Free Spirits

Day 147- We took shelter from the flies and sun by enjoying our breakfast in the van.

After we packed up and hit the road for New South Wales, we noticed something strange on the side of the road. In a panic, I got Mike to turn around as I powered up my camera. Who is she, whats her name, where did she come from, why does she have a gun, what happened to her?... oh... and how did she get turned into plastic...? 

Yay we made it! 

Our first stop in NSW was in a small town called Nimbin. It is the most hippie place I have ever been in my life. We were surrounded by tye dye, down to their knees white haired men and women, whole and raw food shops, hand made everything, the lingering smell of incense, bamboo clothing, Beatles and Bob Marley paraphernalia, anti-war posters, environmental shops, peace signs, live music on the sidewalk and VW campervans. It was the epitome of a free loving lifestyle and it made me smile.

The street art below is in remembrance of one of The Beatles, John Lennon and the same one sits in Central Park outside of his and Yoko Ono's New York apartment where he was shot. 

Mike and I stopped in at an Apothecary store to inquire about some elixirs for the body. Mike was fighting some sort of illness that had him dragging his feet and I am always up for a body healing potion.

                              

We got talked into buying tonics to cleanse our blood and liver. Along with regular, doses we would have to abstain from all alcohol and caffeine, as well as increase our water and veggie intake. We were inspired by Nimbin to get healthy and restore our bodies. 

LiVE AND LOVE LiFE, so simple isn't it?

                              

We picked up some fresh lemons and honey to start our cleanse. Hot lemon water had been an every day staple for Mike and I back home and I was mad at myself for not thinking about it sooner. Being in the campervan we totally had the ability to start the day off with a hot cup of miracle fruit and I intended to do just that. Lemons have a million healing properties and health benefits and I was happy to be reunited with them. 

We left town in the late afternoon and made our way to Byron Bay.  But first, we stopped in a little town on the way to buy some water, soap and wine. We wanted to have a wine and cheese night before starting our cleanse the next day. All of the small towns in the area were very unique and had their own charm to them. Bangalow was riddled with art, trinkets and beautiful trees. 

                        

I caught this photo seconds too late but it is good enough to see that we made it to Byron Bay.

We wanted to stay in town so we chose a hostel with a carpark attached and got a great deal for $15 dollards a night. The Arts Factory is where we made our home and it was a hostel set up for all types of people. They seemed to have it all, including a cafe, travel desk, trivia night, pool table, volleyball court, pool, yoga, beer gardens with a stage and a theater. 

It had a real chill vibe.

We hung out for the night and watched movies by our campervan. 

Day 148- I was ecstatic to have access to $5 dollar yoga at the hostel so I started my morning off with some much needed stretching. Mike had the difficult task of trying to take a photo of me doing yoga without being a creep in the bushes. Not the best angle but at least he didn't get himself arrested. haha. This was also the first day of our cleanse. No coffee, no booze and we needed to drink the most disgusting, gag inducing potion imaginable. What had we gotten ourselves into?!

After we showered up, we took our boards to the pavement and hit the town. 

Byron Bay has a great energy. It is a hippy/surf/backpacker/beach haven and everyone there has a very laid back, "don't worry be happy" attitude. 

We sat on the beach for quite a while to watch the surfers ride the huge waves. 

         

We were envious of how skilled most of the surfers were.                         

            

                              

We also ripped around on our long boards and enjoyed the beautiful weather. 

We were starting to really miss the christmas cheer from back home so we decided to make the night about christmas! We decorated our home while christmas music played on the speaker, then snuggled in for a movie and snacks. 

It was the perfect setting as the weather had cooled down substantially and it was raining outside, which made us feel like we were back home.

One of my favorite movies from my childhood. No Teresa, not Sister Act 2, we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol!

Day 149- The rain continued to fall, which made for the perfect lazy day in Byron Bay. We watched more christmas movies and chilled out for the day around the hostel and our van. The christmas spirit was strong in us!

                            

We went into town for a quick swim mid afternoon and surfed the waves as much as we could manage without getting swept away by the current. We watched movies during the night, Mike put out a fire in the kitchen that one girl started and we helped an intoxicated girl find her friends after she had a slight irrational episode. We were puttin out fires all over the place!

Day 150- We needed to check out of the hostel by 10 am so we woke up early and headed into town. After a hearty, expensive, but delicious breakfast, we went to Travel Bugs to look into campervans for New Zealand. I would say we were pretty "lucky", to book one of the last available campervans in New Zealand with a company called Lucky. Our experience in the van to date had been so great that we decided to do it all over again for New Zealand. We booked a Lucky campervan for 38 days at $56 dollars a day but this time we wouldn't have the luxury of a fridge. After our booking was finalized, we hit the road to our next destination. Byron Bay had been good to us and it allowed us to chill out and kickstart a health trend for the next 2 weeks of our trip. Now it was time for the big city!

On our way out of town we saw Santa on a surfboard being led by dolphins! I think Santa looks pretty good in board shorts! 

We drove to a small town called Yamba where we spent some time in a Mcdonalds to work on the blog and then slept for the night in a Coles supermarket parking lot. 

Whoa, watch out for crossing ducklings....sooo cute.

 Day 151- This was a wicked driving day and we crushed around 650kms all the way to New Castle. No road trip would be complete without a BIG sighting. We saw one of my favorite fruits, the banana.

We stopped to give our JP a wash and then found a place to let him rest for the evening. 

We retired at a truck stop with hot showers and a little grass area to set up for the night. 

We were excited to hit the big city to do some big city sight seeing.