Aussie Holiday: Byron Bay

After Sydney, I had a 15-day trip planned up the east coast of Australia. Because I was travelling alone, I had booked in with a tour group called Connections that had everything pre-planned. I had all of my accommodation, travel, and most of my food already planned before I even left New Zealand. I also had a built-in group of people to travel with, which is nice when you are travelling alone. I met my group at 7am on Wednesday morning to head out of Sydney. There were about 15 of us in all, which is small even for the tour company. Apparently it is because we left mid-week and from Sydney, whereas most people leave on Saturday from Cairns. After a few minor mishaps (not being able to find the hostel, having to turn around to pick up people who missed the bus), we were on our way!

Our first stop on the tour was in Byron Bay. We drove for ages on this day, but it was our longest day of driving so it was nice to get it out of the way. We had a large coach, and because there were so few of us, we all got to spread out and sleep. We also watched movies and had plenty of 'comfort stops.' On this first ride, we were also getting to know each other. Connections tour groups all have one driver (Clinton) and one host or hostess (Jules). The hostess is responsible for organising any activities that we want to do, making sure we have our hotel keys, and cooking our meals. She also encouraged us to get to know one another, so on the first ride we had to go up to the front of the bus and give a short speech about who we were, where we came from, and why we were on this holiday in Australia. There weren't too many people. We had:

• Jenny and Laura from the UK
• Kat and Chris from the UK (Kat had been living in Australia for about 9 months)
• Ali from the UK, beginning a year of backpacking around Australia
• Alex from London, travelling before uni
• Michael from Germany, a small business owner
• Clare and Adam from the UK
• Juerg and Bettina from Switzerland
• Stacey, a Canadian paramedic

Like I said, our first stop was in Byron Bay. We stayed in little holiday homes away from the main drag. Ali, Stacey, and I shared one, and we had the biggest one by far. I was expecting dorm rooms and backpacker hostels, but all of our accommodation was wonderful. This home had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room. It was fully furnished, and it even came with little packets of milk for tea and coffee (if you can have milk, that is). That night, Clinton and Jules took us into town for dinner at a local popular pub. There was live music which consisted of one guy playing the guitar and the didgeridu. It was a really cool sound, something very Australian. Several people went out to one of the nightclubs afterwards, but after not sleeping in Sydney it was all I could do to make it back to my bed!

Byron Bay is a small, hippie-ish surfing town. The beach was beautiful, and the waves are stronger than they were in Sydney. We all went to the beach the next morning armed with boogie boards (free from our homes). If you had never been on a boogie board before, you would have been intimidated with the waves because they could definitely pull you under and toss you around if you weren't careful. We had a blast, though. The current was stronger than it had been in Sydney, so we had to keep watching that we weren't drifting too far down the beach. After a good ride in, you had to get out and walk back to where everyone else was. That afternoon, many people had signed up for a surfing lesson. I had just done that in Sydney, so I ran some errands in town and then headed back to the beach. It was so nice to just lay around on the beach, listening to music and reading occassionally. That night, Jules cooked us dinner, and everyone was so exhausted from surfing that we all fell asleep early.

The next morning was our last day in Byron Bay. We headed up to the lighthouse, which is the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. (Technically, there is another point farther east, but you can only walk out there at low tide, so it doesn't count.) Three of us - me, Stacey, and Michael - decided to walk back. It started raining on us almost as soon as we left, but thankfully that didn't last long. It was totally worth it because the views from farther down the beach were much better. We hung out down there for a long time watching the waves crashing in on the rocks (and trying to capture the big ones on film). Then we walked back on the beach, did a little shopping, and met at the bus to leave for our next stop, Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast.