Byron Bay

Last week I took a couple of days off work so that we could take a little road trip up the coast of New South Wales to Byron Bay. It's about a 10 hour drive, and my poor little '98 Paseo handled it beautifully! One of the things on my agenda was The Big Banana in Coffs Harbour. Australia has a number of "Big Things", which are essentially tourist traps on the side of the road. This one happens to be a banana, but there is a Big Prawn, Big Guitar, etc. depending on the local economy. I got a picture with the banana and then we got out of there because there really wasn't much else to see.

The Big Banana

As we made the trip up the coast, the scenery changed gradually from sandstone rock formations and gum trees near Sydney, to sugarcane fields and banana plantations the closer we got to Queensland. Just when I thought we would never get there, we started the descent into Byron Bay and finally arrived at the Beachcomber, a small resort just a short walk out of town.

Byron is known for it's hippie culture (although I would say Portland would give it a run for it's money), and I saw plenty of white people with dreadlocks, people carrying guitars but not playing them, Birkenstocks, and tie dye. Fortunately, it also has amazing food and about 10 pubs within a few minutes walking distance to each other. We happened upon a fun place called "The Rails" that had live country/rockabilly music and had a few beers there on Saturday night.

The main reason I wanted to go to Byron Bay was to check out the lighthouse. This is situated on the easternmost point of the Australian mainland, and it was truly spectacular. We went on Sunday morning and nearly had the place to ourselves while everyone else nursed a hangover.

 Path up to the lighthouse

View of Byron Bay from the lighthouse. There is still a shipwreck in the bay from the 1920s that is now a popular surfing spot.

When it was time to head back home, we stopped overnight at Port Macquarie, a quiet town about halfway back down the coast to Sydney. I was able to try a couple of Australian beers there that were inspired by Northwest hops - this beer from Little Creatures brewery was about the closest I've tasted to a pale ale back in Seattle.

Yum!

The waterfront in Port Macquarie