Dear loyal followers of our travel blog:
We are terribly sorry that we have left you with nothing to read for such an unacceptable amount of time. We were sort of busy, doing things...so we would actually have things to write about. So wake up from you kip (nap) and get comfy, grab yourself a Cupa and some Bickies(tea and biscuits) and get those reading glasses, cause I'm about to finally, add a new blog entry:
I believe we last left off with an entry from Coffs harbour? I will do my best to pick it up from there. Coffs was fantastic as you might recall we had a little hike and lots of icecream (that's a staple in the diet now), we forgot to mention how many Canadians we met in our hostel. At one point a whole bunch of us were in the TV room and we got to talking we realized that 9 of us were all from Canada and the other two people with us were from London and Amsterdam. So we all decided that we would share a bag of chips and watch Eurotrip which was cool to watch with Europeans because they commented on it with things like....we're not actually like that...haha. It was just super cool to be in one room with people from all over Canada, and the world, and we were all just watching a movie. The best part of travelling is definitely the people that you meet, it's such a great collective feeling knowing that your all from different place, but ultimately doing the same thing, and looking for the same good time.
Between meeting some great people and making a lot of pasta we managed to hit the beach in coffs, it was raining but why not. We rented some boogie boards and hit the water. The water got a bit rough and I unintendedly flashed lisa when a wave claimed my bathing suit top...I'm just glad it was her who I flashed...we soon had to get out of the water because the rip tide was too strong, lisa had to get a little help from a nearby surfer. But all was well, except for the middle aged man spread eagled on his beach towel in nothing but a bikini cut Speedo....about 5 feet from us. I had a few questions for that man, I'll let your imagination think of what they were.
Alas we needed to leave Coff's because it was time to travel up to Byron Bay!! After a train and bus ride, we made in the rain and in the night. We cared our packs onto yet another bus that was labelled, the arts Factory lodge. After a short ride with our very talkative English driver, we finally got to the lodge aka hippy commune aka the coolest hostel in the world. The is stretched out on a few acres of land lush with tropical plants, and even with a large pond in the middle. You can stay, in a teepee, tent, cube, wagon, hippy bus, surfshack or a few other wicked abodes. We were lucky enough to be in the Surfshack...with 10 other lucky people. The only problem with 10 share dorms, are you either get great roommates, or crappy ones that come back wasted at 6am turn the light on and leave the door open so the mozzies can eat you alive. At that point you can try to sleep, or join the party...but getting off topic. We found ourselves with not only awesome roommates, but wicked people to hang out with for our five day stay. But back to the lodge for a moment.....you basically don't need to leave the place, there is a kitchen, a pool, a reading room, hammocks, chill out area where the hippies play guitar and juggle, a cinema, and last but not least the Buddha bar/restaurant/entertainment hub. You can also make didges, play pool, arcade games, go on the net or go on a Bushwalk. As you can see, it would be any easy place to settle down, for a long time. And that's just the lodge, Byron bay itself is equally alluring.
So back to the Surfshack, turns out we made a good call choosing to stay there, because amongst all the animals that call the arts factory home, we had just little spiders and one hunchman (spider as big as my hand), but the teepees had Rats, as did the wagons, and the tents were good if you were okay with being soggy because it rained A LOT while we were there. All in all the surfshacks were a good place to be, minus the close proximity to the buddah bar...but as I said most the time you are part of the party....even if you don't want too, because sleeping is not an option. The Shack had about 5 bunkbeds and various old school surfboards hanging from the ceiling. I had top bunk and there was a nice neon board adorned in a painful amount of spider webs, directly above my head.
But now to tell you about our roommates!! Two of our roommates were from Calgary, and actually were in a band with a few of Lisa's friends (small world), the others were Shaun from liverpool, Tom#1 from Manchester, Tom#2 from liverpool, and Nia and Shophie from whales. We made the best ties with these people and hung out with them basically the whole time, but the thing is one person introduces you to another, and another, and so on. You start to get to know and meet so many people from so many different places and it's such a great feeling. Everyone is really open and friendly and awesome. The Arts factory was just like a huge family, by our 5th night you know everyone and recognise everyone and it feels like home. You all head over to the Buddha bar for 2 dollar glasses of wine, or 10 dollar jugs of byron ale, or you head to town and hit some clubs with terrible music. There are of course good bars with live bands, and actual music. But we ended up at Coca Mungas, a place you would leave if you weren't with a good group of people, and have had a few. Haha, there is also a bakery that stays open 24hours to feed the endless amounts of partiers throughout the night. You can get cheese buns, or Mango sweet chilli mince meat pies, at 5 am..if you want. How great is that. When we weren't at coca mungas grooving to terrible tunes, we were walking around town or back to the lodge under a massive blanket of stars. The beach in Byron is nice, but the night sky is even more beautiful. I have never seen so many stars.
During the day the shopping in Byron is incredible, there are a million little hippy like stores, and cafe's and surfshops. You can always find somewhere to spend your time, if you leave the artsfactory that is. After our fifth night most of our friends were moving on and we had new roommates, more Canadians!! By then we figured it was time to move on too. Afterall we had pretty much milked the arts factory for all it's worth, we made didges, lisa made good use of the volleyball court, we played a lot of pool, and made teams with some Argentineans/Israelis my team usually lost horribly to lisa's.....we saw a fire show at the Buddha bar and even went on a bushwalk learning about the deadly berries that hung unexpectedly hung above our heads (the juice from the thing is like acid, and if you burn the leaves the fumes will kill you), also the best leaves to use to wipe your bum haha. We learned a lot, met some great people, and fell in love with Byron, like everyone does....but it was time to move on....as lisa's aunt was awaiting us in Brisbane.
Soooo here we are now in Brisbane staying in Annies beautiful house on stilts, with it's view of the city skyline. It proved to be a safe haven for us, and a nice break from the sleepless nights, mozzie bites and basically a lot of partying. We took a few days to settle ourselves in and then Annie and Chris were nice enough to drive us up to Noosa for the weekend. While we were up there we stopped by Vicky's (lisa's second cousin) beautiful house on the hill. We had a lovely lunch with Vicky and her great kids, Aston, Laura and Nathan, and Richard her husband. Vicky made some home-ade dips which were soon claimed by the fingers of 18 month old Aston. He could not get enough of the guacamole (I'm sorry I don't know how to spell that). I was lucky enough to taste my first Keesh. Which was AMAZING, made me wonder why I eat anything else. We had a really nice time up there and are planning on heading back up there, but I will let Lisa fill you in on where we are heading next...... Hey there folks! This upcoming weekend we're planning of backtracking down the coast a little bit to the Gold Coast where we're gonna check out the beaches, and maybe do a speed boat tour! Then from there we're gonna head 'er back up to Noosa and stay with Vicky and her wonderful family for a few days, where we may serve as babysitters for a night or two. From there, we're gonna stay in a backpackers in Noosa so we're closer to the beach, maybe do a surf lesson or two, then take a tour up to Fraser Island for a few days. As Fraser Island is just off of Hervey Bay, we may be able to time it right so that we meet up with Vicky and her Daughter Laura, and soak up some sweet Shakespeare, not to mention hopefully sun! I hear that its quite rainy up the coast. Places like Rockhampton, about halfway from here to Cairns, are experiencing extreme floods, and it is the wet season, so we shall see! From Hervey Bay, we'll make our way up to Cairns, and do some snorkelling on the great barrier reef, and again hope for some glorious sun. Then its off to New Zealand my friends! Thats about all our plans in the near future, I hope you enjoyed your bickies and this wonderfully constructed blog mostly by TashaBarrie. WE LOVE YOU!! and go buy some sweet chilli sauce, and have yourself a lentil burger if you know whats good for you. haha, Hugs from Australia! XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
p.s forgot to mention we did speed dating in byron bay on valentines...that was interesting....but we're off to go get tea (dinner) so next time!!
