Bye Bye Byron

Okay so I've had a really rough week and I'm exhausted but tomorrow my blog post from last weekend's snorkeling goes up so I might as well just get the last day of my Australian adventures over with. It's not like I actually did anything the last day anyways.
So checkout was at like 11 but the shuttle bus wasn't coming to pick me up from the accommodation to take me to the airport until 2, so instead of dragging all my stuff into town and back I went to the local beach and just chilled for a couple hours. Getting to the beach was like super duper awful. I went a different way than I did before because I thought it would be closer but it was really rough and my suitcase kept flipping over and it just wasn't good. But I made it.

It was really hot and I didn't have my swimsuit on because I was going to the airport, but I went in as far as I could anyways (like to my waist after the waves, a bit farther than I anticipated) whenever I got too hot. Other than that I just chilled on my towel and listened to my iPod. It's actually the first time I've used my iPod since leaving the States (I haven't even listened to it on the planes because of the free tv and trivia they all provide over here) so it felt good actually using my iPod for once. I was gonna have like a jungley/beachy photoshoot for my elephant to pass the time, but I was feeling too lazy. So I literally just laid there for a couple hours and anyone that knows me knows I'm totally awful at doing nothing so it was no bueno. I ended up drinking all my water within like the first hour so I was also completely dying of thirst. I left the beach a few minutes earlier than I planned in search of water.
Going back I also went a different way because I thought the road would be closer going back on an actual path than how I'd come in - through the Australian brush. Uh, yeah, no. I would've gotten back to the road closer had I stuck to the jungle and not the actual path. Weird, right? But then I passed a resort with a pool! If only I had known about it earlier, I would've snuck into the pool and it would've been great. But I stopped and asked them if they had any water and they didn't. They did have an outdoor shower for the pool, but when I tried to put my head under the facet my neck wouldn't bend how it needed to, so still totally dying I moved on and wound up back on the road where I was to be picked up in 40 minutes.
10 minutes after the time I was supposed to be picked up, there was still no van in sight so I called the company to make sure they were still coming because I had a plane to catch. I don't ever call people, so this was a big deal. Thankfully, the van showed up while I was on the phone with the company and we made it to the airport on time.
Like I mentioned before, Ballina Byron airport is super small. So after I waited in the very long check in line, I quickly made it through security and had just enough coins to get a water from the vending machine. I drank the whole water before I boarded the plane and was still dying but at least I knew I wouldn't actually die, thanks to the water I just drank.
Once we landed in Sydney, my boarding pass told me I had like 20 minutes to get to my next gate. So I was like flipping out almost running through the airport, and I got there 5 minutes past the time, only to find out that the plane wasn't even there yet and I still had an hour. So I walked around looking for more drink and some food (since I hadn't eaten all day). I finally settled on a lasagna (I think maybe I let my grandmother treat me to it, how nice of her. She's the best. Thanks oxie) and it came just as I was being called to board. So I quickly ate it while everyone else crowded onto the plane and when the lines settled down a bit I took my seat and headed back to Auckland, even though I would've loved to either A) stay in Australia or B) trade Auckland for America.
Once I got back to Auckland, I took the SkyBus back to the city. I check the SkyBus maps and everything before I boarded to make sure I knew where to get off, but the bus driver didn't follow the map at all! She literally only went on Queen Street, which if I would've knew would've been fine because Queen Street is close enough, but on the map it said she went to Symond's street, which is exactly where I need to be, so I kept waiting for her to go to Symond's Street, and she never did. She finally got to Britomart and was like "last stop, everyone off" so I had to walk back past all the other stops she made (that would've been much closer for me) with all my luggage at 1:30am in a foreign city to get back to where I needed to be for a bed. It was totally awful. That was the start of my downfall. But I made it back to my room alive so now we'll just have to see if I will survive.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Ebaloo Guando

Remember back in Queenstown when I won that trip during the pub crawl? Well it was finally time to collect my prize! I awoke much earlier than expected after my night as Bluesfest the night before, and still had plenty of time before the van would come to pick me up to take me to my kayak trip. So, naturally, I watched some more Gossip Girl.
Okay, random little side rant time again. So like The Pretty Reckless is a pretty sweet band (if you couldn't tell by my scuba post [Heaven Knows is one of the Pretty Reckless' songs]) so like I've clearly Googled them before. Then when I first started watching Gossip Girl (to be honest I totally started watching it simply because I end all my posts with xoxo and that's like famous for Gossip Girl and I had never even seen any Gossip Girl until a few weeks ago, long after my xoxo endings began), I was looking at the names during the opening credits and I was like "Taylor Momsen, that seems super familiar" but not like a Blake Lively, Chace Crawford, or Leighton Meester kind of familiar (they're like super famous, or at least were when I was into teen magazines lol). Then I was on Facebook the other day, right? (I'm always on Facebook lol) & anyways The Pretty Reckless page shared one of the posts from Taylor's page or something? I don't really remember but like I was like "woah are they like the same person?" bc they totally look like the same person but I just can't picture the voices matching up and it turns out they are one in the same. So then I went to YouTube and searched for an interview with Taylor because like I said, her talking/acting voice and her singing voice do not match, like at all. & yeah she talks one way (well a little deeper than her Gossip Girl days because she was like 15/16 during GG) and sings totally different. Like it's so insanely cool but like I can't understand like how she does it. But yeah, so anyways. Back to kayaking.

So the van came and picked me up right on time to take me to the trailer they use as base. I signed in and got my awful helmet and lifejacket like ew, and paddle and waited for further instruction. There was this other group of Americans, idk where exactly they were from because they obviously weren't talking to me and I had no interest in talking to them, and they were totally annoying. Being in the Loyola group on Loyola trips, especially the one to the Bay of Islands, I've come to realize that in a group like that, unfortunately, I'm kinda the same way, but it still doesn't make it right. When I'm not in my own group of Americans (family excluded) I can't stand typical Americans and they make me so mad and ashamed to be American. Like they're just soooo annoying. Like I can't. But whatever.
Also (another random tidbit for ya) everyone here (the general NZ/OZ area) thinks I'm a kiwi. Like I don't know how they come to that conclusion because I don't have a kiwi accent and I'm always with other Americans but like everyone always asks me if I'm kiwi. Even when they know the people I'm with are American. Like what. Not sure what to think, but it is what it is lol.
But so then we finally get to go into the water. My beautiful kayak at home is an ocean kayak, but I've never taken it on the ocean. The roughest I've probably ever kayaked would be if I ever kayaked in the Chesapeake, which I'm not sure I have...so I was really excited to go kayak in the big waves. A couple groups before us didn't make it out over the waves; they tipped out and had to try again. But I was determined and we made it! No spills. Once everyone had made it past the breakers, we started paddling.
It wasn't long until we started seeing wildlife. I saw a turtle, but it disappeared back under the water too quickly for me to take a picture. But we were in search of dolphins (golfinhos in Portuguese!) so we paddled all throughout the bay and to the Pacific Ocean. A group of kayakers coming in while we were going out said there were tons of them that they had just encountered, but when we made it out there it seemed they had been chased off. So we kept paddling into the Pacific Ocean. If we had kept going, our next stop would be Chile (which is totally sick because I've always wanted to go to Chile). I spotted some off a while from our kayaks (I attempted to capture a video but they're so far away you can't see them), so the guides had us shout "Ebaloo Guando" which means "I love you, dolphin" in Aborigine in hopes that it would have them come closer. We waited a bit and when it didn't seem like they were coming, we headed back. Just as we were headed back they came closer, but being the super paddler I am, I was too far ahead and when I turned back they were gone again.
So we paddled back into the bay and then we were allowed to get off and go for a swim. Like finally. But the stupid life jacket was suffocatingly large and they wouldn't let me take it off, even though I promised I wouldn't drown. It made me want to kill someone. It was totally awful. The one guide even made fun of me and called me a turtle. Like no. That's not okay. At least I could take the stupid helmet off.
While I was attempting not to drown in my idiotic life jacket, I saw the lovely jellyfish to your right. So that was cool because I got a good picture out of it. Man, I should've had it sting the guides that wouldn't let me take off the dang life jacket. I wasn't thinking (probably because I couldn't because the life jacket was trying to decapitate me).
Half reluctant to get out of the water, half ready to get out so I could breathe again, I got back into the kayak and we headed back in and to shore. Unfortunately we didn't have as good luck coming in as we did going out and we spilled out when the wave came. But it's whatever.
We made it back in even though we had to walk in once our kayak spilled, and they gave us water and white chocolate Tim Tams. I thought Tim Tams were a New Zealand thing but I guess not. The white ones were so good; I already bought and ate a box once I got back to Auckland.
We could also go for a swim once we got back to shore, and I was so excited to get in the water without the yellow death trap on my core. Then after Tim Tams and water time, we were supposed to carry our kayaks back up to the trailer. Well on the way back I did most of the paddling and it was super difficult because I was in the front and I'm just a little girl so I made the guy that was supposed to be doing the paddling in the back carry mine. Hey you gotta do your work somehow.
In this picture, it's me in front of him dragging the kayak and it was supposed to show him dragging the kayak in the background, but I clearly wasn't at the proper angle, which I had no way of knowing since I can't actually see what I'm taking a picture of with my GoPro. But it's a good picture of me so I figured I'd post it for you all anyways, you're welcome.
I guess for being a totally free excursion it was a nice time. & I do love kayaking. & turtles, dolphins, and jellyfish. I just wish the stupid golfinhos would come closer and I could've taken off the stupid life jacket. But oh well. They drove me back to the house so I didn't have to walk so I guess it's all good.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

There Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues

"You went all the way to Australia for a concert?!" 

Well I went all the way to Japan for Disneyland and to London for a Ferris wheel...Don't underestimate me. 

Sunday morning rain is falling. Okay so I'm not sure if it was still raining when I woke up or not but that's how the song goes so let's all say that it was. I think it was. I awoke quite early in hopes of finding a church for Easter service. To my dismay, there were none. The Catholic church in Byron is only the smaller church of the larger Ballina church and no services were to be held that morning at the small church and I had no way of getting to Ballina. The only other church in town was closed indefinitely for renovations. So unfortunately I was forced to skip Easter this year. Apparently the Greeks don't celebrate Easter with the rest of the world though, so maybe I'll find out when their Easter is and pretend I'm Greek for the day, kinda like how I was Jewish at Christmas this year. (I suppose it just hasn't been a good holiday year for me; I hope God will understand.) I attempted to go back to sleep and when I couldn't sleep any longer I watched Gossip Girl for a couple hours until I just had to get out of the house.
Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces past and I'm blues bound.  The bus to the Bluesfest was downtown so I figured I might as well just start walking towards it and get to Blues a little earlier than I had wanted. The ride to the festival was actually fairly longer than I expected, and I'm certainly glad they had the shuttle running.
Staring blankly ahead just making my way, making my way through the crowd; I shuffled with the rest of the folks into the campgrounds for my first Byron Bay Bluesfest. On the flight from Sydney, I had been warned that the grounds often get quite muddy due to the Easter rains. Most people wear rain boots; I had left my brand-new-never-worn-bought-specifically-for-events-such-as-these rain boots in my room in Auckland. Before I left, I stared at them for a good five to fifteen minutes trying to decide which closed-toed shoes I wanted to take before opting to just take an extra pair of flip flops. But hey, my mother told me to get muddy. So that's exactly what I did. Not even 5 minutes into entering the area I was completely soaked in mud, like I could've won muddiest truck in my high school's homecoming car competitions with just myself, no truck needed.
I started off by walking around the vendors in search of something to eat. They also had many clothes vendors, so I figured if I found a change of clothes that wouldn't be the worst, considering it looked like God pooped on me (literally) for missing church on Easter. But the clothes were expensive and the food was unappetizing so I went and watched the cultural performance until I decided to settle for one of the many food options. I ended up choosing a crepe and it was so good; it was just like my momma's, but filled with pineapple and ham.
While I was eating some guy was playing guitar in the covered food area so as a tip I gave him my business card because my mother told me to give them out to everyone I meet (insert laughing emoji here). I also gave him 30 cents because I'm not totally heartless (or am I?) .
Then I strolled around between a couple of the tents. I saw the end of Houndmouth's set, which once it was over and I realized it was Houndmouth I remembered that I actually did wanna see them, but I didn't think they were playing on Sunday. Oh well. (You can check their picture at the beginning of this post, under the title.) I was front row, of course.
Then I found my way to two time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Graham Nash's set. It was super crowded, which makes sense because he's super old. None of my pictures for him really came out because he's very pale with white hair but you can see my attempt to the left. I also saw the end of some other band's act, but I don't know who they were and to be honest I don't really care. I got some pictures of whoever it was, but since I don't know there's no point in posting it.
Once I was done wandering, I still had two hours until the first group I actually wanted to see - Modest Mouse. I decided I would just go to their stage anyways and take a seat. I got a seat in the second or third row and it started to rain again. It didn't last long though, and soon a band was taking the stage. Blackberry Smoke from Atlanta, GA came to try to entice me with their music. They were actually (sorry I've been using that word a lot this post, my b) exactly what I needed. Classic country rock from close to home (well, closer than New Zealand). It was actually (oops! sorry!) great and they can totally count me as a fan now. They were the first full set I stayed to see, and I didn't even plan on watching them at all.
I stayed in my seat for the majority of their part because I could totally see everything and why stand when you can sit? But for the last song I took my rightful spot in the front row and grabbed a closer pic for ya'll. The picture above is from my seat, the one to the left is from the front.
Because the seats were so great I was going to just go back to my seat for the Modest Mouse concert and do the same thing - a majority in my seat and the ending standing up close. But the Blackberry Smoke set ended over a half hour before Modest Mouse was set to go on and as soon as they ended the area started filling up, so I went and grabbed my spot while I still could. Apparently a lot of people like Modest Mouse. I only know them because of my dearest Pandora, but they were totally not what I was expecting.

The girl played like three instruments and was so full of energy. They were all wearing black except for the lead singer. He was in beachy pinks and blues and stuff. I expected them all to be dressed like that, and not so many of them. They had a full band with like orchestra-like instruments. Anyways, lead singer dude was either seriously on something, seriously loving what he was doing, on seriously insane, or a mixture of all of the above. He legit looked crazy and was bouncing around like he had too much sugar and was 8 years old. But I guess it was entertaining?
(Lol see this is what I do; I judge so hard on the band when I don't know their songs. Poor fellas.)
After Modest Mouse it was time to meander on down to the Jambalya for the Wailers! Although Bob Marley is dead, I was still super excited! I had a while until they were scheduled to start also, but I was hoping to grab a seat like they had in the Mojo tent. I guess they were expecting a smaller audience because this tent was much smaller and didn't have any chairs, so back to standing it was. It was fine though because I secured a spot in the center middle of the front and, like for Modest Mouse, the area quickly filled.
The Wailers were great! I knew every song. They had 5 sets during the entirety of Bluesfest, so for each they did a different Bob Marley album and I was fortunate enough to land on the night of Legend. The bassist was an original Wailer, and the drummer and other guitar player looked like they could've been as well, but they really prided themselves on the bassist who needed to be seated while playing.
The lead male was a great singer and had the perfect energy and vibes, and the female singer was totally gorgeous. They definitely did justice to the music and I really enjoyed their concert.
The Aussies, however, need to learn how to handle that type of music. They were literally going insane. Like I go to Dew Tour every year (well, when OC was fortunate enough to host it) and I've never seen such crazed concert-goers. They were making out and lighting up and throwing themselves around and yeah that sounds like pretty much any concert but let me tell you, it was bad. Like I don't know how to describe it but they shouldn't be allowed to listen to true reggae if it makes them act like that. Also (this wasn't one of the crazy parts, believe it or not) I saw this old guy smoking a j with what appeared to be his granddaughters and they were like trying to be obvious they were trying to hide it and then later the girl was grinding on the old guy so I really hope it wasn't her grandfather. Maybe it was her suga daddy. Either way, EW. (Maybe ew used to stand for either way and people just always made a face at it and that's how we got ew...interesting. Because I totally just meant like an emphasized ew at the end of that either way lol)
And this guy that I can't put with the rest of the Aussies because he didn't seem like an Aussie because I couldn't understand a word he said proposed to me. Four times. So like I was just minding my own business, singing the songs, and this guy bumps into me then tells this girl next to me he loves her then like half a song later he bumps into me again and asks me something and I can't understand him so I had him repeat himself and I still couldn't understand him so he had to repeat himself like four times and when I finally understood him he was like "Will you marry me I love you you're so beautiful" and I'm just like lol "no go ask that girl" and I pointed to the girl I can only assume he asked before me. It was kinda funny but kinda disturbing lol.
So then I survived the rest of the concert and the first two encores then I left to go stand in line for their signing which was to take place after the concert. Here I ran into some new friends! I was very much very covered in mud at this point and people were starting to notice. So I get in line for the Wailers signing and the guy in front of me is like "is this your first time here?" and I'm like "yeah" and he's like "yeah I can tell, we both picked the wrong shoes" lol and his friend was all like "the mud looks good on you" and I was just like "thanks" and now we're friends and I'm gonna hang with them at 2am while I'm on my layover in Brisbane for 7 hours on my way to Bali in a couple weeks.
So I didn't actually have anything for the Wailers to sign, I was just hoping for a pic but they convinced me to go get something for them to sign so they saved my spot in line while I went and bought a generic Bluesfest 2016 CD (the actual irony: the Wailers aren't even on the CD even though they had the most sets all weekend). When I got back in line I even got to get in front of them! What great new friends. They also received my business card.
Turns out it's a good thing I got that CD for them to sign because no pictures were allowed (I'm not very good at following rules, clearly I took a picture) and I wouldn't have been allowed up without something for them to sign. So one point for the Aussies.
After the signing we went to the UB40 concert together as well. They didn't stay the whole time because they had to meet their mate to go back to their accommodations. To be honest, I didn't last much longer than they did.
"Who did you come here to see?" "UB40" ....Who didn't you stay to see? UB40. :/
They didn't start until so late, and it was such a long day and I was so tired. I stayed as long as I could before I went for a burger before I left. I didn't get to hear Red Red Wine or (I Can't Help) Falling in Love with You, but I did get to see The Way You Do The Things You Do. I kinda wish I stayed longer, but I'm also glad I left when I did because otherwise I wouldn't have made it back. After the bus back I still had to walk from town back to the house, and as tired as I was it probably took close to a half an hour.
Once I made it back to the house, I spent a good 45 minutes in the shower trying to scrub all the mud off me. I STILL have mud stuck in my toenails and it's been over a week. But I did the best I could with cleaning myself and I tried to make sure the tub wasn't left totally black (eh, not much luck) and exhausted, I headed to bed.
You can check out some highlights on my Bluesfest & Kayak video, on my Facebook now!

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Heaven Knows, We Belong Way Down Below

S(aturday) stands for SCUBA (which stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus). My first scuba diving in Australia! I had been dreaming about this for four years, ever since I snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef.
Okay, so imma be real with ya'll. I'm lowkey terrified of diving. I usually always have problems with my ears and I'm scared my brain is gonna pop. Two past experiences lead me to this level of terror. I will now explain:
Okay so when I first got my Open Water certification, before I had even entered the pool, this guy goes to jump into the pool like he was jumping off a boat and his tank literally went into his head and it started bleeding everywhere because he just cracked his head open. Like I didn't even get in the water yet and already someone was almost dead (okay so that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but the guy did crack his head wide open). Obviously he shouldn't have looked down (because ya know, GRAVITY) and maybe his tank was a bit too high to start with, but still. They're lucky I completed my certification.
Then when I was getting my Advanced certification, I might've had an ear infection while diving. Which is a big no-no. Okay, so not maybe, I totally did. But I took the yucky medicine for a whole two weeks before I went and it was supposed to be gone, and I couldn't just reschedule my dives (well, I probably could but then I wouldn't be with my other Beach Patrol-ers). Anyways, so I went diving anyways and of course it totally killed my ears. But then on like our third dive I had blood coming out of everywhere. I was coughing it up; it was coming out of my nose; it was even coming out of the sides of my mask so it looked like it was coming out of my ears bc it was that bad. I thought my brain exploded and I was gonna die because I went diving with an ear infection. They're very lucky (well I'm very lucky) that I didn't start balling as soon as I saw red. I saw my destiny all right, that destiny was death. My heart spilled onto the floor and I definitely thanked God my brain was still part of me (I Saw Red lyrics skillfully adapted to fit my situation; thank you, Warrant, for being one of my obsessions).  But anyways, the instructors were like "dude it's just a nose bleed, calm down", but I've never had a nose bleed before in my life so how was I to know? They also said that at the depth of recreational diving it's actually super duper difficult aka pretty much impossible for my brain to explode and for death to occur. So that comforts me.
But yeah so anyways, I always gotta give myself a nice pep talk before diving (usually for a full week-3 days before actually) and Heaven Knows (by the Pretty Reckless) needs to be played a couple million times, but ya know, I just substitute it for Cherry Pie. Then once I'm down there I'm totally fine and am one with the fishies and life is good. It's just the getting there part.
Strangely enough, this time I was not anxious and ready to die before the dive. Maybe it's because my last couple dives have been cancelled due to weather (eh hm, HONDURAS. CAYMAN. I'm lookin at you, ya awfuls). Maybe it's because, like I said, I have been looking forward to diving in Australia for FOUR YEARS. Either way, I totally appreciate that I was totally calm the whole time.
So I had to walk to the dive shop. (lol long enough background introduction, right? Time to move on to the actual story.) It was in town, a couple streets away from the main section of town. So like since I had to walk there and walking practically kills me I went early and got a smoothie and still ended up being early, but it's okay because if you're not 15 minutes early, you're late.
So I got all my paperwork and stuff situated, then they (the dive shop workers) got my tank and set it up with the equipment for me. I brought my own mask and snorkel because I heard the snorkeling was great (planned on doing that during the beach days but it was wayyyy to rough), so I used my pink mask and snorkel and was awarded pink flippers as well. I love matching!
It was a dive with me, a girl from London who would be my dive buddy, a guy from France, a guy from the shop to be his dive buddy, and a guy from Sweden as the guide. Nice small group, but we shared the boat with a group of new divers. Oh, a boat. Momentary panic quickly subsided when they said we would not be jumping off the boat to enter the water, but simply falling back off the boat (as if that's any better). I never even learned how to do that, but thankfully it was really easy and the guy said I did perfect. & I didn't die so that's obviously a good thing (if you think it's not, get off my blog right now, you jerk).
Yay! Time to dive in Australia! How exciting! We go down about 13/14 meters, and my ears are totally fine. Like no problems at all. Like the airplane hurt them way worse. Thinking back now, maybe it's because I was so calm and had no inner thoughts of death. But also maybe it's just that I wasn't sick and the water was warm and clear and almost perfect. Either way, yay for me.
Unfortunately, every positive comes with a negative (at least in my life, but I'm pretty certain it's that way for the whole universe, yin yang and such). In this case, it meant I was breathing A LOT. Usually I'm down there and I breathe so little people ask me if I'm okay. Like I do not go through air. This was my 11th dive and people usually think I'm like a profession based upon my breathing. Not this time. It was like I couldn't get enough air. Fortunately, my dive buddy was having the same issue so when I was out so was she. We lasted 39 minutes, and the maximum time was only 50 minutes, so it really wasn't that bad, just the fact that I got that low is mentally horrible for me. I thought it was because I was like super thirsty so I was drinking the air like the water bottle when we got back on the boat, but my dive buddy (yeah sorry, I don't know her name. Maybe Amelia? Is that a British name? eh, idk) brought up the point that the current was extremely strong and we therefore had to work a lot harder while underwater. This is a very valid point that is probably the reason why. My pink flippers, although super cute because they totally brought my pink gear together, were like barely an extension of my feet. I don't know how they even counted as flippers, but they definitely did not help my swimming, so I was working super overtime trying to stay with the group and not drift away. (Sorry to disappoint, I don't feel like making any drift away references here; lucky you.) This is also why, if you watch my video (WHICH YOU ALL SHOULD - it's on my Facebook now; it's too large to post to Blogger because sometimes Blogger sucks) I'm like flailing about like a drowning animal rather than scuba diving all nice and neat and hands folded and such like I'm supposed to, because I had to legit fight the current. Considering I had to come up early but also I did stay with the group on my time down there, I'm not sure who won. I'd say it was a draw.
Okay, let me take a sec to mention one totally real and critical thing: the corals legit are dying. Like right now the big thing is the whitening of the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. Well, I wasn't in the GBR and this coral wasn't white (yet) but it was pretty colorless. I'm not sure if it's usually colorless in this area, but up in the GBR I remember such vibrant colors that if I go back in June and it's all white, I seriously might cry. So like it's a real issue and something needs to be done to prevent the dying of all the coral.
Okay, back to my dive. Besides colorless coral, I did see some colorful fish (the most vibrant being blue). I also saw Marlin (Nemo's dad) lookin for his kid (aka I saw some clownfish). There were some jellyfish, pufferfish, and lionfish as well, but I actually got really excited over the turtle I saw. I see turtles all the time and this wasn't a big turtle, so not sure why it was so pleasing, but it was.
Guess what? I SAW A SHARK! Okay, I admit, in the Caribbean I do see nurse sharks sometimes (like more often than you'd think based upon how hype I get at any mention of sharks) while snorkeling in the islands. (One specific time comes to mind - the time I realized I was not going to law school. Okay so like I was totally set on being a lawyer, right? Maritime of course because hello, addicted to the ocean. But like then we went on this snorkeling trip off one of the Caribbean islands [maybe Grand Turk?] and the boat driver was like "yeah I went to law school, got my degree and now I'm living the life driving a boat in the Caribbean" and I was like "woah I'm so not wasting all that money and time to get a law degree when it would probably have me end up just like this guy - totally not using my degree playing in the Caribbean" so then I decided to not go to law school, and that's when I saw some nurse sharks while snorkeling.) So anyways, I saw a leopard shark! It was really small and hiding in some coral so it wasn't really exciting. Also I thought sharks had to keep swimming or else they die? Well this guy was either dead or barely swimming. There were a few other sharks that were much more alive and swimming that the guide kept pointing out (or attempting to), but try as I might I couldn't find them. So that was kinda frustrating now that I think about it, but oh well. At least I got to see one.
Then, as you know, I had to come up 10 minutes early due to lack of air. The boat driver said I could snorkel in the water if I wanted while I waited, but I was like almost dehydrated and very tired of fighting the current, so I just climbed back on board and gladly accepted a water. After we made it back to the dive shop, I filled out my dive log and started my walk back to the house for my leftover pizza and bed.
Don't forget to watch my lovely videos on my Facebook! If you're not on my Facebook, you can catch them on YouTube!

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

Coconut Telegraph

Sorry to disappoint ya, but this post is gonna be more than 25 words. (If you don't understand that sentence because obviously all my posts are longer than 25 words, the coconut telegraph is only supposed to be 25 words. "Put it on the coconut telegraph in 25 words or less." It's in Jimmy Buffett's song in which this post was named after, clearly based upon the fact that I'm drinking yet another coconut because the addiction is real.)

Friday was my beach day. It was actually Good Friday, but against my better judgement and forced upon me by the situation I was in, I celebrated my Easter with the Church of the Ocean instead of a normal, actual church. (Also idk if the Church of the Ocean is a real thing or not, so just to clarify, I meant like the ocean was my holy place for the weekend and I was a horrible Catholic and did not attend a real church, but not because I didn't want to, simply because strangely enough none around were actually open.)

I didn't have anything planned for Friday because originally Friday was the day I was supposed to fly in on before I realized that a) Thursday flights were cheaper and b) I don't have classes on Thursdays. So I planned on doing town on Thursday and beach on Friday. But the beach that was close to the house was so rough and literally no one went there except for very few locals who came to do their thing and leave and probably wouldn't even notice me, so for my safety (although I am totally capable by myself in the ocean; I pride myself on the strong relationship that I have with the water) I decided to go back into town and go to the beach that I found the night before.
First I stopped for a fish burger at BayGer (which at first I didn't understand the name then I realized Bay as in Byron Bay and although I must admit it was clever, I do not see it as clever because it took me so long to get I just feel stupid). Fish burgers are one thing New Zealand excels at. I would usually call them a fish sandwich, but here they're called fish burgers so I expected the same thing when I ordered mine in Byron, but instead of a fried piece of fish it was grilled like a burger and kept falling apart and out of my bun. It was still delicious though, but maybe that's because it's the first real food I've ate in at least 36 hours, excluding smoothies. Either way, I ate as much as I could but not eating real food for a while makes your stomach a lot smaller so I couldn't finish it all. After my meal I walked down the street to the beach.
There was still live music and it was just as lively as it was the night before, but with more people. There are two sides to the beach but I just went to the side I went to the night before, with the dogs and the surfers. I quickly put my stuff between a couple rocks and headed into the water. It didn't take long for me to realize I was on the surf side of the beach and the swimmers were all on the other side, that up until now I hadn't even realize existed. I lasted about an hour on the surfer side before I got sick of moving out of their way and gave in and went to the swimmer side.
Once on the swimmer side, I felt better because I know to always be like 5 feet from people and although I stayed that close to other swimmers on the surfer side, there were more swimmers on the swimmer side (obviously)
(ALSO LET ME PAUSE THIS SUPER AWESOME POST TO INFORM YOU ALL THAT I'M LISTENING TO JIMMY BUFFETT MIX ON YOUTUBE AND VOLCANO JUST CAME ON AND OMG ITS MY JAM [not as much as Cherry Pie but pretty close][thanks, Carnival]
I DON'T KNOW WHERE IMMA GONNA GO WHEN THE VOLCANO BLOW 
OMG THIS IS ALSO TOTALLY RELEVANT TO MY KAYAKING EXPERIENCE, IF I DON'T INCLUDE IT PLEASE REMIND ME IN A COMMENT ON THE KAYAK POST TO COME)
Okay, sorry bout that. Got a little excited. Anyways, back to my Australian adventures.
So anyways. I was just chillin in the ocean bay thing and met these people from Jersey and California that moved here for a year, kinda like Travis did, but they're just moving around. They traveled to New Zealand for two weeks before coming to Australia to do work in Sydney for 3 months and now they're traveling up the coast. Not really sure what their plans are but hey, you do you. Anyways I thought we would be friends but then they got out and didn't come back in. :(
The side current was super strong, which is why they originally got out but I just side swam back and made sure I stayed between the two big boulder rocks that marked the walkway that my things were near. Because of the current, people came and went quite often and noone stayed near me long enough to talk to me. Oh fun fact, the reason I even talked to those Americans was because they pronounced Cairns wrong and I had to give my two cents about whatever they were saying about Cairns because well, my Queensland obsession is real. Like I wanted to spend all four years at James Cook University, but Daddy said it was too far away (which I guess he was right, considering I only lasted a semester and half in Florida). I also picked out a house in Port Douglas when we were there four years ago because I was convinced I'd live there someday. Maybe someday, but for now I think I'll just stick to the Caribbean.
Anyways, once my knees couldn't handle anymore fighting I reluctantly got out. To my delight, there were two coconut carts at the top of the walkway! Oh, happy day! So I grabbed a coconut and settled down on the grass where I could hear the band.
"Drinkin out of a coconut, listenin to Don't Worry Be Happy via live band, & chillin on a beach in Australia. I'd say it's a good Good Friday" -@TashaNicole97 on Twitter
"Beaches + coconuts = my [dream] life (oh wait, nope, it's real life)" -@TashaNicole97 on Instagram
(Feel free to follow me)
It didn't take long for me to drink it, but then I ate the smooth meat. It must've been from the same family as the Samoan coconut. Although this one was clearly clean cut, there were also other differences between it and the Samoan one, so they weren't totally the same type but they totally could be related (ya know, other than them both being coconuts). I think these ones were called gold coconuts? Or maybe the sign just said cold coconuts? I dunno; the cart close to me simply said "Drinking Coconuts". Either way it was good.
After my coconut I just chilled out, people watching and such. They roll their own cigarettes, like with a paper and I guess tobacco or something. How interesting. Probably how they roll weed but it didn't smell like weed (how do I know what weed smells like you ask? Well I do live in Ocean City in the summers; ya don't gotta smoke it to smell it).
The guy that asked for the paper from another guy had a dog. He told the dog "go find a stick" so they could play catch and this dog comes back with like half a tree. Like the thing didn't even fit in her mouth. She had to like roll it up the hill with her muzzle. Aw man, I should've got a picture. But I wasn't thinking. But yeah it was cute. I love dogs.
I also saw the Surf Rescue/Beach Patrol pack up for the day. They pack up at 4:30, compared to our 5:30. I found it interesting that they use a tractor for their heavy lifting whilst we use ATVs/4-wheelers. They don't have any stands to move but they had their rescue boards and jet skis. I watched them pack up from the time I noticed them starting to clear out until they were completely packed away in the shed at the top of the walkway, next to the Yoga Studio.
I stayed til like 5 or 6 then I was gonna get food in town before I headed back to the house but I just went back to the house and ordered a pizza. The pizza place I ordered from needed a minimum order of so much so I also got raviolis, figuring the pizza would last me 2 meals and the raviolis would last me 1 (lol no I forgot how much of a little fatty I am). I was eating the raviolis and I spilled and I stained my beloved Carnival Got Wifi shirt :( . I was so sad. I've since washed the shirt and it's still stained. But I've come up with the idea to tye-dye it so hopefully it'll be less noticeable so we'll see what happens.

Until next time,

xoxo,

Tasha

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