We had to get up really early today to pack and get the bus to Byron Bay - it wasn't easy having gone to bed at four and potentially still being drunk.

We slept for the whole bus journey, before arriving in Byron Bay at around lunchtime. I personally could have done with a bit longer than a couple of hours on the air conditioned bus to sleep! We were very confused by the fast advancement of time for quite a while, before realising that we were now an hour ahead (so 11 hours ahead of the UK).

The weather was lovely, so we were very excited. Our hostel is huge and shiny, a definite flashpackers. We couldn't check in until 2pm, so we went to Woolworths and bought some food to put in the kitchen. By the time we had dawdled, hungoverly (now a word, meaning 'in a hungover fashion'), about the little town, it was time to check in. We are in a 10 bed dorm. It is clean with a terrace and comfy beds which is good. However, to 'save the environment' the air con is fixed at 24 degrees. Room temperature is between 18 and 21 degrees! They also provide you with duvets - I have not used a duvet since I left England, for a good reason. Sleeping that night was not easy in the 24 degree + 10 bodies heat (I didn't use the duvet of course). I care about the environment as much as the next person, however, not quite enough for it to disrupt my beauty sleep. Surely turning the air con down 3 degrees isn't going to cause the ice caps to melt? The opposite, if anything.

Anyway, I digress, and sound like a grumpy old man. We changed into our bikinis and headed to the beautiful beach. There were signs up informing us to beware of the blue bottles (blue bottles here are not shiny flies, but stinging, blue jellyfish). We set up camp and proceeded to sunbathe and swim (mainly sunbathe in my case) until about 5pm. As the tide went out it left little pools in the sand about a foot deep. They are better than the sea because there aren't annoying waves, so I could just lie in the little pool and sunbathe whilst simultaneously keeping cool. A girl next to me got stung by a jellyfish though which kind of ruined my state of relaxation, so I went back to my towel.

My tan is definitely coming along nicely now - hopefully the rain will hold out for the rest of the trip so I can continue mission brown. I have purchased some factor 30+ aerosol suncream. I'm never going back to a boring old cream. I don't even have to rub it in! Definitely worth the $15.

Due to hangover/lack of sleep, we spent the evening in bed, reading our books, painting our nails, and chatting. Very relaxing.

Planning a night out tomorrow though!

xxx