Jan 14th

So my time in Byron is nearly over as I leave tomorrow afternoon (its gone so quickly!) and head up the east coast to surfers paradise. It was a bit of a shock to the system at first coming to byron after being in sydney for so long - its so chilled out here and quiet, not at all like sydney!! Theres only one main street and beach after beach after beach! A lot of people only come here for 2 or 3 days but 1 week has been perfect for me. I've been lucky enough to spend most of the time with people who I was on the Oz bus with on my way here as there are still 4 of us left and have also met new people who are travelling up to surfers tomorrow.

I had a day trip to Nimbin on the 'Happy Bus' which was fun! Nimbin is a small hippy town and you should be able to see from my pics that it is probably the most colourful town in Oz! Our driver Fred and his son Zane were so cool and made the trip loadsa fun! Our fisrt stop was Minyon Falls set in a sub tropical rainforest. A couple of days before the waterfall was just a trickle but thanks to the massive storm and rain its flowing well now! On a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean from where we were. After that we stopped briefly to see and hear the story about Nimbin Rocks. Years ago adolescent boys had to climb from the left hand rock across to the right hand rock and through the hole to prove there progression into adulthood, many didnt make it and became 'bird spirits!' those who did make it were met by 'the ancients' holding a very sharp knife ready to circumcise, nice! Theres a burial ground behind the rocks that is still considered sacred today and many people living in the area are original descendants of those people. Before we arrived in Nimbin Fred gave us a few words of advice .... Nimbin is well known for its drug culture and despite the fact that drugs are illegal in New South Wales, theres the odd 'magic' cookies and herbs on the streets and in the shops, the shops names like 'Happy High Herbs' and 'Bingabong' kind've give it away.... so Fred warned us that they are pretty strong in case anyone wanted a try!! Nimbin is a very strange place, just one small street lined with shops and cafes with all the buildings being painted brightly often with large pics. The street was lined with friendly hippies chilling out! We had lunch at the Rainbow Cafe which won the award for World's Best Coffee last year! There is a museum which is so bizarre, a tiny maze where all the walls, ceiling and floors are covered in hippy type things - best not to try and made any sense of it! One local hippy said we should stay overnight and see how they all go into the woods after dark to sing and dance round a camp fire, shame we had to get the bus back ...... !!!

On Thurs I got up nice and early and went snorkelling for the first time at Julian Rocks via jet boat, it was awesome and I loved it! Even though it was 8am the water was so warm and clear! There were all types of fish swimming all around me, loved the stripy zebra ones and electric blue ones! Took a little while but eventually spotted some sea turtles (just like in finding nemo!) they are so cool, I love them!!! First we spotted just one but then there were a pair together and one swam right up towards me! Also saw a huge stingray, bigger than me, swim under me (dont worry mum it was right at the bottom of the sea and I was bout 8metres up!) Also spotted a couple of reef sharks and lots of divers too ha! So glad I did it, was a great experience and anyone coming to Byron should do it!

On Fri I was up at 4.45am (yes thats right!) ready for my sunrise tour pickup at 5am! Byron is the most easterly mainland town in Oz so we travelled up to the lighthouse (one of most powerful in Oz) and walked down to the most easterly mainland point ready to watch the sunrise - the first sunrise that Australia sees! It was such a nice morning and the clouds on the horizon made the sunrise even more special as the clouds were glowing at each stage of the rise. We even got tea and scones too mmm!! We were there for ages watching the sun come up, it was beautiful and the sea was so clam and quiet. So now I've been to the most southerly mainland point in Oz (Wilsons Prom) and eastern too! After that we headed to Clarks beach and 'The Pass' lookout for a lookout across the beaches and then stopped off at Watego Bay, the most expensive real estate area in byron! We learnt how the bulb in the lighthouse rotates 24hrs a day now, at one point they use to turn it off during the day but as it is so big the sun used it as a magnifier and it set fire to a lot of the surroundings so now its on all day long! After that I of course headed back to bed for a couple of hours! Then a few of us went back to the lighthouse as it gives you a stunning view of the ocean and surrounding beaches. This time tho we cycled and oh my it nearly killed me, how unfit am I and how long has it been since I rode a bike!? Had to give up at the last hill and push it up! Coming down was ok tho, no probs there!

As I said before Byron is made up of beach after beach after beach! The main beach is def. the best beach I have been to yet in Oz. White squeaky sand, aquamarine sea, perfect surroundings, it really is just beautiful, this is what Oz is all about!! Spent lots of time on the beaches around here just chilling out or getting a free body board to have some fun on! The sun here is so strong its great to just get into the warm sea and cool down. Have to be careful of jellyfish though, one guy at our hostel got stung pretty bad and the lifeguards have a supply of ice ready for any stings that happen, they're pretty nasty. The jellies are so tiny tho and are actually quite pretty with there little blue stingers, best to stay away from them tho!

Last night me and Eva went to the cinema to escape the madness of byron bay at night, way too many drinking games and late nites going on! The film we saw was Volver with penelope cruz, didnt realise its in spanish and subtitled! For the first time ever in a cinema i actually fell asleep for a bit!!!! Nothing to do with the film, it was just so comfy in there and i was tired anyway, huge ice cream probably finished me off!

The hostel Im staying at is cool, like a holiday village (it is actually called holiday village!) Its got a pool, they do all you can eat BBqs once a week which was so so so good - ate far too much! They also do free hire of cycles, surf boards, body boards etc and is the only hostel on the main street. On the expensive side but I'd definitely recommend it if ur coming to Byron.

So that about sums up my time here, as I said its gone so quickly but have managed to do lots I think! Today is another scorcher so back down to the beach again to top up the tan a little more! Next stop is surfers paradise tomorrow then up to Brisbane on Thurs for a week so I'll keep u updated as always and you all do the same back! At some point on my my way to surfers I'll be leaving New South Wales and entering Queenslands which is in a different time zone, not sure yet if i lose or gain and hour but hopefully the bus driver will let us know, so thats gunna change the time diff again for you guys back home and all my friends still in Sydney!

Ang xx

 Jan 15th

 Hey, back again!  just updated my photos with ones i took since last entry!  Spent yesterday doing ong walk along beach and then up to lighthouse, it was so hot we were sweating buckets all the way!  Was well worth it though for the views we got!  Yesterday was definitely animal spotting day, started with a big lizard at the hostel in the morning then lots more on our walk.  From the lighthouse we saw a school of dolphins, they were so cool, my first dolphin sighting!!  There were about 10 of them going along!  Then we spotted a shark, only a small one, apparently earlier someone spotted a 5m shark and had to alert the coastguard, yikes!!!  Also spotted my fav turtles swimming around and some rays too!!  So pleased we did so well on our walk had to get ice cream to celebrate!  Then just relaxed on beach!  For our last night together we headed down to beach hotel (one paul hogan invests lots in)  was really good night with great music to dance to!  Today bus is picking me up at 2pm, a couple of the girls here are getting off at surfers too which is good and we're staying at same place so we'll see how it goes!

Thanks for a good night guys and I'll keep u updated on the rest of my trip!

Ang xx