Beautiful Byron

So as we all know, my posts quite often get quite long. Therefore, this post isn't gonna be about my trip to Byron so much as like Byron in general, I guess. Like it's still gonna be a pretty much daily account of my actions in Australia, but it won't include my actual activities, such as the diving, kayaking, or Bluesfest. Those will all be separate posts. So yeah. Look forward to 'em. 

Okay. So like I was totally hype to go to Bluesfest, but then the Bluesfest people totally screwed up the schedule and scheduled UB40 and the Wailers at the same time so I was like totally bummed and wasn't gonna go anymore. But then in Queenstown I won the Kayaking with Dolphins trip in Byron Bay so I like totally thought it was like fate telling me I just had to go. & then I when I got back on the Bluesfest site they totally fixed it and they weren't playing at the same times anymore so I was all like "yeahhh" so I booked my flights and stuff and yeah now we're here at this post about my time. (Also lol I'm not really sure what it is, maybe it's the fact I have to argue my grades with the idiotic professors here but I've totally gone completely Cher from Clueless, but typing that paragraph kinda annoyed me so I'll get back to being Tasha now...haha)

So. 7am flight from Auckland. So like obviously when I was booking I realized it was a 7am flight but like I apparently didn't realize what exactly that meant or I totally would've booked a later flight. 7am flight means I have to get up at 4am to take a $40 taxi at 4:30am to get to the airport in time for check-in and security and such. Such a pain. But soon I was on my way to Sydney, Australia on my should-be-new-favorite-but-sorry-it-can't-be-my-favorite-because-it's-no-SouthWest airline, Air New Zealand. Okay like it's an international flight, no need to charge $10 for movies because I'm so not paying. Second, um why is there no in flight snack? I can totally understand not having a full fledged meal because it's only a 3 hour flight but like where's the peanuts? Southwest spoils me. Air New Zealand needs to get with the program.
So then we land, right? And the flight attendants are all like "if you have a domestic transfer just go to the domestic gate" so I go to go through customs to get to the domestic gate and the guy is like "is this all your luggage?". Like uh, no. So I had to go to baggage claim to go get my suitcase so it could go to the domestic gate instead of just going all the way through. There were no dogs, no x-rays, no security; I just had to go take it myself from the international terminal to the domestic one because they're lazy. Good thing the customs guy was looking out for me or I'd be suitcase-less. 

My flight to Ballina Byron (I still have absolutely no idea how to correctly pronounce Ballina btw) was a Virgin Australia flight, not Air New Zealand. At first I kinda felt like a traitor bc when we came to Australia last time we always used Qantas, but Virgin treated me very well so soon I didn't care. (Ik, why would I even feel like that in the first place? It was 4 years ago and it's just an airline. But yo I can't even get rice from a different [closer] Chinese place without feeling like a total traitor.) Although my flight to Byron was only like an hour, I was put in first class so it made life better 'cause now I'm first class, up in the sky. [Not] sippin' champagne, livin' the life, in the fast line; I won't change by the glamorous, oh the flossy, flossy.
Oh yeah maybe I should also mention this is my first ever like legit solo trip. And I'm going to Australia. Go big or go home, right? Or I guess go big or stay home, haha.
So yeah.
On my way out of Sydney I got some aerial pictures of the city and harbor, which you can see one below. Carnival was also docked to make sure I made it out okay (both the Legend and the Spirit sail from Sydney according to www.carnival.com.au so for those of you who tried to tell me the Legend didn't sail from Sydney you can suck it, I know my ships). 

Eventually I landed at Ballina Byron, an airport smaller than the one in Salisbury. Like only two airlines come through (Virgin and Jet Star) and it's just a really tiny airport. I almost made a friend, Brandon, but then my bag came and I left to go find my shuttle. Oh well.

The shuttle took me to my AirBNB where I dropped my stuff off and headed into town. After exploring town, I headed back to the airbnb but instead of going in I went past it to continue to the beach. I could hear the waves from several streets away so obviously the surf was rough and huge. Plus I was wearing pants and clothes because I hadn't changed yet so I didn't go swimming but I just went to check it out then I was gonna sit in the grassy area that I went through to get to the beach. Bad idea. I sat on a wasp and it stung my butt.

Even my pants touching it hurt really bad. So I awkwardly waddled back to the accommodation to take a shower. The shower helped but I had a bump on my butt where it stung me (also apparently stang isn't a word - thanks, auto-correct, & Maryland for making me think for the past 19 years that it is a word). So I just had to post a status about it on Facebook and I think that's the most likes I've ever got on a status. So thank ya'll for loving my pain (also since you can't tell bc it's via computer, that was my attempt at sarcasm. I do not approve of everyone loving my pain). 

Anyways I sucked it up and got dress and headed back into town because that's where the food is. I got invited to a backpackers bbq but it wasn't for another two hours so I got a smoothie to hold me over and kept walking until I found another beach. This beach was obviously the place to be. There was music, dogs, surfers, swimmers, everything. So I just chilled on the beach until dark when a sand crab decided to pinch the other side of my butt. Lovely (more sarcasm, look I'm getting pretty good; I guess that's what pain does to a person). So then I was cold, stuffed from my smoothie, and had two sore butt cheeks, still with time to kill til the bbq so I decided to just forget it and head back to my bed. 

Look this post is already pretty long and I'm only at day 1. Maybe I'll just do each day it's own post. That'd prob be best, although it took me like 4 days just to finally sit down and write this one, but oh well. I can do what I want. It's my blog. (Yeah maybe I am tryna convince myself of that based upon how many times I say it if you hadn't noticed. Also if you hadn't, you're really unobservant and probably don't even fully read my blog. Lucky for you I don't really care right now because I'm super tired. So yeah good for you. Goodnight)

Oh also I forgot to mention that a combination of the sun, the stings and pinches, the smoothie, and the lack of sleep, as I was just chillin' on the beach (the second one not the bee one) I was all like "aw it's so beautiful here this is so beautiful Australia is so perfect" lol (yeah no punctuation it was just all rambley) if someone could read my mind they would think I'm like legit insane or like on something or something. But yeah. I've thought it about a million and twenty seven thousand times, but I've never said it out loud for fear of being deported, but New Zealand sucks major, especially compared to Australia. Like the reason I picked Auckland instead of Australia was because 1) I had already been to Australia and I had not yet been to New Zealand, 2) Melbourne was my absolute least favorite part of Australia, and 3) Australia was close enough I can just visit (which I've obviously done), but like no one told me New Zealand was like not like Australia at all. Like I was not adequately warned or I might've put more consideration into Melbourne. Actually, maybe my mother and grandmother tried to ask me but why would I listen to them? But yeah so Australia is a million and five hundred thousand six hundred ninety two point seven six times better than New Zealand, which I could go on about for a whole post, and maybe after I've successfully completed my semester here and therefore cannot be deported or marked down for it, maybe I'll write such a post. But for now I guess you can just wait for my next post about day 2 in Byron Bay. 

Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha