Seal Rocks

Seal rocks definitely comes in alongside byron and springbrook as one of my top 3 favourite places of my trip so far.

This place is such a gorgeous and hidden treasure!

I'll let the photos speak for themselves but if you're travelling down the east coast, definitely take some time off the highway and check it out.

I love that besides some houses it has nothing but a caravan park and a corner store...it seems so rare to find such a beautiful yet unpopulated and undeveloped beach and you feel like you've been let in on some special secret.

The best fish and chips in Australia!

Big call, I know.

Tonight I stayed in Taree at the Twilight caravan park; the old couple that run it are seriously some of the most welcoming and lovely people I've met so far!

I would so like to think that sometimes people can walk away from time with me feeling like I did after talking with these two. In particular, you could tell the husband absolutely loved his job and was so genuinely interested in the stories of those staying at the park. He promptly drew an incredibly detailed map of the town and outlined practically everything I could possibly want or need to go to. After his "best fish & chips in Australia" call I just couldn't resist. And was not let down!! Sooo good, I'm tempted to stay another night JUST so I can have that for dinner again.

Here's some pics I took driving along the coast to/from Taree:

Absolutely love this "Carefree road" sign- add in the deflated balloons and it was photography heaven. Xxx

Im taking a little bit of byron with me

After a week in Byron I'm finally tearing myself away. I can honestly see how so many people come here for holidays and never leave...I could so easily become one of them.

Some little Byron highlights you definitely shouldn't miss next time you're there...

The Beach Hotel; THE place to be, day or night, in Byron. Love the view, love the people, love the free internet access ;), LOVE the insanely good wedges with sweet chili & sour cream (best post-surfing food ever created), love the nighttime hippie bands
Mimosa clothing; LOVE this byron based clothing brand. They're stocked in David Jones & boutiques all around Australia but their Byron store was an absolute goldmine; & so much cheaper than in stores! Also loved the "eco mama" store; to die for. On the lines of clothing...I could no joke buy EVERY item of clothing available from sportsgirl atm and be in love with them all; lovinggg their winter style. Now if only I had the money to actually buy ANY of it....sigh

Snorkeling and surfing; is a must-do when you're in byron. I'd never snorkelled before and was slightllyy unco but loved it all the same.

I leave Byron even more in love with it than I arrived... new friends, new lessons, new perspectives. And a better appreciation for the song "Lion man" by mumford and sons...Em, you know what I mean.

Let the adventure continue!! x

It pays to have spontaneous friends!

EMMA VISITED ME IN BYRON :)

So I've only been gone like two weeks but it seriously feels like foreevveerrr. And i was already missing some of my favourite coast people. Sad I know- but they're just so miss-able!

Emma and I used to live together and not only is she beautiful, talented, caring and passionate but I've always LOVED her spontaneous nature; this girl is up for anything and makes everything an adventure! This was no exception.

I threw it out there to come visit me and, true to her nature, THERE SHE WAS. Leaving at a moments notice to come adventure with me. And adventure we did.

She tells the story much better than I...check out her blog at http://selahinthenight.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much Em xxxx

ps. matthew drummond, 128. hahaha
pps. happy birthday to the lovely natalie!

Energy bursts can come at the weirdest times

This is mainly for em, jus and shae- who will understand the true meaning of "speak your heart moments".
After a massive day of surfing I was absolutely exhausted and was set to crash around 7o'clock. Then, the unexplainable happened. Out of nowhere I had THE MOST insane energy burst ever. There was music, there was dancing out of my vans sunroof, there was a rendition of my old dance schools warm-up routines, there was a cowboy hat, there was laughter, there was confused and surprised caravan park guests and a completely perplexed travelling partner. And lucky (or maybe not so lucky) for my beloved blog readers, there were embarassingly unattractive photos to remind me of it.
Oh, and then there was the crash. What goes up must always come down. And that I did...best sleep EVER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gldNDev50c

My current dance inspiration; sandra bullocks character in the proposal who takes herself way too seriously lets loose in her interpretation of "get low"....hahaha best scene ever

LET ME SEE YOU GET LOW- YOU SCARED YOU SCARED!

STOP, WOAH, NOW WIGGLE IT!

Watego's Beach

WATEGO'S BEACH is definitely my favourite of the Byron beaches.

It reminds me of some of the more secluded coves you find at Noosa National Park- so its a touch of home, with the added bonus of being able to see my beloved lighthouse.

I've sat and watched the sun go down, I had my third surfing day (you can see Im slightly getting better at holding the board!), I've seen a firey-hula-hoop-er, and I've had an insanely good picnic with my amazing basket (see dad, told you it was worth all the space is takes up in the van! :p)

....on that picnic note; if you have never tried dried apricots and brie cheese together, DO IT. Incredible!

I have a surfers body!!!

Nope, I didnt wake up tanned and muscly with an awesome 6-pack.. :(
I got the unfortunate version of the surfer body.



Not only am I completely and utterly exhausted after my two afternoons of surfing but oh....my....goodness my muscles are hurting! Like seriously- I didnt even know some of these muscles EXISTED. They've clearly never been used before and apparently they were quite happy that way, and are making sure I know about it!! Ow ow ow ow owwwww. Oh, and to top it all off I have the most insane bruises allll over me, I seriously look like I've been beaten!


So I realise this picture is particularly unattractive but who cares, Im going for the sympathy card!

On the second afternoon I eagerly jumped on the board and instantly rolled off the other side again cause they hit all the same sore spots. Quite amusing to everyone around me, I wasnt too happy though. Lucky my new-found favourite sport is addictively worth it.

Fingers crossed that if I stick with the surfing- the tanned and muscly awesomeness is on its way and the bruises are on their way out!

The meaning of life

Crazy, I know.

I mean some people spend their entire life searching for the meaning of life.

If thats you, you can feel totally at ease. Because I'm about to tell you.

Ready for it? This is massive. The meaning of life...

Can be found at the

Byron Bay Cookie Company.

Seriously.

Im crazy for not surfing earlier!

Who grows up living in Noosa and doesn't properly learn to surf before the age of 21??? Me unfortunately, and I now think Im crazy for wasting all this time! I never really got peoples addiction to it, but after learning today- im definitely starting to understand.
We hired a longboard (it was massive, as you can see- I could barely fit my arm around it & was not exactly a graceful walk to the water- humbling!!!)
I practised for 3 and a half hours and I LOVED it!!!
I could only stand up on my knees at the beginning but by the end was standing up and catching waves in.
Even had an exciting little moment where I was able to turn around and wave and do a bit of an excited dance as I was surfing in. Show off, I know.
It was just so exciting and fun to learn something new- thats what I want this trip to be all about.

My biggest struggle was actually paddling onto the wave- my poor tiny arm muscles didn't know what hit them! So I still kind of needed a bit of a push onto the waves....I'll get there!!

All I know now is, I want my own board! This trip just took on a whole new theme!!

Getting me out of byron is going to be tough.

Love xoxoxox

3 hash cookies cost $15

Yep you guessed it….today we went to NIMBIN! What can I say? I’ve long heard jokes about this town being the drug capital of Australia, full of weed-smoking hippies…and from what we witnessed; its reputation has been deservedly earned!

As you may pick up in the photos, absolutely every aspect of this town seems to come back to their favourite ‘medicinal drug’. The Nimbin Museum (“Entry $2, but come in anyway…”) is where most of the photos are taken; 8 rooms filled with rusting kombi vans, political verbal bashings, scandalous images, and every other marijuana paraphernalia you could possibly imagine, all coming back to the towns apparent mission; the war on legalising drug use.

I loved exploring the town and definitely think it’s worth the trip; but to be honest, it was all a little depressing. A part of me almost wished that the whole place was a novelty theme park of sorts; that the people sitting in the streets with empty eyes and cigarettes were just acting out this lifestyle. It kind of seemed their whole world?

Some of their ideologies were definitely on the right track, I am a sucker for good qu

otes and I loved the little wisdoms

spread everywhere; read my favourite at the bottom of this blog.

Oh, and if you’re after those cookies or anything of the sort, I recommend the little alley next to the museum. From what we saw, there was at least seven dealers in 50 metres!!! “No thankyou” “I’m good thanks” “Not today” “Noooooooo”.

Regardless of your reasons for visiting…Nimbin truly is an experience!

Springbrook national park!

This was, by far, my favourite place and day of my trip so far! Truly incredible. After our glow worm adventure, our morning in Springbrook started with the discovery of THE most incredible fudge shop. Turkish delight and cookies & cream for me, heaveeeennnn.

I’m not sure if it was the sugar hit or sheer stubbornness that helped me to walk this far, but we walked 9 km’s (!!!) through the Purlingbrook falls circuit and I absolutely fell in love with the magic of it.

Hundreds of photos & some insane blisters later, it felt like every corner brought something more beautiful and impressive than the last. The circuit is in the most incredible rainforest with views to die for. And as the main feature, the falls themselves were insanely impressive.

My face is clearly a failed attempt to look brave; the pools at the bottom “feels like I’m swimming in a bucket of ice!!” but it was such a perfect spot and I just couldn’t pass it up.

Then came my next challenge; if I backed up Andrews efforts of going under the falls, I would be crowned champion of the day (our running tournament for who gets the more comfortable side of the van to sleep on that night, a notable prize!). This ended up being my favourite part of the day, I loved it! So refreshing and liberating.

Just when we thought Springbrook had shown off every one of its beautiful secrets; we found “the best of all lookout”. I loved its name, a sign-posted promise of the greatest view possible. We weren’t disappointed. After my initial “wow….” I was literally speechless for minutes. It’s a view you want to share with everyone you know; I just wish the photos did it justice. I am loving this trip xxxxxxxx

The perfect reading spot

Picked up andrew (family friend, current travelling partner, unsure why i packed so many clothes for this trip & yet to truly comprehend my eating habits) from the airport this morning :). Andrew's just graduated a five year uni degree in perth so we've both been hanging out for the carefree & relaxed lifestyle this trip is all about! He's a chiropractor and no joke within a few hours of him landing he'd scored himself a job on the gold coast & is moving up here once he's finished his adventures with me. Not a bad effort! In the meantime, I found the most perfect reading spot near Miami beach...
And then I fell in love with snapper rocks!! Apparently it’s a world renowned surfing spot, which doesn't mean alot to me but I definitely fell in love with its view across the ocean with Gold Coast city sitting on the horizon. Perfect.

A glow worm cave!

There are countless national parks inland from the Gold Coast that we were told are must sees. But once I heard that Springbrook had a nighttime glow worm cave tour, there was no swaying me of which one was the real must-see! The guy taking the tour was an absolute legend,

talk about loving what you do! You could definitely get him talking for hours about anything that glows or grows in that area and I was like an excited kid the whole time. The photos on my camera didnt quite work out, this one from the website gives you a bit of an idea of what it was like- but definitely doesnt do it justice!

I missed my calling as a painter!!

I am absolutely loving the band the temper trap atm, they've been providing the perfect anthems for my trip. Current favourite is sweet disposition;

never too soon
oh, reckless abandon
like no one's watching you
a moment
a love
a dream
aloud
a kiss
a cry
our rights
our wrongs
a moment a love
a dream
aloud
a moment a love
a dream
aloud
SO STAAYYYYYY TTHHEERREEE...

(Thats the part where it gets really good and I sing it as loud as I type it)

The friend im staying with is renovating his house and I was keen to help out so he gave me a wall and let me loose. I'll be honest, I was pretty bad at "cutting in" (the technical term for the real fiddly bits along the edges) but give me a roller and I'm good to go. The temper trap playing on my ipod, cliche yet necessary scarf on my head, and note the little bit of extra love painted on the walls, it was all very therepeutic.

Also, checked out surfers paradise markets and went for a walk on the beach (was going to get a photo of me under the sign but felt way too touristy so thats just a bunch of random people). It felt like a bit of a strange place to hold markets; central surfers paradise isn't exactly a small town with colourful hippie characters which I think is more than half the charm of markets for me. Although I was amazed by this one man who was doing the most incredible "leather drawings"- the photo doesnt do it justice but he was writing peoples names and they looked so amazing I couldnt stop watching. Loved the sand art on the beach too!

Ok so its definitely time for bed now, its very late. And you know how the longer you stay up, every little noise in the world starts to become a scene from the last law&order you watched? Although it just started raining so my reasoning is that any mass murderers around wouldnt be waiting outside the window anymore, they would have just got it over with and come inside to get out of the rain. And they haven't. Which I'm quite happy about. Danielle coey, I will forever blame you for your influence on my scary movie addiction during highschool and the late night terrors I've experienced since!

A present on the doorstep!

I have always considerd myself an insanely blessed person for the incredible people I have in my life. Not least of these is my beautiful friend (& talented musician!) shae jackson.

On the doorstep this morning I found the most thoughtful present I've ever received; not only had she made me a massive photo scrapbook filled with so many memories it took me half an hour to properly get through, but on a cd in the back there was a song that she had written and recorded for me. I wish I could put it on here so you could hear for yourself just how beautiful it is, but if you haven't heard her music you should definitely listen to her at http://www.myspace.com/shaejackson Word on the street is her first film clip is in the works as we speak!

You are the true definition of a friend Shae Jackson xxx

Leaving your cars accessories on all night CAN be a good thing!

SO normally I wouldn't advise taking on that advice...but leaving my camry's accessories on all night proved to be the perfect chance to have a real life car jump-starting lesson. That being successful, I spent the day learning various practicalities of my van and its camping equipment.

My personal favourite was driving my van around purposely trying to get it bogged so that I could practice kicking it into 4wd and getting myself out. A muddy success & strangely addictive!

Despite my fairly independent nature, I've always had the "there will always be a boy around to do that" motto when it comes to all things mechanical. But I must admit I was feeling very practical and accomplished after a day of Dads "let me teach you all that I know" lessons.

Driving back from the petrol station where I learnt how my vans diesel/lpg gas combination works, I realised that alot of the magic of this trip for me is going to be that I've spent the last four years of my life at uni focusing on all things intellectual and academic. Which, as much as I loved every second of it, has done very little to prepare me for the majority of the pracitcal skills I'll be needing on this trip.

I can recite the theories of Freud and write an essay on hrm development. But ask me to change a tyre and I'll laugh and call a friend.


I'm looking forward to the change from books and theories to hands-on practicalities. And I have no doubt that alot of those skills will be the topics filling my "today i discovered..." blogs.

Speaking of being practical- I felt pretty proud that I fit EVERY item of clothing/shoes/ jewellrey/accessories/toiletries/etc to be used over months & months of travel into these three storage tubs...guys may laugh but come on girls, you have to admit this is a decent effort!