Monday April 3rd-Drive to Byron Bay:
And just like I promised we hit up Local & Co again for another amazing brekkie. This was a place I would frequent regularly if I lived in the Gold Coast. We hung out for a bit before we hit the road to Byron Bay. We looked up a few places to stop along the way and decided we would hit up the Crystal Gardens, since Emma is into that hippy shit.
During our drive I noticed some signs for a few stops I had read about during my research for this trip. We stopped at Hastings Point.
And then Cabarita Beach.
Both did not disappoint. We got some breathtaking glamour shots to add to our roadtrip album. Despite the beauty, you could see where Cyclone Debbie did her dirty work as it wasn’t without broken branches and debris everywhere. But this coastline drive was really spectacular even with the bursts of rain we were running in to.
After an off-road adventure, we finally arrived at the Crystal Castle and Shambhala Gardens in Mullumbimby (yes, thats spelled right). There was a point when I no longer had service and we were in some farm territory going uphill. We paid the entry fee of $28aud, grabbed the last umbrella (well I’ll be damned it was raining again) and made our way into this gorgeous garden. There were buddhas everywhere, along with crystals. We were really hoping to see the enchanted cave, get an aura picture, and have a psychic reading but all of those things cost extra! For being hippies and wanting world peace, it sure seemed a little greedy to charge $45aud for an aura picture. It’s just different lighting around you…come on. The garden walk was worth the money, as you’ll be able to see from the amazing photos we got. But it was hard for me to get zen with them asking for more money every chance they got. Emma was in heaven though and totally loving every second of it. They had amazing jewelry too. I really wanted to find a cool ring, but they were all pretty expensive (you know I like the good shit). I would recommend going here on a non rainy day because that was annoying but when is it not? We left after quite a few hours and decided to check into our next airbnb.
Byron Bay got hit the worst from the cyclone so our place had definitely been under water. It smelled of mold and was incredibly musty. With my mold allergies, I was a little worried but we were only staying a couple days. And our host was so nice and you could tell our little apartment was his top priority. He left us a bag of Wallaby Bites….ummm probably one of the best things I’ve ever had. These are perfect road trip snacks. Do yourself a favor and get you some! We asked our host where we should eat and he recommended the Ocean Shores restaurant. Sometimes you just get directionally challenged and we ended up at the Ocean Shores Country Club where we had the entire restaurant to ourselves and the 15 old people gambling and/or drinking in the other room.
We decided wine was in order, along with a smorgasbord of appetizers (or entrees here in Aus). Isn’t life great when you can split food all the time? **Sidenote: my mom was a HUGE proponent of splitting food for 2 reasons. 1. it is obviously cheaper and 2. portion control! She was a damn smart woman** Emma and I both love all the foods so we weren’t having any issues ordering ever. We got the fist tacos, hummus and ciabatta platter, and wings. All of it was delicious and incredibly satisfying. Don’t think it stopped raining because it didn’t. It had been gloomy and rainy all day and we were wondering if this was how the rest of our trip would be? Stupid cyclone. Since we were staying a couple nights, we decided to get some food to cook at the apartment. The grocery store was totally ransacked! It was amazing. I had never seen anything like that. Being from the Midwest, where we only get tornados and maybe a small earthquake every now and then, it was insane to think of how people must have had to prepare themselves for this Cyclone. We grabbed just a few things and made our way back where we watched some netflix and made some food. We also did some research on local gyms for a workout in the morning. Because gains…
Advertisements Share this:
