Friday 16th April

Tent already set up

Raining in morning warm and sunny in afternoon then heavy rain at night

Hoping to wake up to the shinning sun so we could go back to kayaking for free as we didn't see any wild life the first time round, but instead the rain hadn't stopped all night and decided to laze about till it stopped, stopping around lunch time we went and sat on the beach and had the last tuna sandwiches yaay!! We then walked around to the kayaking for the afternoon session. There were a lot more this time about 16 kayaks 2 people per boat and 2 instructors, last time there was just one instructor and 4 kayaks which was much better, so we kayaked to the same places and still saw no turtle or dolphins but never mind, I'm sure were see some up the coast, two friends from the camp site were artist and drew characters, they offered to paint ours for us, so they phoned us to let us know they were set up down the beach which was perfect as we were still at the beach just finishing kayaking. So we went over and they actually did spray paintings on t-shirts and did one for each of us for free, and it was so amazing the art they did Usher the more experienced one drew me jumping off the waterfall, they say the best things in life are free and so far on my travels its turned out to be true, Returning to camp we gave Boaz and Usher a painted Owen had painted in NZ, it was a really good picture but only taking room up in the car. That night everyone was celebrating the fact it was Friday (even though no one worked) and had boxes of goon everywhere, Goon is a cheap box of wine 4litres worth, not tasting so bad if you got the $15 instead of the $10 one, Goon was the minging part of the wine barrel the part that sets, so the siv it through until drinkable and put it in a box for all the backpackers of OZ

Saturday 17th April

Tent already set up

Sunny with rainy patches

Owen and I got up when the tent was to unbearable to sleep in with the sun shining on it, we got dressed and waited for Nic to wake up but after an hour we couldn't wait and had breakfast, after we realised that Nic was suffering from a really bad hangover and lost her voice, so after more drawing with Boaz, Nic still didn't wake up. I went to a market with a few people and Owen stayed looking after Nic. When I got back Nic had got up and we cooked dinner then I stayed up drinking with the rest and Nic and Owen went to bed really early.

Sunday 18th April

Tent already set up

Sunny all day rained at night but not to heavy this time

Hoping to go surfing today the sun was shining and was ready to go when realising the car wouldn't start, so waiting for someone who had jump leads we waited around the campsite, it wasn't so bad as it was sunny and I could have time to catch up with my diary and sort my pictures out. A friend had found some jump leads and thank god the car start with them, as we had a feeling it would be something else! We just drove into town to get things for dinner and went to the beach for a game of Frisbee, seeing the bar on the beach had live music we went in for a drink and everyone from the camp site was there so we all sat for a few and listen to the really good live music all old tunes, and then of course when returning to the camp site we had some more goon!

Monday 19th April

Forgot to time tent as was raining

Sunny in morning heavy rain in evening

I felt quite said leaving Byron Bay, not so sure why, I was only there for 8 nights, I mean I did love the place but I felt more sad saying goodbye to Byron than to Coogee. We had to hurry the packing of the tent up as the owners were checking everyone had payed, which we hadn't for the last two nights naughty I know! We were heading to Nimbin the main hippy/weed selling place in Oz, on the way out of Byron we took one last chance to go through the high street and popped into a few last shops and had lunch. Driving through Nimbin we realised that it was very small! We went and set up camp at rainbow retreat there was showers outside, a tepee with massive dream catchers in trees amongst weirder hippy things everywhere. We took a stroll around town and looked in the museum which was basically an art show, maybe if you were stoned it would make sense??? After dinner I went straight to bed as was pooped from doing nothing.

Tuesday 20th April

HOSTEL!!!

Raining on and off all day

Waking up very early feeling quite sick, I sat in the car out of the rain and stench of weed and read my new book, surprised at myself of how much I've got into the book! Could be a start of a new era. Owen and Nic woke up not much later as couldn't sleep through the sound of rain, after breakfast we took another walk through Nimbin's main street was able to go into more shops but didn't hang around long as a lot of strange people where around especially the weed sellers, we were asked 9 times if we would like to buy some in a space of 100 metres. The shops and cafes in Nimbin were all spray painted no modern looking shops just hippy like, just like the look of the people, very hippy with tie-dye tops and baggy trousers with dreads, apart from the weed sellers they looked like complete chavs! We hoped to go to a natural waterfall and lake but with the rain so heavy we decided there wouldn't be much point. So we drove to Surfers paradise, I slept all the way as still felt sick L when we arrived there was so many skyscrapers and holiday apartments could tell it was a touristy city. We parked the car next to the beach, watching how crazy the waves were and could see why it was called SURFERS paradise. We wondered around town and decided that a hostel wasn't much more than a campsite, I was so excited to have a real bed with a mattress rather than an airbed in the tent. When wondering through town we stopped in a travel agent to price up the big adventures like whit Sundays and Frasier island ect, took quite a time to do. So had to find a hostel in the dark with no map but it wasn't too bad just tricky with one way streets everywhere, we got to the Hostel called 'Cheers' (chosen by Owen as it reminded him of the program) and just laid on the beds and fell asleep.