Byron Bay
Upon arriving, we settled into our awesome bungalow accommodations and went into town for dinner. Ashley and I found somewhere to sign up for skydiving and got everything sorted for ourselves and Cody. I may want to find myself back up here post Pacific Challenge. After going out to see what the town had to offer in the evening, we went and had a quick lesson for scuba diving in a pool. We then jetted out about 15minutes to Julian Rocks and went scuba diving! SO AWESOME. There were so many different kinds of fish, we saw a few sharks amongst the coral; in short, it was amazing. I plan to get certified as time allows. I’d love to do that more often! Coming back to Tallows (the name of the place we are staying) we made dinner and then hit the town for Friday night. The following day we were picked up by a limo to go skydiving at 7am. Two groups jumped before us and then clouds rolled in. We ended up watching skydiving videos for four hours and went out to lunch with the divers. Afterwards, the weather cleared and we jumped from 14,000feet and did multiple flips upon jumping out of the four person plane. It was even better than the first jump and I am officially addicted. I looked into the certification course here in Byron where I’d learn with people who have over 7,000 and 14,000 jumps. We also learned of a legal base jumping spot in Idaho that we are going to hit up when we’re back! I found some plugs since I’ve lost pairs while surfing and scuba diving. I got online, figured out about meeting up with people I know from the States that are down here and Sydney and booked a hostel with people from the program for after everyone leaves. We hit the town again, lost each other, and all found one another to catch a cab back after kebabs. Byron Bay was spectacular. I talked to a bunch of people for their opinions about moving and getting settled in here and I might do it in a couple of weeks!
Noosa and the Zoo
We drove into Noosa and camped to shorten the drive to the Australia Zoo, formerly owned by the infamous Steve Irwin, just outside of Brisbane. I finally had a freshly made juice there which was delicious (made from beetroot, apple, carrot, and ginger)—soo good! In our afternoon at the zoo, we saw a show in the Crocoseum where, as a group of Americans, we won a magazine for being the loudest in representing where we were from. We then walked around and got to pet koalas and kangaroos, again, so awesome! We also saw dingos, wombats, emus, a number of native snakes, birds, and crocodiles, among other ‘exotic’ species such as elephants, red pandas, a tiger. We then drove back to Byron Bay, this time to camp.
Sydney and surrounding area
So another long drive took us back to Sydney where we staying in the suburb of Manly, one of the Northern Beaches. The following day we took a ferry into the city where we saw the opera house, Luna Park, a few parks, the Botanical gardens, Darling Harbour, etc. It was also St. Patrick’s Day and all the Irish Pubs were giving out hats and glasses and many, free green beers on entry. After spending the afternoon downtown, we jumped on a ferry back again to celebrate Ed’s 21st birthday in Manly. Time was winding down with the group. Sarah’s mom came into town, as they will be travelling for a few weeks, and we met up for lunch. That evening, we presented our “Secret Kiwi” gifts (we were all given someone and made a gift for them in order to help them remember the trip). I made Tommy a slideshow of pictures from the trip put to Chamillionare’s “Good Morning.” One of our group leaders, Bree, was mine and she made me this awesome collaged spiral notebook with everything we did on the trip. I LOVE IT! The following morning everyone left bright and early and since a number of us (Tommy, Cody, Dash, and David) were staying after, we helped clean up the rooms as the other group will be coming to stay where we are today. It’s so crazy that everyone is nearly gone! We wandered Manly, went to the Warringah Mall. The group arrived, we bribed them with brownies to let us stay the night, and we anticipate getting a hostel for the following days. I need to look into climbing the Three Sisters and a flight up to Balline so I can start living in Byron Bay!
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