Byron Bay began with a tour of the small town. When I say small it is small; it has about two main streets. That's quite a contrast to Sydney! A lot of people loved it because obviously they must love the beach.

After dropping off a couple of girls at a hostel, the majority of us were taken to the Holiday Village which was one of the main places for being picked up and dropped off on Oz Experience. Since I hadnt booked any accomodation yet for Byron Bay before I had gotten on the bus, the bus driver had booked us into the reserved beds they had in this hostel. He had told us it was $27 but when we got there it turned out it was $35 for a dorm or $38 for an appartment. We thought since it was only $3 extra we may as well go for an appartment!!

Since there were five girls and the appartments were split into two rooms of four, the plan was for me to go in with the other three lads in one room of the appartment whilst the other four girls went in the other room. They all went in one room because they were travelling in pairs. When we got to the rooms though it turned out we were in two seperate appartments so I was in a room with three lads!! They seemed pretty nice though and the appartment was great so it wasnt all bad.

The first activity was a trip to Woolworths since we all really wanted some dinner. I cooked a random mixture as I do which consisted of noodles, sweetcorn, mushrooms, bacon bits, mayonaise and chicken seasoning. There was actually no cutlery or plates in the appartment which was quite shocking so I ended up eating out of the saucepan with a souvenir fork that Danny had bought somewhere. It was really tasty until about half way through when I had had wayy too much sweetcorn!

I then got ready for a night out as we had been told by Disco that we could get cheap drinks at a place called Cheeky Monkeys over the road and that he was reserving a table for everyone. We could have also gone for cheap food but I didnt want to eat out due to my healthy freak week! So whilst we waited for everyone else to eat I sat outside the girls appartment having a good old laugh.

We actually ended up staying there all night as we were having a really good time! In the appartment above us there was a balcony where a couple of lads and a girl were staying. One of the lads was as michalin star chef and he said he would make us dinner the next day if we all chipped in to pay. Cheeky thing checked out the next day!!

The next day I attempted to make egg mayo sandwiches for my lunch. Unfortunately I didnt know what setting the hob was on or how long you are supposed to boil an egg so that it is hard boiled! I guessed that you pretty much cant over boil it so I left it in there for ages. Turned out it still wasnt long enough! It came out really runny still so I had boiled egg with soldiers for breakfast. I left the next one in for a lot longer and it came out fine.

We started off the day with going to the Arts and Crafts market that was on near the beach. There was some really unusual things there but I wouldnt have said at market prices! I did get some free samples of lots of body oils though so I left the place smelling nice but feeling extremely greasy.

On the walk back to the hostel we stopped in a few shops, including a discount pharmacy where I finally bought some cleanser and toner, facial scrub and moisturiser. It actually turned out to be really cheap! After leaving there we were given a leaflet by someone from a place called Wicked Travel which is one of the main travel agents in Australia for booking things like the Whitsundays and Fraser Island.

I went to the branch with her where she went through some options with me and asked me what I wanted out of each thing. I ended up choosing a boat for the Whitsundays called Freight Train which is meant to be really fast and takes you to loads of places. It also allows you to dive which was a necessity as far as I was concerned. The Fraser Island trip I am going on is a self drive tag along which means I will be with a group of people in a 4WD and we will choose exactly where we want to go but someone will follow us in case we get into any problems.

When trying to pay for it though I didnt have enough money on my cash card so I had to make a mad dash back to the hostel to get my Halifax card so that I could transfer some money over to it. I had to leave my driving lisence behind so that she would book it straight away as there were only three places left on the boat I wanted to go on. It all turned out OK though as my money transferred instantly and I got it all paid off.

When I got back everyone was in the girls appartment so I went to see them. They were having some lunch so I went to get my egg and made my sandwich which turned out rather well, especially considering I had very limited utensils. After that a few of us decided to go on a walk to the most easterly point of Australia at Cape Byron.

We had planned on taking the bikes that we could have hired for free from the hostel but they were all taken so we had to walk it. It took such a long time to get there, we didnt even make it all the way because we decided once we saw the light house we took a picture of it and then walked back. It took us 2 hours and we were still a good half an hour walk away from where we were supposed to walk to!

That night we decided to get some films out to watch rather than going out. The lads in my appartment went to the DVD store and hired two films on recommendation. One was Australian and one was from New Zealand. Whilst I was waiting for them I had a good old pamper with all my new things and my skin felt lovely for the first time in ages!

We watched the New Zealand film first and it was shocking. I actually fell asleep through it. I didn't bother watching the second one and just went to bed. Apparently it was rubbish as well. I found out the next day that the girls in the other room had watched Inception and I was gutted that I hadnt watched that with them!!

The next morning I was booked onto the bus to leave. I was pretty well organised so it didnt take me long to get ready but I only had eggs for breakfast which I tried to poach and had to eat from a chopping board which isnt the easiest task in the world!

I went to the girls appartment as a few of them were getting on the bus too. It had been raining really heavily the night before, there was even a big thunderstorm, so the path outside my appartment was flooded which made it a bit difficult with my bag but I managed in the end to carry it over.

We got onto the bus on time and I started talking to the girls properly for the first time. There had been a bit of a divide between the two groups of girls and somehow I had become attached to the other group. I dont think they necessarily had a problem with me because they would talk to me fine but we never really did anything together. They turned out to be really nice girls.

The first stop on the bus was Surfers Paradise which was where I was getting off.We We got dropped off at the Transit Centre and everyone had a 20 minute wait before the bus left again. The shuttle bus for my hostel came to get me and I went off in it leaving everyone else behind. Two other lads were staying in Surfers Paradise too but they were going to a different hostel.

I got to my hostel and checked in for two nights. I then had a call from one of the lads, Rob, who said that they had made a last minute decision not to stay! So I was going to be in Surfers Paradise in the rain so there would be nothing to do and there was no one I knew. That meant I didnt want to stay either!! I told them to hold the bus and I asked when the next shuttle bus was back to the transit centre. It wasnt for another half an hour so I had to walk it!

It was absolutly tipping it down and because of my blisters I was wearing trousers!! That hadnt been a good decision as they soaked up all of the water from any puddle I went remotely near. I got a bit lost on the way as I couldnt find my way through to the back of the transit centre and I somehow ended up on the roof of it which was a little park. When I finally got onto the bus everyone cheered at me and I looked absolutely drenched.

I said to the girls I need a good old breakfast after that run! They gave me a bit of their cereal in a little pot they had bless them. Then we carried on the journey from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane. When we went through the border to Queensland it said it was the sunshine state. Yeh right!!!