Byron, Forests, Gold Coast, Oh My!

FYI. Since my internet is pretty much non-existent, I won't be posting pics with this
blog, but they will be posted at a later date. Promise. Thanks for your patience.

Updating my blog has become rather difficult, as you can tell from the lack of posts.
Not because I'm bored out of my mind with NOTHING to report. It's the fact that we
are really camping.

And by camping, I mean, finding the most beautiful spot to park, moving all the shiznit
from the back to the front and laying our heads down to rest in the back of a
station wagon.

For free.

These past 6 days have been amazing. And I'm not just saying that to make people
think I'm havin a great time while in reality I'm completely miserable.

I. Really. Am. Having. Fun.

Ross and I thoroughly enjoy one another's company and we haven't bitched each
other out. Yet. He's a true gentlemen and really thinks about others before himself.
It's a nice change of pace.

Blah blah blah. Who wants to hear about all that mushy gushy stuff. Yeah. Me
Neither.

So. I left off with our shooting star spectacular in Byron Bay.

The next morning, we got up and went to the lighthouse in Byron Bay. It's kinda of a
staple here in this town because of the fact it's the most Easternly point in Australia.
Look. I'm not lying.

That was cool, but it was hot and my ankle wasn't a huge fan of the uphill/downhill
scenario.

So. We got ourselves down to the beach and tried our luck in boogie boarding.

Yeah. Neither of us caught a wave, but we had a great time laughing about it.

Then we went to the grocery store to get ourselves some dinner -- which was a
brilliant idea. We bought ourselves one of those really greasy chickens that are
pre-cooked. Um. First -- delicious. Second -- lasted us for days. FOR DAYS.

And we enjoyed our delicious chicken with sweet potato mash, made by Mr. Foss
(my nickname for him) and I made some delicious steamed broccoli. For some
poor-ass people, we sure are living the dream. Ha!

Then we were off to go meet up with a girl I met on the bus from Surfers Paradise to
Byron. Really nice girl from the UK who's traveling the world. Oh right. I already told
you about her. Anyway. We met up at the Beach Hotel and had a couple of drinks
then we walked ourselves home where Ross and I laugh THE WHOLE WAY
HOME. There just wasn't any stopping us. Boom.

The next morning we got ourselves up and packed up all of our stuff and we said
goodbye Byron. It was bittersweet since we were having such a good time, but
there was camping to be had! None of this cozy hostel crap.

By suggestion of one of Ross' friends, Fi, we drove to the Lamington National Park
which was absolutely breath-taking. Notice how most of my pics are of nice
beaches or flat-lands, but rarely any mountains and the like? Well this is where my
pictures change. Glorious.

So we had lunch (yes, chicken) with a bit of Mug-a-Goon. Our new name for boxed
wine, since we don't have wine glasses. It fits. And it's funny. So there.

Afterwards we walked a 4km trek to the Gollossum Pools. And, unfortunately, it
wasn't that cool considering we definitely walked more than 4km and all downhill.

Which meant the trek up was going to be all uphill and more than 4km. Ugh. But we
did see a GINORMOUS iguana that leaped out at us and made me scream and
we also saw a rooster who somehow disappeared into thin air when we reached
his path. Don't ask questions, we aren't.

Then it was time to setup shop. We found out it would cost us $24 to camp in the
actual park, so we decided to go back out of the park and stop at an overlook that
was rather breathtaking. And where some paragliders happened to fly from. So.
Awesome.

Our first night in the car was uneventful, but a good laugh. And surprisingly
comfortable. Who would've thunk!

The next morning we awoke to all the paragliders setting up as well as an all
female Eco-tour. However, I'm convinced they weren't all female. They were all
lesbian. I mean, really. It just made sense.

Foss went over and talked to the "head-honcho" and got some information on
where to go for an awesome trek. And he stole some of their breakfast. Sad. We're
beggars.

As we were on our way to the trek, we pulled the car over because we saw the
most exquisite sight. The Gold Coast in the distance with the forest stretching out
towards it. Beautiful.

And Foss picked me some flowers. Aw.

We went to the Springbrook National Park where we went on a 4km circuit through
Twin Falls. It was beautiful.

Afterwards we went to a little cafe to get some water (we didn't plan on the trek
being as long as it was) and found some AMAZING hats. Srsly. Are these not just
amazing.

We bought 12.

On our way down to the Gold Coast we saw a sign for the "Best of All Lookouts."
We were pretty stunned that this might be, holy wow, the best of all. So we had to
have a look.

Good thing it was rainy and gross. Because that view was spectacular. Wow. So
spectacular, we didn't know what to do with ourselves. So we made a lot of jokes
and I think one of our favorites was that the guy who named the Best of All
Lookouts really had the last name of "Best of All." Has to be.

Off we went to go to the Gold Coast so we could see the sights and have a nice
night out of partying.

Only thing was we didn't really book in advance, so we had nowhere to stay.

Fortunately, since I had lived there, I had a couple of contacts. One guy from
couchsurfing that said I could crash as well as get us in for free at the Wicked Party
tour or my old roommate, since no one had moved in yet.

We were in luck and took my old roommate option. He's so freakin laid-back and
chill, I really appreciate the fact that I got to meet him and get to know him. PIMP.
So we got ready really fast and went to Strike Bowling to meet up with the Wicked
Party group. Ran into the head guy Nic, who had some crazy pink hair, and
slapped some wrists bands on us and said, "have fun."

Um. AWESOME.

So we got to go to 5 clubs where we received 5 drink coupons. You'd think 5 drinks
would be enough, but, um no. We still spent too much money on alcohol.

We started at Strike Bowling where everyone needed more liquid courage, went to
Melba's where everyone started to enjoy themselves with dancing, went to a
terrible place called Cheers & Drinks -- or something gay. I ended up dancing with
a guy there which was kind of dumb. But it prompted something else, I'll get to it in a
minute.

Then we got to go to The Bedroom, which is somewhere I've been wanting to go. It
was okay, not very exciting so I was a bit disappointed. Le Sigh.

Then Foss and I were ready to go back to Broadbeach and hit up a few bars there.
We went to Liars (where I met Vic) and had a drink, but sat and talked. About what?

The fact that I told the guy I danced with that Foss wasn't my man. Oh dear. Since
we hadn't gone over the guidelines of this trip to an exact T, I wasn't sure what to
call Foss.

Basically. We concluded. We're boyfriend/girlfriend.

SCORE. It's back on people, back on.

We then left Liars and headed for the Casino since I just couldn't stop myself from
going there All. The. Time. We didn't gamble, but instead we talked about serious
stuff. Why do I do this all the time? Whenever I get drunk, I get serious. And it's gay.
Someone slap me on the wrist. Hard.

The next morning we woke up with some serious hangovers. It wasn't pretty. So we
did some laundry, I watched a few deleted scenes from Forgetting Sarah Marshall
and then we were off. Went to Pacific Fair so we could buy a windshield shade for
the car and Foss wanted to try on some t-shirts. He's obsessed with t-shirts.

And being that we were going back out into the wilderness, we decided to get
some cheap grub from BK -- or as OZ knows it, Hungry Jacks. It wasn't half bad.

So. On our way we went. Off to The Glass House Mountains. That post is NEXT (in
like 5 weeks)!