The 13th of June was the day we planned to leave Byron Bay and head to Surfers Paradise, back in Queensland. We got up early in order to make the most of the day.

With the guys visiting Nimbin the day previous, they had yet to see the main attraction at Byron Bay, and I was definitely up for another visit in drier weather. Although not perfect, the weather had finally made a definite improvement, and so after checking out the hostel we began the walk up to the top of the lighthouse again.

Just before you reach the pinnacle, there is a sign pointing a different direction marking a viewpoint. The day previous, when I had been in the lighthouse, a girl inside had said that the view was amazing, and that you should do the walk. I suggested to the group we do it, but Lauren and Jess wanted to simply visit the top of the lighthouse.

This turned out to be a very astute decision on their part. Stu, Scott and I headed down the path and after 15 minutes of walking, emerged back at the bottom of the climb up to the lighthouse. Rather frustrated, we made our way all the way back up again, in the midst of stop-start rain.

When we reached the top the second time, I noticed a path I had not seen before. It headed down the other side of the cliff face and at the bottom was an amazing outlook onto the cliffs and out to sea. Scott, Stu and I took many photos of the spray off the sea and the cliffs around, before eventually heading back up again. We worked out that in total we had walked almost 8km by the time we had gone up and down that cliff 3 times!

It had been almost an hour and a half since we had last seen the girls, but sure enough they were waiting for us back at the lighthouse. By that point we were all starving and so we dived into a cafe on the summit for a sandwich and some ice cream, before heading off again.

After leaving the lighthouse, we got in the car and once again Stu took up his navigational role - the destination this time was Surfers Paradise. None of us had really done any research on surfers paradise, and I really wish we had. When we arrived there, an hour and a half later, we discovered that it is in fact a rather large city, full of skyscrapers overlooking the coast.

Astounded, we set off for a quick explore, before heading back to the hostel and having a fantastic night out in the clubs of Surfers with the reps from the hostel. It was a great night!