We got woken up by guys discussing the surf conditions outside the van. It was only when we emerged that we realised what an amazing place we’d picked to stay!! Right near a toilet block, an outside shower, the caravan park shop and…the beautiful beach at Broken Head less than a two minute walk away. Oh splendid day!! We ate our museli on the beach and then headed out for a swim. How I missed waves. That’s right. Waves. The things that bay beaches rarely have. The water was completely clear, and cold enough to make it invigorating. It was lovely. We rinsed off under the outside shower - our surfboards stayed in the car - it was way too crowded with surfers all lying on their boards waiting for a break.

We headed back into Byron for a coffee with the money we’d saved on not paying for our accomodation. Or we tried to. Halfway there we were waved off the road, where a very large, and slightly apologetic man explained that as it was New Years Eve, all cars going into Byron would have to pay $60. Ha ha! As if. He was very nice, and even said if we needed to get something in town, we could leave our drivers license with him and reclaim it on our way back. Nooo. We explained that Byron was not an imperative part of our plans and that we’d be very happy if he could point us in the direction of Bangalow. So that was fine.

The van trundled us to Lennox Head, where, after casing every shop, I finally found a pair of sunglasses and we headed up to the top of the point where we parked and watched the surfers in action. I made us a cup of tea each with my little 12volt travel jug and felt very civilised. We decided to start our journey towards Rosebank, and wound our way through little places like Newerybar, Bexhill, Eltham (here’s a picture of the pub at Eltham….)

…we continued on our roundabout way through Lismore, and sang The Simpleton’s song of the same name as we drove around it. Spent serious time in the bottle shop debating on our New Years Eve drink of choice, bypassing the vodka/tonic/lime option in favour of two frugal six packs of Coopers. M picked up some cashews and a watermelon and we were off! Glad to get out of town. The drive to Rosebank was insanely picturesque. You would think that therefore I would have taken some pictures, but no, I was too busy drooling out the window as we went through Bexhill, Corndale, and finally…we reached Rosebank.

It consists of a shop/cafe and hippy gallery place. Thankfully it also had a phone box, and I called our hosts-to-be and asked for directions, which I scrawled on the back of an ATM receipt:

A few more minutes along Repentance Creek Road (it’s true - that’s what it’s actually called - very Coen brothers…) and we had arrived. Huzzah! We all kicked back for a while and said hello - I & J’s house was lovely, and the view from the deck was positively pastoral. M and I were scruffy from hours of driving, so we got some (more) directions and went swimming in a waterhole. I saw an elver. M went in, and came out smelling like a fresh water otter - I abstained. It was only when we got back to the house that they told us about the enormous catfish that lives at the bottom, and the python they saw swimming there. Thanks so much ;oP

We hung out on the deck for NYE and various guests turned up. The nibbles were beyond divine - nori rolls, vietnamese spring rolls, brie…it was lovely to be with people who like the same music as we do and who are into a lot of the same kind of things. I is a bit of a music afficionado and it was tres cool to hear some different kind of stuff - and some that I’d read about but had not year heard. Vodka and cranberry juices were liberally passed around, and by the time it clicked over to midnight, everyone was quite tired, but giggly. We sipped some champagne as people said their goodbyes. I retired to the van, while M stayed up and chinwagged a little bit longer. Finally I got a good sleep - until the angle that the van was parked on meant that I ended up being M’s mattress…apparently I was quite comfortable.