The Mile

People come into our lives

and walk with us a mile,

and then because of circumstance

they only stay a while.

They serve a need within the days

that move so quickly by,

and then are gone beyond our reach,

we often wonder why.

God only knows the reason

that we meet and share a smile,

why people come into our lives

and walk with us a mile.

- For You.. and Byron..

Christmas in Surfers Paradise

My Christmas Eve ‘06 started early in Brisbane. It was the last morning of Fraser holidays and time to drive back to Surfers, so we left Ash and Arpi’s at 9ish, picked Härmo and Anni, who were coming down for our fabulous Christmas Party, up from the CBD and headed back to the Coast. Over the Story Bridge, pass Kangaroo Point, along the Gold Coast HWY, back to Surfers Paradise. You know, the usual way :-) Paul had to return the car to Coolangatta by 11 and catch his flight back home to Sydney, so we were pretty much in a hurry, which was good as it didn’t leave us much time for long and sad goodbyes. As soon as the car turned around the corner, I grabbed my bags and made a few very fast steps up the stairs, back home.. back to Ann, but not only!! Back to Jarno and Tiit!! The two guys had finally made it up here and joined us for Christmas. Their best mate Molly (read: Mazda 323 from 1985) had not let them down :-) Indescribable moments of happiness and reunion, mega hugs and heaps of amazing stories of their 3-month Aussie Adventure from Perth to Gold Coast. Welcome to Surfers Paradise, guys! Make yourselves at home! Which of course they had already well done as they had occupied our double bed and left Ann on the floor with a mattress. Gentlemen!! :-) Yeah, we know you have come a long way, so I’ll wait a few more minutes before the roles change again :-)

Done with chatting, we jumped into Molly and raced to Pacific Fair for some Christmas shopping. Poor Molly, I guess its bottom was almost touching the ground with 5 people on board. And imagine what it felt later driving back home when we had loaded the boot with 3 kg of pork meat, 2 bags of potatoes, 2 cans of sauerkraut, 2 packs of sausages, different sauces, 2 chocolate mud cakes, heaps of fruit, bread, chips, drinks, 4 l of wine and all the ingredients for our absolute favorite – potato salad!! Enough food for 11 hungry Estonians at Christmas dinner. Homemade Christmas dinner (chefs: Ann, Anni & Kairi :P) which turned out to be a real success. And if we hadn’t been all sweating in the 30 degrees heat, I guess it would have almost felt like back home. The 3-course dinner started with potato salad and sausages, followed by pork steak, oven-baked potatoes and sauerkraut (just like back home, with strong mustard!), and topped with chocolate cake, biscuits and fruits.. always accompanied with loads of beer and wine :-) By the time Santa arrived, we weren’t only drunk but so full that it was hard to perform all these songs, rhymes and dances to get the presents, made by Secret Santa. Heaps of presents, including my 2 CDs of Bob Marley, Paavo’s floating crocodile, Anni’s body board, etc. The Santa Down Under had no red coat, long white beard or black boots. He had boardies, Sombrero and thongs (read: flip flops). And his main phrase was ‘No worries, mate!’ :-)

Fun! So much fun! Thanks, guys! Ann, Paavo aka Paff, Tiit x 2, Jarno, Härmo, Anni, Kalju aka Cliff, Meelis, you are the best!! Christmas 2006 in Surfers Paradise!! Not all of us recovered the morning after :-) ->

Christmas Day @ Sheraton Mirage

Somehow (I don’t know how) I forced myself to wake up this morning, jump into my black & whites and go to work at Sheraton Mirage. I guess the $38/hr rate (plus the $20 tip I got!! Rare case in Oz, well done, K!) on Christmas Day was a great motivation though. The venue was a Christmas Day Buffet at Sheraton Mirage Grand Ballroom – a huge room with a stage and more than 50 tables. The buffet had almost everything one could dream of.. for $175 bucks pp, but it all felt so ‘public’ and not intimate. I guess I’m just used to the traditions, beliefs and values back home which say that Christmas is the time for your family and loved ones, it’s silent and peaceful, filled with sentiments to touch your heart. The only Christmas feeling I came across in that huge ballroom was seeing the grannies playing with their little grandchildren.. many generations altogether. But you look 3 meters away and notice a similar picture at the next table, and all you can do is wonder why all these strange people come together to share the special moments of a year in that huge and bright ‘public’ ballroom. Instead of cooking a lovely dinner at home, enjoying the silence and candle light, open presents around the Christmas tree and have more than 1x1 m to play with your children or grandchildren. Things are different Down Under.. things are upside down..

Fraser Island Getaway

Hi guys!

I know I haven’t been online much in these days and some of you haven’t heard from me for ages, but let me make it up for you now and tell you what I’ve been up to in the past 7 days. And, dad, do not worry too much when I don’t call or my mobile is switched off for a while. They aren’t very good with Internet and mobiles here in Australia. Sometimes you have no service as soon as you drive half an hour out of the coastal urban district. And Internet is just another story to tell. Do you guys remember what dial up is? Yeah, exactly, the slow up-and-down connection we had back home at the end of the 90s :-) We have it here! Finally, after all we had to go through in the past 2 weeks to explain our flat mate Nick the Tarzan (because he climbs palm trees to get home when he has no keys and always walks around half-naked in boardies) that he can’t get away with no Internet at home.

However, no Internet and mobile reception can sometimes be pretty nice and relaxing for a while. For example, on Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, about 300 km north from Brisbane, half an hour ferry ride from Hervey Bay. That’s where I spent the amazing 5 days before Christmas after the 5-day working roster the week before. The thing that I really like about working holiday and casual employment is that you can combine work and travel just the way you want. You work when you need to make some money, and you travel when you have enough of it to spend. And even though the reason of this Fraser Island adventure wasn’t an unbearable need for a break from work, it was really nice and relaxing, a perfect way to recharge batteries for the next roster, and of course for the massive Christmas and New Year’s parties. The idea to go traveling came up a few weeks ago, the day Paul left Gold Coast to head back home in Sydney. I’m glad it wasn’t the day of saying goodbyes and he flew back soon to travel up to Fraser.

Our Fraser trip began on Tuesday morning, December 19, when Paul rented a car (automatic! *lol* yeah, let’s give him a break, it’s difficult with the left-hand traffic :)) at Coolangatta Airport and drove up to Surfers to pick me up from home. Sweet. We didn’t waste time on the GC and left for Hervey Bay, where we arrived about 5 hours later after several stops at Maccas (read: McDonald’s). Paul’s fault, he’s addicted to junk food! :) Everything goes from Big Mac to Subway sandwich. He says he’s a good cook though, which I can’t tell as I haven’t tried.. yet :) Anyways, his purchase of the day was Maccas frozen Fanta. This pink drink that tastes like frozen tap water with some Fanta flavor. No comments, as long as he was happy and driving on the right side of the road. The night in Hervey Bay was quieter than we had expected for a tourist place in the high season, which we didn’t mind as it made it pretty easy to find accommodation and have dinner at a local Chinese restaurant without queuing for hours. The first hostel we walked in on Esplanade (the first street back from beach in almost every coastal town) was full but the reception lady was nice and friendly and called another recently opened hostel around the corner. That place named NEXT was awesome (highly recommended!). Great location in the heart of Hervey Bay, 2 minutes from beach, brand new, clean and comfortable, with friendly staff, and most of all a great value for the money spent. With $60 you get a double room with own bathroom, soft towels and a nice bed made up with clean and fresh linen. The girl at reception suggested a few places for dinner from which we decided to try the Chinese with a hot buffet. And we didn’t have to be disappointed. The place was lovely, not too packed, and they had paper cloths and felt-tip pens on each table in case you wanted to leave a message behind. You can see the results of our two creative minds in the picture here beside. The rest of the dinner time passed by reading some brochures we had taken with us and making plans for the next days, including a tour on Fraser Island. As the hostel was lovely and we had more than a day, we decided to stay there for another night and check out some of the nice places in the neighborhood on Wednesday, and take the early morning boat to Fraser on Thursday. Great plans made, we walked back towards the hostel to have a beer in the live-music corner bar right across the street, which again looked surprisingly quiet on Tuesday.

The plans for the next morning were a quick brekky on the beach and a drive down to Rainbow Beach, close to the southern tip of Fraser Island. Looking at the map, you could say it looks roughly about 50 km south from Hervey Bay, but because of the distances here are so vast, we ended up driving about 120 km there and another that much back to the Bay. After a short stop half-way down to the beach, we decided to give Paul a little break and I drove down myself. The 1st time on the left side, probably the 1001st time with an automatic car, I soon realized that driving is driving, just a little strange when your reflexes work the opposite way and you continuously switch on wipers instead of indicators. But you quickly get used to it, as with all the other things that look, feel, or sound so odd at the beginning. And I have to say this: we did arrive safe and sound, even though I was driving :-) While we stopped to change seats, we also noticed a pair of long footprints on the sandy path beside the road, clearly belonging to nobody else but a native Aussie, i.e. kangaroo. Rainbow Beach was beautiful, although we probably didn’t see the best part of it at Double Island Point and the Cherry Venture shipwreck as you gotta hire a 4WD (four-wheel drive) to cruise down the beach to the national park area otherwise non-reachable. The name Rainbow Beach derives from its colored sand cliffs, where its pandanus tree-lined beaches and red-hued cliffs arc round Wide Bay. You can also enjoy the view from the Carlo Sandblow, a 120m-high dune on the hill overlooking this tiny town with only 1050 inhabitants, where the national championships in paragliding are held every January. You can find some great camping grounds right on the beach at the end of Tourist Drive, where boats leave for Fraser Island from Inskip Point, with shallow water and heaps of crab holes in the sand (see the picture). Amazing little creatures. Don’t know if they also crawl into your tents at night if you camp there. Preferred not to try on my skin and drove back to Hervey Bay to spend another night at the cozy Next instead, with too large pizzas for dinner from Domino’s.

Thursday, the big day on Fraser Island that definitely is a place of exceptional beauty, or as our tour guide Alan said, it’s Nature’s ecological excellence. We woke up early, grabbed a few yummie pastries from Brumby’s and jumped on the boat at Urangan Boat Harbour at 6:45 in the morning. We had booked a 1-day Lake McKenzie tour ($155 pp) with the Kingfisher Bay Resort, one of the two main resorts on the island, but were planning to stay there overnight and come back the day after. Nice resort, definitely a nice spot of the island, but a little rip off. The regular price $285 pn room only gives you nothing but a bed, customer satisfaction and meeting or exceeding customer needs probably comes at extra cost, as well as requesting late check-out, breakfast or other amenities usually included in the rate. But then again the tour with Alan, our ranger guide, was really nice and made our day. He drove us through the forests and sand in a 4WD, at the same time continuously telling us stories about the island, its history, culture, landscape, flora and fauna – things we probably wouldn’t have learnt, at least not to this extent, if we had hired a 4WD to explore the island by ourselves. While you drive, keep a look out for Australia’s purest bred dingoes as you might see some of the 100 to 200 still left on the island (we saw one!). Alan emphasized a few things that make Fraser exceptional.

The sand on Fraser, surprisingly, supports fresh-water lakes ringed by white, sandy beaches perched in the tops of the dunes and fast-flowing streams, perfect places to relax and swim. This is the only place in the world where tall rainforests are found growing on sand dunes at elevations of over 200 meters. The famous Seventy-Five Mile Beach is flanked by strikingly colored sand cliffs and desert-like sand blows. The island has a rich cultural history. Known to local Butchulla Aborigines as K’gari (Paradise), the island takes its European name from James and Eliza Fraser, the captain of the Stirling Castle and his wife shipwrecked on the island in 1836. European settlers soon awoke to the value of Fraser’s timber and cleared tracts of rainforest in the search for turpentine (satinay), a waterproof wood prized by shipbuilders all around the world. Only in the late 20th century the focus shifted from exploitation to protection, and the island was listed as a World Heritage area, and is protected for all to appreciate and enjoy.

The Lake McKenzie tour starts and finishes at Kingfisher Bay resort. Obviously, so you could do your last minute purchases or relax with a coffee at the café before you depart on your island tour or head back to Hervey Bay. Tourist trap, they ain’t stupid! Rip off, rip off, rip off. But the rest of the day is great. You get to spend some time at Lake McKenzie, Fraser’s most popular, and probably the most beautiful fresh-water lake, where you can swim in the pH neutral crystal clear waters. They will then take you for a stroll through Central Station, the former logging camp, and the rainforest along the banks of Wanggoolba Creek, home to the giant king fern. The 45-minute walk takes you to Pile Valley with tall satinay trees, the same that were logged to line the banks of the Suez Canal. You’ll have buffet lunch at Eurong Beach Resort on Seventy-Five Mile Beach and drive along the beach up to the wreck of the cruise liner Maheno, which came ashore in 1935, and the Pinnacles colored sands. The tour ends with a swim in the fresh waters of Eli Creek that flows swiftly into the ocean, and if you are lucky and on time, you’ll have a look at one of the massive sand dunes from a lookout on the way back to the resort.

Done with the guided tour, we checked in at Kingfisher and had a relaxing afternoon nap in our room overlooking the jetty where people were waiting for the boat back to the mainland, and where we should’ve been as well at the end of the tour if we hadn’t sneaked away to stay on the island :-) To make matters worse (actually better! :P), we also got a bottle of white wine and some chocolate cookies, too enjoyable to walk out of the room for dinner, for which we later paid heaps of money just to have a few entrees as they had finished serving the main course (always before time). I’m telling you, the wine here is suspicious. But no worries, after the Chinese buffet on the first night and the Domino’s pizza on the second night, a few small prawns were good for a change. And as the Germans say, wir leben von Luft und Liebe :-)

We got back to Hervey Bay, and of course back to Next, on Friday night, after a lazy day by the pool at Kingfisher, a little walk up to the lookout and no proper lunch, because.. you know.. the chefs had finished serving food BEFORE time. And when there’s no food, you start drinking :-) Ruski Vodka Lemon was the drink of the day, and the night in the good old corner bar right across the street, where we finally had some fish and chips, or to be honest, quite some fish and chips, and rolled back to the hostel to fall asleep.. Or what did you think?! :-) Actually we read Lonely Planet for a bedtime fairytale, and made plans for the last day of the Fraser trip.. And decided to spend Saturday down on Sunshine Coast in Noosa, one of the East Coast’s most exclusive resorts and a major foodies’ mecca with its trendy café latte landscape, half-way back to Brisbane. However, a 5-minute drive along the chock-a-block Hasting St was enough to wanna escape from the crowds and hide at the far end of the Sunshine Beach, south from Noosa, where the waves hit the rocky end of the little hill dividing the main beach from a smaller and wilder one on the other side of the hill that you can climb.. as we did. The night took us back to Brisbane where Ash and Arpi were waiting for us to go out for a few drinks together in some of the cocktail bars of Fortitude Valley. The good old Valley, which was our home for 3 weeks at the beginning of our Aussie adventure with Ann. Was great to be back ‘home’.. even though for one night only.

The End :-)

P.S. Thanks, Paul, for being an amazing travel mate, great friend.. and more. You are special!

Merry Christmas!! Ho-ho-hoo!!

Dear friends..

Hope you are having a very wonderful Christmas.. All of you. Friends back home, friends in Australia, friends in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, UK, Germany, friends in America.. friends all around the world. Miss you heaps.

C ya!! Luv ya all!! xxx

~K~

Pacific Fair & Bob Marley

Today is girls’ shopping day. Kairi and Ann discovering Pacific Fair – the main shopping center on Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It’s massive with an open courtyard, cinema, hundreds of shops, most of them filled with Billabong beachwear :-) And it’s only a 20-minute walk away. I’m addicted! I love B-i-l-l-a-b-o-n-g, and I love summer! As much as I love Christmas. And Christmas in summer. Well, I might take my words back about the last one though. White Christmas is the best Christmas. When it’s freezing outside and you sit by the fire place around the real Christmas tree that smells of fir gum and has got heaps of presents under it. You’ll never have it here. I saw this lone fir tree amongst all the others that were palms the other day (I wonder how it got there), it had Christmas decorations hanging all over. If back home I would have probably paid no attention on the decorated Christmas tree, then here amongst the palm trees, in 30 degrees heat, on the deep blue ocean front it just looked so awkward. Funny. I remember writing how people adjust, adopt and get used to whatever looked so new and interesting at first. I’ve felt that several times here. I remember being fascinated by the beach in Surfers Paradise, the deep blue ocean and bold surfers taking the high waves. I walk on that beach and find nothing special in there now.. ‘cause I’ve seen better ones, ‘cause I see it every day. The same thing with the view. Yes, it is amazing to wake up in the morning and have a brekky on the balcony overlooking the ocean, or to fall asleep to the sounds of the waves drifting on the shore, but you get used to it, too. You love it the first day, you like it the next day, and you simply take it for granted on the third day.

Hey, it looks like I got carried away thinking about Christmas and stuff, so let’s get back to Pacific Fair :-) I was saying it’s massive. Even if you find some of the many doors to enter the shopping center, you can be sure you won’t find your way out. At least not the first time. I’m pretty sure it’s a trap, made on purpose. You know, like a tourist trap, except that this one is a shopaholic trap. So we end up walking home with quite some things, but the most important of them all are the Christmas cards and presents! Hehe, there we go again, back to Christmas, can’t get over it. But what’s better than making presents to the ones you love :-) Aww.. now I’m getting emotional.

The night was fun-fun-fun.. funˆ3. Some of the local Estonians (Tiit & Co) held a party at their place on Sunrise Boulevard, Surfers Paradise. Party – that’s the thing you do before you go to sleep at night :-) And what’s more fun than a great Estonian party in da Aussie heat? I’ll tell ya. It’s a great Estonian party in da Aussie heat with smooth white Aussie wine, good music and great friends :-) Tiit, Paavo, Kairi, Ann, Liina, Siiri, Annaliisa, Meelis. Welcome to Estonia! Things got heated up soon after a few glasses of the insidious Aussie wine, wound up by the New Zealander flat mates and their rather crazy farewell party, and ended up with table and chair dancing to the rhythms of Bob Marley. I told you it wasn’t just another party. It was an Estonian party in Australia, and everything’s upside down in Australia :-)

Moving down to Broadbeach

It’s the last day in Chevron Towers, and we are moving down to Monte Carlo Ave on Broadbeach, just below Surfers Paradise. It’s Sunday and a week has passed by, we are moving again, you know this ‘my life is all in this one suitcase’ feeling. It’s raining, just like the other night we moved into Chevron Towers. It’s a strange feeling. You are free to go, free to travel, you’ve got all the time of the world; on the other hand, you never know what comes next, what happens around the next corner, you sometimes feel insecure, sometimes lost. You gotta know how to enjoy it, how to get the max out of it. The new location is perfect though, as it’s right between Central Surfers and some of the necessary ‘landmarks’ on Broadbeach, such as the Convention Center, Pacific Fair, Conrad Jupiters Hotel & Casino, etc. Marc gives us a lift with our two heavy suitcases. Thanks a lot, Marc!

Nick, our new flat mate welcomes us with a big smile, arms wide open :) He is fun, at his best age, enjoying life, work and surfing. He’s away most of the time staying at his girlfriend’s Michelle, which means we’ve got the house for the two of us. I have nothing against some more privacy. So Nick is fun, but he’s a man! And you know what that means. It means socks on the floor, towels hanging on the doors, carpet to be vacuum-cleaned, dust to be wiped away, some broken or missing door handles, and no Internet! And everywhere we go, we gotta make our way through :-) So as soon as he left, we hit it real hard. If you’ve ever seen the American (Made in U.S. nonsense) TV series 'How Clean is Your House?’, then that describes perfectly our first Sunday evening at Nick’s bachelor residence. I guess I did more vacuum-cleaning in these 3 hours than I did in the past 3 years of my life, starting with the floors and finishing with the sofa and armchairs. Ann attacked the bathroom and toilet, kitchen sink, fridge and TV set. Mr Proper, Jif, Mrs Moper, or whatever.. We are friends with them all. Plus the house looks nice and cozy, and what’s the most important, livable. With some air fresheners where needed (bye-bye disgusting beer pong!), candles on the tables and window sills. It now feels like home. Happy 2nd Advent, Ann! When it’s all done, we can finally take a seat in the toilet, have a shower without flip-flops, and breathe fresh air and not sneeze. Nick agrees: ‘You girls are probably the best flat mates I’ve ever had. I will reduce the rent! This place definitely needs some woman’s touch.’ No worries, Nick, it will have a double touch :-)

I finish here, have a shower and take a stroll up to Cavill Ave in Surfers. To meet Paul. The rest is none of your business :-)

Working @ NRA Fashion Awards

Saturday morning..

I meet Paul. He comes up to Surfers. The rest is personal :-)

Matt and Oisin finally make it down to the coast as well, and we meet them on the beach in Surfers. Matt’s wearing a Canadian flag to protect himself against the super strong UV rays of midday. He obviously forgot his sunscreen :-) Oisin tells he had a big night out. So big that he didn’t make it back to the hostel room but ended up sleeping in their camper van parked in front of the house. No comments, you party animals! We also have a few gossips about the wonderful jobs in hospitality, the last payroll, and some plans for the near future, including Christmas. They are moving down to Sydney, whereas we are staying here on Gold Coast. You meet, you have fun, and you depart again. And again, and again. That’s the tough part of traveling, the sad side of backpacking. But the moments of continuous fun, memories of shared laughs, hard partying and getting to know each other are priceless. Definitely worth of doing it again, and again.

The day continues at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Center where we are working @ NRA Fashion Awards. It’s probably one of the hardest nights on duty so far, although only five hours long from 5:30 to 10:30 pm. Fashion Awards is a big night broadcast on the national television, and everything has to run perfect. The briefing is quick as usual, but more serious and demanding. It’s made pretty clear that nothing has to go wrong, nobody is supposed to sit or wait, but run and work. ‘You have 7 minutes to clear 5 tables with 11 seats each, you do it in pairs as the entrée plates are super heavy. You’ll see. It makes less than 1.5 minutes per table which we admit is impossible. But you make it happen, guys and girls!’ Sure! ‘Some of the tables are of high priority as we have some important guests tonight. They can order whatever tickles their fancy, and we deliver them whatever is requested.’ Hmm, not sure. The whiteboard set up to explain who does this and who does that says I’m spare. Hey, what does that mean? They’ve got nothing for me? Hmm. Dream on K, you’ve got plenty of things, exactly like everybody else tonight. I end up working backhouse (almost like backstage :-)) and gotta keep things rolling on the hidden side of the big night, behind the curtains. Hello, backache, hello, little tired feet! And we walk back home to Chevron which is no more, no less than 45-minute walk away, at the usual high speed.. I love you, my bed, I love you, pyjamas! :-)

A day in Byron Bay

As Paul’s friend Jan is running a shuttle service to Byron Bay, we thought it would be a great idea to visit the famous hippie town and most easterly point of mainland Australia altogether. Jan and Paul picked us up at 7 am from Chevron Towers – that’s waking up 5 hours earlier than usual. So we had a rather sleepy drive down to Byron (in New South Wales), with a 1-hour time difference because NSW is on a day light saving regime, whereas Queensland is not.

Byron is about an hour south from Surfers and the road takes you through some great parts of lush nature with rainforests on the border of Queensland and New South Wales, including the Nation Park of Mt Warning (named by Captain Cook who used it as a landmark to avoid Point Danger), a one-time active volcano. Also called Wollumbin or ‘Fighting Chief of the Mountains’ by local Aborigines, it began life 20 million years ago. Erosion of the 4000 sq km (massive!) volcano, stretching from Coraki in the south to Beenleigh (QLD) in the north, and from Kyogle to an eastern rim now buried beneath the sea, carved out the deep Tweed and Oxley valleys around Mt Warning now covered with lush green subtropical rainforests.

We dropped two guys off half-way to do some sky diving, which I would love to try as well while I’m here, and arrived in the center of Byron. Jan soon returned to Surfers to give a lift to some more excited tourists anxious to see Byron Bay, and we were left alone with Paul to begin our exploration. Keen on beaches rather than the town centre, we took a long-long stroll along the Main Beach up to its far end called Clarks Beach, which peaks with The Pass, a little ‘hill’ used as a viewpoint. On the way up we met some wild life on the beach. Have you ever seen these little holes surrounded by tiny sand balls piled around the hole, and wondered what they are? Something like mole burrows but smaller and neater. These are little crabs digging themselves out of the sand. As soon as we figured out what these holes are, we also came across one curious little crab that had come out to see waz up on da beach (H), and promptly became famous as a number of paparazzi (Ann, Kairi and Paul) lined up for a photo shoot. Talking about photos, I guess we took a couple of hundreds of them altogether throughout the day. Simply because every corner of the beach with Cape Byron on the background looked so amazingly beautiful and stunning. The Pass at the end of Clarks Beach unfolded a view that probably none of us expected to find behind the little hill. A bunch of professional and amateur surfers trying to take the biggest waves of the day, with a young girl being one of the bravest boogie-boarders of them all. It must take guts to go out there, just meters away from the sharp rocks pointing out of the sea, and glide down the powerful waves. I wish I was born in Australia and the waves were my childhood playground :-) Up on the hill we met some more representatives of the local fauna: a medium-sized lizard (10 times as big as the ones in Estonia), 5 black ravens sitting on the tree looking down at the surfers, and a few bush turkeys. Unfortunately no dolphins, no humpback whales (that pass nearby during their northern, June-July, and southern, September to November, migrations), and no sharks either, so we jumped in the water on Watego’s Beach – the next one from The Pass, as the heat was getting unbearable. Cut from the Main Beach by a little rainforest stretch, it was a perfect spot for a few-hour lie-down. We sat down on the beach and had a little chat about our travels so far, while Paul drew a map of Europe on the sand to mark the places where we had been on ‘Our Continent’. Sweet. Later when Jan returned from Surfers, we headed

back to the town center to have lunch at the famous Fish Heads restaurant right on the beachfront with gorgeous views and delicious fish dishes. Jan recommended a $16 seafood plate and we all decided to go for one, which was a great choice! Thanks, Jan! Loaded with fish and caprese salad, we drove back to Cape Byron to take a stroll up to the lighthouse, built in 1901. There’s a 4 km circular walking track around the cape from the Captain Cook Lookout on Lighthouse Rd, but we took a quick short-cut to where it stands ‘The most easterly point of Australian Mainland’, snapped a quick photo, and headed back to the car to drive down to the rockier stretch below the 7 km long Tallow Beach called Broken Heads, where a succession of small beaches dot the coast before opening onto Seven Mile Beach, which goes all the way to Lennox Head. The walking path from the parking to the beach itself takes you through a little rainforest grove. Shady and wild, where all the hanging tree branches seem like snakes from a quick view, I had to pluck up my courage to walk (or should I say run) through the forest. The beach was superb, almost empty, except for a few naked hippies, ‘cause clothing is optional on most beaches around Byron Bay. ‘Ann, don’t look up, there’s a naked man right in front of you!’ :-) Anyways, no long men watching (oops, whale watching!) as Jan’s shuttle took us back home at 6pm, but the night was still young. Paul and Jan came over for another evening of pool and barbie, and we celebrated the great day with a cool Wolf Blass wine and lamb and chicken fillets. That was one of the cutest barbies I’ve ever had, ‘cause we only had two wine glasses, one plate, one knife and a couple of forks for the 4 of us and we shared them friendlily :-)

Smell you later! (from Simpsons)

A week in Chevron Towers

Tuesday

Pool and Jacuzzi, vol 2. Wakey-wakey at 11ish. We have a brekky on the balcony, jump into togs (read: swimming costume), grab a towel and head off to the pool. It’s a wonderful day with a blue blue sky, apart from the wind that wants to blow us away. We find two free sun beds and lay down. Some guys take a ‘seat’ next to us, one of them reminds us of Lenny Kravitz (he has this great fluffy puffed up hair do as well!). The Jacuzzi dude is back, and lands right beside us, again! He observes us for a second, makes big eyes and asks ‘Where you girls in the pool yesterday?’ ‘Yeah, apparently!’ His name is Paul and he’s German!! Which I would’ve never guessed for his dark hair, brown eyes and rather good looks. But there are always some raisins in the cake :-) He tells us he was an exchange student in Sydney and is now up here for the Schoolies, although he keeps saying he had no idea what he was getting involved in. Fair enough. We believe him, ‘cause he’s the only one of the 6 guys that is actually older than 20 and prefers hanging out at the pool rather than spending time with the other blokes. Having had enough of the sun (it only takes half an hour and your butt is on fire), we occupy the Jacuzzi in the shades, but it’s no relief today. Much hotter than yesterday, it makes us run between the Jacuzzi and the outdoor swimming pool right behind it. Hot and cold.. Cold and hot. They say it’s good for your bloodstream. Hmm, maybe. After about 3 sessions, looking like two soaked kittens, we say good-bye to our pool mate Paul and head upstairs. He gives us his phone number and offers we could meet up for a barbie (read: bbq) later in the evening. Why not! C ya later!

It’s afternoon and Härmo, Anni, Henn and Krista come over to admire the view from our 4 ½ **** residence. Ann’s playing 2 Quick Start on her PC which brings back nice memories of home and the farewell party with friends (club Panoraam & the good old 90’s mega hits). I really miss them heaps, but it’s fun in here, so that makes amends for the homesickness. We meet Paul and his other German friend Jan (that resembles to Adam Sandler – hey, that makes already 2 famous doubles the same day! – and runs a surf club down on Palm Beach and a shuttle service to Byron Bay) at Coles at 7:30 pm. Gut! Doppelt gemoppelt! Although we are only 5 minutes late, it’s obviously too much for two punctual German guys (deutche pünktlichkeit!), so they give us a tinkle to see if we are on the way. ‘Give us a break, guys, we are already in the lift but it takes time to get down from this skyscraper.’ :-) We get some chicken in tomato n’ onion marinade, prawn sticks (specially prepared for a barbie), some fresh bread rolls, mushrooms, zucchini, and Oreo cookies (the local Domino). But there’s no alcohol whatsoever sold at the supermarkets (Coles or Woolies). That’s no problem as Paul’s apartment is loaded with everything :-) So we get a bottle of Bombora, Jamaican rum with a coconut flavor, vodka & soda, and other spirits to ‘top up’ the evening. And off we go to the wonderful pool and Jacuzzi complex on the 6th floor. It has got these barbie places on the side of the pool. I was pretty surprised to see how many people actually come down there in the evening to have dinner. We choose the on closest to the Jacuzzi. Of course! :-) Ah! We had a bet earlier with Paul about Absolut Vodka being Swedish or Finnish. I was 99% sure it would be Finnish, but it turns out I was wrong, so Paul wins the bet, and I gotta prepare the barbie. With the experience of the other night at the volunteer Christmas party, it’s a piece of cake to get a few slices of chicken cooked properly. Ann gives me a hand, ‘cause you know, we always work as a team :-) Loaded with all the goodies, we add the final touch to the barbie by spending half an hour in the 38-degree Jacuzzi. Awesome! Total relax 100%. I almost fall from my feet when I get back to my room. G’night mates, G’night Surfers! C ya tomorrow!