As I mentioned, we went snorkeling on Wednesday with about 25 students and the ocean was crystal clear. This is the main beach in Byron Bay, and we went just off shore to a small ship wreck to snorkel. We saw a handful of different kinds of fish including a puffer fish and a small shark called a wobbygong. The bit of land you can see poking out into the water is Cape Byron, and the most easterly part of Australia. Wednesday afternoon I went with Zach and his host mom Jacqui on a small hike to the top of the Cape where there is a famous light house. I took pictures, but they are on Jacqui's camera, so I will have to wait until I see her again to upload those.
This Saturday, Steve took me for my first attempt at surfing. I was lucky enough that one of the teachers at school is letting me borrow her husband's surfboard at the moment so that I can learn to surf. One my first try we couldn't find a beach with good swells, it was a bit too choppy everywhere we looked. We tried to surf in this small inlet where the waves were slightly too small, but it was a good place to learn to paddle and find by balance on the board. I did manage to stand up on the board a few times, but by no means did I "catch a wave". Hopefully this morning will be a little better, but after reading the surf report, things aren't looking so good. What's nice though, its that there are about 5 beaches each within about a 10 minute drive from one another in Ballina (which is where I am staying). If our luck doesn't pan out, I guess I'll have to just relax on the beach and catch some much needed sun.
Last night I went with Steve and Carly to play trivia at a local Red Cross Station. We met up with one of the teachers from school and her group of friends and they were lovely people. This trivia night was the inaugural night, so we weren't sure what to expect. The event was BYOB so at least we were able to have some beer while I pretended to know anything about Aussie trivia. It was quite an interesting night, most interesting was that the announcer they hired sounded like he had tried to swallow a jar of peanut butter before he started reading the trivia questions. At first I thought it was my untrained ear that couldn't pick up on his thick Aussie accent, but everyone else at the event was complaining about this guys (lack of) announcing prowess. Despite his blatantly subpar performance, we managed to have a good time, because there were some entertaining events sprinkled in. There was the competition to win a bottle of Jack and Coke, which I think would have been required to be able to understand the announcer. An 80s tribute complete with outfits and terrible dance moves. I supposed the Aussies like to relive that decade about as much as we do in the States. And there was the ever popular paper-plane competition, which I completely failed at. Overall, it was a really fun night and also the money to get into the venue as well as the money to buy raffles and enter the competitions all went to a local elementary school, so that was nice.
Hopefully soon I will have more pictures from us climbing to the top of Cape Byron and others soon. I am going to start teaching full time this week after a proper introduction with the students, so that should be a nice time.
Hopefully soon I will have more pictures from us climbing to the top of Cape Byron and others soon. I am going to start teaching full time this week after a proper introduction with the students, so that should be a nice time.