After Coffs Harbour we travelled up the coast to Balina, a small tourist resort about 20 miles south of Byron Bay. We stayed in Balina for two nights.
Friday night we went Greek Style, and had a meze in a restaurant. Whilst cheap, it was a little over our budget. Ahem - we'll learn. It was good though! We spent a relaxed Saturday just wandering around Balina. We walked for a good while up the coast (still aching from our previous walks and injuries!) We did a self-guided tour of a historic Balina street (in which most of the historic buildings had been replaced) and went to a good, small naval and maritime museum. They had a raft which had been sailed from Ecuador to Australia in the seventies! The aim was to show that people could have sailed that far in pre-Columbus times, and hence that migration from the Americas to Australia could have happened. There were also lots of war displays. V good for a two dollar donation.
On Friday night we had the small hostel to ouirselves, which was great. On Saturday, however, several guests arrived - a young girl, an older man, and a couple of old women. The young traveller was welcome, but couldn't the others have paid for a proper hotel room? How selfish of them! We watched The Bill with them for a bit in the evening, then antisocially went to our room to read.
On Sunday morning we did the short coach ride to Byron Bay (annoyed only by the dire older couple sitting behing us - they were so dull and annoying). Clearly, the relaxed hippyish Byron Bay was just what I needed. I was expecting it to be a bit grungy and unplesant, but it's actually really nice, with good beaches and good places to walk. On Monday morning we walked along the coast to a lighthouse and Ausralia's easternmost point - the Lowestoft of Down Under! We were looking out for wildlife, amd saw some bush turkeys. Odd to see turkeys wandering around in the wild. We'd been told that you can sometimes see dolphins in the sea from the lighthouse. We'd looked ofr a while and seen nothing, and when Anne went to move on I was determined to stay to see some dolphins (for free, rather than paying for a tour!) A few minutes later I spotted six or seven of them in a group swimming up the coast, and was disproportionatley chuffed with myself for the rest of the day.
On Monday afternoon we went to the local hippish cinema, which my sister had recommeded to me. We watched The Hours, a mad-cap, hilarious film which keeps you laughing from start to finish. Of course, that's a joke. This is the much Oscar nominated movie starring Nicole Kidman's fake nose. It's about three women in different times, and kept me interested for the two hours it lasted. Good stuff - four stars.
Anne is currently off having a massage. I myself am relaxed enough as it is. Ahem.
Sunday was the first day of winter here, so I'm pleased to report we went to the beach on Sunday and sat by the pool yesterday - we've got a little tanned. Our tans had both faded in the months we worked in Sydney. It's grey today, but we're heading north tomorrow so we're not worried. Surfer's Paradise here we come! (Apparently it's not nice - I think we'll be the judges of that.)