Christmas in Byron Bay

After leaving the mountain we headed down to the coast to Byron Bay. We stopped off at a supermarket near Surfer’s Paradise on the way to get provisions for our Christmas dinner and were amazed at how much stuff was left in the shops and how little frantic last minute shopping was going on. Australians seem to have a much more relaxed attitude to Christmas, that or there just aren’t as many people here clambering to panic buy the last packet of ‘taste the difference mini organic chipolatas wrapped in free-range bacon' on the shelf. Either way, shopping on Christmas Eve has never been so stress free so we stocked up on Christmas goodies and headed down the coast.

Our beach hut was just behind the dunes on Tallow beach, about 7 kilometres from Byron. It was absolutely perfect for our needs; a large veranda, fancy gas barbeque, tennis courts, huge long sandy beach and nice comfy sofas...

Tallow Beach...

We spent Christmas morning on the beach, Santa had bought Matthew a bat and ball set which lasted less than a minute before the handles fell off, luckily David’s Frisbee lasted the course otherwise Santa would not have been shopping at ‘Crazy Clarks’ again…

Matthew and his bat and ball....

We opened presents on the Veranda in the afternoon..

The evening was dedicated to eating a variety of delicacies from the barbeque including barramundi fillets, roast sweet potato, king prawn skewers, a whole melted camembert with crusty bread and fresh sweet corn...

Christmas Dinner...

After that lot all we could do was sit down and watch ‘Elf’ on the laptop - an easy choice as Dave and I had both bought each other a copy for Christmas..

On Boxing Day we walked along the beach into Byron Bay which seemed a really nice place, full of ‘alternative’ types. It felt hippy and friendly whilst also seeming respectable.

For the next few days we played on the beach, body surfed, played tennis, ate lots of food and watched DVDs. Each morning we would decide to go out that night for a dance and each evening the thought of a 7km walk would send us scurrying to the sofa for more Christmas movies…

Dave gets to grips with body boarding ....

While Matt shows how it's done without the board...

Who are those guys?

We left Byron on the 28^th and headed inland to the mountains, we had been told that Nimbin, a hippy village in the hills, was worth a visit. We arrived and decided to go for a coffee to ‘starbuds’ coffee house, which smelt a little ‘earthy’. I overheard the couple next to us discussing the ‘low energy elemental beings’ the girl had been trying to get out of her kitchen for a few days and decided that it was probably best that we left. Outside on the street a keen young man asked us if we were ‘sorted’, we all nodded and walked off quickly wondering if we were ‘sorted’ – how would you know??

A bus in Nimbin...

We left Nimbin soon after, having discovered that, where Byron had found a line, Nimbin had stepped over it and sunk into skanky world that we didn’t want to understand…We got back to Brisbane, after a fantastic drive through the mountains, happy to have escaped without buying any crystals whatsoever or a ‘the pope smokes dope’ t-shirt. A quick sweep of the kitchen didn't find any low energy beings either, which was a relief...