one canadians last night in oceania

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney
July 28th 2009

Published: July 28th 2009

So, its my last full day in oz. Which is increidbly sad. Am currently trying to give myself a tummy ache so that i wont miss oz right away, as its yummy food will have given me a tummy ache. Currently, i am too full to eat any more tim tams or drink any more solo at this point in time. and i dont even have a tummy ache yet 😞

SO, since my last post i have surfed with dolphins. which is pretty cool. My buddy tornado dave pointed them out to me on the first day, and we kept surfing until dusk because sharks dont like dolphins so we were fine. I nearly fell on one, and it gave me a fright. i still thought it was a shark and even lectured it until i realised it was a dolphin, which then excited me until no end. the guys duck dived in a wave and saw them, which must have been super neat. Its not necessarily safe to surf with dolphins, and they have a lot of force behind them and were you to occupy the same space in an oncoming wave, the surfer would lose the battle no doubt about it.

On the 19th we went and drank a few beers at the YHA with tornados surf friend Rick. I was leaving the next day, which i was pretty sad about (i realllly like Byron Bay), but it was a pretty fun last night. I learned cribbs, and due to beginners luck won. thats the only reason, because half the time i didnt know what i was doing. I hoped on a bus to brisbane, to meet up with my friend ivy who i lived on the same floor with two years in a row. I didnt end up meeting her, but we talked on the phone for quite a long while and i passed on vocab she will come across. I feel like i was pretty helpful in that area, esp considering shes a vegitarian. Went out to the bar with my irish roomie, and we ended up having a pretty good time and she gave me her information in the event that i ever make it over to Ireland. Which i really hope i do at some point, because those irish are a great time! And i've always wanted to go, and now with a few contacts, i will maybe be able to experience local life instead of just the touristy stuff .

She left the next day unfortunatly (her name was catherine),and in her place i met this very nice tiawenese student counceller. Who thinks i am well adapted for the world and gave me chop sticks made in japan. i felt truely loved. I was only in brisbane for two nights, and then went and booked a greyhound ride down to wollongong. i had two allowed stop overs,so i went to a place called Yamba (and yes, i did it because i thought the name was awesome), and a night stop over in newcastle. Ironically enough, because the brisbane YHA is new (its like a hotel), they still have a lot of kinks, and their staff isnt the most experienced. It took about an hour and a half to get my bus and accomidation booked, which led to me missing checkout. So i ended up getting locked out of all the buildings, and had to get a new key. At this point i was recieving looks of pity from other travels, and just kept trudging along because i dont know any better.

My bus left at 2pm that day, and i managed to make it there alright. i dumped some warmer clothing into the donations bin, so that i wouldnt have as much to carry and while doing that noticed two good looking books there. I am a book monster, and having finished my other two, i exchanged them. i managed to read a 500 page book and a 300 page book in less then 8 hours, and still have about 1 1/2 hours to stare at the lights as we rolled on by. When i got to yamba, i liked it immediatly. Once i checked in and was on my way to my room,this guy ran up to help me with my surfbag. Turns out hes also from wollongong, and we know the same people. It was a very small east coast. They were heading up to byron bay for a huge music concert called spelnda in the grass. We chilled upstairs in the lounge, and then i was invited to go surfing with them the next day. I happily agreed, and then realised that Rick from byron bay was also at the same hostel, and then he promptly decided to come surfing with us too.

I had a full day in yamba, so we ended up going surfing twice. We went to one beach called Pipi by the locals, and i was under the impression that it was a good beginners beach. I was wrong. On the first surf it was alright, and i managed to catch quite a few waves and whitewash, constantly trying to stand up and succeeding in frequently failing on one leg before plunging back into the water or being wiped out by a wave. I got out because a contact which said monthly i had somehow managed to stretch out to bimonthlies got ripped in half due to the force of a wave. I got out with possibly the worst depth perception you can think of, and let Jim/James (i dont understand why someone named James is nicknamed Jim, but i dont know a lot of things) use my board. I ended up looking at Rick's ear because he was afraid he had damaged an ear drum. We went back, ate lunch, and then went out again. About half the guys decided that it looked too small from the parkinglot and went back; the rest of us tromped down to the beach, where we were promptly greated by monster waves. And i do mean monster waves. these things were larger then i was by at LEAST A FULL FOOT OR MORE sometimes, and the white wash had quite the kick to it. It was the first time in my life i've ever been scared of the ocean, as the boys could catch these things, stand up fully, and STILL HAVE IT TOWER ABOVE THEIR HEADS!
I was terrorfied when i accidently caught one of these waves. I mean, your paddling thinking that the white wash is going to be great, and then before you know it your about 5 feet off the ground and moving much faster then you would have liked to as a novice. I did a few face plants, got sucked under a few waves, and have skipped like a stone across the water (my most surface skips was three!). The whitewash was even hard; several times it knocked me off the front of my board, threw me sidewaves or into oncoming waves. And when the sane and cautionary surfers would have stopped, i would sit/stand there a little dazed, blink a few times, pick up my board and trudge back out.
it started to pay off though.The leg flailing turned into not so much flailing, until finally i managed to stand. at which point the euphoria i can not possibly begin to describe rushed through me, i started to laugh,and then was smote from behind by a monster wave.

one thing i would suggest to anyone who wants to start surfing is to take up yoga. I know that sounds incredibly odd, but when you get hit by a monster wave you want to be flexible. that way whichever way it wants you to go is not so painful, and even when colliding with sand, the impact isnt so bad. I havent taken yoga in about 2 years, but my body still remembered and bent in ways i wish i could in everyday life. I am most certinaly taking it up again when i get back. Plus, you can probably spring up to your feet alot faster, thus avoiding the troublesome knee into face issue which can arise for beginners.
From there, i cough and sputtered out of the wave, actually throwing up some sand. which i am ALSO proud about (and my mother is no doubt currently horrified).

The next day i had a 12:25 pm bus to newcastle. I said goodbye to the wollongong boys, who were also leaving and to rick, who it turns out bruised his eardrum. I proceeded to checkout, and then stored my stuff with reception and wandered around the town. It was really a nice place to go, and i'm sad i didnt get to spend much time there. On my next trip, i am most definatly going to go for longer. And hit up the beginners beach, thus avoiding sand eating activities and monster waves. When we were at a gasstation, i picked up a 'chocolate overload kitkat,' they have all sorts of kitkats here that we dont at home, like the dark chocolate kitkat (yummy!), the white chocolate kitkat (also yummy), the cookies and cream kitkat (possibly the best one yet), and the not tried mint kitkat. Not due to lack of wanting though. Btw, turkish delights ARE NOT DELIGHTFUL! there, i said it...

After reading two more novels (it was another long bus ride, requiring us to go to Maclain; i got dropped off and Shanes car battery died; we pushed it in reverse, and nearly hit an old person who was pulled out of the way last second, so that he could start the van before getting crushed via greyhound bus), i posted a few last postcards and watched more pretty lights. Arrived at about 9pm at night, and i dont care what people say, there is such a thing as bus lag. if there wasnt, then why is everyone tired after spending hours on one?

The next day i left newcastle at about 9:30am, and ended up in sydney at noon. from there i went straight to the train, got a ticket to wollongong, walked from the station to weerona, where i bumped into Nikki, Amanda and tish chilling on the front lawn.The girl i had origionally going to be staying with had gone on a weekend surf trip, and had forgotten to give her bf the key. I really wish i had managed to get down in time to go with them, as i just slept in newcastle and then moved on. i ended up crashing with amanda, and we had a blast!Or i did and just superimposed that she did as well. By this point a lot of people thought i was going to weerona, as all the new students had arrived, and i will admit i played along with this. met a lot of really nice new people. The next night was Rubix cube at the Illawara hotel, and i managed to blend in with the crowd, get onto the partyy bus for free and also into the club, free. Guess i must look like weerona material or something....ended up walking back with Amanda at the end to get some fresh air, and crashed in Sophies room (she had arrived back that day). She had this very cool nail kit, so we ended up doing ours before going out. Over half the time here i wished i was asian, because they have the coolest and/or cutest things imaginable. and can pull off so much more then caucasins. shucks...

on the 27th, i went to the bakery with Amanda and we got caramel squares and fruit yogurt. which was possibly the best yogurt i have ever tasted. most people were going to their first day of class, so it wasnt as happening as the days before, but i ended up in coops room watching a random asian band video with people who had gone to japan. It was great, and i am now dedicated to getting one of thoses large stuffie heads that are perpetually happy to see you. i want to sleep on it on the flight, and have a reassuring face telling me i can get through the obnoxious number of hours i will be traveling for.

I managed to make it up to sydney from wollongong without incident,and after about 15 minutes in the central yha fell down a short flight of stairs and walked into a door. because i am made talented like that. hopefully i manage not to kill myself and get home safe. am currently just killing time until i can get together with friends on my last night here in oz.

which i will admit, breaks my heart just a little.

one canadians last night in oceania

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