Jan 9th

I made it to Byron Bay and had a wicked time getting here on the Oz bus, the last few days have gone so quickly!

On fri we left sudney at 6.30am and Jason our driver was nice enough to stop and let us get some final pics of the bridge and opera house, it was a beautiful morning with clear skies and i've never seen the harbour so quiet and empty! The bus was full with 24 people, a good mix of ages and nationalties though mostly english. As we made our way inland it soon felt like we were a million miles away from Sydney, driving through the countryside with nothing but rolling green hills and trees around us, bit different from the city! We stopped at Gloucester for lunch which is set in the Bucketts mountain range (english called it bucketts range from aboriginal name of bukkah meaning 'bloody big rocks!') Next we headed into Copeland Tops, a dry rainforest where gold was first discovered by accident in 1872. We had an hours informative trek through part of the rainforest where we got to see where old mine shafts still exist and learnt a little bit more bout the history and trees. There was one plant we all had to look out for too as the leaves sting you and then the effects reoccur every 12months forever, nice! Also saw strange trees like the stanler tree where a bird poos a seed onto the tree, the seed grows off of the tree taking all the nutrients and literally strangles the tree! Also hugged a red ceder tree as there's not many left!

Next we headed into our destination for the night, Barrington. The picturesque farm house were staying at was set right in the valley so there was nothing but green hills and trees around us, we were literally in the middle of nowhere! Our evening was to be spent down in the valley at a converted barn which had been set up with a full kitchen, tables, stone oven with a camp fire and hot tub outside and it ran alongside the barrington river, where one way leads to sydney and the other to byron bay. After a long day of travelling we all went into the river for a swim, it was so warm, lovely! Then sunbathed on the grass, it was so so hot! Then we set out onto the river kayaking. (we all made a 'no pics' promise - in our swimmers with a helmet, lifejacket and wet socks we didnt look pretty!) Didnt pick up the kayaking very easily, just kept going round in circles for a while! Then we played water polo (still in kayaks) which was good but turned into chaos at times when everyone kept bumping into each other! They use the stone oven to cook freshly made pizzas all night long - as much as you can eat with whatver toppings you choose! They keep a running scoreboard of the number of slices eaten per person, the record so far is 38 slices for a guy and 28 for a girl - i managed 8!!! A group opted to go night kayaking in the pitch black while the rest of us chilled by the camp fire before heading into the hot tub (and man was it hot!). Me and mary managed to sneak in first and just chilled out gazing up at the star filled sky above us, unreal! Managed to see orions belt (upside down from uk) and the southern cross. On way back up to farmhouse saw a possum tucking into our pizza remains, apparently he comes down every night, saves tidying up!

In the morning we woke up to stunning views of the countryside and tucked into an all you eat brekkie! Then headed to surf camp at Arrawarra. On the way drove through Coffs Harbour and saw the huge banana plantations, 90% of the plantations were destroyed in a cyclone last year thats why they've gone from $2 kilo to $15! We rocked up at surf camp and unpacked into our cabins, its like a little holiday park! We hung out at the surf shack before heading down to the beach for our first surf lesson. We started on the sand learning how to look for waves, paddle and most importantly how to stand up and the position to be in, we even learnt how to fall off properly! Then we hit the waves for real and it was awesome, the sea was lovely and warm. It took a few attempts but i got up and actually managed to standm it was so awesome, i was dead proud of myself! Swallowed a lot of water in the processa and eyes were killing from the salt water but still had awesome time! The instructors were great (they spoke just like the turtles off of finding nemo!) and i was so chuffed when they said i was doing well! Then headed back to surf shack for all you can eat BBQ, hungry work surfing! They got some wicked shots of me surfing but the package of pics was pretty expensive so your just gunna have to believe me that i did it! (mary managed to get a pic of me) Then I sat down with our tour guide and he helped me plan out the rest of my trip, im booked all the way to Cairns now, busses and activities booked, just need to sort my accom now! I've also booked my fraser island and whitsundays trips which i cant wait for, its gunna be amazing! I treated myself to an upgrade on fraser island (thanx mum and dad for xmas money!) so am doing a guided tour, staying a 5* resort with all food and drink included!!! Once it got dark we headed down to the beach with our flame torches, blankets and goon! Was so cool sitting on beach under starry sky sharing stories and just having good time. Stayed up till early hours which was a bad move cos we had a 6.30am surf lesson! I was ok getting up though cos i couldnt wait to hit the waves again! Had good strethcing session on beach then out we went! I managed to stay up longer and longer each time and was much better in a wetsuit! Then chilled at surf shack again before leaving. I can see how people end up staying here for weeks rather than days, just such a chilled out place and everyones so nice too!

So yesterday we made the final leg of our trip to Byron Bay, hometown of Paul Hogan (crocodile dundee). Arrived at backpackers holiday village just after 2pm and man was it hot!! hostel looks good, big rooms and its got a pool with free bike, surfboard and boogie board hire too. Byrons not what i imagined, theres one long main street with everything on it you can imagine (apart from maccy d's!) and then of course theres the main attraction, the beach! Everything here seems really laidback and chilled out, need to adjust after being in a busy city, feels really strange being in a smaller place now. There's not even any pedestrian crossings (those not in oz have no idea how slow all crossings are here!) I've booked to do a day trip to the hippy town of Nimbin on Wed and i'm snorkelling with sea turtles on Thurs (happy birthday martin!) I was supposed to go today but visibility was too poor so they cancelled it, gutted! Theres some guys staying at my hostel who i was with new years eve, strange bumping into them! And also some guys from my old hostel are here too so should see them in next day or so. Last nite hit the local haunt 'Cheeky Monkeys' for cheap food and games with prizes from free beer to free frazer island trips! A couple of people in our group got dead cool prizes! At 10pm the tables we were sitting at turned into actual dance floors and the place just went crazy!

So thats it for now, im here and loving it!!

Take Care and keep me updated on what ur all doing!

Ang xx