Hello

So after a 10am check out of our hostel we had to wait around until half 2 for our bus to Byron Bay, however there had been a crash on the main road into Surfers so we ended up getting a Greyhound bus to Byron that got us in at 6pm. Byron Bay is our first stop in the state of New South Wales after being in Queensland for so long.

So after a late arrival we got on our hostels courtesy bus and had a small drive around tour of Byron Bay.. After a few minutes we noticed that this place was very laid back and full of hippies and surfers. We checked into our hostel and joined in on the BBQ and camp fire they had going on that night. After a good feed we headed into town to meet Ben and Debbie. We headed to a bar called Cheeky monkeys, where we received some free drinks, Debbie and I had bubbles and Ben and Ben had beer. After a few bottles and jugs we were all in a very good mood and joined in a few bar games, Debbie and I helped judge the male strip contest (which ben and ben wouldn't take part in) and busted out some killer moves on the dance floor! As we had a trip to Nimbin the next day Ben and I called it a night at about 1am!

Our bus to Nimbin was at 10am… and after a bubble fuelled night I wasn't feeling too well, but I muscled through and got out of bed and onto the Grasshopper. Nimbin is classed as Australia's Amsterdam.. it was one street of shops and cafes however the local people were all hippies who were - lets just say very chilled out and loved herbs and tie dye. I brought a necklace and wanted to buy lots of the big rings. Although offered we restrained from buying some of the 'special' cookies we kept getting offered. On the way home we stopped off for a group BBQ. By this time I was feeling much better. Once we got home I had a little nap and in the evening we went for a walk to get some food and I ended up buying a pair of bone earrings.

The next day we walked around Byron looking in all its cool little shops. The town itself is not very big, very influenced by hippies and surfers; there are lots of nice bars and beach side eateries. We headed down to the beach for the afternoon then headed to cheeky monkeys for some food and more free bubbles. However it was Mexican night which meant we all got sombreros and a free margarita. We happily drank and played jenga, but remembering the hangover from a few nights previous we all headed home fairly early.

On our final day we all headed to the beach after hiring some surf boards. The surf in Byron wasn't great but enough for Ben to play around on. We had surf lessons coming up the following day so I just left Ben, Ben and Debbie to it. After spending most of the day falling off surf boards we all headed back to get changed then headed to dominos for cheap Tuesday pizza which we ate back at our hostel. In the evening we headed to a bar that was offering cheap coronas and had a nice drink there. We didn't stay out too late as our bus was at 7am the following morning!!

All in all we really enjoyed Byron and would definitely go back there!

From Byron with peace and love

Nikki and Ben xxx