Here's to a New Year

My apologies for not having an update in so long but we've been on the road and in areas where we do not have access to the internet butttttttttt here goes...

Surfer's Paradise was a lot of fun, we got to go to Wet n Wild Waterpark which was a blast but a little overcast so a bit chilly on some of the slides. We spent 3 days there with Stew's friends Jeff and Matt and then headed to Byron Bay for Stew's birthday weekend. We met up with Mick and Andrew and a new friend Amber at a caravan park in the middle of Byron Bay. We also got to meet a wicked couple of backpackers, Amber and Dean (Dean being from Victoria, Aus). We camped in the park and had drinks the first night. Saturday afternoon we went over to the Pass which is a wicked surf spot that all the locals go to. the waves were nothing like we've ever seen, absolutely PERFECT breaks and so clean. It was tough to get out on the waves because of the number of pro surfers and locals getting territory over the area but it was really cool to watch them ride these waves for a good km or more and have to get out and walk back up the beach to catch the next one. So cool.

Saturday night in Byron we went out to the bars for Stew's birthday and definitely tied one on. We were all feeling it Sunday so we had a low key day on the beach Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening was by far the best part of my entire trip here in Australia. We went to this beach front bar/restaurant expecting to have a quiet casual meal for Stew's birthday and ended up walking into one of the biggest, coolest reggae concerts ever. Hippies and surfers and beach bums everywhere just dancing to the beat. I was in heaven. We got some beers and food and listened to the show. Amber, dean, Stew and I stayed a bit longer for the mmusic and beer and then headed back to camp. I got stew a birthday cake and candles he got to blow out before we ate the cake with our bare hands like barbarians lol. Then we headed down the beach and found a sweet huge bonfire of hippies with a drum circle, fire twirling and music pumping. It was so much fun. Monday we had to head out and made our journey towards Sydney.

We stopped in Lennoxhead, Forster, Coff's Harbour and Newcastle along the coast on our way to Sydney. We stopped in the small town of Grafton which wasn't really anything exciting sadly but we got a bumper sticker to add to our ongoing collection. We have been living in the van since we left Pumpkin Island really besides our stay in Surfers. We've nailed down the art of finding small parking lots by the beach that we can park overngiht as we just look like a commercial van anyways. It is pretty hilarious to open the van door and walk out in my boxers to families arriving at the beach, walking their dogs, etc. We parked behind a train station in the slum area of Sydney the night before we picked up dad from the airport. We parked under a tree full of bats that proceeded to shit huge turds down on our van until we moved to a different area. Hilarious though.

Got dad from the airport and have been camping in various caravan parks. Got a tent for dad and often spend downtime tailgating out the back of our van with a movie on the laptop and beers in hand. We toured Darling Harbour where the real world sydney was filmed, saw the opera house and bridge and the rocks. Really cool! Christmas eve we watched home alone and drank wine, then christmas day exchanged stockings and headed to manly beach since bondi was going to be impossible for parking. We got hammered on the beach off goon and wore our santa hats. We carried the goon in a santa sac which was hilarious for us and apparently the asian tourists who stopped us to take pictures. amazing. we stayed in a hostel and then back to the campground the next day. we've been camping since and are now in an area called budgewoi with a really nice caravan park that has community cooking areas and literally a minute to the beach. new years was low key, had drinks on the campground and saw fireworks.

we took dad out on the surfboard yesterday and though he didn't stand he was able to paddle out into the waves like a pro and got some sweet body boarding rides. i was so proud! today we went to a reptile park and saw some snakes, alligators, kangaroos, etc. which was pretty cool. In a couple days we'll be heading back to darling harbour to stay with a couple of dads friends he met in italy. we'll also be going to canberra with them before dad has to head back to canada. stew and i are planning to make it towards melbourne and maybe get some farm work done for cash before going to the great ocean road. right now our rough plans are to make our way back up to byron bay to live there for a few months as we both loved it. theres the quiksilver pro surf comp at the end of feb that we want to watch too and see kelly slater in the flesh. just rough ideas for now! pictures will be on facebook soon! merry christmas and happy new year to all!!