G'Day everyone! Well i'm now in Byron Bay at the moment and thankfully it is much hotter than Sydney! I can actually venture out in just a T-Shirt now-woo hoo!

So, since i last updated you.....i went to the Blue Mountains on Friday as i said i was going to. They were gorgeous, but unfortunately it was foggy and raining so we couldn't actually see much and since they are how every many feet above sea level, they were F.R.I.G.G.I.N.G FREEZING!! I did not bring enough clothes for this! Anyway i met lots of people on the tour which was cool, i exchanged emails with a German guy who is coming up the coast a few days behind me so we'll probably cross over at some point and will try and do a leg together or something. I also met three girls from London and ended up going to dinner with them on fri night, we went to this amazing resturant which overlooked Darling Harbour. It was so stunning but i ended up spending a s*** load (by backpacker standards) on the meal! so much for me not eating after i spent so much on the Bridge Climb photos!haha

Then i left Sydney on Sat morning. Before i go on though, i totally forgot to say in my last blog that George W. Bush is in town at the moment. He arrived the same day as i did so security was really tight. Apparently it's this big conference called APEC and all the prime ministers from Asia and Northern America are here for it. So security is a big thing at the moment and everywhere i went there were police with guns all over the place. They've even erected this massive gate which they can close to block off down town Sydney when they need to. I was lucky though and it was never closed when i wanted to go down there. When we were on the bridge climb we saw about 5 black speed boats zooming around the harbour with special agents decked out in black SWAT gear and there were also three black bird helicopters circling the sky with search lights scanning the water and the surrounding buildings and rooftops, it was like something from a movie! Apparently there are even snipers on all the tower blocks too! I also saw George Bush's boat being escorted around the harbour and again i saw his car procession down the street, it must have gone back about 2 blocks! Quite exciting stuff really!

Anyway, back to my trip. So i left Sydney on Sat morning and we went up the coast to Surf Camp which is just outside Coffs Harbour. We stayed there on Sat night and had a big booze up round the camp fire which was really good fun. There was another Oz Experience bus there too so there were yet more people to meet. The Surfer guys were really quite hot i'll tell you girls (i can imagine Ruth being quite jealous right about now) and it's so true that all surfers are ridiculously laid back! Then after a night of boozing, singing dirty songs around the fire and getting to know everyone on my bus we had our surf lesson at 7:30 this morning (sun morning). It was so much fun and absolutely hilarious.....but i did manage to stand up about 5 times and ride the waves into the beach!woo hoo, im a pro now!haha. Seriously though it was so much fun and i'm definately going to try and pratice more when im back in Bournemouth- maybe i'll wait till summer though! It wasn't cold here since the water is a little bit warmer and we had wet suits on, but i don't fancy the Sea back home just yet!

After our lesson we moved on up the coast to Byron Bay, which is where i am now. It's a really nice place, once of the more upmarket areas though (Paul Hogan[Crocodile Dundee], Olivia Newton John and Elle Mcpherson all own homes here) so it's a little bit more expensive than most places. I'm staying in a really nice hostel with all the people from my bus since we all got on quite well. I'm staying here till Wed afternoon and then im moving on to Surfers Paradise. Byron's the place to chill and surf so i think that just what i'll do- after a night out tonight though, at the ledgendary Cheeky Monkey's!

Speak to you soon, don't quite miss you yet (haha) but i'm sure i will!

Love you Lots

Big Hugs

Elle

xxx