SPRING BREAKKKKKKKK

Spring Break Down Under

As anyone who still checks this blog will understand, life here in Australia has taken off with the weather. I have been so busy making the most of this beautiful country that I haven’t really found the time to document what I’ve been seeing, and to my parents and potential future children I apologise. That said I’m going to have to put a few of my exploits on hold until a later entry to delve into my first and only Australian spring break.

As we are located in the southern hemisphere the seasons in Australia are basically flipped with those of the States. Where the U.S. is heading into fall and winter, here in Australia spring has sprung and with it our mid-term break (spring break). After a successful first spring break back stateside, I decided that travel and leisure were the objectives of my second one, but like most things in my life I was dead wrong.

After hearing all of our friends intricate plans for break, my friend Brad and I decided it would be best to plan a more casual trip and simply meet up with different groups of friends along the way. We began our weeklong excursion in what we were told was a popular college spring break town, Surfer’s Paradise.  A list of lost items that first night includes: contents of 1 wallet, 1 phone, 2 packs of gum, 1 pair of socks, and 1 pair of shoes. However, before you write this off as a doomed night know that we did acquire two of our friends from university, a broken cigarette, a red balloon, and two smiles from ear to ear. Somehow, the loss of my cash and Brads phone hadn’t dampened our spirits so we struck out with our two Sydney friends Trevor and Andrew for the local golf links and a casual round. The round went off without a hitch, unless you count crazy lizards and thieving birds as abnormal (we’ve lived here for more than a week so this statistic doesn’t include us).  Night number two we decided to take it easy on the beach, until we were given a U.S. history lessen by 2 illiterate and heavily over served aboriginal females and a shemale (a story within itself). We laughed and joked with our new acquaintances before bidding them goodnight, for we had an early ride to Brisbane in the morning. In Brisbane Brad and I met up with his cousin, who is also abroad in Australia, for a nice day of sight seeing and street performances. After Scoot, who I may honor by naming my first son after him, taught us the intricacies of juggling fire torches, a machete and an apple on a 11 meter straight latter, we decided to call it a day and headed back for uneventful last night in Surfer’s, and the wonderful revelation of my previously missing shoes on the second floor patio of our hostel, hidden expertly underneath a chair.

In the morning we said goodbye to Andrew and Trevor and got on the bus for our ride to Byron Bay, hereafter to be referred to as paradise. We checked into our hostel and soon met up with our friends Kyle, Sam, Lindsay, and Kendall at their condo for a few drinks and stories of our previous events. We called it an early night, as Brad and I had our biggest even at 7 the next morning, skydiving. To one and all who have toyed with the idea of going skydiving allow me to give my three words of advice, just do it. Don’t think about it, just go. It may have been the mixture of the facts that I was in paradise, am somewhat of an adrenaline junky, and I haven’t seen 6:15 A.M. in years, but it was the single most astounding feeling in the world to me. We were lucky enough to have a great view of both beach and rain forest, before diving through a cloud and dropping our chutes just as the ocean came back into view. It was truly a life-changing leap of faith, and I have no problem joining anyone too scared to try it alone. After the dive, we spent the rest of the day surfing and laying on the beach before another night on the town with our friends and another group of Sydney pals that had just arrived in Byron (too many people to name, sorry girls). We spent our final day in paradise on a tour of the rainforest after a quick stop in Australia’s notorious town of Nimbin. A quaint town in which the police have decided that natural drug charges aren’t their cup of tea and where by no possible reason other than coincidence there is little to no crime or aggression… We were then lead by our wonderful tour guide/outstanding DJ to a beautiful waterfall and many other rainforesty sights. This capped the end to a week of fun and frivolity on Australia’s beautiful eastern coast, a trip that I can recommend to any well-endowed traveller. However, I must warn you that Brad and I are currently in the process of revising our bucket lists after completing much of them on our excursion.

To my parents- So stop reading if your not my parents…

Thank you so much for this experience, none of this would have been possible without you and I shall never forget a minute of our adventure in paradise.