We arrived to the second leg of our journey: Sydney, Australia. The day we landed was the coldest November weather on record since 1905. Great. But things have turned around and the weather and waves are on our side. We started off at Bondi Beach just a short bus ride from downtown. Except for the beach right outside the door, Bondi isn't the nicest place to stay. But downtown Sydney is absolutely glorious. It's built on the water and the Botanical Gardens and Harbour Bridge are magnificent. We even went to the world famous Opera house to see a symphony called "Russian Fire and Fury" (we are so trashy that we left at intermission). We had one morning of decent surf in Bondi (big surprise, the rest of the time it was blown out), which was fun but crowded (after all, it was a Saturday).
Our surf adventure began looking up as we headed north to Avalon, a suburb about an hour outside of Sydney. I want to move to Avalon some day. It was one of the best places I have ever visited. There is the ocean side for surfing and a bay side for boating. It is a very high-end little town filled with quaint but expensive (or "exie" as our host Janice called them) shops and restaurants. Apparently, Kelly Slater has a home there (even better!). We got some small but great surf in Avalon and were feeling like our surf adventure was beginning to turn around.
We headed up the coast and forget about surfing: the Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park is where it's at. You get to see and even pet koala bears and kangaroos. It was one of the coolest things ever—so cool, in fact, that the three of us pushed small kids out of the way to get a chance to pet Chancy (see the photo). We continued up the coast only to be disappointed by blown-out waves in Crescent Head but consoled ourselves by eating more meat pies from a roadside attraction called Fredo's. Finally, we reached Byron Bay. I love Byron Bay. There are two sides, as Byron juts out into the ocean and you have two chances of getting offshore winds. We stayed at the Seaview House, an amazing B&B with glorious views, and surfed Tallow Beach. The hot Aussie boys were almost as much of an attraction as the beautiful pods of dolphins that swam by. Other than the "schoolies" who were in town for their version of spring break, Byron Bay was everything we had been looking for in Australia.
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