Contiki: Beaches and Reefs

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Well our Contiki tour started early yesterday morning and boy was it early! It was kind of sad leaving "Beached at Bondi", I was starting to get used to the place. It sucked leaving the people we had gotten so close too. I would of never thought that I would get so close to the people we did, expecially the first two people we met in the airport.
There arent so many guys on this trip ... 40 girls and 10 guys. Our tour guide is John and he is fricken awesome! And Gary is our bus driver (he's a riot!) It sucks though because I usually get on better with the opposite sex than my own. I'm not too sure why but I think it is because I feel more like myself, girls are so judgemental and with guys I there are no insecurities b/c they don't really mind and I absolutely love that!
So, our tour bus left Sydney super early around 8am after we took our group photo with the view of the bridge and harbour behind us. We stopped at Raymond's Terrace for a little snack and we also stopped at Port Macquarie for lunch. We finally made it to Coffs Harbour around 5pm. We ended up sharing a room with Ashley and Stacy (they're from Manitoba). I think they were the last people Mich and I wanted to room with but it wasn't that bad, they are actually really cool. The place we stayed at was GORGEOUS!! The pool was immaculate, there was a waterfall and everything. It was beautiful. There were huge snakes and lizards around the pool. And then we all had a big Barbie (BBQ) and I ate so much, it wasn't really worth the 20AUD (one of the optional dinners) but it was good nonetheless. Then we went swimming again b/c I liked it soo much.
I should mention that in the hotel waiting to get on the bus before we left Sydney, we met a girl, Juliet (from England), she's super nice and she fits in really well with Michelle and I. There are so many girls on our trip, it is insane. Our morning song is "On my mind" By Powderfinger. I didn't really like it at first but I'm getting used to it now, its actually pretty catchy! We also had to do this introduction thingy (We had to tell two truths and one lie about ourselves). I was kind of shy (actually alot) ... My two truths were that I met Princess Diana and that I have seen a live taping of SNL .. and my lie was that I dated a professional hockey player.
Okay, so right now we are back in the bus and heading to Surfer's Paradise ... we stopped in Byron Bay for a few hours on our way ... we went to Australia's most easterly point where there is a beautiful lighthouse and we saw some dolphins swimming below us ... very peaceful and beautiful. In the leisure time we had in Byron, we did a little shopping and spent some time at the beach. I'm really looking forward to getting to Surfer's ... talk soon.

Love,
Crystal
xxx

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