Goodbye Byron Bay

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Well we finally left Byron and let me tell you it was a sad day... I had the best times there and I learned a lot just from meeting so many different people from everywhere in the world. We met up with my cousin Jeremy who is also travelling the great land down under and I think he describes our time in Byron best. Here is an entry from his travelblog...

"It was time to hop on a 12 hour overnight bus ride up to Byron Bay where I was met by my cousin Sarah, who's taking a year off from University and enjoying the easy going life down under. She's travelling with her friend Dayna from Orangeville and the 2 of them quickly showed me how they've been spending the past month in Oz. While its no secret that the East coast of Oz is a big party place, one must wonder how all these poor backpackers can afford to constantly be partying and not working...well, the answer is found in a 5 Litre box of wine that is sold in stores in the $12-$14 dollar range. While there are obviously numerous different brands, the generic term for it is GOON. While Australian wines are internationally celebrated and consumed, such as a fine Yellow Tail Shiraz (which sells here for only $8) GOON is essentially the run off liquid that doesnt meet the health and sanitation standards to be bottled and exported to foreign countries, so inevitably it is consumed by backpacking tourists. They don't try to hide this either, infact right on the box it says, and I quote "There may be traces of fish and eggs in wine".....yummy! After arriving in Byron Bay, Sarah & Dayna (along with all our other friends at the hostel) got me on the "GOON" train in a hurry. I've now been here for 2 weeks and will be staying here until just past new years. Our hostel used to be a family resort and has a pool its own little beach, a bar and a great cast of people that have been there a while and new visitors each day. Fortunately, because Sarah has been here long enough to be a local, she got me hooked up with a great rate of rent and half price surfboard rentals. When I got here, I was all about organizing this and that and worrying about the time, but in Byron Bay, there is no time as I was told to remove it for my entire time here...so I did. While many of you at home are on a 9-5 routine, I thought that I would try and relate to you and document my 9-5 life. Essentially, this is how each of my days can be broken down in hourly intervals*

* 9am-stay in bed, there's no rush to get up yet.
* 10am-wake up, go for a joggg to the lighthouse which is about a 40 minute round trip run and very rewarding once you get there.
* 11am-make a big pancake breakfast
* noon- We all go to the beach, soak in the rays
*1pm- Surf
*2pm- Play frisbee at the beach
*3pm- Do some boogie boarding
*4pm- Go get some ice cream.
*5pm- Return to our sweet hostel, jump in the pool and then make a big feast
*6pm till the early morning - get on the goon train

All hours are subject to change prior to the previous evenings festivities.

It doesnt really seem like there's all that much to do here, but somehow the days just fly by. The other night we hiked up to the lighthouse and I whipped up a nice dinner with my cooking set and watched the sunset, with some nice music and of course a box of goon... This is a quote from Brian (pronounced Breeeean) from Ireland after we had finished our dinner and most of our box of goon.

I can't believe how hammered 4 people can get off $12 of alchohol

Most days (or should I say everyday) are spent on the beach (and therefore not spending money or consuming energy), so everyone is always well rested and ready to spend money and party hard at night....especially at Christmas time.

While this was my 1st Christmas away from home, I was not home sick at all. I think I may have been had I been alone and in a different place, but being with a family member in Oz, made all the difference. Christmas Eve was inevitably a huge party and a good friend that I met from Switzerland named "Sacha" and I hung up stockings in our rooms, hoping Santa would swing by down under. We awoke on Christmas morning (seeing double) and I was pleasantly surprised to actually have my stocking filled with 3 juggling balls that Sarah & Dayna bought me along with 15 Ferraro Rochers. We then whipped up a massssive breakfast consisting of, pancakes, strawberries, mangos, whip cream and ofcourse 2 bottles of Champagne (I'm thinking this could be the beginning of a beautiful family tradition). We then made our way down to the beach for some great surfing and quality time playing frisbee, etc....
At night, we splurged and went out for a wonderful dinner and all got nice big striploin steaks. Alot of places here are bring your own wine, so we stronly considered bringing a box of goon into this restaurant, but being Christmas and all, we spent the extra few dollars and got classy shiraz. We didnt end up finishing our meal until after 10 pm and returned to the hostel to see a huge party taking place. We joined in on the festivities and the rest is a blur.

The rest of the week was business as usual. Sarah, Dayna would usually have pancakes with peanut butter, syrup and whip cream for breakfast and head to the beach. We would then return at night and make huge meals again. Cooking for 3 has been the perfect combination for meals. We would usually indulge in Spaghetti Bolognese, Tacos, Chicken Salad (which Sarah & Dayna introduced to me and is now a personal favorite of mine) and steak stirfry with lots of vegetables.

We celebrated New Years at our hostel where we played lots of Beer Pong (which was actually more like champagne pong) and then got ready for the countdown. Byron Bay is like a casino, in the sense that time is not really important and therefore there are no clocks to be found anywhere. I think it was well past 12pm before anyone realized it, and we were at the bar doing a few Jager Bombs, when someone just started a countdown....after, we made our way down to the beach. There we all danced around a guy with a guitar singing classic Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chilli Peppers songs. The next thing I knew, I woke up and it was 2007. I went down to make pancakes and then woke the girls up. I had the table all set (or so I thought, when they came down the stairs). In each of their hands they had a big bottle of CHampagne....I guess I just assumed they were empty from the night before....no no. They both popped them open, like it was 2006 and next thing I knew, there were 20 of us on the beach playing drinking games all day. It was the next morning that I said to myself....(or perhaps it was my liver doing the talking) I need to get out of this place. And that was Byron Bay in a nut shell.

After that we continued to head up the East Coast into the state of Queensland. Here, they dont believe in daylights saving time but didnt let us in on the secret. We waited at our bus stop for 45 minutes on day, (playing an intense game of 20 questions) when we finally decided that the bus wasn't coming for us. It wasn't a big deal, as we just took a city bus to Surfers Paradise for 2 nights. Surfers Paradise is the most commercialized place in Oz and brought nothing to the table.

We then continued up to Brisbane (pronounced "BRIZZY" to anyone here in Oz. We went to a 1 Billion dollar manmade Lagoon for the day which was really cool. The next day we went to the Steve Irwin Australian Zoo and I got my first glimpse of some Crocs and Kangaroos. (Crikey!) Steve Irwin's 9 year old daughter "Bindie" put on a big dance show which all the kids seemed to know the routine for. She is already a huge celebrity over here and I predict that in 10 years she will be the equivalent of the Olsen twins....minus a twin sister ofcourse...and copious amounts of Cocaine I hope.

I have now left the girls behind in Brisbane after they found a quaint little apartment where they hope to find jobs. It was awesome hanging out with them and even though we spent about 20 hours a day together, we never had one problem.....and had HEAPS (inside joke) of fun and memories together."

I hope you all enjoyed reading Jer's blog as much as I did.. I think Dayna and I would both agree that we will really miss having him around... we all had such a good time together and like he said have so many memories. I wish him the best of luck on the rest of his journey! Remember to relax and enjoy everyday... We'll miss you!

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Photos

Byron Bay!
dinner at the lighthouse

Beach Party
doing the limbo!

Christmas Morning
Champagne Breakfast

Christmas Eve
The beginning of the night

Christmas Eve
The end of the night after being thrown in the pool.. twice

New Years!
beer pong!

back to Nimbin
We had to take Jer on a tour of this Crazzy place... the three of us having some fun inside the hemp bar

Brizzzy
taking a ride on the citycat!

Brisbane
The million dollar Lagoon

Comments

[Jeremy]

Copyrights
Sarah, I never got any $$ for that copyright infringement! Hope that you girls are having a good time in Brizzy and that you've found work and aren't getting pooched too much. Over and out