Byron Bay--Surfers Paradise

I've been on the Gold Coast with Phil since the day mom left for home... if it wasn't hotter than hell I would move here in a heartbeat. The day I left mom at the train station Phil picked me up at the train station and we headed for Byron Bay (two hours south of Brisbane) Byron is this rad little hippie town with wall to wall V-Dubs, burnout surfers, art galleries, head shops and people just lookin to chill out. Our hostel was literally 50m from the beach... it was a little umm rank but whatever, I was in heaven. Byron is the best place to surf in Oz, and I didn't. I still felt like absolute hell and I opted to feel better for the rest of my trip. The beach is gorgeous there though and I thoroughly enjoyed laying on it and reading the rest of Seabiscuit... Who knew jockeys went through that much crap to ride a horse?!

We met up with Sophie and Ann again and hung out with them on the beach. I was definitely bummed for Byron to be the last place that I meet up with Sophie. I have been traveling with her since the first day of the Kiwi Bus in Auckland and she has become this little sister to me. I do hope that we stay in touch. She keeps saying that she wants to come visit me or she'd like to do a semester abroad in the States. I hope that she does... somehow I don't think that this will be the last time I ever see her.

Phil and I stayed two nights in Byron then weheaded back north to Surfers to hang there for the remainder of my trip. Phil's dad lives 15 minutes from Surfers in this really cool house with a huge backyard covered with flower gardens. All the houses here are one floor with a reddish/orange brick exterior orange roofs... like a teracotta roof I guess? (to me they look very Spanish) All the houses have these canals that run in the backyards and everyone has boats that they drive around all through the canals. Phil said there are as many canals as there are streets. Imagine just jumping on your boat and going down the canal to the supermarket!

So Thursday afternoon we came back to Surfers and hung out on the beach. It was really overcast so we were just laying there and talking when this little boy all of 4 starts running around chasing his sister. So we are watching this kid and his sister chase each other and we're laughing having a grand old time when the little brat comes up and kicks sand all over me! I must have looked at Phil with the face of death and he was like, Ok, its cool he won't do it again. Well the little bugger comes back over to do it again and I yelled at him... he ran away to his mom. HAHAHAHAA. Kids + Lauren = No way.

Today Phil took me to Dreamworld, this theme park about 20 minutes away. So we spent the morning shopping (like I need ANOTHER pair of boardshorts?) then we headed up there. We took an unplanned pitstop at Phil's friend Dave's because something happened to his beater car that he's been driving around the past 6 months (this thing reminds me of Jon Sell's red Beretta from like 1988) So he had to fix something then we were off again 20 minutes later to ride rollercoasters and all that stuff. Tonight we're going back to Dave's to watch Boondock Saints in the cinema that he has built into his house. He has this huge projection screen and movie theater chairs and a popcorn machine! You should see this house OH-MY-GOD, It's awesome. My mouth dropped when we walked inside! Anyway, I so I gotta go run and do that:)

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post in Fiji. I am thinking it's a no-go. So this may just be my last post! I will post another blog after this titled, my return home... i've been working on it for a bit... i think it's quite funny. Enjoy.