Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia

“You did Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Newcastle?”
“Errr… Yeah – how did you guess?”
“That’s what everyone does.”

And so I recently learned from Stephan, Dutch architect now living in New Zealand, that my itinerary on the Australian East Coast was kind of classical. I only looked at the map and decided to hit the biggest points along the way, though, but I guess that on a coast, you have not much of a choice when you follow that sort of thought process.

So I followed the touristic road, named the Pacific Highway, towards the south while the summer was giving life to thousands of tourists, so-called backpackers (I will come back later to these ones), and travelers.

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Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia

“Aaaaaahhhh… Now THIS is what I came for.”
(James, traveler from London, England, as we discovered Byron Bay’s beach on the first sunny day of our stay)

Because, yes, to be honest, I did not really come to Australia in summer to see floods. Especially on the East Coast, goddammit. It was supposed to be an endless stretch of white sand, bathed by a generous sun, covered with people with so much sunscreen that they would shine while humongous waves would crash with an incredible strength on the coast, sometimes with blond surfers on top of them.

And, finally, that was it.

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