Today was the most exhilarating day by far! From Sydney we caught a flight up to Byron Bay! Byron Bay is a surf town in Northern New South Wales. We were going there to, you guessed it, surf!
The town itself was named by the great expeditionist James Cook after Admiral Byron who was leading a fleet of ships in the area. Settlers arrived in 1830 and Byron became popular due to the timber industry. Now it is one of the high end places to leave and a lot of Australian celebrities such as Liam Hemsworth have their mansions here. According to Steph the latest house just sold for $35 million dollars.
We dropped our bags at Wake Up Byron Bay, our next hostel, and headed straight away for our surfing lesson. Last March, in Mexico, River had attempted to teach me how to surf but the area we were in was way too rocky to actually stand up so we body surfed on the board. Today, I was intent on standing up.
The two surf instructors were young and so fit! Their bodies were perfectly toned and they were rocking the dark Australian tan. I swear they were darker than me. They had both grown up surfing and are so dedicated to the sport, they spend everyday surfing. They started our lesson with a bit of stretching and then instructed us how to get on and off the board and to go from lying to standing position.
The most tiring part of surfing is moving the board into the water where the waves are. As soon as one wave passed you had to move quickly before the other dragged you back ashore. Plus, pulling a board along added to the challenge. Our large group of 27 had split and only 8 of us were with this surf instructor so it was nice to get a little more attention. One of the two instructors would come around and as the wave came, they would give you a massive push from which then you would have to paddle, paddle, paddle, until you caught the wave and could stand up. I kept trying but everytime the instructor gave me a push, I would get so caught up in the moment and bask in the thrill of riding the wave that I forgot to stand up. The couple of times I got close to standing up was when it was always too late. Everyone was at the same stage and there were only a couple who were able to stand fully up. Usually it was also past the wave as well.
Despite being an epic fail at surfing, I tried over and over. My legs got so bruised up and burned from continuously sliding on and off the board. By the time they announced the last wave, my body was done for it. Surfing was so fun and it was a reminder of why I signed up for a group tour - the adventure activities. These were the feelings and emotions I was waiting to feel. I had been waiting for the exhilaration of catching a wave and energy high. I had so much fun and such a good time with the group.
Everyone was pretty beat and hungry after surfing. The town in Byron Bay is small and approximately a 25 minute walk from the hostel. The Wake Up Byron Bay was very well set up like a beach resort or villa. The accommodation was in little villas. Some had bathrooms inside while ours unfortunately didn’t. There was a communal kitchen, communal space, but best of all a pool and bar area. It felt much more of a hostel vibe than Wake Up Sydney had. There was much more of the community emphasis and it had a major beach town vibe. I mean the beach was right across the street. I felt so relaxed in Byron Bay.
The group was going somewhere together for dinner but I grabbed Tal and we went and got Italian food for dinner. The town was very small and full of eateries and small upscale boutiques or souvenir shops. We ordered kid sized pizzas because the full size looked way too large for us. It was nice to eat dinner with just her as opposed to the large group because I finally felt like I was able to get to know her more than I would in a group setting. Our pizza took forever to come and by that time, I was so hungry I scarfed the whole thing down. Tal said she wanted ice cream so to complete our Italian evening we went and got pistachio gelato. There was a musician playing live guitar music right near the beach so we sat on the grass as we enjoyed our gelato. Simple. Relaxing. Perfect. I loved every moment and felt like I was back in Italy eating gelato and relaxing by the beach. These are moments I live for.
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