A Friday in Surfers Paradise, QLD & Lennox NSW

Today was a perfect day. The kind of day where you wake up without a plan, and fall asleep with a full stomach, sun-warmed skin, and a happy-tired body from a day full of activity.

Jake and I decided last night that we want to spend the weekend near Byron Bay, my all-time favorite beach city from when I first fell in love with Australia on my ISV trip in summer of 2008. So we sorted out all of our work this morning – sending out yesterday’s applications at the post office, copying all our receipts from hotels and rental cars – then hopped in the car, and headed southwest.

Clearly, using Jake's board :)

For the first time in awhile, the forecast didn’t call for rainshowers or tropical thunderstorms, and our first stop in Surfers Paradise couldn’t have been more picturesque, with billowing white clouds and water temperatures in the mid-70s. We stopped by the surf school Jake used to teach at, and I met Cheyne Horan the owner of the school, and an iconic Australian surfer in the 1970s. According to Jake, this guy used to be quite the anti-establishment rebel; now he’s a jovial, sarcastic man in his early 60s, still in surfing shape with years of sun melted into his permanently tan skin.

“Heya Jake!” he said in a gruff, heavy  Australian accent. “Whose ya friend here?”

He introduced me, we talked for a couple minutes, and Cheyne passed me off a foam yellow longboard to try out at the beach.

“Careful, ye’ll never get this one out of the water” he warned me with a wink, pointing to Jake and his shortboard as we left the school entrance and headed out for the beach.

A hard paddle and a few strong sets of waves later, I realized that my foam banana wasn’t going to let me get much further than the inside sets. I accepted it, and still managed to have a good surf session in the smaller stuff, enjoying the bathwater ocean temperature and watching Jake and the other shortboarders rip it up on the outside.

After a few hours of that, Jake did get out of the water – but only after realizing that the meter on our car had expired, (no ticket – yay!)  and that we were both starving. So we returned the board, and headed down the coast a bit to Burly Head, another picturesque beach town a few k’s down from Surfers Paradise. Jake grabbed Subway, I grabbed an Acai smoothie/museli concoction at a juice bar, and we ate barefoot on the beach, followed by several Ibis birds. (Which I prefer to call Doe Doe birds, despite realizing that they’re extinct.)

From Burly, we made our way down towards Byron Bay, and made a fun pit-stop on the way when I insisted we take the exit off the freeway for “Tropical Fruit World.” Unfortunately for us, crossing the border between Queensland and New South Wales (two separate Australian states) put us into daylight savings time, which was an hour ahead. With 4:30pm becoming 5:30pm, the theme park was closed - but the fruit store and orchards(?) were still open to explore, so we had a look.

Below are a few examples of the most interesting fruits we encountered, including the free jak fruit they passed along to us to try!

Nearing nighttime, we arrived in familiar Byron Bay, and decided that accommodation might be cheaper and more prevalent a bit further south – so we headed to Lennox, a little beach city a couple kilometers down the coast. This turned out to be a fantastic choice, as the Lennox Youth Hostel had a beachside room for both of us, and a guy staying here with us just happened to be a chef, and made an elaborate Thai dinner & dessert for everyone to enjoy for only $5 a piece.

After dinner, dessert, several new friends, and a full explanation of the game of Rugby (we watched the Rabbits vs. the ?? on TV and Jake and two Australian guys coached me through what was happening) we’re now settled into our bunk beds, ready for Byron, snorkeling, and hopefully a more successful surf session tomorrow.  Stomach full of thai food, skin burnt (but let’s call it strongly sunkissed), and body relaxed and supremely thankful, I am one very happy camper [hosteller]. Life is good.