Monday Feb 11th:
Today we arrived at the Gold Coast airport where we met up with Aaron's parents to drive down to the small coastal town of Byron Bay. After checking in we all went for a lunch together. We all took bets as to the ethnicity of our server based on her un-Aussie accent. We were all wrong and all felt equally ashamed of ourselves when she announced that she was French Canadian. In our defence, Frenchies are usually not as tanned as she was, and she wasn't serving in a poutinerie as one would expect of a truly proud French-Canadian. As a side note, she's Canadian, not French-Canadian. Born in Canada = Canadian. French-Canadian sounds like she's a separatist or she was born during a flight from France to Canada. As a proud Canadian I'd like to see this term done away with. Moving on... It was a great day in Byron. Aaron and I enjoyed some nice beach time and got to enjoy playing in the breaking waves. The power of the waves is amazing. I got knocked down and pushed around quite a bit.
Tuesday Feb 12:
Today we didn't do anything special:p pool, beach, shopping, etc.
Wednesday Feb 13:
This morning we took a short drive to the lighthouse which is perched atop a high hill that allows for some really nice views. We did some shopping in town and had amazing burgers for lunch! Again, the food here in Australia is top notch! Me and Aaron had some more play in the waves time after more pool time.
Thursday Feb 14:
Today we left Byron Bay behind and drove East to the tiny Hippie town of Nimbin. The area was settled by happy hippies more than 100 years ago and it remains today as a fun spot for tourists to go looking to get high, or for the locals to live peacefully as they fight to legalize earth-born drugs and fight to prevent pipelines etc. Most locals wear hemp-clothes and sport dreadlocks. The town was full of marijuana-based shops and neat lil restaurants. The drive there was through the countryside and in the mountains which was a great thing to see. From Nimbin we headed North and back to the coast to Surfers Paradise. This place is reminiscent of SouthBeach, Miami. The strip is full of tall hotels and lots of retail stores and restaurants. After a bite to eat we searched out a liquor store. Beer pricing is strange here. A 6-pack can be $16, while a 24-pack of the same beer would be $42. So obviously we chose the better deal and went for the 24pack:) We enjoyed a nice Valentines night in after a very romantic early dinner at McDonalds:)
Friday Feb 15:
This morning we all went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. I've been looking forward to this day for a very long time. Following my lead, we went straight for the koalas! There was a large area of low trees, each homing a wonderful lil koala!!!! It looked like a field of fruit trees with koala fruits. I teared up with pure joy as I stood there looking at them all. They were each wedged between some branches. Some slept as others jumped from branch to branch. Me and Aaron paid the photo fee, stood on our marks and tried to contain our joint excitement as one of the zoo workers handed me a koala! She placed his bum on my cradled hands and he reached his arms up in a wonderfully warm koala embrace. We had our photo taken and my heart melted right then and there. The rest of the day was great as it was cool outside so all the animals were up and about. We even saw baby koalas on their mamas backs. We all enjoyed a fabulous lunch and now I'm enjoying a nice cold beer as we plan where to go tonight. It's Friday so we may as well hit a bar. That's all for now:)