Byron Bay Beach Bums

We have made it to Byron Bay--our favourite place in Australia so far where we are planning to live for a few months! We have been here a little over a week now and just moved into our beachside condo that we are sharing with a French couple and an English guy named Noah. It is the ultimate beachside pad decked out in surf boards, shells and beach decorations. It's also steps from the main strip and beach. We spent a week in First Sun caravan park and met some awesome Americans named Sander and Karolina who we've been spending a lot of time with. We got a chance to drive up to Coolangatta to see the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Surf Competition taking place at Snapper Rocks. It was such a cool experience as we got to see Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and many more pro surfers up close and personal. The finals are on now after a few days off since the swell was low but we'll just be watching on TV. We watched Kelly Slater (11 time world champ) compete on day 4 of the competition and his press conference after which we were so close for we could nearly touch him! That's kelly there!

The surfers were really impressive and you could stand in the water to get an even closer look at their ride for each heat. We've been handing out resumes and desperately trying to get jobs in Byron Bay which we have heard can be quite difficult as it is such a popular place for tourists. We've called some places and found out they may be hiring in a couple weeks when Easter rolls around. We're hoping our money from Cessnock can last until then! We're remaining hopeful as we'll need jobs to start saving for our future adventures to Thailand and South East Asia in June.

Since we've been in Byron we've had some visitors including some of the Germans from Hunter Valley and Jeff and Matt from Surfer's Paradise. We also had our American friends so we've had lots of company and people to party with. Now that everyone has left its time to save money and really focus on getting jobs. Byron is a really cool place with a very laid back attitude and hippie lifestyle. On any given night you can easily find live music and there are always street entertainers that are no amatures. Byron has a lot of organic cafes and groceries, bead shops and of course surf. The girls aren't shy here either and its not uncommon to see topless women on the main beaches--though I will not be partaking in that! I've been able to get back out running and explored some cool little areas around town and found some nice paths to jog down. SO happy to be running again.

Our plans as of now are to work in Byron for a few months and then head up north to Cairns in June. We will likely sell our currymobile up in Cairns before heading to Thailand for mid to late June. We'll be meeting Curt in Asia and a couple other friends have considered joining us for our Thai experience. We'll spend about a month traveling southeast asia and then Stew will either spend time with Curt, come back to Australia or go home. I plan to consider flying from asia to Perth and then back to the coast for the remainder of my journey before flying home in September. It's crazy to think that we've been here over 5 months already and time is flying by. Though I would love to still visit Fiji and New Zealand before going home I've realized just how fast money goes here and may have to wait to see these places in the future. We'll see how things go once I start making more money.

I want to give a big congrats to Kristen Kuzemko on her first road bike purchase! Kristen will be biking across Canada in September while raising money for Pediatric Oncology Centres including Sick Kids. This is going to be an incredible journey for Kris and I can't wait to follow her journey! You can donate to Kristen's ride at http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1344629&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=http%3a%2f%2fwww.searsnationalkidscancerride.com%2fen%2fdonate%2findex.php

Thanks for reading and I will keep you all updated on our job hunt in Byron Bay. Pictures of our new pad to come soon :) It's Sunday here in Australia so it's time to relax on the beach and catch some sun before my long run later today. Check out the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro Surf competition on the Quiksilver website where you can view results and even stream the competition live. Until next time folks...