Last weekend Ash and I headed down to one of my favourite places in the world, Byron Bay to celebrate our 7 year anniversary! I love Byron because not only can I find a place to eat down there, I actually have choices. CHOICES!! It’s kind of nice to feel a little normal sometimes. Although normal is kind of an ironic word to use in describing Byron.
There’s many reasons why Byron has such a special place in my heart. It’s such a gorgeous place, and every single person there has a smile on their face and is so friendly, whether they work at a restaurant or they are a parking attendant. You can feel the good energy there. Ash and I have been coming to Byron since we first got together. We started coming for the great music scene and would go to gigs down there every few months. Our love of hardcore & heavy music is what brought us together, and Byron grows the best hardcore music in Australia. Yep, we are just a couple of heavy music loving teens at heart!
We still go down there for the gigs, but these days we actually go down there more for the farmers market! Oh how life evolves…
So whenever we get the chance (which is not as often these days) we make the hour or so drive south. This time though we decided to go a little further and head to Bangalow for the farmers markets on Saturday morning. I love buying the local macadamias and pecans when we head to the farmers markets down there, so I can make yummy things like these raw brownies! Mmmm.
I got really excited about these collards, as I have NEVER seen them in Australia before! They really do exist!
Bangalow is a really interesting little town with a lot of character and history, and I’m surprised we haven’t found ourselves there before. I just wish I had taken a few photos there! Doh.
After the beautiful drive from Bangalow to Byron, our first stop was of course Naked Treaties, my favourite place to eat in Byron!
My body’s main problem is my poor liver, so I got the My Liver Loves Me Juice. Actually I took my cup back for a refill and got another one later in the day!
I look a bit grumpy, but I promise I’m just enjoying the juice! Then I moved onto lunch, which was a raw mezze plate – just a few dips with veggies and the yummiest raw onion bread I’ve ever had! Mmmmm. I forgot to take a picture until I had eaten half of it, oopsies!
With a pretty edible flower…
If you’re wondering what a flower tastes like, it’s pretty much what you expect – it tastes like it smells. <– I’m really good at describing how things taste, as you can see.
And Ash got the I Am Limitless choc mint shake. So decadent, thick and delish! He (and I) loved it.
We walked around town all day, and Ash stuffed his face with pizza from Pizza Bar. We ended up going back there later that night to order a whole pizza for him, so suffice to say this place got a huge thumbs up from him. 
He is also a big fan of Legend Pizza across the street, who have a really impressive (although not at all healthy) vegetarian pizza menu of 8 different pizzas (almost as many as all their meat pizzas combined). I can’t stop this boy eating his pizza (free will and all), but at least he chooses the veggie ones!
We tried to check out Manna Haven, but they are closed on Saturdays.
We headed up to the Byron Bay Lighthouse, which shockingly in all my 23 years of living around this area, we had not been to before. Despite the tourists, its a truly magical place to see. I could have stood there for hours. We saw some whales, but couldn’t really snap a good picture as they were pretty far out. Dang.
We went to have dinner at Heart & Halo, a really cute place with a ton of different options. Ash got a plate of lasagna and I got a plate with all their different salad & veggie options.
We both LOVED the food we ate, it was seriously good. And a big plate of veggies is exactly what I was in the mood for.
All vegan and gluten free, they told me. But unfortunately I DID get sick here, more on that in Fridays post!
The next day we headed to the beach….
Look at this INCREDIBLE panorama shot Ash took! I snuck my big ole head in there…
Byron put on some great weather for us!
And we were grateful.
Because I was feeling sick we headed home earlier than we had planned. When your feeling sick all you want is the comforts of your own home.
A few other good spots to eat:
Byron Organic Kitchen – This place is a well kept secret in Byron. The people there are really friendly, answer all my questions about the food. It’s all organic & locally grown, and it always tastes amazing. I go to this one on most of our trips to Byron.
Fundies Cafe – I always like to visit Fundies health food store when we’re in Byron, they have some great local stuff in there that I pick up (yes, Byron Bay Sauerkraut!). We always do a little stop in the cafe, but I never leave with anything. The gluten free stuff sits too close to the gluten stuff for my liking, and Ash hasn’t wanted to try anything there yet. The food looks great if you eat gluten though!
The Caradom Pod – We haven’t tried this one yet, we never feel like Indian when we’re in Byron! It’s in a great spot though.
Santos Organics Cafe – We visited this great health food store, and they also had an organic juice bar with some lunch options, we didn’t try there but it looked great.
Your turn: Have you been to Byron Bay? Do you love it as much as I do? Do you know any good spots to eat? Share with us!