Happy Valentine's Day!
I'm now at Byron Bay, a hippie seaside resort, not far south of the Gold Coast. We arrived before midday for once, and took a trip to Cape Byron, where there's a big lighthouse and a lookout at the most easterly point of Australia's mainland.
I love the atmosphere in this town already, it's very laid back and they have so many great places to eat - organic, veggie food in particular!
I had my second surfing lesson this afternoon. This time, it was in a big group with three instructors. They didn't give us wetsuits this time, just long sleeves tops, as it was actually warmer in the water than out. It was raining quite heavily by the time we actually got into the water and the sea was a lot rougher than in Sumner, NZ, on the day of my first lesson.
I was much more successful today than first time round, although again, I got worse as the lesson went on! I think I just get too tired to push myself up after a while, especially today with the sea being so rough. It took so much energy just to get back out into the sea with the board again after each wave, and I kept being knocked down as the waves crashed over my head. I even managed to hit another poor girl on the head with my surfboard when I was dragged under water by a big wave! I had fun nonetheless... I really wanted photos from the lesson, but the photographer managed to accidentally wipe them all off her memory card, losing the business a lot of money in the process I'm sure!
We had a lovely meal in the Buddha Bar attached to our accomodation this evening, but it all went a bit down hill from there... We're staying at the Arts Factory in what they call a Teepee, which is basically a solid big tent, with 10 beds in it. There is no door, just a vague see-through net curtain that we can't even close. We had been warned that we may be out of our comfort zones at some point in this trip, but I had accepted that having seen a few lizards, water dragons and spiders around the place during the day. They even have bush turkeys randomly wandering around the place - it's "alternative" accommodation, as they like to call it!
However, when one of the girls opened her cupboard to pull out her rucksack, three huge cockroaches scurried out... Then, we found a couple just above the beds on the wall of the tent... And the last straw was finding them under our mattresses! Yuck, how disgusting! I really wanted to just get on with it and go to sleep but I couldn't even bear the thought of just sitting on my bed by this point in time, just as a huge spider wandered round the corner of my bed to make matters worse. We waited until 1am for our group leader to come back and I paid extra, along with two of my friends to share a twin room for the night instead. Some patronising idiot behind the reception desk said "Oh it's just a bit of culture shock girls, you're just not used to it" and "People come here especially for the wildlife" (for the cockroaches?!!) and "My friend once woke up with a python lying on him." Comforting words? I think not.
A girl showed us to the new room (we pretended there were only two of us sleeping there) and just as she opened the door, another giant cockroach was just sitting in the doorway! At least we were able to get things out of that room and then actually shut the door and we filled the gap underneath the door by shoving a blanket under it. I think they're all gone now... Although, I met a girl who I'd been on a bus in NZ with, for the second time since I'd arrived in Australia, and she was absolutely covered in insect bites having stayed here for the last two nights. She assures me the that I haven't "seen anything yet" and that I am in for a treat... Will I ever sleep tonight?!!