This Is The Life

  Port Macquarie, Australia
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Good afternoon everyone! Well, you're joining us on our (probably) penultimate blog from this fair land, as we only have about a week left here *tear springs to eye* But we won't give into sadness just yet, we still have a way to go!

We left you in the home of the alternative East Coast lifestyle, Byron Bay, and said that we thought we'd enjoy it and, well, we did :) Annoyingly, this part of the East Coast has been a little deluged with rain recently (Cat thinks we're being acclimatised to England early), so sunny days have been few and far between. But this didn't dampen (pun intended) our spirits in Byron. On Tuesday we had a good ol' wander around, enjoying the fact that, unlike Surfers Paradise, high-rise buildings weren't obscuring the view everywhere. There are health food shops, independent clothes boutiques and trinket shops on every street, and it all lends a lovely atmosphere to the place. We took the day to write postcards, sample some of the excellent, freshly caught fish and chips (the fish were caught, not the chips) at Fish Heads (acclaimed takeaway no less) and stood at the edge of Belongil Beach, watching the surfers risk their lives and seeing that a man had taken the time to buy a Dominos pizza and beer and just sat on some rocks, looking out to sea. All rather lovely really. That night, we were accosted by a scruffy-looking man, who resembled Gerard Depardieu with the manner of Steve Irwin, who had been allowed to wander the halls of the hostel, asking people to join in with his surf school, Kool Kats, apparently Byron's first. He actually guaranteed that you would ride a wave for 40 metres on your first lesson, so I thought it'd be a great idea. It took a little cajoling, but he managed to get Cat to decide to join in as well.

And so we found ourselves on a bus to a local bay the next day. What we hadn't realised was that the bay was in Ballina, where someone had been killed in a highly publicised shark attack the week before. The (slightly crazy, I think) instructor assured us that it had happened over a kilometre away from our bay, but it didn't do much to calm Cat's nerves. Neither of us were particularly confident in our possible surfing prowess beforehand, and so when we (with the rest of the group) were very quickly briefed on how to stand on the board and hurried into the water, we still weren't very sure what we should be doing. Nevertheless, into the water we went and once the instructor and his (ridiculously arrogant, uncaring and bearded) assistant had found a spot with the right swell we all started. And sure enough, it didn't take long. I'm not going to pretend they were huge waves, but it was still a great, and almost unreal, feeling to be actually properly surfing, it's not something you imagine anyone could do. Cat had a few problems getting up, but the instructor made her a special case, and on her first successful attempt, she got further than anyone else had managed all day. The best feeling was, at the very end, when Cat and I both managed to catch the same wave and surfed together, smiling and laughing (before I lost balance from waving at her and fell in like a fool). Soon though we were being told that it was dusk, and the sharks' feeding time would be starting soon(!), so we headed back to Byron throroughly damp and exhausted but feeling pretty happy that we'dmanaged to achieve something neither of us thought we could have before.

That night, I'd noticed that a band who had been appearing in NME a bit, the eloquently named Die!Die!Die!, were playing at the local pub for free, and decided to take a mosey on down (Cat was pretty tired out so it was a solo venture for me). The pub's "backroom" actually turned out to be a pretty professional looking stage and bar set up, about the size of the Mean Fiddler in London, and so I settled in the virtually deserted room for the support act. I could tell why there wasn't a packed-out room, as they were a bit rubbish, and the set highlight was when the lead singer broke a string on his guitar and the rest of the band improvised a Latin dance-style interval whilst he changed it. But the main event was something a little different. The band seemed ridiculously young, but made the craziest noise, all bass-driven and clearly made for live performances. The stage was set in the first song, when straight after it had started, the frontman dropped his guitar, ran into the crowd (what there was of a crowd anyway) and lay face down on the ground whilst singing. It continued from there really; the bass player crouched on top of a speaker stack and then jumped into the crowd to wipe his forehead on unwilling audience members and the front man generally messed about whilst a man (not a band member) did his best Ian Curtis dancing impression (think an upright epileptic fit and you're on the right lines) - I enjoyed myself rather a lot :D

Thursday was our last full day in Byron and so we decided to go on a little excursion that we had been recommeneded in Melbourne. Apparently there was a lighthouse outside of town that was the Eastern most point of Australia. Well, it seems that was a little skewed, as there is a lighthouse, but the Eastern point is, in fact, a big rock at the edge of the beach. So we set off on the rainforest boardwalk (that has been undergoing repairs after a landslide hit it in 2006 and still isn't nearly finished) that takes you there and got to the big rock just as a huge rainstorm hit us (and not for the first time that day). Well we got to the top and proclaimed ourselves the most Eastern point of Australia for a moment, looked at the numerous surfers next to the rock (surely the craziest place to surf) and then realised just how far we still were from the lighthouse. We gave up. But we got a picture, and that's the next best thing right?

On Friday, we were headed off to Coffs Harbour and so, stocked up with our favourite (and very Byron Bay style) snack, dried apple, we waited for the Greyhound bus. And waited. And waited. The bus was late, and when it did turn up, it brought a veritable monsoon with it. Then the driver decided to take an age to log us all in, so we could get on. Soaked and irritated, we got on the bus and hoped Coffs Harbour would be worth it. Unfortunately, it turned out that it wasn't. It's not to say that Coffs is in anyway a bad town, it's quite pleasent, it just lacks any kind of charm or uniqueness (which so many of Australia's towns have). The hostel was also a nice place but seemed to be a microcosm of the town, a nice little place but with a sort of sterile feel to it. It might not have helped that we only had one night there, and that the weather was a bit rubbish. In my typical style, the highlights for me were food-related, a Cold Rock ice cream (the greatest ice cream parlours in the world) and a delicious breakfast the next morning. Cat, just to even things up, also found her favourite Care Bear marshmallows in the supermarket. So there you go, Coles is good for food but not excitement.

But after Coffs came Port Macquarie, where my Auntie, Uncle and cousins live, and where I have fond memories from my last trip. Annoyingly, we'd picked one of the only times in the whole year when my relatives weren't in town. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and this cloud had a big'un; they said we could still stay in their house and use their car. We jumped at the generosity, and after arriving in town, took a short, scary taxi drive (the driver was honestly mental) to the house which is frankly lovely. Sea views, a swimming pool and a hundred other lovely things make it a brilliant place to stay (the free internet is especially useful :P), and we can't thank my relatives enough. The car has been great as well. it took a little time for Cat get used to using an automatic, but after a few test drives she's really got the hang of it, and we've been into the town centre a few times and taken a drive past all the town's beaches (it has about 7), including the brilliant Shelly's beach that I visited four years ago and loved (and still do) as well as driving along the coast to a town called Laurieton where there's a mountain you can drive up and look over miles of coastline. It was slightly in a cloud when we got to the top, but the view was spectacular.

We have a few more days here (we will actually be seeing my relatives at some point) until we move onto our last stop, Sydney (completing the circle). It's sad for both of us, getting towards the end of the trip, but it's been amazing the whole time we've been here, and we're determined to make the rest of it just as good.

Hope you're all well,
Joe (and Cat) xxxx