Well it's been 10 days since we arrived in Australia and we can still say that it's rained every single day. We're getting pretty tired of it now but luckily we're still having a great time! After Sydney we took an overnight bus to Coff's Harbour - quite a nice place but not somewhere we had chosen to go, it was just a stopover before another bus later that day. We arrived at 6.30am, just in time for a major downpour! Nothing was open that early so we took shelter on a covered bench and pretty much stayed there! The rain never stopped for long and we couldn't walk far or quickly with our rucksacks so we just based ourselves on the bench and took it in turns to look around until our bus at 5pm. It was a long day, but thankfully only an hours drive from there to our next destination: Spot X! Spot X is a surf camp where we stayed for 1 night and had our first ever surf lesson!! We knew as soon as we arrived that it was a pretty crazy place, the staff like to party harder than the guests and we liked how chilled and laid back everything was. Our accommodation was pretty gross though. It was the worst accommodation so far: a tiny shack with 10 bunk beds crammed into it with no room to move around and a slight infestation of ants (even in the beds!) but our roommates were really nice and it wasn't so bad in the end. We woke up bright and early the next morning for our surf lesson! We had an introduction to surfing at the camp, then headed to the beach to catch some waves! It was really hard but by the end we had both managed to stand up and surf right up to the beach at least once (though with help) so we were really happy! We even got a little sunbathe in the afternoon before we then got another bus to a place called Byron Bay. Every backpacker in Australia goes to Byron Bay. It's famous for being a hippy, surfy town and we really liked it! We got there quite late and just met the girls in our dorm who were really nice, then fell asleep. The next morning we actually had a lie in! It was great not to be woken up really early like most mornings, then we got up and headed into town. We wandered around the shops for a bit before making the best discovery yet in Australia: Aldi! We didn't even know they had any in Oz so we did some food shopping, then when we finished we noticed the sun was out, so we dumped the food back at the hostel then did what we do best: hit the beach! The beach in byron is gorgeous, we actually got a full half hour before it started raining which we thought was pretty good! It worked out ok though because we had to get ready for the big night we had planned! Everyone we had spoken to had said that Byron Bay was a great night out, and everyone kept mentioning the same club: Cheeky Monkeys! It's one of those clubs that despite all the terrible stories you hear about it, you just have to go there! We went with the 4 other girls from our dorm and it was actually a really good night! Everyone is allowed to dance on the tables so we danced until the club shut at 3am then headed back for the hostel along the beach, but unfortunately got lost and arrived back at the hostel much, much later and completely soaked through, as another torrential downpour decided to arrive just as we stepped outside! We managed to get a couple of hours sleep before getting up to embark on our tour of Nimbin! Nimbin is an even hippier town than Byron Bay which is particularly famous for its pot. It's officially illegal but the police turn a blind eye to it in Nimbin. We weren't expecting much from the tour as we had got it free with our bus pass, but it was actually pretty good! There were about 30 people on our tour, all young travellers and the driver who was middle aged and completely obsessed with pot but he was so funny! He had us in stitches with all his stories about people he'd met who had gotten completely stoned in Nimbin, and after stopping off to get some alcohol for the bus (our driver informed us that it was highly illegal but he was in charge and he said we could ) then set off on the 2 hour drive to Nimbin. When we arrived in the town itself we wandered around the little shops selling crystals, herbs and 'live happy' guide books, it is a little like Glastonbury back home except smaller and you can't go anywhere without being offered something containing pot. We left Nimbin to drive to a picnic spot in a national park where the driver cooked us up a barbie. We didn't know this was included so it was a nice surprise and we stopped at a waterfall on the way back too. Almost as soon as we arrived at the hostel, we headed back out again as some friends we met at the surf camp had arrived in the town and asked us out with them, so we went into town with them for a bit despite the lack of sleep we had the night before, then finally went to bed! This was our last night in Byron Bay and it was strange but we had such an awesome time despite the weather. We really hope it brightens up soon though!!