Far out east in Australia

Look a little closer among the eclectic jumble of brick and wooden buildings: Wedged between the crystal shop and the Aussie milk bar draped with surfers eating meat pies is a sleek bistro serving prawn risotto. And a few hundred yards along an awning-shaded sidewalk, you will have a choice of Thai, Japanese or shiatsu massage, aromatherapy and any number of yoga and meditation workshops.

Then there is the spectacular coastline that sweeps up to mainland Australia's easternmost point, Cape Byron, named by Captain Cook in 1776. A half-dozen white, sandy beaches surround the town, each with its own appeal for surfers, kayakers, sunbathers and families. The clear, turquoise waters also attract a multitude of sea life, and several pods of dolphins make Byron Bay their home. Just offshore, the Julian Rocks Marine Reserve harbors both tropical and pelagic fish, turtles and stingrays, while during the Southern Hemisphere winter, humpback whales cruise through.

A 90-minute drive south from the high-rise apartment buildings on the Queensland Gold Coast, Byron Bay lies in the partly submerged basin of a volcano active 23 million years ago. Now the area is a lush landscape of rugged mountain ranges where waterfalls plummet into subtropical rain forests. Mount Warning, the remaining pinnacle of the central volcano, rimmed with the Nightcap and Border Ranges National Parks inland and the Julian Rocks out to sea, is a popular place to watch the sun rise.

The ancient volcanic activity created a substratum of black obsidian that some people believe infuses Byron with a powerful energizing force. Indeed, the area's original inhabitants, the Bunjalung people, honored the area as a center for sacred rituals and healing. These days, Byron is the New Age epicenter of Australia.

The best way to get the lay of the land is to drive to the top of Cape Byron, which resembles the horny tail of a recumbent green dragon lazing at the ocean's edge, and climb the steps of the century-old whitewashed lighthouse for a 360-degree view. The Pacific Ocean surrounds the headland on three sides. Sugar cane, macadamia and dairy farms stretch out across the lime green alluvial plain as it ascends to the rugged rain forests around Mount Warning.

As you look to the south of Cape Byron, the Arakwal National Park forms a band of trees behind Tallow Beach, which sweeps several miles south to Brokenhead. To the west, a series of small bays, backed by exclusive homes and more parkland, offer great surfing spots all the way to the broad arc of Main Beach, which fronts the thriving township of 7,000. (The population can swell to 40,000 around Christmas and Easter.)

From the lighthouse you can walk a path along the cliffs, home to a colony of wild goats, past the sublimely deserted Little Watego's Beach and the larger Watego's Beach, which is only slightly more inhabited. Continuing on through subtropical rain forest takes you to the Pass, a headland popular with surfers, and along Clarke's Beach to Main Beach, framed in Norfolk pines.

To be initiated into the spirit of Byron, you can have your aura photographed at the Crystal Living shop on Jonson Street. For $25 you put your hands on metal plates and a Polaroid-like camera records the electromagnetic field around your body. Apparently we all sit in a big bubble of color, from golden yellows to pinks and purples, depending on our emotional state.

Armed with a record of that part of yourself that is not immediately obvious, you may be inspired to indulge in more mind and body exploration. If, however, hunger and thirst are more of a motivation, you should head directly to the Beach Hotel, a high-class re-creation of an Aussie beach pub across the road from Main Beach. Rebuilt by John Cornell, better known as Strop, the sidekick of Paul Hogan in "Crocodile Dundee," the hotel has a huge bar, a big-screen television showing bronzed surf idols, and eclectic, satisfying pub grub. Local patrons can tell you about the best surfing point breaks and spots to see the whales and dolphins.

Around town there are signs for classes in tai chi, Aikido, yoga and shiatsu, along with an ad for an "instant home" (read van) for $12,000 Australian ($8,275, at $1.45 Australian to the U.S. dollar). Another ad offers juggling lessons and belly dancing classes. You could see a unicycle-riding clown out doing his shopping or a cyclist pulling a bathtub on wheels, laden with a lawnmower and rake. In the words of one shopkeeper, "We don't do normal in Byron."

The area's early European settlers panned for gold, logged the cedar, hunted whales and established dairy and pig farms in the rich valley. In the early '70s, the counterculture Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, in the Byron hinterland, gave rise to the local alternative scene. The town still reverberates with the rhythms of backpackers' hostels, and adventure companies line the main street. Barefoot surfers, drawn by big waves and pristine beaches, wander through town carrying their boards. The East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, in Byron Bay every Easter since the late 1980s, is now part of the international music circuit.

In the last decade, however, Byron Bay has gone upmarket, with million-dollar penthouses overlooking the beach being snapped up by television producers and advertising executives from Sydney. They come to dabble in the New Age therapies, while still being able to enjoy a good cappuccino over the morning paper and a beer at the pub after surfing.

On the holistic side, Nina Packer runs the O3 Zone behind a flower shop on Fletcher Street, offering a range of oxygen therapies. The Medicine Wheel, an alternative health center and retail shop on Jonson Street, is a popular spot for a total body massage. Several centers offer day and evening drop-in classes in hatha, astanga and vinyasa yoga as well as yogalates, a combination of yoga and Pilates pioneered by a local practitioner, Louise Solomon.

Every Sunday there is a colorful produce and craft market at a different location around Byron Bay. Among regular characters is a serenely smiling woman in psychedelic harem pants selling cookies out of a wicker basket with a sign saying "Have a Nice Trip." Stalls sell cowry shell necklaces, bamboo didgeridoos, tie-dyed baby slings, temporary tattoos and organic passion fruit.

From May to September, Byron Bay is on the migration path of the humpback whales to their winter feeding ground and then back. The most exhilarating way to see the whales up close is to join a kayak trip in the bay. Or you can ride a jet boat through the waves to Julian Rocks and go snorkeling or scuba diving with manta rays, loggerhead turtles, moray eels, gray nurse sharks and schools of colorful tropical fish. If you are diving during the winter, you may even hear the haunting lilt of whale song underwater.

Several surf schools run morning and afternoon classes, and a flying trapeze school offers another adrenalin-based activity.

A drive west into the hinterland reveals first a manicured landscape of sugarcane farms and macadamia groves. The small inland town of Bangalow, about 10 minutes away, offers a quaintly preserved main street of two-story wooden Victorian shop fronts, with gift shops displaying items like mother of pearl vases, African mud cloth and large Indian silver-plated candle holders. Cafes span the spectrum from the groovy yellow and purple Urban Cafe serving tempura fish and chips to the Blue Gum Center, a diner with linoleum floors and Formica tables.

As you wind into the foothills of the Nitecap Range, lantana vines and tree ferns camouflage wooden cottages. There are koala and possum-crossing signs, Buddhist flags draped across a suspension bridge, churches converted to homes and bell birds chiming in the treetops.

Minyon Falls, less than an hour west of Byron Bay, is a popular destination for walkers. A lookout offers spectacular views of the falls, which plummet more than 900 feet down a sheer rock face to a valley lined, variously, with palm trees, eucalyptuses and tree ferns. You can explore six ecosystems in a three-hour walk.

Returning to Byron for dinner, you have a remarkable choice of options, all benefiting from the ready availability of local prawns, tuna, tropical fruits, avocados, macadamias and even locally grown coffee.

Catching a movie Byron-style means visiting the Piggery complex, a former hog slaughterhouse, first stopping for a drink at the Buddha Bar and Restaurant, outfitted with leather couches, then moving over to Pig House Flicks, where viewers sprawl on copious leopard-skin squishy pillows or a comfy couch. You'd halfway expect them to be showing "Easy Rider."