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!

My Van!!

Alot of people have been asking about the van I'm travelling in so here's a quick photo and description of my new 'home'-yet to be named after I've bonded with it a little more!

Its a Mitsubishi Delica thats been modified from an 8 seater into a 5 seater campervan by its previous owner (who has done the Australia trip in it himself & has thought of EVERYTHING in its set-up, what a find).

I slept in it in our driveway the night it arrived thats how excited I was. I love that I can lay in bed and look up through the sunroof and stargaze..

ahh, this is going to be a tough couple of months ;)

Bring it on!