This morning was the first time I have had a lay in. It was nice to wake up naturally instead of an early alarm. I didn't even leave the hostel until 11 o'clock. I had some breakfast, I'm going to live up to my name, and I had a pie!! Yes a pie for breakfast! (I love pies!). I needed something quick and easy as I'm going to be surfing for 4 hours! Need all the energy I can get! Plus- pies seem to be really popular in Australia. Oh and did I mention I love pies!

I walked around the street to the Mojo Surf School shop, and checked in. I had to wait a little while before our instructor Adam arrived to take us to Lennox Head. I thought we would be doing the surfing on Byron Bay. The waves seemed perfect for learning on when I saw them yeaterday. No, we go to Lennox head were the waves are massive! There was a group of 7 students, 80% were English!

When we arrived we put on our wet suit, and rash shirt (TIGHT!) and heade to the beach with our boards! The surf boards we were using seemed really light. We started by doing some stretches, and going over information about water conditions waves, winds and currents etc. We then started to do the actual getting up on your board technique. It really isn't as easy as it looks as your meant to do it in one quick movement. We did some practising, before heading out to the ocean. (I had managed to get the hang off it believe it or not!)

We all entered the water between the 2 flags that were posted on the beach. Attached the saftey cord to my leg. Making sure we were far enough away from each other, as a surf board in the face is going to hurt, a lot!! It was hard work fighting with the waves to get the water chest height. When I finally manged to get in the right place, I picked my wave and went to lay on my board but pushed to hard off the sand and slid straight over the other side.! Great start!

I then picked my next wave, but chickened out at the last second as it was massive for my first try! I finally found a wave that was perfect. We were told to get on the board about 10 seconds before the wave would hit us, then 5 seconds before the wave hit our feet start paddling fast, when the wave hits our feet do 3 power strokes and then stand up! It's that simple! Well I did everything to plan, and I could feel the wave under me, and I went to stand up, taking my hands off the board to soon, I just went flying, crashing into the water! First real attempt - FAIL. Lol. I then had to battle with the waves again to get in the right location to pick a wave. My next attempt went really well, until one of the other students got in my way, I has just stood up, an had to jump off my board as it I hit this guys board!! He just said sorry, "you nearly stood up then!" yeah thanks!! I know. ;-). I didn't want to loose my momentum. So I went again. The next few goes we're a disaster, I keep tangling the cord around my legs.

Adam was going around helping people, holding them steady, and shouting instructions as the wave approached. Honestly it annoyed me, I preferred to do it alone. Plus one of the times he "helped" me, I did a face plant in the water. I had put to much weight on the front of the board and it noise dived, and my face slapped against the wave! Swallowing a mouthful of salty water nearing gagging! Yuk. Then after about 20 minutes or so, I saw a wave got ready laid on my board and done everything I was told. Pushes myself off the board and stood up!! Whooo!!! Amazing. I was posing for the camera on the shore!!! I just surfed the wave for about 30 seconds and was then able to just step off the board and go again!! In total within the first hour I was able to do it 6 or 7 times!! I was well chuffed. Just glad I could stand on my board. Then i saw that my rash shirt had rolled up and looked like a blue coloured bra. Great... That means all my pictures so far are going to be horrible. Everyone was doing really well. We then had a break as it really does take it out of you. The paddling, and battling with the waves is hard work. Half time oranges were given out! Just what I needed to get the salty seawater taste out of my mouth! Adam gave me some tips " Take my hand off at the last second!" I knew this already and it was causing me to fall 99% of the times - but when your board is wet my hand keep slipping. I got back in the water and decided to go further out, as Adam said we were all doing great for our first lesson. We were now catching the waves before they broke. The water of course was deeper and we were able to sit on your boards waiting for the wave. Except I went to sit on mine the first time I tipped straight off the otherside. Rubbed the water from my face hoping no one saw as I look around someone was clapping!! Lol. Oops. I was able to catch loads more waves, making sure my rash shirt was in the correct position for the pictures! I was getting so tired. I was pretty glad when adam said last wave. Which I crashes off in spectacular style! Great way to end the lesson.

We went back to the bus, and washed our gear and ourselves in the teatree lake. It was really dark brown, who knows what was in the water. On the way back most of the guys and me had decided to meet up for drinks and a night out at cheeky monkeys! A back packers bar/club on Byron. When I got back to the room I needed a power nap, except it only lasted 5 minutes as a group of girls had just come back from Ninbin. This is a hippy town in the outback were you can visit museums and smoke weed and eat hash cookies. They came into the rooms giggling about the alphabet... Not sure what kind of high they were on.

I went to Aldi to grab something to eat, it was not nice as all. I imagine dog food tasting like the dinner I cooked. Actually I just heated it up, it was horrible. Got some beers and sat with my surf group chatting about stuff travellers talk about. I finished off my beers and we jumped in the free shuttle bus that took us to Cheeky Monkeys, getting a few drink voucher when we entered! The drink was a frozen margarita, it was disgusting. After that I just stuck to the beer! Cheeky monkey is well known for dancing on tables, but before the dancing started the played a game of trivial pursuit. 8 people got picked and stood up on the table. You could win a free trip. It was very tempting, but of course I didn't go for it, plus these sort of games aren't always so straight forward. I wasn't wrong. It was actually strip trivial pursuit. If you wanted to stay in the game after getting a question wrong you had to remove clothing. The questions were mainly sport, even tho I got a couple right I wouldn't have been on long. Plus I wasn't going to strip on the stage! (pole dancing yes, stripping no!) the game lasted about 30 minutes before the dancing started. It was already gone midnight... The group I was with start dancing when "Call me maybe!" came on. It is sort of my Austalia song, every bar/club I go to play it!!. Chessey but I like it!

We managed to fight our way onto the table for a dance. It was just like a massive picnic bench. It didn't really feel safe, but stayed up their for a couple of songs! It was getting on. I had another greyhound bus tomorrow. I said goodbye to the gang, gave them my email address before walking the 5 minutes to the hostel. Officially it was the 26th June in Australia. This means Mr Caffrey was 30! I gave him a drunken phone call from Australia, it cost me about $10 dollars for 2 minutes! Lol. I won't be doing that again. I crashed out and left my packing, I would sort that when I wake up!

Happy Birthday Kizzie and Aaron!