And then we called her Espacio...

Espacio... the name of our Spaceship rental campervan. She was a beaut and she was officially ours for the next 6 days. She was going to take us from Sydney to Brissy (that's Brisbane in Aussie talk).

We had 6 days to drive 1000 km North. Where the waves would just get bigger and the air, warmer. Driving through Sydney, was definately different and by different I mean driving on the opposite side of the car and the road. **(For those of you left wondering...Nicole IS still alive after Jasmine's IMPRESSIVE driving skills were displayed on the Australian roads!!!)** Driving through Sydney was pretty similar to driving through rush hour in TO except worse because it was on the wrong side of the road and we were still trying to figure out how that worked. We slowly figured out that Australia is TERRIBLE for road signage and we got lost endless amounts of times.

The entire coastal drive was filled with amazing beaches and scenery. We finally made it to Byron by day #4 passing some cool smaller towns along the way: Coffs Harbour, Port McQuarie and our favourite... Woolgoolga. Woolgoolga was a Omemee-sized village that didn't own a grocery store even. Low-key surfer spot, with a laid back campground called Spot X. We were on the main beach (Corindi beach) by 6:30am for a morning walk to catch the sunrise. Corindi had some great seashells that we managed to scoop up to make some hemp bracelets and necklaces with. As we were packing up to head out of Spot X, we met two new, little friends. Two townie kids from Woolgoolga stoped by on their bikes to befriend us. The little girl said she was going for surgury soon, so we gave her a Canada pin to bring her luck. In return, she gave us her small My Little Pony figurine to take with us along our travels. We named it... Woolgoolga!

We found ourselves back on the road, destination- Byron Bay! On the drive to Byron, we passed probably the world's smallest town (next to Snowball, ON) called Grafton! We managed to snap a quick picture for Marc's family too! Pictures will be coming soon.

Our first night in Byron, we hit the Beach Hotel (a local restaurant and bar) where a band called Forever Soul was playing. This group was phenomenal and played all the disco classics: Disco Inferno, Hot Stuff and everyone's favorite... Its Raining Men where random men from the audience were called up to dance. Hilarious and a first great night in Byron. The next day was beautiful and sunny, so of course, we hit the beach! The amazing thing about Byron is that almost every morning (if you go down to the beach early enough), you can watch the whales and dolphins swim by the shoreline. Its hard to believe, but they swim so close to the shore... about 50 feet off the shore. Some people even go out to swim along side them.

In Byron, there is also a really nice hike you can do that takes you up to the Byron Bay lighthouse- Australia's most eastern point. This walk was our favorite so far because the view from the top of the cliffs are amazing and we saw more whales, dolphins, sea turtles and jumping stingrays.

On a sidenote from Jazz: Australia has been just great for finding gluten-free food. I'm pretty sure it is mandatory here to state a product is gluten-free or contains gluten on food labels. The grocery stores have a wide selection of food and even a ton of restaurants have adapted their dishes too. In Byron, we found one restaurant called Earth n' Sea (we think) that sold gluten free pizza. Sounded great at the time, however a small pizza (equivalent to a Little Ceasars medium back home) cost us a total of $21 AUS. Outrageous... we got robbed! Other then that one encounter, I'm loving grocery shopping for the first time. It's like Australia knew I was coming... Australia is turning out to be better than expected!

Nicole's Noteable Neat things:
- EVERYBODY runs around here! There are trails along the coast with exercise benches randomly along the trail to do a full circuit workout. Barb...you'd love it.
- Everybody is SUPER friendly and very generous (very welcoming when you're travelling in another country)
- However...no one says "excuse me" or "sorry" if you bump into them, or won't move.
- Australian's say "How ya goin" to greet you.
- Dogs are SOOOO WELL BEHAVED DOWN HERE!!! When you're walking down a main strip of restaurants/shops, or going for a walk on a trail or a beach, dogs are NEVER on leashes! And about 90% of the time, the dog will take no interest in you when you walk by, because they're so engaged and excited to be with their master!
- BIGGEST disappointment: there is NO STREETMEAT when you come home from the bar. big bummer.
- everyone LOOVVVEESSSS Jason DeRulo & Pink! And NO ONE'S heard of Taio Cruz....really??
- favourite new word: Dodgey. Let's use it in a sentence.... "OY, did you see that surfie? he was Dodgey looking!"
- Heaps = alot of something.
- MULLETS ARE IN OVER HERE. (don't worry...we're not bringing it back)


SOOOOO Byron....(sorry we get sidetracked VERY easily!) Byron Bay led us to Nimbin...VERY DODGEY...which then led us to SURFER'S PARADISE!!! We walked around the city, RANDOMLY saw a girl that Nicole worked with from the Lonestar, chatted with her a bit. Next, stopped to talk to some locals who asked us if we wanted to do a pub crawl. They ended up giving us free cover and free drinks to an local establishment: SIN CITY. We both fit in to the dresscode; while everyone was laced up in stilettos and mini skirts, we found ourselves in beach mode: jeans/capris, thongs (= flippy floppies), sweaters, and "dressy" t-shirts??...and hadn't showered in 3 days. Let's just say, the australian men couldn't keep their hands off of us!! Surfer's Paradise led us to Brissy, where we ditched Espacio, and met up with Monica & Jay (Jaz's cousin and boyfriend).....(and yes Nicole's cousin Monica....I DID just clue into that now!!! lol). We're all showered up and recharging the battery here at family's place, as we await more family (Jaz's cousin Elicia & boyfriend Marc) to arrive first thing in the morning! And we will show this wonderful country down under how much more amazing our sweet home land is by celebrating Canada Day!!!

Sooo, as they say in Nimbin: wwooooooOOOOOowwww Grrrooovvvyyyy DDUddddeeeee.

Brought to you by: Nicolean & Jiz-mo ProducKshuns.