Junee Licorice & Chocolate Factory

A flashback from April!  We spent a couple of nights in Junee to visit the Junee Licorice & Chocolate Factory and the Junee Roundhouse Museum.  It seemed like all the other travellers only spent one night.  They’d arrive midday and visit both of these places that afternoon, then they were off in the morning.  The ease of travelling without kids!  Visiting both attractions the same day would have been too much for us, especially with a toddler.  We chose to visit the licorice factory the day we arrived.  The factory is in the old flour mill which they have restored.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  We learned that when they started the restoration there were pigeon droppings half a metre high from years and years of pigeons roosting in the empty building.

They’ve done such a good job fixing the place up, there’s just such a lovely feel about it.

You can wander about on your own, there’s a cafe and a restaurant and you can see the licorice being made.  There’s another shop upstairs which was a hidden gem, selling a broad assortment of items from kitchenware to crocs to wooden toys.  We chose to do the tour of the factory so we could find out all about the process.  We were fascinated watching the licorice come out in these lovely straight lines.  It was carried on a conveyor all the way through the main room (in a tunnel complete with viewing windows) and into the cutting room on the other side.  They even hold a Guinness world record for the longest continuous licorice rope.  It was 612m long and they had more than 700 volunteers holding it!

The licorice doesn’t look so pretty when it drops into the machine that makes it into those beautiful lines, but the kids loved watching this part.  We were there at the right time of day to see them stop the machine, clean it, and start a new batch.  They make black licorice and raspberry licorice, the machine has to be cleaned between each run.

Licorice has many medicinal properties that are lost in modern production.  Some substances used are synthetic, so if you aren’t getting organic licorice you really aren’t getting real licorice at all.  The root of the licorice plant is 50 times sweeter than cane sugar!  The botanical name actually means ‘sweet root’.  They are very proud of their organic licorice here, the tour guide seemed to have a real pride in the company and she hadn’t even been there all that long.  Licorice can boost the immune system, act as a mild pain reliever, aid endurance, activate the pancreas, strengthen the respiratory system, aid digestion, cure ulcers, and even fight tooth decay!  So tuck in!  (Yes, I copied that list from the sign below, but you can also read about it on their website.)

This is the cutting room.  It was operating when we got there so we got a taste of how loud it was.  As I mentioned before, they stopped production while they switched flavours so it was quiet for awhile.  You could sure tell when it started up again! 

It was a bit hypnotising to watch.  The machine cuts it all into uniform-sized pieces and the employees shovel it all into bins.  See the earmuffs?  It was quite loud, even through the windows. 

After the cutting room the licorice is coated in chocolate.  Well, not all of it, they do sell some that is not chocolate coated.  This is the huge machine that does the chocolate coating.  They use Organic Belgian styled coverture chocolate which uses the whole cacao bean and gives a very smooth and full-flavoured chocolate.  They even claim numerous health benefits for this pure chocolate! I think this machine had a name (like Vicki or something), it was very special to them.  We watched as it tumbled the chocolate so that it would have the perfect coating.  It weighs the chocolate that is added and adds it slowly, one coat at a time with proper drying times in between.

They sell a wide variety of chocolate covered products: nuts, fruit, and even coffee beans.

These other tumblers were for smaller batches, I think there were three.  One of them had white chocolate.  During the tour a lovely man brought out some chocolate frogs for the kids.  Much better than those other chocolate frogs you get at the supermarket.  :)  He was careful to ask if they had any allergies, since their equipment processes products with nuts.

There was a bit of fun at the end of the tour- Vertical Licorice Bowling.  See that black ball that SkeeterBug (10) is holding up?  That’s a ball of licorice.  We had to throw it through a hole at the top of this structure and it would fall through the shoot to knock down the skittles (bowling pins).  The high score won a box of delicious licorice, our tour guide gave us an extra since some of the kids had problems getting the ball into the chute.  That licorice ball was very hard, we had to really watch as the kids threw, a couple of times it ended up down the hallway.  Our tour guide left us to it after a promise to return the ball when we were done, they’ve had a few go missing in the past.  Which means there are people out there with giant, grubby balls of licorice in their homes.  Why?

Did I mention the giant freckles?  Before the tour the kids all donned their special hats and went right into one of the chocolate-making rooms.  Here they had the pleasure of pouring warm, liquid chocolate from a jug onto a plate and covering it with as many sprinkles as they could stand.  At the end of the tour we collected the freckles to much delight.

Don’t worry, TurboBug had one too but by the end of the tour he was out cold.  He was quite funny about making the freckles, he had one of those toddler moments where he just froze and only wanted to watch.  I expected he’d be all over making them, but no, he was more nervous about his surroundings than anything.  Maybe it was the hats.  In the window was a beautiful chocolate train they’d made, he was excited to see that.  It’s also the room where they make their gorgeous smash cakes, you can see pictures of them here.

I don’t have as many pictures from this place as I thought I did, I must have been too busy enjoying it all.  Or chasing a toddler.  We bought a few things from the shop and even went back before we left Junee to buy some more licorice!  It’s incredibly good, we may have to order some from their online shop as we haven’t seen it in any stores.  This has been one of our favourite stops on our trip. 

Byron Bay – Most Easterly Point in Australia!

While we were staying in Hastings Point we drove down to Byron Bay to visit the most eastern point on the Australian mainland.  It’s at the Cape Byron lighthouse, which is a state conservation area and a really popular spot, especially on the weekend!  We drove up to the top only to find it too crowded to park.  We were lucky to find a spot not too far down the drive so we were able to easily walk up to the lighthouse and nearby trail.

The view of the beach is stunning.  See the kite surfers?  (Is that what they’re called?  I’ve no idea.) 

Look at this!  So beautiful!  Definitely one of the most beautiful lighthouse locations I’ve ever visited.  This was an ideal spot for whale watching, and we saw people doing just that.  We didn’t spot any while we were there, though we did see some dolphins.

See that spot on the ground that looks like something has been removed? We wondered what used to be here and later found a sign with a picture showing that this is where the original flagstaff was. 

‘National’ parks in Australia are managed by the states.  Which means each state charges its own fees, so the pass we got in Tasmania (for example) doesn’t work in New South Wales.  Nice.  Many national parks are free to get into.  At this conservation area there would have been a fee to park at the top by the lighthouse.  Since it was full and we ended up walking in and we didn’t have to pay.

[Sidenote:  Weeks after we left NSW my kids remembered that the lyrebird was on the NSW parks sign.  How do they remember these things?]

What a view.  Those swirly patterns in the water were amazing.

Here it is!  The most easterly point of the Australian mainland!  A very photographed sign.

Poor TurboBug was so upset as we were trying to take this picture.  He kept saying ‘Up!’ but when we tried to pick him up he made it known that that was not what he wanted. After several minutes we finally figured out he wanted his hood up.  All his siblings had theirs up at that point (it was windy!) and he wanted his up just like them.  He was much happier after that.

That view again.

And the lighthouse.  It’s amazing I got pictures with very few or no people in them, given the number of people there that afternoon!

Yep, it was built in 1901.  How’d you guess?

Isn’t it gorgeous?  So well maintained.

In the old lighthouse keeper’s office is a museum and gallery.  Heaps of information, lots to peruse.  There’s even art for sale.  See the flagstaff in the picture below?

Some nearby rocks have a really cool name.  ;)  (It’s a family name.  Nope, not our JitterBug.)

The area is part of the Arakwal National Park, and there’s a cultural resource room featuring information the history of the Arakwal people.

Another reference to Captain Cook…

There was information about the symbolism of this painting and it was lovely.  Of course I don’t remember the details. 

That view, one more time!

We didn’t spend any time in the town of Byron Bay, but just driving through it  has a lovely beach town feel to it even in the winter.  It was the weekend, so it was crowded.  Can’t imagine it in the summer!

Hastings Point, NSW

After Coffs Harbour we went a bit north to a small town called Hastings Point.  We stayed at a lovely caravan park there, complete with a waterpark, indoor play place, and kids’ activities.  They had morning craft sessions and an evening disco on the weekend, great fun for the kids.  We met another family who were just getting ready to begin their journey around Australia.  They lived nearby and had just moved out of their rental house and into their caravan, putting their belongings into storage.  I felt for them, I remember how exhausting that whole process was for us.  But look at us now!  We are enjoying all these awesome places like Hastings Point, a lovely spot on the coast.  While we were there we went for a short bike ride and were greeted with this beautiful view of the river meeting the ocean.

As I was taking pictures I suddenly realised there were people on horseback coming into view.  Horses, really?  Could it get more picturesque?

The big talk around town was the filming of the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Captain Jack Sparrow would be making an appearance over the weekend.  We joined the crowds to have a look at the set.  A huge whale skeleton was being erected on the coast.

We could see the crew busy at work, moving the bones so they were in just the right position.  There was definitely an air of excitement in the crowd.  Lots of kids there, it was late afternoon and it looked like (from all the school uniforms) that many families had stopped by after picking their kids up from school.  While we were there taking in the view we spotted real, actual whales in the distance.  They were much more interesting than the fabricated skeleton in front of us!

This was the view looking the other way.  Such a beautiful beach!

The timing of this was funny for us since we had just started listening to the music (from the first movie) with the kids.  They haven’t seen any of the movies in the series, but we all love the music!

They had a section of the bluff marked off so you couldn’t get too close to things.  :)  All the tents were ready (and empty!), waiting for the arrival of the cast and crew in a few days’ time.

Soon we headed in the other direction and explored the beach some.  I love little toddler footprints on the beach.  You can tell he was running. 

I asked SkeeterBug to put a footprint next to one of TurboBug’s.  I should have put one of mine next to his, those feet keep getting closer to my size!

I realised these were the hoof prints of the horses we’d seen earlier.

Excuse me while I include some lovely beach pictures in this post.

As we were leaving I waited for TurboBug to catch up to us.  He came running along the beach and saw me standing there with my camera and must have thought I wanted a picture.  He hunched down and grinned for me, not moving until I’d snapped a pic.  Cute!

See that land in the distance?  That point?  That’s where the whale skeleton was.

Look what I found, mama!

This was such a beautiful area, many small towns spread along the coast.  Each had gorgeous beaches and surfers galore.