Hey Amigos!

There is only one thing to do when you need to stop drinking....leave town.  Well we needed to leave the state, so NSW here we come!  Our trek into cockroach country was via the Gold Coast starting with a couple of coffees on the very swish Tedder Ave, Main Beach. Then the rather unswish Surfers Schoolies precinct and down to the more like it, Kirra, Coolongatta and Point Danger, where the clocks get wound forward for daylight savings.  This is where we think the landscape just becomes one amazing stretch of coastal bliss.  Great surf, white beaches and picturesque towns, so laid back you don't want to move on.

Sunset at the van park on Kingscliff Beach

Kingscliff was our first port of call, and our prime real estate was so close to the water we copped sea spray!  Sprawling beaches with hardly anyone one them - too good to be true. A few days here to get the tans back and unwind!!  Lots of these towns are built on crystal clear rivers, so you have the best of  the  surf, or the calmness of the river.

Any closer and the Blue Kahuna would be surfing!!

Just up the road is Cabarita Beach, Pottsville and Hastings Point, which continue this very laid back and friendly lifestyle.  Ramon's belief that he doesn't need a GPS telling him how to get up the road, led to more gravel roads and a little back tracking.  We finally found our bearings and had a hearty lunch at the gorgeous Brunswick Heads Hotel.  The weather was continuing to be our Enemy No.1 and so a quick look around then off to Byron Bay.

Beautiful Cabarita Beach

Popular surfing beach at Cabarita

The glorious Hotel Brunswick

The mouth of Brunswick Heads

Byron is a funny place.  Its the sort of town you wish you had visited 20 years ago.  You can see why people love it. It has the most amazing beaches with constant swells rolling in, but it is its popularity which takes away from it.  It was leading into Schoolies so maybe it was a bit over run, but you wish it was a bit less busy.  Still we will be going back as soon as the sun comes out!  

The upside of bleak weather is it makes you head inland and lucky for us Northern NSW has some great hinterland towns, so thats where we headed.  Bangalow was first, followed by Mullimbimby and then it was Jamie's turn to go bush bashing through the Mount Jerusalem National Park and finally over to the not-so-bustling Uki, population 260 - check a map, a very detailed one!  

Lunch was had and back to Qld for a drive out to Bioela - check a map - for Wildy's 40th!!