmer. It looks more like water skiing but they are steering themselves wherever they can convince the wind to take them. It looks like a lot of fun--once they get going.

From the beach, we sanded off, put our clothes back on, had birthday dinner and headed to the grand finale of the day. It was a nocturnal wildlife sanctuary where they take in small guided groups of 12 people from 7;15-10:00pm and show you the nocturnal animals at their most active. The woman who sold us on this excursion seemed to have enjoyed it a bit more than Mark and I did but the kids were thrilled. We walked through a mob of kangaroos, watched and listened to tasmanian devils rip apart their evening meal, and stood a few dozen feet above a 17 foot, one ton salt water crocodile as he, you know, just laid there. We walked through an enclosure with possums, gliders, frogmouth birds, water dragons, and some other nighttime creatures all doing their thing at our feet and within arms reach. On the outside of this enclosure which looked a lot like an aviary--a fenced in dome-like room that allowed us to be inside the habitat with the inhabitants--there lay a python coiled up and completely still. The guide told us that this guy was a wild snake who had gotten oh so close to all this potential food but hadn't found its way in yet. She said it had been hanging out on the outside of the nocturnal enclosure for a few days. I'm thinking close but no cigar might be the story of this snake's life.

Here is me with a boa constrictor around my neck. Jordan was just a bit braver than Gabe and Mark who were standing safely about 10 feet away. Jordan was interested in it but was real clear that she didn't want that thing around her neck.



Here is a 2 1/2 year old fresh water crocodile with its mouth taped shut. I felt bad for it and not too threatened by its little mouth. I wish they didn't have to tape it shut. But it was one of the few things they did to ensure safety for the visitors. Australia is much more laxed about protecting itself against frivolous lawsuits. We have seen many situations that would never be allowed in the US because of liability issues. For instance, they had us walking around in the pitch black, downhill, on a trail with only the flashlight of the guide way up at the front of the group. There were poisonous creatures out there, not to mention bumps in the trail. Someone could have tripped and stubbed a toe. Just think of what Americans would have done with that! So I suppose taping this little guy's mouth shut was something.

We drove 30 minutes back to the house we were staying at and at 11:00pm, you know the kids fell asleep in the car within seconds. Even Jordan who said she wasn't going to.

On Monday, we woke up and started making our way back down toward home again, stopping halfway this time and spending the night in a hotel in Port Macquarie. Of the four potential matches we had before we got matched with Prue in Newcastle, Port Macquarie was number two. We were interested in this town because it was almost our home for a year. It was a nice town, much more touristy than Newcastle and gorgeous coastline. I think I'm glad we didn't end up there as it is much smaller than Newcastle and far from any larger area. Short of being matched in Byron Bay, I'm more and more aware of how lucky we are to be in Newcastle.

We had more beach time and more driving until we made it back home on Tuesday afternoon. It was a good trip and Mark and I were very intrigued by the northern coast of New South Wales. We hope to return there again. It was the first time, including while we were in New Zealand, we visited a place to where we would consider moving. But all that means is that we really like it up there. It doesn't mean we are seriously looking. We love our friends and family way too much to do that. Unless, any of you mates would want to join us!!