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The rest of my time in Surfers Paradise was really cool, it was just like being a student again! After my first night, I woke up to find that all the new people I'd met the night before had all left, leaving me alone in the dorm. It really was like a mini-apartment, we had an en-suite, kitchen and tv and a pool with widescreen tv you could watch 'dive-in' movies on. I went out for a haircut and when I came back the dorm had been filled with a load of girls. That night we went on a big bar crawl around town with people from a few different hostels.
Next night three of us did a centurian, a classic from the uni days. The centurian is a drinking game in which you have to do 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. At least that's what people usually do, but one of the crazy girls decided to do it with milk and this liqeur stuff called cowboy cream. She was given fair warning that it was a bad idea so it was no shock when she ran off to the toilet after about 70! To her credit
I don't think I could do 100 shots of milk alone. It's harder than it sounds, but we all managed to hit 100 and then called it a day.
On Friday I packed up and caught the bus down to Byron Bay, was a bit sorry to leave Surfers as I'd had such a good time there but I needed to carry on making my way down the coast. Byron Bay is a really popular place, it's not very big but there's good surfing and there's a bit of an 'alternative vibe'. Spent the next couple of days on the beach, and also took the long walk up to Byron lighthouse, situated on the most easterly point of australia. Nearly gave up about half way there (due to the poorly timed eating of a muffin) but I powered on through and it was worth it. The views from the lighthouse were great and I even managed to spot some whales that pass through the area at this time of year.
On Sunday I'd booked myself on a half-day surf lesson, which I'd managed to get super cheap. There were only six of us in the group, and I
was suprised to find that I was the only one who hadn't surfed before. We drove down to a beach in nearby Lennox Head, and after a very brief lesson of how to get on the board we were let loose on the waves. For the first couple of hours I was doing ok, I managed to stand up quite a bit. After the break though it was a different story. Somewhere along the line I developed my own special technique, which involved painfully scraping my knee up the board before wiping out spectacularly! It was a lot of fun though. At the end of the day we were shown a slideshow of photos that this guy on the beach had taken of us surfing, we had the opportunity to buy them but I decided not to shell out $30 for the cringefest that was my set.
Feeling that I'd seen as much as I wanted to of Byron, last night I caught the bus back down to Sydney. Arrived here at six this morning and checked into the first hostel I spotted, the Wake Up. Queuing up at reception I bumped into a girl I'd been in contact
with on facebook, we were going to try to meet up but it turned out she was leaving exactly as I was arriving! The hostel's pretty expensive but it is by far the nicest hostel I've been in yet, everything is swipecard activated. Was pleased to find out that my bed was ready for me straight away, at some places you have to wait until 11 for the cleaners to sort the room out. Passed out and woke up at 2.30, needed the sleep because the girl next to me on the bus had snored the whole way! Just bumped into the two people who were on both my Whitsundays boat and my group on Fraser Island. It's their last night so we're heading out into Sydney tonight. Really can't believe I've only got one more day before I'm in New Zealand! Australia has been brilliant but I'm really looking forward to New Zealand, mainly jumping off/out of things in Queenstown!
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digital_explorer
Reymos
I love these places
I had a good time in Surfers Paradise and Bryon Bay. July to October is the best time to see some whales in Byron. Did you find the nude beach there?