Australia has some amazing wildlife, but there's one creature that drives us mad. Not spiders, snakes or other creepy critters, but a simple white bird. This bird - kinda like a parrot - likes to hang around with other white birds and together they make the most incredible ear-piercing racket. This morning we woke up to its screeching chorus, so it was no surprise we were up and out pretty swiftly.

First of all we drove up to the Byron Bay lighthouse. This beautiful lighthouse is on all the Byron Bay postcards, and we joined the tourists trying to pose for photos beneath it. Too tall to fit the tower in a frame though, we gave up and opted for an ice-cream break.. yep, it wasn't even 11am, so we're beginning to wonder if Bret has an ice cream addiction…

Next stop, surprise surprise, was the beach. Byron Bay is a bit of a surfers haven but there's some things we know we just won't be able to do and mastering these Aussie waves is one of them. Instead we opted to claim a patch of sand with our travel towels and bob about in the water between the safety of the lifeguard flags. We never really considered ourselves beach people, but Australia seems to be trying it's hardest to change this… and its winning!

After a couple of hours of beach time we mooched around some more of the town's shops until suddenly, out of nowhere there was a huge downpour. It didn't last long, but it was such a relief from the sun - and it's cos of this wet stuff that Byron Bay appears unrecognisable to locals. The town is gearing up for a jazz festival in a day or two and some early birds have been heard saying how the town looks so much greener than it usually does during the annual event. An arid dusty space usually frames the beach-front apparently, but lush green grass now currently provides a lovely spot to chill out away from the crowds.

Anyway, as the evening drew in we considered trying our luck parking up on the one street in town which wasn't clearly labelled as a no campervan zone, but it was so close to the main drag we figured it could get noisy so for once we decided to do the right thing and part with some dollars for an unpowered spot at a cheap campsite. It's close enough to walk back in to town though, so we're planning a night out tonight. Byron's nightlife is notorious so stay tuned for tomorrow's entry; there may be a spelling mistake or two... and those white birds better watch out in the morning too...