Easter Kayaking on the Bellingen River

It is safe to say that we have never really had nice enough weather on Easter to throw on shorts and a tank top and head down to the river for a little morning kayaking. The scene was beautiful, partly cloudy so just sunny enough to stay warm but not extensive to the pony of getting burnt. We took a leisurely paddle down a nice wide and slow moving section of the river for a couple of hours. Recently there was a very large flood in the area so the banks were covered with a good amount of debris and yet the animals of the area were loving it. We saw plenty of fish jumping right out of the water to et some bugs, a variety of birds hanging out having a splash, and of course water dragons scurrying along the banks. With the rainforest mountains in the back drop and the occasional cow in a neighboring paddock mooing hello is was a wonderful way to spend Easter morning. How eventful was your holiday?

Until later,
Jes & Brian

Rainforest Romp

New England it surprisingly enough a place in Australia as well as back at home, it is a national forest park at we were lucky enough to be taken to by our hosts for a nice hike around. Upon waking up the morning of the hike we were doubtful about embarking on our little adventure because there was a whole lot of fog and a bit of rain in the forecast. Regardless, we packed a lunch and headed out to an experience that I was not prepared for. The rainforest was a beautiful fairy like wonderful land with the moisture handing in the air and green moss growing from almost every surface possible. We took a nice hilly loops walk that ended up being just a couple of kilometers but it felt good hike, sweat, and see, smell, and hear the rainforest.

Crystal Castle

This afternoon we get a hold of two complimentary entrance passes into Crystal Castle in Mullumbimby just because we work at the motel! We took the scenic drive there and it was just as beautiful when we arrived. We walked the meditation labyrinth, saw the various Buddhist deities, stopped at the coy pond, and enjoyed the beautiful views. We even saw the stupa where we spun the cylinders that are meant to release all the prayers that they hold. The grounds get their name from the millions of crystals that are all over the property. Geodes that you could fit inside of! Rose quartz everywhere! And lots of other stones that we were not able to identify. It was a peaceful and relaxing afternoon to say the least.

Until later,
Jes & Brian

Silly Nimbin

The Aquarius festival in the time of peace, love, and happiness was held in a never before heard of town called Nimbin. When the festival was over people decided that they didn't want to leave and just stuck around. This is how the entirety of the own was formed.

The town itself it pretty quirky, as you can imagine. Generally it's just a lot of people smoking pot, eating pot, and whatever else. Needles to say we were not interested based on the strict laws the Australia actually has in place regarding marijuana. Although this community is a little pocket in the middle of no where that can get away with it...I guess. But the main industry is actually tourism because of the interesting way that this actually came to be. We checked out the local, hand made museum and it was pretty cool the way it all worked out.

The happy coach was out mode of transport for the day and on the way out to nimbin we were able to stop at Killen falls, a beautiful waterfall and also and old town pub. Lunch was included after our investigation of the town and it was a day well spent!

Until later,
Jes and Brian

Happy Birthday to Brian!

For a low key 28th birthday for Brian we went down to the local pub and had a few drinks an watched some live music. The venue is an open air deck just outside a hotel and across the street from the Brunswick river. The music was nice and jam like and we loved every part of it. It rained just a tiny bit but we were lucky enough to score some seats under an umbrella table so we were good to go. Come to find out the owners of the motel that we are staying and working at know the lead singer of the band, because he wants to date their daughter, and was able to hook Brian up with a cd of his music and even got him to sign it with a friendly happy birthday message too! Maybe when he hits it big we can say how we hung out with him and had pizza after one of his shows! Fantastic!

Until later,
Jes and Brian

Byron Bay Lighthouse

We took a quick afternoon trip up to the lighthouse on the point of Byron Bay. Here you can find the most Easterly point of mainland Australia and we were able to stand there! There is a wonderful walk on a oath that leads you by the beaches and through the bush, but since we were pressed for time we just drove right up to the top and got the quick tour. The lighthouse was built in 1901 and from afar you would imagine that it is quite larger than it actually is. Going another thirty feet up to the top deck cost extra so we decided that it may. Not be a much different view from up there. But either way the views were breathtaking and it was worth every cent that we had to pay to park to save time to enjoy the view. Although it was a bit cloudy we were still able to see a great distance and enjoy what the lighthouse had to offer!

Note: the last picture was taken from down on the beach where you can see the lighthouse up on the point. But there was a beautiful rainbow on this particular afternoon as well. Lucky day!

Until later,
Jes and Brian

Wilson's creek

So it's been sometime since we have updated you all on the progress of our travels due to the fact that we have been so busy! Lets go back a few weeks when we stayed with a lovely gent and his dog named Loki in the shire of Byron in a beautiful home tucked away I. The rainforest but with a distant view of the beach. Despite the loads of rain we had gotten that week we still had a wonderful time. We did some cleaning inside the house and some bush clearing outside. Now for living in a wet climate there is something that we didn't consider to be everywhere... Leeches! We both got bit an had some of our blood sucked but luckily they don't carry any type of disease. We just bled a whole lot and we left with some very itchy scabs afterwards.

We were spoiled in that Ben is a very amazing cook we had curry, Sunday roast, salmon, really a bit of everything. The best part was dessert every night!

We are currently in a motel working and staying until the end of the month and have had lots of fun adventures thus far. So stay tuned for some photos and more posts as we will try to be more regimented in sharing our story!

Loads of love,
Jes and Brian