Byron Bay!

Its been a bit longer than I intended since I last updated this due to us being super busy having the time of our bloody lives. So right now at this very minute I am sat having breakfast at The Arts Factory backpackers hostel in Byron Bay, reflecting on the last few amazing days here and trying to remember what we did last week.
   
Tuesday 3rd - We did some walks around Mount Tambourine; which, incidentally, is not at all shaped like a tambourine. We visited some glowworm caves, which was super weird, glowworms arent even actual worms they are fly larvae. Who knew?
We also walked to top of a huge waterfall (cameron falls) and looked over the edge of the cliff in a very responsible and not at all risky manner. After some more time spent looking at things we then drove to surfers paradise, realised it was a lot bigger than we anticipated and spent a stressful 45mins driving in circles, arguing about parking and finally locating and checking into a campsite.

Wednesday 4th - Today was the day we would learn to surf! It turns out (shockingly) that surfing is harder than it looks. Quote of the day goes to our world champion surf instructer: "Stop fucking the waves Annie!"
After an afternoon spent battling with the undertow and trying not to drown whilst also trying to stand up on a large bit of foambaord, Annie decided it was a great idea for us to go for a run, as well as do some press ups and pull ups in front of japanese tourists. As far as ideas go, I've heard better ones, especially since I cant remember the last time I ran for longer than 10 minutes. As expected, my body felt spectaluar the next day.

Thursday 5th
We walked around Surfers Paradise for a bit, got a bit sick and tired of the commercialism and sheer number of people, then drove to Springbrook National Park. It was great drive along the super high, super steep cliff edges; there were amazing panoramic views that Annie completely missed as she nestled in Barbara's bosom like a scared baby Koala.
We eventually found the campsite, and later that night got visited by some possums creeping around the van and tent, making enough noise to freak Annie out completely.

Friday 6th
Woke up fairly early, and found the easiest walk with the best views (the twin falls circuit - 4km and 5 waterfalls); it was a great walk actually - the waterfalls were enormous and the walk was just long enough to feel like we were getting good exercise, but not so long we collapsed from heat exhaustion. You would expect a place like that to be peaceful and quiet,and some of it was, but as soon as we got to a heavily wooded area we were assaulted by the noise of a thousand angry birds. It was deafening.
After a brief stop at the 'Best of All Lookout' where we could see all the way into New South Wales and Byron Bay we continued on to Nimbin, a small hippy town where you can see what happens to people when they smoke copious amounts of drugs everyday. We had a coffee in a cafe full of extremely chilled out people then we swiftly moved on, going towards....

BYRON BAY!!!!!!!!!!

...Where we have spent the last two days, and we all love it here. We surfed, sat on the beach, bumped into some Fraser Island friends, Annie bumped into someone she went to uni with, I got stalked by a chef who gave me his number (he actually left it under our windscreen wiper, in a bold, romantic and slightly creepy way, bless him), we've had a couple of really good nights out, and also had the best nachos I've ever tasted at the mexican cantina. We have also spent a good portion of our time people-watching, as Byron Bay is full of beautiful weirdos. We dont really want to leave, but there is still a lot to see. Later today we will head down the coast again, and see where we end up.