Byron Bay

Yesterday, Eric and I went with Abi, Luke & Elijah to Byron Bay - the eastern-most point of Australia. It is a beautiful town, near where I grew up. It used to be quite laid back - mostly hippies trying to escape the rat-race - but unfortunately not anymore. It now attracts all of the stressed out yuppies from the major cities looking for a new lifestyle or a quick weekend pick-me-up, but they bring their entrepreneurship and stress with them rather than leaving it behind these days.

Still, Byron is a great place to spend a day, and we had a lovely relaxing time together. It was Elijah's first day-trip (other than to the grandparents'), and he did really well.

Our first stop, was at the Balcony, a lovely cafe where we sipped chai/lattes and enjoyed the ambience. Then off to see the famous lighthouse. This old lighthouse was set up to warn ships that land (ie the island of Australia) was close and is purposely in line with Mount Warning, which was named by Captain Cook because it was his first indication of the eastern shoreline of Australia. I grew up at the base of Mount Warning, which is actually a plug in an ancient volcano. You can see it in the background of the photo below (the pointy peak).

You can also see the mountain range surrounding Mount Warning - a very lush, green, beautiful area generally, although it is winter now so everything's a bit dry.

We were hoping to see some whales, as we did a couple of weeks ago at Hastings Point, but didn't have any luck this time. It was a very windy day, and generally you can spot whales by the white water they generate when coming to the surface or blowing water out of their blow-hole. Instead, we saw thousands of white-caps caused by the wind, and so even if whales were right in front of us, we would not have known unless they jumped out of the water. Oh well, no matter - we still had a lovely day.After wandering around the lighthouse for a while, enjoying the view, we decided to walk down a small path to a rocky headland in front of us. It was quite a long way down, but a beautiful walk through some native Australian trees and shrubs, and past a large rock cliff with waves crashing rhythmically against it. We got some good photographs, even one of a rainbow over the cliff!

In the photo below of Abi and I, you can see some tiny rocks in the background behind my head. These are know as 'Julian Rocks' - and there is a bit of an urban legend that has developed about these rocks. As with all urban legends, the story is based in truth, but I am not sure how much it has been embellished over the years.

I remember first hearing the story when I was in highschool - it was in the news headlines. A young couple had just gotten married and were on their honeymoon in Byron Bay. They decided to go scuba diving, as many others had before them, at Julian Rocks. Enjoying the gorgeous marine life and the beautiful day they failed to notice a large shark approaching until it was too late. The shark headed straight for the woman, and at the last possible moment, her new husband pushed her out of the way and was swallowed whole by the immense shark. Like I said - not sure what has been embellished, but I do remember hearing about it when it happened!


We had lunch on the beach in front of the town of Byron Bay. The others had meat pies, and I had fish and chips - yum!

Of course we were surrounded by seagulls, crying 'mine! mine! mine!' the entire time.

It was a pretty cold and windy day, but there were still a brave few swimming in the ocean - in fact I believe it was probably warmer in the water than out of it (that's the beauty of the Pacific ocean)!

After lunch, we looked at clothes, art, nick naks etc in the many boutiques that line the streets of Byron Bay. I would love to go back there some time with a wad of cash - maybe in my next life as a millionaire! Just kidding...

Then, we had a coffee at another cute cafe, before heading off to Mum and Dad's.

Yet another social engagement for us to go to - and we love it! To celebrate my brother Marty's 27th birthday, we had a surprise birthday dinner for him at Montezuma's Mexican restaurant. The food was mediocre and the service was appalling, but the company was great.

Dad was too sick with the flu to go, and Fiona and family couldn't make it. So it was just Eric, myself, Nathan, Marty, Caris, Brynn and Naomi (Caris' brother and his wife). Then back to Marty's place for marble mud cake and yet another coffee.

What a day!

Going to the footy

Last night Eric and I went to see the Brisbane Lions play the Melbourne Demons at the Gabba. AFL (Australian Football League) is yet another style of football, that is completely different from other football games. There is a lot of running, jumping, and kicking of the ball in the air to be caught, on a circular field.

To get the to game, we drove part of the way to Southbank, and then caught a free shuttle bus over to the Gabba. The 'Gabba' is a stadium in Woollangabba - one of the many indigenous names you'll hear in Australia that are difficult for visitors to pronounce. It's only about 10 minutes from our house, but parking there would have been a nightmare.

Before the game, we bought food and drinks. Here's a photo of Eric standing in line to get us a typical Australian meal - fish and chips. I've included shot of the menu too.

The Lions won by something like 40 points. It was a great game. Here are a couple of shots of the field.

Whale watching

I thought I would start this blog after reading a friend’s blog recently, so that we could stay in touch with family and friends who are scattered all over the world. It seems like the best way to keep you all up to date and to include photos in our correspondence as well.

Eric and I recently relocated to Australia to start a new life together, after living in Atlanta GA for 6 years (for me, a lifetime for Eric). We’re now living in Brisbane, and everything is really starting to come together for
us in an amazing way. God is truly looking after all of our needs.

Yesterday (7 July 07), we went whale watching for the first time in our lives. We actually didn’t intend to, it just turned out that way. We slept in and then set off for the Gold Coast to do some fishing south of Tweed Heads. Along the way, we picked up my brother Marty, and he suggested that we go to Hastings Point to fish. So, we bought some bait and then got some yummy fish, calamari, prawns and chips (done the Australian way - wrapped in butchers paper all jumbled up together), and headed to Hastings Point. It was only about 1.5 hours from Brisbane and truly a beautiful location.



When we got there it was lunch time, so we pulled out the picnic blanket and sat up on the headland to eat our meal. Absolutely scrumptious, perfect warm winter weather and what a spectacular view!

During lunch, Marty pointed out some spray in the distance, near the horizon, that he said was a whale clearing it’s blow-hole, but we couldn’t really see anything as it was so far away. After lunch, Marty and Eric climbed down the rocks in front of the headland to see whether they would do some rock-fishing or not, and decided not to. As we were making our way back to the car to relocate to another fishing spot, we saw a small crowd of people on the other side of the headland. We looked out into the ocean where they appeared to be looking, and saw a whale jump into the air, landing on it’s back sending spray skyward. We couldn’t believe it - Eric and I have never seen whales before, and have always wanted to. We raced over to the other side of the headland and stood to watch the beautiful hump-back jump every minute or so for the next 15 minutes. He or she appeared to be playing, and enjoying the beautiful weather just like we were. Hump back whales were endangered 20 years ago, but after several years of protection against hunting, they are now a regular sight off Australia’s east coast - however, I have been living in the USA and so haven’t had the pleasure of seeing them, as they were so scarce when I was growing up here that it was very rare to sight one.



After watching the whale for a while, we realised that the whale we’d seen spraying in the distance earlier was actually two more whales, and they were coming into shore to join the first whale. Eric and Marty left to find a place to fish, and I continued to watch the whale jumping, as it began to move north. Before long, it was moving around the headland with the other two whales close behind. Not jumping any longer, it came within 100 yards of us, and I could clearly see their brown backs sliding through the water. I have some video footage of them posted on my MySpace site (myspace.com/aussieinatl ).






After the whales had moved past the group of surfers, and into the distance, I made my way down the beach to where Eric and Marty were fishing, beside a bridge.


I lay down to read for a while, and then joined in the fishing. We caught bream, whiting, flathead, and something else we didn’t recognise. There were plenty of fish sitting in the creek in front of us, and they kept taking our bait before we could reel the hook back in again. There was also a pelican who kept us company.

After that, Eric and I went for a walk on the beach together. The wonderful thing about many Australian beaches is that they are long, white, and generally pretty lonely places. There were a few other people around since it was the school holidays and a Saturday, but not many.

After leaving the beach, we had dinner with Marty, Caris, Nathan, Mum, Dad, Nanna, Aunty Marg and Uncle Chris to celebrate Nanna’s 85th birthday. Wow, 85 years! That’s pretty good. Then, after a wonderful day, we finally drove home.