Back again, with our last entry from Austalia would you believe!  We headed down to Byron Bay next, our last destination on the East Coast.  Byron is a funky little town made up of beaches, shops, cafes and bars and the main thing to do there is surf.  However considering a) we haven't quite mastered the art yet and b) we are completely skint, we decided to focus our attentions on free stuff instead.  We were recommended the short 'hike' up to the lighthouse which sits on the cliffs next to to the bay so thought we'd give it a craic (me with slight look of horror at the 'h' word but still).  The weather was beautiful and we set off on the track that snaked around the cliffs, looking out over the glittering sea - lovely.  About half way up we came to a sign stating that we were now standing on the most easterly point of the Australian mainland - excellent - good excuse for photo/breath-catching moment.  We looked out to the sea and the cliffs below a good while and suddenly noticed loads of turtles in the water below, ducking under then coming right up to the surface - cool!  After making it to the lighthouse at the top we took in the spectacular views over Byron but then realised once again that the best views were down in the water.... big dark shapes... loads of them... all swimming together... dolphins!!  A pod of about 10 or 15 were racing through the waves below and jumping high out of the water - amazing (sorry Stu, I even have a thesaurus open but that just seemed like the most appropriate word)!  Mesmerised, we followed them around the cliffs from above, watching them interact together and fighting our urge to jump off the cliff and join them, they looked so friendly!

Other than that the rest of our time in Byron was pretty much spent in a beach to bar radius.  We met up with our Fraser Island gang again (yes, they are totally stalking us) and sunk a few beers with them for a few nights which was cool.  One rare energetic day however we did decide to take a trip as we had heard about an infamous little village in the mountians called Nimbin.  Now this place is like any we have been to so far on our travels, mainly due to the fact that you could pretty much get high just breathing the air around it!  Marajuana has been dealt and used openly in the village since the Aquarius Festival came there in 1973.  Following the festival many of the hippies ended up staying there and setting up an eco-friendly, organic, pot smoking haven!  The main things to do in the village are sit in cafes, people/hippy watch and browse the shops for all manner of cannabis related delights.  There are a few bars but these clearly state outside that they do not serve alcohol... not quite your regular pub then!  One 'highlight' in the village is Nimbin Museum which is not quite as it sounds either.  It basically consists of rooms filled with heaps of junk all arranged together in a fabulously arty way so that it represents health, happiness and the meaning of life or some such similar thing... hmmm, wonder where those folks got their inspiration?!  Anyway, Nimbin is definately worth a visit, it's mountian setting is beautiful and the alternative lifestyles of the people living there are interesting to see and hear about - def glad we pulled our a**es off the beach for at least one day!

So, that was about it for lovely Byron with our next adventure being a 13 hour coach trip (oh hurrah) back to the beautiful Sydney.  We have now been back here a few days and we really feel like we have come home.  It has been awesome to see all our old chums, esp on Anzac Day (a public hol here in Oz) where we undertook a rather hefty all day sesh... gotta be done.  Today we have been feeling pretty sad about leaving Oz however and have had a bit of an emotional 'life flashing before our eyes' type moment thinking of how much we have done in the past few months.  We feel really lucky to have experienced the rainforest, bush, outback and desert... seen wild kangaroos, snakes, emus, koalas and dolphins... travelled on boats, horses, planes, trams and motorbikes... done skydiving, cattle herding, hiking, seal watching and scuba diving and met so many great people along the way who we have shared it all with... sniff sniff!  So until next time, it's a big farewell to Oz but an even bigger 'hello' to New Zealand!

Linz  x