George was easily swayed into switching up his plans and joining us for our final leg of the trip. Our last night was just over an hour inland of Byron Bay just below Mount Warning. We pitched our best camp to date at the bottom of a steep valley after an incredible drive from the coast. The bloke that 'greeted' us at the camp site had been having a pretty chilled day, his eyes were pretty far gone by the time we got there, around 4:23pm. He seemed chuffed we had prepaid and couldn't be arsed to charge for George, or checking the number of people on the booking. 

We went all out on camp dinner, fresh mint and rosemary that Beth had found were put to good use, all in preparation for climbing Mount warning in time for sunrise. The 3am start was well worth it. 

Beth asked me a couple of days before if I preferred sunrises or sunsets, I said I didn't know but I had seen a lot more sunsets. Looking back I think it's pretty obvious, the start of the day is way more exciting than the end.

I left Aus a couple of weeks ago, thanks to everyone I met for making it so special, the Wakeling family for making me feel so at home and Beth, for sharing Mcventures.   

I'm working through a back log of pics and bits and bobs. I've been in NZ for about 5 days and will having plenty to show for it soon, in the mean time, the second leg of our road trip.

Beth had a last minute interview the day after leaving Moreton so we drove back up the Sunshine coast for the night, before a slog south to Yamba, and a campsite just south at Redcliff. The weather was turning after two weeks of blue skies. We jumped out of Krudler, pretty stoked on the stormy outlook and had a blustery walk along the cliffs. We set up camp for the next couple of days of kangaroos, emus, back burning, and insane mid storm moonlit swims. Fairly Aussie.     

The storm hit pretty heavily on our last morning, leaving us to take shelter and have a solid run of O and Xs in Krudler. The tent took a beating. Once it calmed enough to pack up we followed the storm towards Byron Bay and coincidently George, a mate from Uni. The weather peaked at some point that evening and we found ourselves in the middle of a 360° light show up at Byron lighthouse.

After a chilled first week exploring some awesome local spots we packed up Krudler (a 27 year old, diesel chugging Land Cruiser, with nearly 500,000km under the hood and loves long walks on the beach) and drove to Moreton Island. The ferry from Brisbane takes just over an hour, we engaged 4x4, let some air out of Krudlers tyres and drove straight onto sand for 3 days of Island living.