Hippy Retreat

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On the way down to Byron we stopped off in Brisbane for about an hour, but we werent that interested in looking around so opted for a KFC and hopped back on the bus down to Byron with our crazy bus driver.

After about 8 hours on the bus we arrived, and we were also back in NSW time. Luckily we had booked up our accomodation at 'The Art Factory' the day before in Noosa, as it was particularly busy. The hostel was probably one of the best that we have stayed in- it was really big with loads of places to chill out and a good bar and restaurant with a great atmosphere- the staff were excellent. It wasnt your average hostel, more like a hippy commune with a choice to camp in your own tent, sleep in a tepee or a dorm, we opted for the dorm. There was a small lake in the centre, which was once again occupied by mozzies and it was around here that people had pitched their tents. The employees had a converted bus to live in, and one of them invited us in to have a look- it was pretty impressive actually, for a bus anyway! It was nice to chill out in a hammock by the lake and watch the lizards come right up to you to try and get some food. You can also take part in different classes such as yoga, pilates, self defence and painting at the Arts Factory, and certain parts are covered by the resident artist's work.

Byron itself is a pretty little town surrounded by green fields and hills. The weather is hot, being on the sunshine coast, so there were hundreds of leather handbag looking tans on show, serious sun damage on some. The parkland by the beaches is full of people sitting around playing there guitars and having a drink along with the local Aboriginees. It has a really relaxed vibe which we loved.

We headed into town on the first night after a few drinks at the hostel bar, town was packed with quite a young crowd, god we felt old... The teenie bopper bars were just a bit much so we headed back to the hostel and chilled there. We were woken up at 4am by a group of idiotic irish lads sitting right outside our dorm room chatting rubbish and thinking they could sing.. I got up and told them all to get lost to which they childishly thought we were going to grass them up to the reception. Funnily enough reception appeared at the same moment and gave them their marching orders and they were gone. We seen them again in the morning as they had all slept in and missed their coach, served them right.

We headed down to the beach the following day and spent most of the day chilling out and swimming, the waves here were good so we had a few hours fun in them before realising the current had dragged us a few hundred yards down the beach away from our bags.. noone had nicked anything luckily.

There was an excellent didgeridoo show on in the hostel bar that night, one guy on the didgeridoo and the other on the drums, there was a massive turn out for it, mainly dreadlocked hippies who turned the bar into somewhat of a rave. It was a great night..

Byron has the most easterly point in Australia which we took a wander to on our last day, there's a lighthouse marking it's point. We sat up on a lookout and watched the surfers on the headlands and took in the beautiful scenery.

After 3 days we decided we'd make our way back to Sydney to get ourselves sorted for New Zealand. Byron was a perfect end to the last few weeks of travelling around Australia, the quirky hostel and the chilled out pace of life made it for us, anyone going to Byron should definitely stay there.

Next stop, back to Sydney on another lovely overnight bus, boo...

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