Our first stop in New South Wales is the hippy seaside town of Byron Bay where the streets are lined with funky craft shops, laid back cafes and everybody walks around in their bare feet! Being Christmas the first priority was to find a campsite and with the some of the camps charging double their usual rate to rip off the festive campers we had to do a little background reading to find a camp without inflated prices. Strangely the most economical choice was the one with the best location only a 5 minute walk from the town centre. With the sun shining we headed first to check out the famous Byron Bay lighthouse at Cape Byron. It is here that you find yourself on Australia's most easterly point and apart from beautiful views to the brilliantly white lighthouse there are also amazing views out to sea where if your patient you can sometimes see dolphins. The lighthouse itself was just as pretty as its pictures and it was only a short walk out to the headland and the most easterly point. Whilst we got plenty of lovely photos there were no dolphins to be seen anywhere. After taking in the lighthouse we headed down to a nearby beach called Clarke's beach for a spot of sunbathing and to watch some of the many surfers who had come out to play. We decided that evening rather than cook we would treat ourselves to fish and chips at the beach front and whilst it was a little gusty once the sun had set, it was a really cool spot to have dinner surrounded by many other likeminded travellers and the fish was pretty tasty too!The next morning we decided to have a walk around the town taking in some of the shops and getting into the laid back pace of life. There is no doubt that the influx of backpackers to the area has somewhat diluted the whole hippy vibe however there are still glimpses of the past if you wander off the main track to some of the smaller lanes that can be found by following the smell of incense sticks that fill the air! One of the things you cant fail to notice as you wander the streets of Byron is that many of the people don't wear any shoes, its really strange to see so many people walking the sidewalks in and out of shops in their barefeet! They must have leather soles on their feet as I cant even walk from the campervan to the toilet block without puncturing my foot with a sharp stone or a random piece to twig. I have no idea how they do it but it certainly helps to add to the atmosphere and if you ignore the thousands of backpackers the town is a really nice place to walk around and definitely a great place for window shopping with lots of unusual shops and markets! By early afternoon it was time to head to the beach to relax and further soak up the atmosphere from the very busy Main Beach. The evening was a much quieter night chilling out in the van watching a DVD with a bottle of wine!