We headed to the bus stop around 7:30 am to wait for the bus to take us to Griffith Uni (short for university, Aussie talk). Once at the bus stop I realized that I had forgotten one essential item for the trip. My camera. Because we were nice and early for our bus, Carly and I decided to run back to the flat to grab my camera. We made it back to the bus stop just in time!
Upon our arrival to Griffith we noticed two buses that we assumed would be taking us to Byron Bay. We hopped on and awaited our departure.
Roomies!
On our way to Byron Bay we stopped at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary to see some of Australia's most famous animals.
First were the parrots, they would just randomly fly around and land on people's heads. If you know me, I am not very fond of birds and I do not want them landing on my head! Luckily I was able to dodge them, my height probably helped a little bit too. Carly on the other hand wanted to get up close and personal!
Carly holding some parrot food
Next stop, Kangaroos! They were just lying all over the place like lazy bums!
One of them perked up for a little bit
Some Crocodiles!
A Koala Bear!
We saw a lot of different animals at the wildlife sanctuary including tree kangaroos, a wombat, a tasmanian devil, snakes, birds etc. It was fun to see all the animals but we had still had about an hour drive, so we loaded up the buses and headed to Byron Bay.
When we got to the Backpackers Inn in Byron Bay we put our stuff in our rooms and took a group hike to the lighthouse which had some awesome views.
Roomies left to right Clint, Kevin, Me, Carly
All of the international students on the trip!
After our walk we were set free to explore Byron Bay which is a fun little "hippie town" with lots of shops and cafe's. At around 4 pm we headed back to our hostel to shower and get ready for dinner at Cheeky Monkey's, a Restaurant/Bar/Nightclub in Byron Bay. It was fun getting a chance to meet some of the other exchange students.
The next morning we woke up around 9 am for breakfast. My roommates and I signed up for 2:30 sea kayaking so we had most of the day to just hang out around the hostel. We interacted with the other students and played a game of volleyball until it was time for kayaking.
Carly and I decided we would each choose one of our boy roommates to kayak with since it takes a certain amount of strength to maneuver a kayak. Clint ended up with me and Kevin with Carly.
We made it out to sea with no problems but after being out on the ocean for about 15 minutes I was reminded of the motion sickness I sometimes get. However, I was able to get over my sickness once our group spotted about 15 dolphins swimming close by.
On our way back to shore, our kayaking instructor explained the procedure for getting through the waves without tipping the kayak. Obviously none of us listened very well because every single kayak in the entire group tipped and we ended up having to walk/swim our boat to shore. Currents are very strong in Australia so this was interesting but, we made it to shore safely.
We headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready for a BBQ.
Carly and I signed up for 10 am surfing the next morning, so we got up early, packed up our stuff and headed for the ocean.
Surfing was a lot of fun and I actually wasn't to terrible!
After our surf lesson we went back to the hostel and hung out until it was time to leave.
Hanging out in some hammocks around the hostel
We left the hostel around 4:30pm and made it back to the Gold Coast around 6:30pm. I had a great time on the trip but now it is time to prepare for school, which starts tomorrow....Here We Go!
Anna
Hippie town?? Cooooool
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