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Published: January 19th 2006
Hello!
Thanks so much for all of your comments! I love hearing from everyone! I'm still trying to figure out how to reply to them all. I was able to reply to a couple, but I forget how!
So we are now in Byron Bay. We stayed 1 night in Coff's Harbour where we had beautiful weather and finally got to lay on a beach! We arrived in Coff's Harbour at 6am and got picked up by Gavin, an Irish guy working for the hostel. We checked in and then spent the first couple hours on the beach. The waves literally knocked us right off our feet! By 10 am I was already starting to look a little red, and I was wearing 50 spf sunscreen! We walked to the grocery store for some lunch and then back to our hostel. At the hostel we were told that there was a petting zoo down the road where we could feed baby koalas and kangaroos. This had me excited because I really wanted to see some koalas and kangaroos.
As it is always an adventure with us two, we began our hike to find this petting zoo and had to stop three different times to ask people if we were going the right way. At one point we reached a dead end and had wondered into a trailer park. Finally, after a good hour of walking in the blistering sun (you have little sympathy for me right now, I know) we get there. Only, it's not a petting zoo like we were promised...it's an aquarium. Where we can pay 25 bucks to get kissed by a seal and have our picture taken. We were not impressed. So we bought some icecream instead, sat on a bench for a little bit and decided to walk back. This time we thought we'd try our luck walking along the beach. I don't know why we weren't told about taking the beach before. 30 min later we were back at the hostel. We were told by the locals at the grocery store that not much goes on at night on a monday, so we stayed in and hung out by the pool at the hostel. The next day we went back to the beach until we hopped on the bus later in the afternoon. I finally saw my first kangaroo from the window of the bus. Our next stop was Byron Bay!
We've spent 2 nights in Byron Bay so far and plan on spending another 4. It is awesome here. Reminds me a lot of Wasaga Beach, but better. We're staying at the Arts Factory Lodge. It's this really hippy place. There are hammocks, free yoga, and Kristen and I are sleeping in a 10 man tippee. Our first night was pretty fun. The two of us went out to this bar called the Beach Hotel. We met two Australians there named Andrew and Nathan. They're actually medical students at my university, so already I've made some friends from my new school! The Beach Hotel closed at midnight so the four of us went to this club called cocomango. There we danced to a lot of '80s music and had a really fun time. After the club we headed down to the beach. We exchanged numbers and I intend on getting in touch with them once I get back to Sydney.
Yesterday we got a couple of hours in at the beach, this one a lot more crowded than at Coff's harbour. Unfortunately it started to rain...and it's been raining since. I mean pouring! Everything in the tippee is just so damp. We're looking forward to switching hostels for our next 3 nights where we'll actually sleep in a room.
Oh! And just to show what a small world it is, yesterday at breakfast I saw this guy walking around at Arts Factory and he looked really familiar to me....turns out I know him! It was Graham, Ben and Bernty's friend from Queen's!!!!!! He took this year off, travelled around South America for a little bit and now is in Australia. I couldn't beleive it.
Today Kristen and I had surfing lessons!!!! It was awesome. The rain let up just in time for our 3 hour lesson, and then started up again right after it. It was a group lesson. We put on some wetsuits, did some stretches, learned how to get up on the surfboard, and then we got in the water. I was actually pretty good at it! And I have pictures to prove it!lol It was quite the work out too. It reminded me of skiing or tobagganing, you take so much time to get up the hill for a twenty second ride. It was pretty tiring walking through the water and waves with the surfboard into the deeper water. I really did enjoy myself though, and it would definitely be something I'd take up if I lived somewhere where you could surf year round.
Tonight we decided we're not going to let the rain keep us in. We met some British guys who are also sleeping in the tipee with us, and plan on going out with them tonight.
Hope everyone's doing well at home.
Love Becca
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Dad
non-member comment
Rain Rain Go Away
Hi Rebecca, It's like we're there with you. Don't over do it !!! Miss you. Love Dad XXX OOO