Gold Coast / Byron Bay Vacation

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June 9th is an Australian holiday recognizing the Queen's Birthday - We aren't actually sure of the significance, since her real birthday seems to be in April, but regardless, it means that it's a three day weekend. To take full advantage of the Royal weekend, we decided to take off an additional two days for our first extensive vacation.

We flew on Friday morning from Sydney to Coolangatta Airport, which is in Queensland's Gold Coast (Very South Shore of Queensland bordering New South Wales). From Coolangatta we drove north heading towards Surfers Paradise, Broad Beach, and Mainbeach, which are the heart of the Gold Coast. On the way is Burleigh Heads, a beautiful headland where we stopped for a quick hike. We got a good view of the coast looking north and then set back out on the road to surfers paradise.

The Gold Coast is in a interesting place - it's a mass of modern sky scrapers towering over a beautiful beach. The towns along the gold coast boast a rich culture and nightlife, but in actuality it seems more like a cheesy tourist trap than an exotic paradise. We only stayed for the day exploring Surfers Paradise which was plenty, and then headed West into the Gold Coast Hinterland.

The Hinterland is made up of a series of National Parks and mountain ridges formed by a old volcano called Mt. Warning. We stayed at a great B&B in Springbrook, just north of the Queensland border. From there we set off on some hikes through Purlingbrook Park and up to the "Best Ever Lookout". Unfortunately it was rather overcast, so the Best Ever lookout was not really that great. However, we did see some beautiful waterfalls, ancient antarctic beeches, incredible rock formations, and some spectacular birds.

Our next stop after Springbrook was Byron Bay. From the Hinterland, Byron Bay is about a 2 hour drive south and east, through a picturesque valley and a handful of small farming towns. Having some extra time, we decided to drive a litle farther south than we needed, and stopped in Lenox Head ad found a market and a youth surfing competition. After an hour or so of watching the surfers and walking the beach, we got back in the car and finish our drive to Byron Bay.

Byron Bay is a backpackers haven - a surfing beach town that boasts the eastern most point of mainland Australia (Cape Byron). It was a bit overcast and rainy for our two days in Byron Bay, but that didn't stop us from hiking out to Cape Byron's Lighthouse and doing some ocean kayaking. Byron Bay was definitley our favorite part of the trip and we kept ourselves busy exploring restaurants and bars and listened to lots of live music.

We made one last stop on our way back up the coast to fly back to Sydney. We were losing light and had some time to kill before our flight, so we happened upon Cabarita Beach, where we were lucky enough to spot two humpback whales riding some waves right in the middle of the local surfing spot. Soon after, they headed out off the coast of Norries Headlands, and we hiked out there and watched them milling around periodically shooting water into the air as thy came up for breaths of air. It was a great end to a wonderful vacation and we hope all the pictures will help to show you all the great things that we saw.

We hope all is well for everyone back home and hope to hear from you all soon.

Heidi and Matt

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Photos

BrushTurkey
Thansgiving Anyone?