Since I had a rough night last night I slept in till about 1030am (a good 12 hours) and did feel better when I woke up! We headed out to Bond to pick up Erin and our plan was to go to Byron Bay for the day. We had all heard it was beautiful and since we had a car and Erin hadn’t been it seemed like the perfect time to go!
We took the coastal route for the first part of the trip as we wanted to see some of the beaches. Our first stop was Burleigh Heads which was nice and we could see the Gold Coast skyline (where our hotel is). But since it was cloudy it definitely wasn’t beach weather so we continued on. We ended up at a Hog’s Breathe restaurant and Erin said at the last one she was at she saw a NH license plate, yay! Unfortunately this one didn’t have it, but we all had chicken tenders and they were so yummy!
Mom had read that the Quicksilver Pro (which is the world championship of surfing) was taking place. Erin wasn’t sure if it was actually still happening. I guess they book 2 weeks for the event and then pick the best days for waves. So if the best days were at the beginning of the 2 weeks the event might be over. However, we made it to the beach Mom had read about and saw huge Quicksilver signs so decided to venture over. First, we were surprised we could even find parking within walking distance (for free!) and secondly that we weren’t charged to get into the event. As we were approaching the beach, the skies opened up and it DOWNPOURED! We were soaked! Isn’t this the GOLD COAST!? Erin was so bummed because she said it really never rains here, but we still had fun! The surfing competition was really cool! We don’t know anything about surfing or the surfers, but it was still cool to say we were at the surfing world championship. It would downpour, then stop, then downpour, then stop, so after watching a couple of the women surfers we decided to move on.
We made the hour drive to Byron Bay and at some points on the highway it was raining so hard we couldn’t see anything! Mom did a great job driving (on the left) and in the rain because I fell asleep for a bit! As we were nearing Byron Bay we saw signs for the local hospital that said to be quiet! We had never seen signs like this before and it became our joke for the rest of the trip that whenever we passed a hospital we needed to be quiet.
We decided to make our way to the lighthouse as everyone said it was beautiful. The rain seemed to have stopped as well so this seemed like a good time to spend some time outdoors. The lighthouse was beautiful and overlooked Byron Bay, but we could NOT believe how windy it was! The parking attendant said it was gale force winds and it was actually a little scary! Luckily the lighthouse blocked the wind on one side so we took most of our pictures from there!
We made the drive back down to the town area and were on the hunt for an ATM and a coffee for me (I don’t know why I was so tired). Westpac is the name of the bank in Australia that works with Bank of America so we get less fees when we use their ATM. We asked a convenient store where a Westpac ATM was located and the women told us, but it got me thinking if I would know where ATMs where and what bank they belonged to. It was a little after 4pm and now that we had money to was time to find some coffee..but NOTHING was open! It was so sad. I guess a lot of those type of places (that would serve coffee) close in the afternoon to prepare for dinner, but I was definitely missing Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. We did manage to find a gelato shop so I guess that was an ok coffee substitute.
Since all the shops closed at 5pm (like most things in Australia) we decided to head back as there really wasn’t much to do! Since it was still a little rainy, we were able to get a driving tour of Erin’s campus before heading back to her room to use some wifi! We then made our way to Broad Beach (which is next to Surfers Paradise) for some dinner! Erin knows the area pretty well which was nice because she was able to give us a little tour.
It was VERY windy and I was actually a little cold in shorts and a sweatshirt! But we had a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant. I asked about where the restroom was located and our waiter pointed around the corner and then gave me a combination. When I followed his directions I ended up in a maintenance area. One door said “men” and the other said “mothers room” both with key pads in front. I just stood there staring for a few minutes until a guy behind me pointed at “mothers room” and said that one was mine. I entered the password I was given and I was in! It was very very strange, although the bathroom was very nice!
After dinner we walked around a bit to people watch and WOW I could not get over the “young girls” dressed up to go out. I felt like a guy as I was ogling them and could not stop staring. They all had the tightest shortest black dresses I had EVER seen! It looked like they were going out in Miami Beach. Erin said you can’t get into a club with flip flops on (you have to wear nice shoes). I felt so frumpy and couldn’t believe I didn’t even OWN the appropriate clothes to get into a club here!
I guess I was ok with it as I was ready to go to bed anyway, and Erin made me feel better saying in an hour she could have me ready to get into a club, but I really had just never seen anything like it. I guess I live a sheltered life in good old New Hampshire!
We headed back to Bond to drop off Erin before returning to our hotel to pack. It seems like that’s all we do, pack, unpack, repack, repeat!
Hugs and kisses from the not so gold Gold Coast!
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