For Valentine's day/weekend we decided to get on a propeller plane and fly up to Byron Bay. It's a place we've heard A LOT of good things about and we were pretty excited to check it out!
Lunch at Rae's
Upon arrival at the extremely small airport we needed to make the 30 min drive to Byron itself - actually we were staying about a 40 min walk outside of Byron in an area called Wategos. We had planned to take a shuttle bus in, but apparently they only ran every hour or so and we had just missed it. Lame. The taxi ride into town is $100+. SUPER lame! Luckily we made some friends while waiting for our bags and split a cab with them. Success!
When we rolled up to our hotel (which was more like a B&B without the breakfast) we were pumped to find that we were a hop skip and jump away from a gorgeous beach. The front desk lady was nice and gave us some tips about where to grab breakfast, how to walk into town and to the lighthouse, and let us know that we were practically nextdoor to Rae's (a well known restaurant).
Since it was lunch time, we figured we should check out Rae's -- we did, and it was delicious! If you're ever in Byron get some food there for lunch or dinner, the view of the beach is killer (especially during the day when it's not dark).
From there it was time to get in our bathing suits and hit the beach. The surf was pretty high (around 3 feet) so it was perfect for body surfing and just generally more fun than glassy waters. Plus the water temperature was waaaay warmer than Sydney so we ended up staying in for a while (and we didn't even turn blue!). Eventually we got pruney, though, and had to dry off which was fine because it was almost time for dinner!
We headed back to the hotel, got changed and headed off for the 40 min walk into Byron. Luckily for us there's a "fitness" path that goes from town right past our hotel. We hopped on that and enjoyed a really wonderful coastal walk all the way without having to step foot on any of the roads (which are windy and narrow and scary if you're in a car, let alone if you're just walking).
Once we were in town, we had some time to kill so we walked around quite a bit to get our bearings. One thing we noticed were the hippies. There were hippies everywhere! Campervans, psychedelic busses, drum circles, this place was hippie heaven. There was also a free falafel lady -- I'll never forget the free falafel...so delicious. Everything else was as you'd expect in a beach town: hopping bars, lots of restaurants, beachy craft stores, souvenir stands, and, of course, a beach. We ended up finding a nice people-watching spot and shared some wine before heading to dinner.
Dinner was delicious, but there's not much to say there. We finished up, took a cab home, and passed out. We had a big day ahead!