Storms, Surf, Sand and…no wombats.

We arrived safely to Brisbane and promptly picked up our rental car and headed south for the Gold Coast. We drove quickly past Surfers Paradise to the smaller surf community of Tweed Heads. We had no idea what our accomodations were going to be like because it was hard enough to find a place in our price range, but when we drove up we had a good feeling. It ended up Jill had booked at the Ultimo Apartments and we were litterally in a beautiful, fully furnished holiday apartment overlooking the city and sea from eight floors up…have I mentioned it was in our budget?!?!

By the time we got settled we were pretty hungry and since we had been to this spot during Quarter at Sea we decided to go back to a Mexican restaurant we ate at six years ago. It is a pretty good attempt at Mexican though nothing beats California Mexican in our book!

The next day Jill went for a run along the beach path while Tim wandered around taking pictures. We ran errands the rest of the morning to get groceries, etc since we’d be “on the road” for over a week. That afternoon we set out for the David Fleahy Wildlife Park to see all the cool Australian animals, birds, and reptiles. Jill has been looking for koalas every time we land in Australia. The park was great because it wasn’t too big and there weren’t very  many people. Plus we got to see the crocodile feeding and hold a snake! Yikes!

We also got screamed at by a bird that felt we were getting to close to the fence as she had a little birdie on the other side. The only bummer was that the local wombat decided to stay in its hole and not come out. We waited (no joke) f0r a half an hour hoping to catch a glimpse but no such luck.

After giving up on the wombat, we headed back into town and rented surf boards so we could surf early the next morning. Thanks to our fully furnished apartment and our early grocery shopping we were able to make dinner and relax in the apartment after a tough day of being tourists.

A lightning storm came in as we were making dinner. The apartment had slidding glass doors which all slide back so you have one “wall” that basically opens completely to the view of the city. Tim got some great shots of the storm and our dinner.

On friday, Tim woke up early and caught a very beautiful sunrise before waking Jill up for a morning surf. We got out to Duranbah Beach around 7am and we both headed out. Tim made it past the inside current, but Jill couldn’t even stay on her feet as she was being swept sideways. No surfing for Jill, but lots of playing in the sand and enjoying the morning sun.

Oh, by the way Friday, the 19th was our four year wedding anniversary and all anniversaries are meant to start with beautiful sunrises and surfs. The rest of the day included more surfing and hanging out at Snapper Rock before it was time to hit the road yet again. This time we drove 40 minutes south to Byron Bay.

We arrived at Byron Bay in the early evening and decided to immediately drive to Cape Byron and the beautiful lighthouse located there.

We walked out to the easternmost point of Australia (photo op, of course) and up and down lots and lots of stairs. We drove a bit more exploring the legendary surf breaks of Byron Bay before heading downtown to celebrate our anniversary over a bit of Thai food and Coopers Sparkling Ale (this is for you Miss Kelly Power – soon to be Mrs.).

Saturday started with Tim surfing at the Pass in Byron Bay with beautiful waves and fifty of his new Aussie buddies. The water was too cold for Jill so after a couple of hours we headed back into town to rent spring suits. Back to the water! Tim surfed again and Jill finally got her whiny booty into the water.

After what became four hours of surfing for Tim, we got lunch in town and walked around a bit enjoying the plethora of shops and laid  back surfer community. JJill went for a brutal run from town, up lots of stairs, to the lighthouse and back and then guess what we did???? We surfed again. Shocking, we know.

That night we had dinner back at our accommodations (community kitchens are very common here and we are thankful) and ended the night by watching Lord of the Rings. We actually recognized places in the movie that we visited while we were in New Zealand.

Sunday morning, we surfed again and then waved goodbye to the beautiful waves of Byron Bay. On the drive south we stopped at Broken Heads beach just south of Byron Bay. For those of you who know the Shelter surf dvd, quite a bit of the surfing was filmed at this beach. It is a bit of a mecca for Tim so it was fun to stand on its shore.  Now we have to re-watch the dvd when we get home (so much to do).

As we continued our drive down the coast, it seemed that about every five minutes or so we would see another point with fabulous swell wrapping around it and really good surfers tearing it up. It was quite impressive and made the drive very slow until the road veered inland.

Advertisement

~ by spbound on December 22, 2008.