Surfing and an older LH

Hi all!!

Man have we been busy!! Learning to surf, turning a year older...lots to tell!!! We arrived in Surf Camp (close to Coffs Harbour) after Sydney and it was POURING rain! We froze our tails off that night, but woke up to a very sunny morning for our first SURF lesson!! Both of us stood up a couple times, got some great pics and definitely want to do it again. Unfortunately we can't put up ALL our surf pics on here, although we'd love to!

One night in surf camp, then on to Byron Bay - the little surf town that basically consists of surf shops, travel agencies and places to eat. Oh and the beach:) We got our own little apartment to stay in...and when I say our own, I mean 2 bedrooms with 2 bunkbeds each and a shared kitchen and bathroom. We haven't done any more surfing here, but we might try some body boarding? Surfers Paradise is our next stop which sounds like a reasonable place to surf:)

Lauren's Birthday!! We shared our dorm room with two cute english girls that LOVED the fact that it was Lauren's birthday...she got a serenade at midnight of the birthday song:) They threw a little party in our place and then we went across the street to Cheeky Monkey's..the infamous backpacker bar. Great time!! Now what was NOT smart of us to do, was book a sunrise tour the next morning...that means we were awake at 4:30 AM...after a birthday night. EW. BUT the sunrise was absolutely gorgeous and well worth it, plus now we can say we've seen the sunrise from the most easterly point in Australia!

Yesterday we took a day trip to Nimbin, which is a small HIPPIE town about 2 hrs from Byron Bay. We got picked up in a rainbow bus with a wicked speaker system that was driven by a 50-year-old pink-pant-wearing hippie...who better to be our tour guide? Nimbin specializes in "herbs" and "baked goods"...so it made quite the interesting visit. After stopping for a few hours in Nimbin, we went to "Dr. Wrecker's" house...pretty much a hermit living in the middle of the woods. He planted a botanical garden back in the 70's and has been there ever since. He met us off the bus wearing no shoes and a holy shirt and took us back to his place for some macadamia nuts before we headed out...man this sounds weird writing it...On the way to Dr. Wrecker's house, our bus driver took us on a "roller coaster ride" on crazy windy roads, BLARING Pink Floyd....quite the experience:)

I'd say we've had our fill of Byron:) We're off tomorrow afternoon for Surfer's Paradise, only an hour and a bit from here. We're still adjusting to the Australian style of travel...it's SO much more laid back. There's a lot of beach bumming, sun tanning and surfing, and it's weird! Definitely an adjustment from our Asian craziness...not that we're complaining:)

Thanks for all the b-day messages for LH - made her day! :)

Misses and hugs,

Laur and Laur