Dolphins on the left, whales on the right

We've just spent a week relaxing in Byron Bay.  The weather was fairly disappointing but it was several degrees warmer than Sydney and as we all have wetsuits it didn't stop us from playing in the sea.  We gave in and bought the kids a serious surf board ideal for learning how to surf and we had a lot of fun with it.  

Jules, Tess and Tom with boogie boards

On a trip up to Byron Lighthouse we saw dolphins frolicking on one side of the bay and whales breaching on the other side.  A couple of days later we were checking out quite a small beach and very close to shore was a mother whale with her baby who was doing all sorts of tricks - of course I only had the little camera with me so didn't manage to get any decent shots.  

The most easterly point of Australia

A whale breaching - promise!!

Dolphins catching a wave

Byron is a bit of a hippie mecca (although I think it's far more sophisticated than when we first visited about 8 years ago) and they have a fabulous market once a month.  Tess spent a very happy half hour making her own candle which was then sculpted into a flower and I loved walking round all the stalls and chatting with the stall holders.  

Tess making her candle

The finished product

We all drove up there together, a 9 hour trip which we tried to make more manageable by waking up at 1am and driving whilst the kids slept.  In actual fact they were wide awake from 1 until about 4.30am when they had a 1 hour cat nap so our cunning plan didn't work!  We made an obligatory stop at the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour where Jules first went to Primary School whilst he, John and Rae lived at Split Solitary campsite.  On the way back Jules drove by himself whilst the kids and I flew down - believe it or not Jules still managed to beat us home!