Day Trip #1

After a day of rest and relaxation (which pretty much involved a lot of sleeping), we decided to do a bit of a day trip .. well a bit of a drive around this area.  We drove down to Repton - turns out we're super close to the beach!!  Very exciting.. tomorrow morning = surf .. yay.

On the way to Bellingen, I spotted a sign that leads to my dream shopping experience ..  a tip shop!  We drove up there, but being a public holiday, it wasn't open ... bugger.  So I think I might be going for a little drive tomorrow... wooo hoooo!  After this slight detour, we arrived into Bellingen and our first stop was the Old Butter Factory.  Az and I have found our ultimate house!!  It's a converted Butter factory - so 2 levels, all open plan and the second floor has a large walkway around it - with enough room for bedrooms .. oh it was amazing!  So I think we're going to have to start drawing our house.. and put it with all the other designs we have made after seeing amazing structures...  I wonder what we'll end up building or buying??  The Butter Factory had a collection of little shops - art galleries, handmade goods, imported eclectic collections and a beautiful little cafe..  which were all located around a beautiful garden in the centre that featured great handmade ornaments and sculptures.  I found so many little bits and pieces that would be perfect in our house... but they stayed there :)

The town is very reminiscent of Byron Bay or Bangalow - chic stores and cafes, in period buildings.  We found a really cool little coffee shop that doubled as a vintage store - they even do trade ins on vintage goods.  The furniture is all mismatched and there are awesome little collections of goods on the tables - just to tempt you further.

We ended up having a coffee at a little coffee shop off the main road - and were entertained by a brother and sister piano playing pair (there was a few instruments that people could play if they wanted to) - we were just a little jealous of their talent.  I even got Az to admit that he wouldn't mind listening to some classical music ... might put that one on the "TO DO in 2012" list.. hehe.

After meandering up and down the street, we found a beautiful 3 story house conversion to have lunch at.  To compliment my burger, I had a homemade lemonade .. yummo!  The views were pretty good too.

Az's cast is starting to get a bit itchy .. and the curiosity is growing to see what's actually under the cast