Kersti & Billy Down Under: Byron Bay and New Years!

After meeting up at the Los Angeles airport, Kersti and I took the long flight back to Australia. We stopped in Melbourne for only five hours, just long enough to go home and repack for our trip north to Byron Bay!

We flew to the Gold Coast, then drove south to stay at our beautiful and remote resort in the Byron Hinterlands as an early celebration of our second anniversary. We were caught in a huge thunderstorm during the night drive to the resort, but Kersti did a great job in getting us there safely despite our obvious tiredness. The resort was set in the rainforest of Northern New South Wales, and the weather was fantastic. The next day, we made the short drive into Byron Bay. While crowded, we had a lovely time hiking up to the lighthouse and enjoyed lying out on the beach.

The next day we drove down to Yamba, where our gracious host Byron had generously opened his beach house to our friend for New Years. Yamba is a quiet beach town, in a gorgeous setting. There, we met our friends Tyler, Andrea, Sophie, Lisanne, and Matt, as well as Byron and his family (it was a touch crowded). We had a fantastic New Years, hanging out on the beach and watching fireworks. While I was up my usual antics, fortunately Kersti survived unscathed. We spent the next couple days hanging out on the beach, body surfing, diving off of the rocks, and taking a tinny up the river to see dolphins and kingfishers. We then sent to Byron’s family farm in nearby Grafton. Their house was a beautifully renovated farmhouse, and we spent the day on the river tubing and trying out wakeboarding.

Byron’s family was so welcoming, and we had a fabulous time. Byron will be heading to the States in June on a Fulbright, so hopefully we will get the chance to repay the favor and host him in the States at some point!