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Published: January 17th 2009
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Our bus journey from Brisbane down to Byron Bay was a decent trip, apart from Mamma Mia, which had been chosen by the good folks at Greyhound Australia as slow torture for its paying passengers. So, with Lizzie singing along like a demented five year old watching the Tweenies, I put my iPod on as loud as possible and counted down the miles. We stopped at the Matilda roadhouse for lunch and with our pockets severely being burnt in Australia, we had chosen to avoid the meals on offer and ate our economy ham sandwiches on economy bread with economy ketchup BUT with top class chilli flakes! We did however manage to treat ourselves to some doughnuts, which were good but not on a par with the Greek lady on Great Yarmouth sea front.
Our first port of call after arriving was the supermarket to buy chicken kebabs for the BBQ to try and get us in the Christmas mood! Not sure why we chose chicken kebabs, though. With the weather still a bit better than at home, we ht the beach in our Santa hats for a spot of body boarding, a first for me, although Lizzie was a
Byron Bay
View from the lighthouse (and most Easterly point of Australia) seasoned pro after years in her youth down at the surfing and body boarding mecca that is Saunton Sands, Devon. She was showing me up by riding the waves with her face, doing handstands on the board and catching a few sharks while she was there.
After hitting the surf, we met Jody, Lisa and Josh from our Whitsundays sailing trip and headed to the supermarket and bottle shop to stock up on shrimps, roo steaks and beers for the festivities! Being Christmas, Lizzie and I decided to go for a nice romantic meal that evening, which consisted of a rain soaked fish and chip supper across the road as the rain came hurtling down. Suddenly, our Christmas day BBQ was under threat!!! The evening began with some traditional Christmas Ring of Fire at the girls' "flat". They'd somehow managed to bag a room with a living area, private kitchen, toilet and shower whereas we'd ended up in a four bed dorm with two German girls sharing the same bed and a Dutch guy called Gus who foamed at the mouth in his sleep. The girls did have some strange room mates, though, in the form of some long
haired Scandinavian fellas with a love of heavy metal and recreational drugs. One of them appeared to have a fear of sunscreen and we couldn't work out where his pink t-shirt ended and his face began.
A few goons and beers later, and after hearing some of Josh's preferences for the bedroom, possibly prompted by the karma sutra playing cards we were using that the girls "found in their room", and we were off out! We hit beaches bar at about 11:50 after a 20 minute walk. Closed at 12, so we went to the famous Cheeky Monkeys across the street from our hostel, which is a place that is etched in Australia backpacking folklore. We queued in the rain for a while, which made us all very emotional as it reminded us of home (mainly the Christmas Boogie Nights at the Ocean Rooms) and managed to get in for a good night! Unfortunately, after a successful trip to the toilet, I was informed very politely by a doorman that I'd been spotted on the CCTV and the management had ordered him to escort me outside. I thought this was strange as I hadn't stumbled, danced outrageously or punched
anyone, so although he apologised that he was just following orders, I walked outside with him. Strangely, outside were another five lads who had also been asked to leave, one of which had only had a couple of beers! We didn't see any girls being thrown out for being too drunk, and with a one in one out policy in place, we calmly and soberly came to the conclusion that they were trying to get more people in to spend their fruit picking money!
So, Christmas morning! WOOHOO!!! We fried up our Christmas bacon with economy bread and economy ketchup and sat down to open our presents, which had a ten dollar limit. I bought Lizzie a couple of souvenir things that she'd seen in Brisbane along with an Etch-a-Sketch, bought for a dollar from the charity shop. It didn't actually work so that's probably why it was donated in the first place. I had wrapped them carefully in the local conservative club's weekly newspaper, while Lizzie wrapped my presents using leaflets f all the trips and places we'd been to in Australia! How thoughtful! Inside was a boxing Kangaroo and Santa's Little Helper apron that was to be
Christms Eve
Body boarding on the beach! worn at the BBQ! With the Santa hats and apron, it was all very festive indeed! So with our festive gear on, we trundled down towards the beach with our food and beverages, but didn't get very far before we were all sweating profusely. So, we paid a couple of dollars for a trolley from Woolworth’s car park and headed down to the coast.
There was a load of locals, backpackers and tourists down at the beach for the day, very different to back home but there was a great atmosphere. We pitched up on the grass above the beach and had our kangaroo steaks, shrimps and burgers with a beer nestled securely in my new beer holder complete with neck strap and Steve Irwin picture! Crikey! Josh was busy making his foil container for his Christmas treat which was Heinz BBQ Baked Beans! Legend! We even had Christmas Crackers courtesy of Josh and Jody (Sample cracker joke from Jody: What do ghosts eat? Ghoulash. We all thought she said what do goats eat, so didn't really make any sense). Later in the day a photographer and reporter from the Gold Coast Bulletin came to take our pictures and
asked a few questions for the paper the following day. Unfortunately, they decided against our picture and chose to put on a couple of bikini clad French-Canadian sisters, who weren't that nice anyway! We did get a mention and the reporter went on to say "the culinary delights were dampened by a traditional English side serving of baked beans". Just couldn't resist a dig at the poms!
Some more Goon and beers later and we all crashed out for our Christmas after dinner nap, before heading home for the evening! A few emotional phone calls to the families who were waking up just as we were coming to the end of Christmas Day then it was back to the luxury hostel and more goon! We even had the chance to end the day with some sparklers carefully chosen by the Lizmeister for us all to enjoy that evening!
On Boxing day, we had Jemma and Ian coming down to meet us again as they were staying in BrisVegas with family for Christmas. They arrived an hour and five minutes late, much to Lizzie's disgust and she asked if they were stuck in traffic and why they were so
late. They were still on Queensland time and thought they were pretty much on time and didn't realise Lizzie was such a Hitler for time keeping. Anyway, they took us for a ride in lance and we went to Lennox Head along the coast for lunch (the first time I've ever actually chosen to eat a salad at a restaurant!) before Maybank and I headed for the surf with our body boards and the girls indulged in some retail therapy! We had another BBQ at the beach that evening to finish off the Christmas period with a guy playing the didgeridoo for entertainment.
We were due to leave Byron Bay for Sydney the next day and took a walk to the lighthouse at Byron Bay in the daytime to pass the time. This is the most easterly point of mainland Australia and it was strange to think that if you swam out, the first land you'd hit would be South America! We decided that was too far though, and had a bus to catch anyway!!!
So, that was our first Christmas away from home and we both agreed it was one of our best and definitely the most
memorable! An overnight bus journey to Sydney awaited, and we were going there hoping that our first New Year's Eve away from the UK would be just as good!!!
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