March 7, 2017

After our evening in Byron Bay last night, we were serenaded by the beautiful lorikeet birds who are very loud as they land in the Norfolk Island pines outside our hotel.  They are beautiful green and orange birds, but boy are they loud!  Between the birds and the reggae just outside, it was a “happening” night!  and in spite of it all, we slept well.

** and Jesse, Emmanuel, Sri and Bojan, I have more money now – not missing you at all (just kidding!)

Here are some pictures of our hotel.  Perfect location, and the view first thing this morning was this one – many cars already bringing people to the lovely beach.

We had a wonderful breakfast at a nearby cafe.  Loving sitting outside in the sun.  Followed that with a beach walk, a walk around town and another coffee here at Cool Katz.  Peter knows all the good coffee places.

Eggs on sourdough with mushrooms and avocado for breakfast!

After the beach walk, we set out to visit many of the small charming towns as we made our way back to Brisbane.   We stopped in the lovely little shops and really enjoyed our visits.  We ended up at the Crystal Castle Shambahala Gardens and spent an enjoyable several hours among the gardens, statues, and rain forest.  We also walked the spiral and the labyrinth.  It is a beautiful, peaceful place. There are displays of all kinds of crystals here, shops, glass singing bowls, and you can see the prayer wheels.  You could also write out a wish and place it on the tree nearby.  We all did that, and I do have many wishes for healing in the US.  We have had so many people ask us if we are embarrassed to be Americans and it makes me very sad.

“Rosie” a 4 ton piece of rose quartz

Hard to tell, but this is one of the Crystal Guardians, the world’s largest crystal geodes. They are smoky quartz with amethyst, clear quartz and agate

Lunch was at the Poinciana Restaurant in Mullumbimby.  All of the places we have eaten have wonderful food.  Lots of avocado, sourdough bread, great beers and natural foods.  And this one had a couple of resident gekkos.

We ended at the entrance of the ocean to the river and again, wonderful beach walk, watched the kiteboarders and had a few pictures to mark almost the end of a great two days.

Thanks, Peter and Kate, for being wonderful host and hostess, choosing the very best things for us to see and do, including the meals and the coffees, and generally being terrific ambassadors for your beautiful country!

We are staying at the Novotel Hotel near the airport as we need to get up at 4:30 AM to make our flight to Ayers Rock.  So we said goodbye to Peter and Kate at about 6 PM and had a bite before getting organized for the next adventure.