Surf Camp - catching barrels, going on death walks and getting a wicked head cold = good times!

Liz and Michelle as surfer girls!
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Here it is, officially the last adventure of my trip! And what a way to end, with a 5 day surf camp that goes from Byron to Sydney. After a terrible night of sleep deprivation (thanks a lot Cheeky Monkeys!) I packed up all my stuff and headed out to the bus station to get picked up. A girl came up to me and asked if I was on the Waves Surf tour and I hopped on board the bus. This might sound like an irrelavant fact, but this girl will turn out to be Hannah, one of the coolest people I've met on my trip! More about her later though.

Our group during seista time!
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The first day we headed to a beach not too far from Byron and the lessons began! We got fitted with our wetsuits and each got one giant sized foam long board (the best kind for learning on because they are basically large floatation devices!!). We headed to the beack where we began to learn the basics of standing up on the surfboard. By the end of this first day I was already standing up on my surfboard and riding the white wash into the shore. It might not sound super cool to everyone else, but I was pretty pumped with myself!

Turned out it was a razor death walk where we had to scale a sharp rocky cliff like thing to get to the top

the true surfer way to take a nap!
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After a long day of surfing we headed to a neat little place where we stayed the night. Nothing too eventful took place that night because we were all too sore from our spectacular surfing that day! The next day we headed to another beach. Unfortunately I don't know the exact locations of all of the places that we went to but the beaches were all great! The only downside to this particular day was that the weather was a bit crappy. The sun wasn't out and the waves treated us like a washing maching! It was a learning expereince as we all tried our best to catch at least one wave! It also provided great entertainment for our instructers as they got to sit on the beach and laugh at our pathetic attempts :) We almost got pulled out to sea by a rip at the very beginning of the day though, just proof of how powerful nature could be and how small we are in comparison! (I was reminded of that a lot during this trip!) That night we headed for our first night at surf camp. It's basically this land set aside where they've built a cabana for eating and hanging out and then little cabins with bunk bed in for the groups to stay in. This night we were the only group at the camp, so we had a pretty tame night. We played a few drinking games and then I called it a night. I thought I was getting a fever, but I wasn't sure if I was only just sun burnt. After a night of feverish dreams and waking up in a cold sweat a half dozen times, I realized that it was probably a fever. I didn't know if I was going to be able to surf the next morning, but I got up and got ready anyway. We headed to another beach and I started to feel a bit better. It helped that the sun was out in full force! This day the waves were almost perfect for learning to surf unbroken waves. I got pushed onto a few and managed to catch a couple more by myself so the day went pretty good overall! I did get slammed quite a few times though, just to keep my ego in check!

Me and Mooney, one of my surfing instructors
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That night, we were joined by a few other groups at surf camp. It was kind of cool though, because we all stuck to our group instead of all spreading out and losing each other. I went to bed a bit earlier than the others once again, as I was starting to feel quite sick. The next morning we got ready to go out and headed to a beach that boasted 6 and 7 foot waves! Needless to say, these waves were a tad beyond our skill level, but I had a great time watching some of the guys try them anyways! I even saw our instructors get slammed a few times! I rode the whitewash for awhile and then Hannah (our girl instructor) took us for what she called a nice walk to a lookout point. Turned out it was a razor death walk where we had to scale a sharp rocky cliff like thing to get to the top, but the view in the end was worth it! That night at surf camp was the big night. We all pitched in on some beer and sangria and had a pretty good night! This is the night that I truly bonded with Hannah. It's crazy because the moment I met her, it was like we had known each other for so long! I hadn't laughed as much as I did with her in a really long time so it felt really good!  She even knew all the same Will Ferrel quotes as me, so that's what we spent most of our time doing!

The boys checking out the waves!
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The next morning was a little rough, but we managed to get up on time and headed to our last beach. This day turned out great with perfect waves for learning to surf unbroken waves. Now, normally this would make me super happy, but it turns out that I was so sick that I couldn't surf for most of the day. I almost couldn't breathe for some of it! In fact, my head cold had gotten so bad that both of my ears were plugged! So I ended up laying on the beach for most of this day, watching the others surf (Boo!)

The girls!
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After the day was done, we headed back to surf camp and got our stuff on the bus to Sydney. Part way through the journey I switched an rode with Hannah. She had gracefully extended an invitation to her house and I had taken her up on it! So I ended up going to Hannahs in the Blue Mountains and meeting her family! After a few more laughs we headed to bed. The next day was a great day of not doing a lot! That's one thing Hannah was great at, making me feel completely mellow. During one part of our day we just laid on a picnic table by a lake and feed ducks. It was the most relaxed I had been on my entire trip! told her mom that she didn't know if we would have enough time to go to the mechanic before it closed. We were pretty busy, with feeding the ducks and all! The best part was when Hannah got on the phone and Then all the people from our surf group (the best group ever!) came over and Hannah's mom made us a wicked meal of BBQ and salads and dessert! With full stomachs, we all crashed. After the others had left the next day, me and Hannah and another Liz from Seattle hung out and happily wasted away another day. We went fishing (my first time since I was little!) and found this beautiful road with trees lining both side. I fell in love with it and it has since been nicknamed Liz's Lane! I knew I'd make my mark on Australia some how!

Group Photo!
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At about 3:30pm Hannah dropped my off with Brit (one of the Sydney girls) for my last few days in Oz. It was really strange, but as soon as Hannah was gone, I really started to miss her! I hadn't actually spent that much time with her, but I felt like I was missing an old friend! It was a kind of crazy feeling but, like Hannah said to me, you met people for a reason, so me and hannah must have something special and unique when it comes to each other!

Brit and the girls were awesome to me yet again! Brit took me to her brothers house (an absolutley beautiful house with lots of land around it) and we chilled out. These last few days in Sydney were filled with seeing the girls and getting some last minute shopping done! Though I have to admit I was almost embarrased when I unpacked everything and showed Kate everything I had bought. She shook her head in disbelief, which didn't help the situation! This time around I got to stay with Brit, Mouse and Kate and I got to see all the girls at least once more. I knew that when I was to come on this trip I would meet people that I would like and miss, but I honestly never expected to make a second life in Australia! I became so close with these girls that it was actually really hard to leave them! It was to the point where I could see myself living there and hanging out with them on a daily basis! The great part though, is that now I have true friends on the other side of the world that I get to keep in contact with and go and visit again and again!

A pic of Hannah
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My last day in Sydney, Kate took me to buy my last souviner and then took me to the airport. There were definately tears, though I managed to hold them back pretty well so people didn't give me strange looks!

And that, along with 27 hours of straight travelling to get home, is officially the end of my adventure! Well, it may be the end of that adventure, but will not be the last one, I can guarantee that!