Brunswick Heads

“This is a holiday town,” the bartender at Hotel Brunswick (hotelbrunswick.com.au) tells me apologetically. “It’s not usually this busy.” Outside in the beer garden families eat hot chips under the poincianas, a couple of barefoot kids ignore play equipment to twirl wildly on the empty stage and mates chat over beers. My kind of busy.

School’s out in NSW and Brunswick Heads, “Bruns” to those who know, looks to this Sydneysider like the sleepy beach towns of my childhood holidays. We’re only 20 minutes drive north of Byron Bay but I’m transported 30 years back in time.

We drop our bags at The Brunswick, where the cool retro bones of an old motel are now layered with chic linen, rattan and breezeblocks (thebrunswick brunswickheads.com.au). “Did they have any focaccia left?” Alice at reception asks when we tell her that we stopped in at Ethel Food Store (ethelfoodstore.com.au), a café and deli sandwiched between Brunz Indian Curries & Kebabs and Bruns Pizza & Thai.

On bikes borrowed from the hotel we cruise wide, flat roads, tracing lazy loops in the long gaps between passing cars. Pastel-hued fibro houses, weatherboard Queenslanders and contemporary holiday homes line the streets. In three left turns we cycle past beloved Bruns Bakery, twohat restaurant Fleet and one of many good coffee spots, Footbridge. A tote bag in the health-food shop window offers sage advice: “Open your soul and live your stories.”

Simpsons Creek separates the shops from sheltered Torakina Beach and the surf break at Main Beach, the creek’s banks connected by an old wooden bridge that’s being carefully replaced with an identical new wooden bridge.

Under the neat row of Norfolk pines by the water, seagulls harass picnickers, kids lay on their tummies looking for fish and we race through a plate of the cult-favourite calamari from Starfish Take-Away across the road (20 Mullumbimbi Street; 02 6685 1388). “Another?” my boyfriend suggests, already getting to his feet. “Live your stories,” I remind myself.

We contemplate taking out a kayak from Brunswick Buccaneers boat hire or throwing a line in where the creek meets the Brunswick River but even with nothing much else to do, time slips away.

The pub may be at the heart of town but Bruns locals have a better idea for sundowners. As the afternoon glows gold we join the pack headed for the break wall to watch the sky turn pink over the ocean. Meditating, fishing off the rocks, playing guitar, walking the dog, riding scooter, skateboard and bicycle, everyone is living the Brunswick Heads motto: simple pleasures.

(From above left) Norries Head at Cabarita Beach; Paper Daisy restaurant at Halcyon House and its raw fish with red beetroot, riberry and crème fraîche