In 2008, the family made a brief incursion into Byron Bay (warning - best not attempted in peak holiday season), which at that time was the furthest south I had ever been along the northern NSW coast. (As I noted recently, the ocean does get cold very fast one you cross the border.)
Late last year, we started looking for somewhere to stay in the Christmas - New Year week, and found the Ramada Hotel & Suites at Ballina. It's a very new place, was pretty good value and had vacancies. I can recommend it.
The one bedroom suites are very nice, with a kitchenette, two big LCD TVs and a pretty large balcony. If you are on the side facing the Richmond River, you get pretty nice views too:
There's a good Indian restaurant downstairs, and not a bad Italian one as well. The main street of town is a block away. The beaches are only a short drive away, although you could walk a bit and just swim in the river if you wanted to. Here's a view of the town from the local lookout:
The coastal drive from Ballina up to Lennox Head is particularly nice. Here's a north looking photo just before Lennox Head, with Byron Bay in the distance:
The best thing about Lennox Head is Lake Ainsworth, a freshwater tea tree stained lake just across from the surf beach, which has the very nice feature of being exquisitely warm when the ocean is cold:
One other tourist place just outside of Ballina is the tea tree plantation of Thursday Plantation, which makes all those tea tree oil products. It features a free, though mosquito infested, maze which contains odd bits of artwork, such as these which seem to have gone missing from a scary sequence in a Harry Potter film:
Yes, despite some less than ideal weather for much of the time, we were suitably impressed by Ballina and environs, and decided we would particularly like to visit Lennox Head again. But let's end with the traditional sunset shot (I thought the dark rays were a little odd):
(As always, you can click on the photos to enlarge.)
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