Australians refer to Byron Bay as the “hippie” town.  It is a small coastal town with lots of cafes, surf shops, and a handful of oceanfront hotels.  The main beach has a variety of surf breaks.  Our apartment was located right in front of the Wreck because the remains of an old ship wreck can be seen above water where the waves break.    At the south end of the beach is the Pass, where the waves wrap around the point to form multiple right hand breaks all the way to the shore.  There is a lovely coastal walkway that is great for running and follows the shoreline south from the Wreck all the way to the lighthouse. Just south of the light house is Lennox head, another beautiful surf break.  Willie says it was the best surf he had in all of Australia.

The Wreck surf break.  The black thing that looks like a dragon head is the remains of an old ship wreck.

The beach at Wreck’s in from of our apartment.

The light house at Byron Bay.

One day we went to check out the surf at Wategoes and saw this stand up paddle boarding surfing with a pod of dolphins.

Lennox Head.

We left Fiji and flew into Brisbane, Australia on April 27th.  The next day we headed up to Noosa Heads and for the following 3 weeks surfed our way down the coast to Sydney.  Prior to our trip we had heard a lot of negative things about Australia.  People had told us that it was very expensive, crowded and too developed along the coast line.

We found the small coastal towns to be quite charming and the beached beautiful.  There are lovely coastal walkways that extend for miles with amazing views of the ocean.  We arrived just as the low season was beginning, so we missed a lot of the crowds and prices for accommodations had dropped.  By renting small apartments, we were able to cook at home, saving quite a bit of money.

Everyone in Australia surfs, so there are crowds at most breaks.  Luckily, we had the time to seek out uncrowded surf. There were beach breaks and point breaks, lefts and rights, big waves and small waves.  It was a great place for the whole family.

We also LOVED seeing the koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies!  The kids are still trying to talk us in to buying a wallaby.