Sunrises, shopping & surfing

Hey dude, how you going? 

Sunrise

This weekend myself as well as 40 other people from the states/Arcadia group when to Lennox Head and Byron Bay for the weekend. Byron Bay is a small "hippie" town about an hour away from Bond University that has recently attracted many tourists, because of its great shopping, beautiful beaches and small town feel. Friday afternoon came around and we headed off for Byron Bay. We arrived in the late evening and then headed to our rooms, just to remember that we had to make our own beds with the sheets we had to bring from our own bedroom at Bond....oh and there was NO pillow either!! Great, sleeping on a bed in a hostel, with one sheet, NO pillow and dirty blankets that have been provided and probably not washed for about...EVER (in the end we did get a pillow). After that, we headed to the beach for a evening stroll and watched the stars and the moon. 
We then went to bed around 11:00 pm to get only about 5 hours of sleep because we had to wake up at 4:30 a.m!! I also didn't help that I pretty much stayed awake the whole night, because my pillow was WAY to puffy which kinked my neck and kept on slipping off the hostel bed and onto the floor! We then all woke up at 4:30 pretty much walking around like zombies, looking like death and headed to the bus for a 20 minute ride to the most easterly point of mainland Australia to watch the sun rise. After arriving, there was this amazing lighthouse at the top of the cliff that was so cool and beautiful. It was amazing, we were all waiting around for the sun to finally rise and to be the first ones to see the sunrise on October 23rd, 2010. While we were watching the sun rise, we even saw whales swimming and one even jumped out of the water for everyone to see....well except me of course, who knows what I was doing, probably passed out on the grass from exhaustion, ha! 

lighthouse

Then we were on our way back to Lennox head for a full day of activities. We stopped at this amazing coffee shop and we all got breakfast and I ate the most AMAZING chocolate croissant ever, I wish I could have them all the time! It was so flaky and buttery and the chocolate was dripping everywhere, even on my shoe, of course! 
Then we headed back to our hostel and got ready for SURFING!! Hang loose dude. We met up with the surfing instructors, who were the spitting image of what you would imagine a surfer in Australia to be like. We then hit the beach and were taught the proper way of catching a wave and how to stand up. Then it was time to hit the water, I put on my wet suit and strapped on the ankle strap of the board and caught some "gnarly tubes," well actually if you wanna consider falling in the water about ten times before that, then yes I caught some gnarly tubes, ha, but finally I did stand up about 5 times and it was awesome. Surfing was amazing and I definitely appreciate that sport much more after trying it. After that activity was done, we had just enough time to change and hop on a bus into Byron Bay for the rest of the day to shop, get some lunch and sit on another beach. While in Byron, me Kina, John, Shaun, Evan, and some of the other boys went to Hogs Breath to get some lunch. Lunch was amazing and we sat outside on the deck with a view of the water and the wind blowing against us, just another normal day!! After that, shopping was a must and then we headed to a park to have a Barbecue. Being the very responsible and helpful girls that we are, Kina and I helped out Mazz (our leader) cooking the hamburgers, kangaroo sausages, and the steaks! It was an awesome cookout and everything was really good!

Byron Bay Beach

We then headed back to the hostel to get ready for another big day. After sleeping decently that night, we all woke up and headed to Byron Bay to meet up with some aboriginal people to learn about their land and their culture. We took a hike, swam in the ocean again and went kayaking. I was so excited to kayak, until I found out that it had to be girl/boy groups and OF COURSE, Zach had to be my partner. Zach, the one who tipped over the kayak about 5 times in Cairnes while kayaking with Megan and could never seem to get back in (just kidding zach) you were a great partner! We kayaked for about a good hour and a half and after first kayaking into the wind on the way there and against the current on the way back, I am pretty sure I am DONE kayaking for a LONG time! We had finally finished and the weekend had come to an end, Byron was amazing and I am definitely going to head back there again before I go. 
Talk to you all soon, look forward to my adventures in Sydney this upcoming weekend for Halloween!!! SCARY!! 


Hang loose!! xx