Yo surfer dudes!

So, I am 2 days into my wonderous experience of Oz and all I can say is WOW. I really didn't imagine it to be like this at all! Not only have I already done so much already but I have a great group that is travelling with me to make my time here even more disgraceful! But to the beginning…

On Tuesday morning and me soph left for Coffs Harbour at some ridiculous time in the morning - now you know how it is, first day on a new tour, no one knows each other - the bus was SILENT. Errily so. Given it was stupid o clock but still, the occasional sneeze would have been appreciated. The one sound we did have however the Greg (or Ute as he goes by- all Oz drivers have funny names apparently…greg is just so obscure how could I ever remember it?!) playing yellow car with the girl who sat next to him at the front of the bus. All the way until lunch. On the microphone so we all could here it. Tres annoying.

By the time lunch was over me and sophie had decided to skip Coffs harbor and go straight to surf camp - apparently the giant banana there (the main tourist attraction I might add) really was more of a medium sized banana and just not worth spending a night there for. However, what Greg didn't tell us was that we might be stuck in Surf Camp for 3 days because there wasn't room on the next bus, but ill get to that later… So we get to surf camp and immediately I love it! It is soooo chilled out and everyone is just having a good time and enjoying it! Definitely my kind of place, and it was right on the beach (obviously - a surf camp duh) so I could walk down the shore like I used to in Africa J It really reminded me of Tanzania actually, with the clear water and beautiful sunset - def a good start to things J

That evening we all got to know each other. A lot. I think the combination of Pipes (one of the surf instructors) playing guitar by the bonfire (oh pipes….how we all loved thee so…sigh), a few rounds of the 'I have never' game - parental don't ask :P - and the introduction of Oz's finest Goon into our systems (basically wine in a box…made of fish…and nuts apparently) made for a very friendly evening indeed! It started with talk, we slapped the goon a bit more, then we went to the beach, then a combination of things happened:

1.Skinny Dipping was suggested

2.I was thrown in the sea by Liam - I took him with me though!

3.Skinny Dipping idea was revisited…and was undertaken by various members of the group

4.We discovered the existence of Hunky John… :P

5.Liam discovered his camera had been in his jacket when he went into the ocean - yeah Karma sucks don't it b****!

6.Elliot introduced himself as the gentleman of the group by giving me his jumper since I was wet and cold…cant think why?!...

7.We headed back to the fire for more goon

The worrying thing is that this wasn't the end of the night - although perhaps it should have been the state we were all in! Sitting back by the fire, as well as my memory serves, I was talking to Liam and James (also known as Afro Boy) when for some forever unknown reason James decided to pour his beer over my head (ok, so there was a reason, lets just say I started it…) and at that exact moment Elliot walked up to us asking for his jumper back…the jumper he had lent me just 20 mins earlier….the jumper which james just poured beer over :Psuffice to say the situation was appeased by me washing said jumper, james pouring more beer over his own head as penance, and then me helping Elliot win a game of pool against 'the blondes' - us brunettes gotta stick together you know!

By this point I had kinda figured out that this was a bloody fantastic group, and having sophie here with me made it even better! So there was no way we were going to separate from them if possible…enter Greg. He had neglected to tell us earlier that there was no space on tomorrows bus for us since there were 2 other girls who had been here a couple days who wanted to leave as well. We were going to be stuck here for 3 days - on our own - surfing. Now at this point I didn't know if I liked surfing or not but I was pretty damn sure I didn't want to spend 3 solid days doing it! This did put a slight damper on the evening however another glass or 2 of goon and a short stern chat with Greg telling him to get his act together and get us on that damn bus even if it is in the trailer full of bags, seemed to get the evening back in order for us!

That was basically it for the first night…pretty quiet really :P of course there were other things that occurred…little Asian boys getting so drunk they thought they were peter andre, people farting on other peoples heads (JAMES!!), male nipple rubbing, very erotic and disturbing slapping noises coming from the darkness….you know, the usual dorm room antics, but all in all a very VERY drunkenly fantastic first evening J

Of course what we hadn't counted on was our surf lesson at 8am the next morning. I hadn't even counted on being vertical until atleast 10! So before our actual lesson in the water we went over a few ground rules, which basically revolved around having fun, not drowning and not peeing in the suit…because they WILL know. Seems simple enough… then it was time. Time for the demonstrations, the wet suits and above all time for the age old battle between me and the sic waves dude!! As it happens I was actually rather good (yes I am incredibly smug right now by the way) and managed to not only stand up but surf all the way to the shore on my first go! And my second come to that…after that things got slightly iffy in the balance department…but I stood up like 5 or 6 times which was pretty impressive! For a girl…but still! I was able to get half up quite a bit as well but then I was basically just kneeling on the board waiting to get to shore so not quite as impressive but still counts as surfing in my books! Anyway regardless, I loved it and fully intend on becoming a total surf chick at the next possible opportunity!

The surf lesson was the final part of our little stay at spot X and straight after lunch we were on the bus to Byron Bay - yes Greg managed to book us onto the two remaining seats about 10 mins before the other girls asked so he was slightly redeemed in my books…unless he starts playing bloody yellow car again…

xxx