Max is back during our New Year's eve
Street party
Street dancing
The full moon in Byron Bay
The first light of 2002
The crowded beach at sunrise
Guillaume is dead tired at the end of the night
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We go have lunch in the restaurant bar which has the best location, belongin to Paul Hogan, alias Crocodile Dundee. At the camping, we feel the party rise: music, firecrackers, crazy people, screams. In town, the streets are filling up. We meet all sorts of people, especially Australians, from the region and Sydney in particular. The outfits are a sight as well. We enjoy the party all the more than we have booked a full dinner on the terrace of a restaurant which is located at the main junction. We meet 2 couples sitting with us, of which a young Australian called Gisele and her Norwegian boyfriend. Our waitress, Jordie, is dynamic and cute, dressed all in white and wearing a hat. She brings us a glass of champagne to start, followed by a big plate of Mediterranean dishes.The conversation with the two couples is lively, while some go to the balcony to see the crowd walk by. A huge Ari Khrishna vehicle stops a few meters from us, pulled by adepts also pulling a big statue. It is impressive by its size, and everything is planned to keep people at safe distance, spurt out the songs by loudspeaker and even lower the big tower to pass under the electricity wires. Some women are in the tower to waive, but is is especially the songs chanted by the crowd and the kitsch of all this which enhance the partying mood. Our starters are served and the group switches to white wine, while I refrain in large part from drinking, not really feeling like it nor wanting to wait too long before being able to bring the car back if need be. We join the street party enlivened by DJs, big loudspeakers, spotlights and smoke. People are dancing everywhere. On the way back to the car to get Max, they do a flying chairs ride and then we are happy to find the lad in the car talking to Quentin. As we are well decided to party on, we go back to the main street and they go to a party while I rush to catch the sunrise. As the stamp from our restaurant says: last night, first light. I am on the beach, the most easterly point of Australia, first continental place to be lit by 2002 sun. Many groups are on the grass and the beach, some singing along with a guitar, others swimming or walking, even surfing. The bay is a show in itself, with the full moon and the barely lit hills on one side, the lighthouse, the sea with rising glows and the flaming sky on the other. I stay until the bright yellow sun pierces behind Cape Byron and then rush to join the others. In fact, instead of going to a bar, they have landed in a private party with a DJ. I find them on the balcony: Guillaume is sleeping in a chair, his eyes half open. He almost wakes up and struggles each time his head sets back, before gently laying it. GuillaumeL teases him by starting to draw on his forehead, which wakes him up for good. The five of us leave, Guillaume falling asleep at the car, and everyone returning as I drive and the sun is already strong.
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OzNY01 