A week and a half ago, I flew over to the east coast for another weekend away. Even though I do like Perth, it was great to get away for a little while, especially since I got Monday off…so I didn’t feel quite so much like I was getting off a plane just to get back on another one!

While I was of course very excited about being able to see James after about 6 weeks apart, the other main reason for flying across was because Chelsea and Chris–the only other girl in my year of comp sci and her boyfriend–were on the east coast as well. They were traveling up and down the coast scuba diving and surfing for a 3-week graduation trip, and I couldn’t pass up getting a chance to see them. Since they weren’t making it as far up the coast as Brisbane, James and I drove down the coast to meet them in Byron Bay (which was much better than Brisbane anyway!).

 My flight landed quite late on Friday night/Saturday morning. We were delayed by about two hours in Perth because of mechanical problems which meant I didn’t land until 1.30am; therefore, we didn’t make it down to Byron until lunchtime. We checked in to our room at the Belongil Beachouse–and the guy at the checkin desk even moved us to a room with a balcony for no extra cost! I really liked the beachhouse. Even though it was a hostel, it was nice and clean. I thought it was really just a cute place in a great location and Chelsea agreed. Can’t really ask for more than that!

We ended up having yum cha (or dim sum) in Byron Bay before getting ice cream from a local ice cream shop called Baskin Robbins Again, what could be better than strolling down the beach eating ice cream with friends? Sure, it could have been warmer, but we can’t have it all.

 One of the highlights of the weekend happened after we finished our ice cream and loaded back into James’ car. We climbed to the tip of Cape Byron and found a parking space next to (how stereotypical) a caravan with a hairy hippie man hanging out of it. As soon as we got out, we saw white lines appearing everywhere in the ocean–and not from the surf, since it was dead calm. The lines were actually from whales that were breaching all over the place. We could see at least ten whales all around us just having…dare I say it?…a whale of a time. James was thrilled because he’d never seen a whale breach before, and the rest of us were just generally thrilled because you don’t often get the chance to see that many whales just hanging out and having a good time. The only downside was that my good camera–with 18x zoom that would actually be able to capture the whales in action–was left sitting on the bed in the hostel!

 We managed to eventually tear ourselves away from the whales and moved up to the lighthouse, and the thing we were much more fascinated with–the geodetic marker. Besides the fact that we had no idea what it was trying to geodetically mark, we were clueless as to why it had clearly been moved four feet (hence the confused picture of Chelsea and me!). It turns out that geodetic surveys are done periodically (which I really should have known, having dealt with them a bit at my job) and markers have to be moved to match the new survey. We just thought it was funny that they had clearly went to a lot of effort marking sure the pavement circled a certain spot that had then been covered over in concrete.

Since Cape Byron is actually the easternmost point on the Australian mainland, we had to make sure we walked to the very end of it. James and I visited the lighthouse three years ago and made it downhill past the lighthouse just far enough to see the sign stating that we were at the “most easterly point of the Australian mainland,” but then we couldn’t be bothered walking down all of the stairs to sea level and the rocky outcrop that is actually the easternmost point. This time, we couldn’t let Chelsea and Chris miss out on what could clearly be the highlight of their trip, so we walked ever downhill until we were as far east as the barriers would let us go. If we had set foot off the path, we would have just contributed to the erosion of the peninsula, possibly causing it to drop off and no longer be the easternmost point. Ahh!

 We watched the sun set over the mountains behind Byron Bay before suffering from what Chelsea best described as “stair-induced cardiac arrest.” On the way back to Belongil, we made an urgent stop so the guys could get a carton of beer for the night. I managed to completely fall over myself without having anything to drink at all just outside the grocery store. It must have looked hilarious to James and Chris, who were sitting in the car. One minute, I was walking towards them, the next there was a big “thunk” and I was nowhere to be seen! I just happened to not see the gutter and ended up landing in it on the side of my ankle and completely ate it. Fortunately I didn’t hurt myself like I normally do in these situations!

The rest of the night was great fun but doesn’t need to be explained in too much detail here. Suffice it to say that Chelsea and I had a box of Reisling wine that she needed to get rid of before she left Australia! We had an awesome night and it was sad that Chelsea and Chris had to head back to Sydney the next day to catch their flight back home. It was just great to see people from home after being away for quite a while.