Day 60

Friday 31st December 2010: NEW YEAR’S EVE

We woke up late still with no real plans for the day. Franky had been wanting to try his hand at surfing so we made some enquiries at reception and discovered that there were places left on this afternoon’s lesson with Mojo surf so we booked him in. As I have tried my hand at surfing before and know how hard it is I decided to give the humiliation and drowning a miss this time and opted instead for a day at the beach as the sun was finally shining in Byron Bay.

The lesson was at Lennox Heads, about 10km South of Byron so we headed down there in the car. I got myself staked out in the sunshine and Franky donned his blue rash vest and joined his group of surfing novices.

After stretches and a jog down the beach in way of a warm up it was time to explain the basics……

…. And it seemed my husband is a natural – he can stand up no problem…… on the beach!!!!

… when he hit the water it seemed to be a different story……

…. Not really ‘Hang 10’….. more like ‘Hang up’!

At least he kept me amused for the afternoon!

I had made a friend who seemed to be intent on getting sand on every square inch of my beach towel!

 After a couple of hours later he emerged. He was absolutely knackered and had swallowed a gallon of salt water but had actually managed to ride a couple of waves.

Lennox Heads was also home to Lake Ainsworth - which was bigger than Ainsworth!

It seemed it was quite a biblical place too - this sign capturing the Christmas spirit perfectly!!!

We headed back to Byron Bay. First stop was Woollies for some essential groceries, and then the bottle shop to stock up the fridge.

The town, and particularly our hostel was absolutely buzzing with anticipation of the night ahead. Many already had the party well and truly underway in the courtyard.

The worn out surf dude needed a Frank nap before he could contemplate anything else. This hostel really isn’t the place to try and sleep so after an unsuccessful nap attempt a can of red bull had to suffice.

We had planned the ultimate Aussie experience and bought kebabs and steak for the Barbie….. but we couldn’t get it started so we cooked our mountain of food in the kitchen and joined the throng in the courtyard.

We drank here until 11.00pm when we were promptly kicked out onto the streets of Byron Bay and headed with the crowds down to the beach. The official street party had been cancelled this year as the town wanted to clear up it’s ‘Party image’ – good luck with that when 20 000 drunken 18-30 year olds have flooded in.

The beach was full. There were fire spinners, buskers, bands and lots and lots of drunken revellers. We had been warned of the complete ban on alcohol so had taken our ‘soft drinks’ laced with vodka.

As midnight struck a huge cheer went up. Bring on 2011!!!

I’m not sure if it’s tradition but a lot of Aussie boys seemed to see this as the signal to get naked and belly flop in the pools of water left as the tide went out!?! We were stood watching this spectacle when a glass bottle came flying out of the air and landed right on my big toe – OW!

We headed to safety further back up the beach to make some phone calls to our nearest and dearest…..

I caught a sand crab!!!

We had a ride on the fairground.

We meandered back to the hostel where the party was continuing outside and in a number of the rooms despite the best attempts of the security guard who had been drafted in for the night in an attempt to put a stop to such antics. Suffice to say he wasn’t being particularly successful with that!

Finally at 3am we decided to call it a night and fell into bed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Day 59

Thursday 30^th December 2010

Another day another dry mouth with a hint of salsa, mmmmm!

We decided that today would be the day that we visit the water parks. There is one just north of Surfer’s Paradise which is about an hour away so we hopped in the car a set off. We spent the time in the car wisely, Suzi phoned her folks and then we switched positions and I phoned mine.

We arrived at the park an hour earlier than expected, we gained an hour when entered Queensland which meant we unexpectedly arrived just after opening. The queue was only about 10 metres long as well so things were looking good. Unfortunately the park was doing an offer where you could buy a passport that lasted all summer and gave the recipient unlimited entry, all for $69. Every man and his dog were buying these which required a picture to be taken. All of this meant that it took and hour and 20mins for the 10 metre queue to move. So that was how we spent our newly acquired hour!

The sun was shinning though and once inside we had a ball, all the rides were amazing and we spent the day splashing around, queuing for and riding water slides.

 

 We rode the 8 lane racer called “Octosplash” which Suz will claim she won but we both know that she didn’t.

We headed to “The Rip” next, a four person on an inflatable ring affair with a big drop, excellent!

Next up was the “Super Tubes Hydrocoaster” a wet roller coaster powered on air jets, really cool and lots of fun.

Then we queued for the “Green Room” which was a bit scarry and again loads of splashy fun!

It's the big green cone in the backround

and finally we headed for “Broken Heads”

There’s a huge bucket in “Nickelodeon Land” that fills with water and then tips on the waiting crowd below, so I had a quick go of that before we left.

A quick shot of Suzi in a giant flip flop and we hit the road back to Byron.

We thought we’d stop at Surfer’s Paradise, spend a bit of time on the beach and then head home, the traffic into Surfer’s was terrible so all we managed to achieve was a slow drive down the front before we needed to get back!

We made it back for about 19:00 ish and set about making tea. We’d bought the ingredients the day before so we just threw the chorizo, red pepper, chilli and chopped tomatoes in a pan and tea was ready in no time.

We ate out in the court yard and met some people that we’d had a few drinks with before. We did the same and drank the night away laughing and chatting. When the 23:00 deadline to leave the court yard came we all left and headed for “The Northern” again.

We were in luck because they had another awesome band on. They played Metallica and AC/DC…..proper!!

From there we went to the well known backpackers place called “Cheeky Monkey’s”. It was packed in there with people dancing all over tables. I met a Welsh bloke who hadn’t shaved for the same amount of time as me, I’m well behind in the beard stakes!

We got ourselves on a table and danced the night away, which wasn’t a bad warm up for NYE.

we left about 03:00 and headed home, bring on New Years!!

Day 58

Wednesday 29^th December 2010

I woke to the noise of banging on the door with the distinctive taste of chicken kebab in my mouth, I opened one eye and greeted the day with a stretch. The person banging on the door informed us that it was 10:30 and we needed to be out of our “King Suite” by 10:00. ooops

So we threw our things into the rucksacks and dashed to reception to be told that the other room we were due to check into wasn’t ready yet. Great. Left in limbo for a couple of hours we made bacon butties and a plan for the day, Suzi wanted to go for a walk along the beach, I fancied a drive down the coast.

When we got to the car we thought that Brunswick Heads would be a nice place to visit, the guide said that this was a “popular tourist destination” so it sounded like a winner. It wasn’t.

Despite the weather being particularly miserable Brunswick had almost no redeeming features, it had a tiny beach and jetty/ breakwater.

With nothing else to do we walked to the end and back getting blown around and wet, it wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had.

Back in the car we headed back to Byron and found a huge traffic jam, Suz didn’t say anything but I knew she was thinking that going for a drive was a terrible idea, as it turned out, it was!

We finally got back into Byron Bay and with the weather still being crappy we headed to the sales to get me some new shorts (boardies). The shorts were 50% off so I got myself three very jazzy pairs!! Suitably pleased with my purchases we headed back to the hostel for a nap, all that shopping is tiring you know.

I woke up and Suz was already dressed and ready to go, I leapt out of bed (sort of) and threw on a pair of shorts and declared myself “ready!”. Suz asked if I was going to at least do something with my hair and this is the point where my heart stopped beating. I went to take off my wedding ring so as not to get wax all over it and it wasn’t there!!!!!!!!!!

“Suz, I’ve lost my wedding ring”

Suz remembered that I had taken it off in the morning to wash up after breakfast, she watched me do it and thought to herself “I must remember to tell him to put that back on”.

We dashed to the kitchen but predictably it wasn’t there, we asked at reception, it wasn’t there either. My stomach started to all sorts of flips and cart wheels as the reality set in. 8 weeks into married life my wedding ring was gone.

I wrote out a sign:

“did you pick up a ring from here this morning? If you did can you please hand it in at reception its my wedding ring (I’ve only had it 8 weeks)

Thank you”

I put it up in the kitchen and we headed out for some beer. Understandably I couldn’t get my mind off losing my ring let alone get into the groove of the night. However, we still hadn’t decided what we were going to do on NYE and so decided that we needed to try some more bars. We went to the Beach Hotel and waited for the act to come on stage, when he did he was a DJ who played god awful music and then scratched all over it. Not my cup of tea and not something I wanted to endure given my current mood. We moved on again trying to find something else but I just wasn’t in the mood. We were walking back in the direction of the hostel so I suggested stopping in and having a drink or two there. I gave a cursory glance to the reception staff and asked them in a resigned tone “nobody has handed my ring in have they?”

The receptionist to my surprise and delight said “yes” and from beneath the counter produced my beautiful wedding ring in all its glory! “OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!” I went on. She told me that the girl who handed it in was still in the kitchen so I went straight there to thank her and give her a hug.

The story goes that one of the male staff had found the ring in the sink and deeming it more expensive than a normal ring hid it in case somebody asked for it. The girl had then seen the sign and somehow found out that the guy had hidden it it went to reception and then back on to my naked finger. Result!!

After this I was in much better spirits and we tucked into a box of red wine in the court yard, we met a couple of Aussies and chatted away until we were kicked out of there at 11. Feeling merry and not wanting the night to end we headed out looking for some action, we walked into a place called the northern, they had a live band on who were playing Black Eyed Peas “I’ve gotta feeling” as we arrived.

They went on to play some Bob Marley, Rolling Stones and more, much more our style.

The band were great and gave us the night we’d been after for a while. We left and accidently queued for two kebabs, another lovely taste to wake up to I imagine.

Day 57

Tuesday 28^th December 2010

So we got up and headed down to reception to make our complaints about the room and the disturbed night’s sleep and plead for our money back on our remaining 5 night’s accommodation so we could make other arrangements. The guys at the desk agreed that our room really wasn’t great for a honeymooning couple but explained that there was nothing that could be done without speaking to the manger, Peggy, who was currently dealing with the fact that the Fire Brigade were not too impressed with the repetitive and unwarranted use of the fire alarm.

We headed off to the tourist information office to see if we could source alternative accommodation in the meantime. There was a very helpful chap at the accommodation desk who sent us off to view a room in a shared guesthouse called ‘Barbara’s’. On arrival at ‘Barbara’s’ there was another lady struggling up the steps with a suitcase. Franky helped her in with her bags. Barbara appeared at the front door looking quite sheepish… it seemed she’d promised the room to both of us – as the lady was literally two steps ahead of us, al be it purely due to Franky’s gentlemanly help she got the room! Bugger!

We headed back to Tourist Info and spent the next hour with the chap there searching for accommodation – funnily enough most places were fully booked for the New Year period! It was going to cost us $1300 for a cabin for the 5 remaining nights we needed (about £870). This was over £550 more than our original accommodation so we left to ‘have a think about it’.

We headed back to Nomad’s where Peggy was now free but told us that Nomad’s work on a ‘no refund’ policy and therefore we couldn’t have our money back – so there was no thinking required – we definitely couldn’t afford alternative accommodation. She agreed to get us out of a bunk bed room and give us a proper double bed, and offered us one night in a room with private en suite at no extra cost. Unfortunately it was only for one night as it was not available after that. We agreed that this was the best we could do in a town that was bulging at the seams and headed out in search of breakfast/lunch.

We found a great pub on the front called the Beach Hotel where we had lunch and a few schooners of beer. The weather is lousy in Byron. Queensland, a bit further North of here, is experiencing tropical cyclones and we’re getting the tail of end of them. It is grey and murky with thick cloud. Only blessing is it isn’t actually pouring down here and it’s still pretty hot – but we’re gonna have to rethink our planned 5 days on the beach.

We headed back to the hostel to check into our new room – this was soooooooo much better. A double bed, Ok it was 2 singles pushed together – but it beat the bunk hands down! And a bathroom, a fridge and a balcony!!! Franky jumped straight into the bed to catch up on his missed night’s sleep and I headed off in search of the laundry facilities – the reality of married life finally kicking in!!!!

We headed out into the town to pick up some groceries – Woolworths is still going strong here and is a supermarket chain. With tomorrow’s breakfast stuff sorted and some nibbles for tonight we grabbed another bottle of bubbles from the bottle shop – this came with two complimentary champagne flutes – we’re gonna fit right in at the hostel!!!! We made use of our facilities – chilled champagne drunk on our balcony over looking the hostel piazza where the night was heating up and the booze was flowing.

Once ready we headed down to join them – and realised that these people weren’t actually wild animals as we had suspected in the early hours of this morning, nor were we the oldest kids on the block! We chattered with 3 Aussies whilst watching, and occasionally participating in a very interesting drinking game that was being played on the next table – Franky had an ice cube wiped over his face and I got a male lap dance!!! We ended up staying there far longer than we had intended – we had been on our way out for tea but it was gone 11.00pm when we eventually left the hostel. We headed to the Beach hotel which had a live band on and caught the last few songs of their set.

Hunger eventually got the better of us and we left in search of food and found…. Kebabs! Yes! So it was kebabs in bed and off to sleep…… night!

Day 56

Monday 27^th December 2010

We had been warned that the whole of Sydney would be hitting the road and heading up the coast for the Summer holidays today so we were up and out in an attempt to beat the traffic – knocking on the doors of Hertz at 7.30am!

We were given a brand new Toyota Corrolla. We had our doubts about this as the car was automatic. We’d booked a manual car but there were none ‘in stock’ so it was automatic and beat the traffic or wait for a manual car to be returned. Given that we’d got up so early it seemed stupid to lose our advantage over the rest of Sydney so we took the automatic, threw in the luggage and hit the road. ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!

It was a public holiday so there was no morning rush hour, the streets of Sydney were deserted. Congratulating each other on our ability to beat the rush we crossed the Harbour bridge and sailed out of Sydney, heading North on the Pacific Highway.

This was a deserted, winding and tortuous road with hairpin bends and a disproportionate number of cyclists to avoid. Knowing we had about 800km to cover today we were worried quite how long this would take when we realised that we were following exactly the same route as the freeway which was a straight road with 3 lanes and a much more respectable speed limit of 110kmph – so we joined it! From there it was plain sailing, or rather driving, up to Newcastle where the freeway ends and we had to rejoin the Pacific Highway. Interestingly we could turn off here to both Newcastle AND Cardiff. The Aussies clearly couldn’t be bothered coming up with their own place names as we also passed Gloucester and Stroud. Or when they had to come up with a place name they could at a push all be it very unimaginative yet descriptive names – 12 mile hill, 9 mile beach, 8 mile creek – it seems that here size does matter! Bobbin Heads and Bald Knob Cove were amongst our favourites.

All was going well until we reached BulaDelah where we now know the road goes down to one lane – I mean this is THE road North around the coast which is the most populated part of Australia and they have a single lane ‘A’ road to get there – what are these people thinking?! We spent a couple of hours snarled up in traffic here with the mass exodus from Sydney that we had been promised. One kid clearly realised he had faster modes of transport at his disposal as he sailed past us on his skate board!

We’d planned a rest stop for lunch with Sheridan (who we appear to be following across the planet) and her bloke Nick at his family’s beach house at Blackhead beach. She had sensibly flown up the day before! We arrived some two hours later than scheduled to a warm welcome lunch of Xmas left overs – turkey and ham sandwiches! We had a quick trip to check out the beach before it was time to hit the road again (after a final, final, final goodbye with Sheridan – we promise not to follow you anymore!)

We had another 500km or so to cover so reckoned we’d make it to Byron for about 7.00pm. How wrong were we! What with the combination of yet more holiday traffic, endless roadworks (with nobody bloody working on the road!) and stupidly low speed limits we had over another 6 hours driving to go.

As we approached our final destination in the dark the rains began to fall – typical!!! There’s nothing I enjoy more than driving in the dark and rain when you’ve been in a car for 12 HOURS. Franky’s belly was rumbling and we’d seen a sign for KFC at Ballina, the last town before Byron Bay so decided to stop for some grub – it was 8.30pm after all!!! I drove the length of the high street looking for the cheeky Colonel… and then was made to turn around and go back and look again – he REALLY, REALLY wanted KFC!!! But all to no avail. There was a McDonalds but after yesterdays vomiting that wasn’t satisfactory so it was two very grumpy, tired and still hungry road trippers who eventually rocked up in the party town that is Byron bay at 9.00pm.

When booking accommodation we’d not been able to find much in our budget here so we were hostelling for the next 6 nights. We (eventually) found Nomads and checked in….. to what can only be described as some kind of frat’ house. Music pumping out along the corridors and drunken kids everywhere. We felt like the parents had arrived. Too tired to really take all this in we found our private ‘double’ room. This was a double bottom bunk with a single bunk over the top – not really what we had in mind for the honeymoon! We threw the bags down and headed out for some grub. I was firmly of the opinion that places are never as bad as they seem when you’ve had a good meal and a good night’s sleep and that it would all be OK. Food sorted we headed back for that good night’s sleep.

Franky clambered over me, cracked his head on the upper bunk and informed me that I could get up to do the lights. Too tired to protest I obliged and dropped off into the land of slumber…… but not for long….. as some bright (and rather pissed) spark thought it would be hilarious to break the glass on the fire alarm. Vaguely reminiscent of life in halls in first year I groaned and got up. Looking out of the window there was a full scale fight going on in the street (what type of place is this?!) so I left the room to use the bathroom and to see if we needed to evacuate – on finding a girl in the shower and the corridors still full of drunken kids I assumed that evacuation was unnecessary and headed back to bed. When the fire alarms were eventually silenced at 2am some lad took up the mantle by running the corridors shouting ‘fire alarm’ and knocking on everyone’s doors – what a joker!!!

We fell back into an uneasy sleep only to be woken at 8am by…. you guessed it – the fire alarm! it was s bit like I imagine a wake up siren would be in the army. Franky smiled at me through gritted teeth and said, ‘Well we can’t stay here another night’…..