Why I Didn’t Marry Heath Ledger

I think blowing a few chunks in the ocean is a small price to pay for seeing a sea turtle swim in the wild. But don’t tell Heath, I don’t want him to have the mental image of his future wife spewing into the Pacific. I know, spoken like a true bulimic.

So we went snorkeling at Julian Rocks, a short boat ride from Byron Bay in the Pacific. As well as being a marine reserve, Julian Rocks is a Bird Sanctuary. That means you’ll get no relief from your nausea by sitting on the rocks. You can’t even touch them. And you surely don’t want to touch anything below the surface, as you might get stung. That was the only safety advice provided by Sundivers. Seems pretty straight forward to me. Don’t climb on the rocks and don’t touch anything, especially the blue bottles.

The company we used, Sundivers, was a little bagiggedy. They just didn’t have their stuff together, so we ended up with no gear.

Imagine that. Me with no gear – again.

Luckily, another company was in the area and loaned us snorkels and fins. In addition to leaving our gear, Sundivers didn’t provide water. You aren’t out there for long (about 2 hours) so you aren’t going to get heatstroke, but you way want to take a bottle along.

They made us wear super buoyant wetsuits, which means you don’t have to make any effort to stay afloat, but you also don’t have the range of motion to dive down. It’s like being trapped inside a giant fishing bobber. If the blue bottles (scary stinging jellyfish-like creatures) aren’t too bad, I’d skip the wetsuit.

Julian Rocks is more of a scuba destination in that the majority of the sites are around 15 to 20 feet deep. You can see a lot snorkeling, but you can’t see it up close. It’s worth the trip only because it’s inexpensive. Contrasting this trip with a previous trip to the coral reef outside of Key West, Florida, I believe this is much more of a scuba spot.

We saw AMAZING iridescent blue fish, the sea turtle, an angel fish, coral, sea urchins and other organisms. I’m not sure what most of the things were, but they sure were pretty. No shark sightings, despite all of the “Come to Julian Rocks and Swim With the Sharks” press. Before we took off, one of the (hottie) Sundiver employees made the statement that you’re more likely to get hurt by being hit in the head with a coconut than by a shark. Now I’m afraid of coconuts.

Unfortunately, the stomach issues (otherwise known as the sea-sickness hangover) kept us both out of commission for a good part of the day. We rebounded in time to par-tay for the evening, though.

NOTE TO SELF: You know you get seasick when you snorkel, it’s happened before and it WILL happen again. Next time, stop being a jackass and take some Dramamine.

– Carrie

New Years Eve in Byron Bay, Australia. It was okay, I guess. We had one of those New Years Eve’s where noone bothered counting down the…countdown. We all said “Happy New Year” at approximately 2 minutes after midnight. Where were we? The Great Northern Hotel. Otherwise known as the only place with no cover charge in Byron Bay. The evening began with the “seafood platter” at Bo’s on the main road. I’ll give you a little piece of advice…the world renowned prawns in Oz taste funny. It’s strange how a different ocean can cause a completely different seafood taste. Maybe it’s the salinity. Actually, funny is being nice. Really nice. We closed down the bar (actually not much of an accomplishment to tell you the truth) with only a tiny buzz. Not from lack of trying, I can tell you. But then things got more interesting.

We were hanging out with some Ozzie tourists from various parts of the country. Noone from Byron actually goes out in Byron it turns out. The bar had “pokies” in the back, which are slot machines. Some guy asked me “Have you ever lost money at the pokies?” HeHe. I wasn’t sure how to answer. And here I was thinking I was familiar with every way of losing money in the universe. Show’s what I know.

I had an urgent need to visit the little girl’s room for some reason, so we headed to the beach. First of all, the public toilets in Australia have black lights. Not for club lighting, but to keep junkies from shooting up. It turns out that you can’t see your veins in black lights. Weird.

So we headed down to the beach to ring in the first 2am of 2007. There was the beach, bonfires and the coolest Aussie around – Rosco Pico Trane. Rosco, among other things, gave us the in’s and out’s of the AFL (Australian Football League), including one strategy where you hit your opponent in the….who dad. He also had the good grace to show me the southern cross. He was a gentleman and a scholar…and a football player and a dancer and an astronomer. Mmmm…that’s about it.

Post beach, we wondered back toward the main street to find a native drum circle with loads of dancing hippies. The music was absolutely AMAZING. Unfortunately, the booze wasn’t flowing freely enough due to FREAKISHLY strict laws in place specifically for New Years Eve. The drums really were phenomenal, booze or no booze. You’ve got to love those hippies.

If you’re looking for a New Year’s party, Byron Bay isn’t really the place to be.

– Carrie

It seems like every year I blow it out on New Year's Eve Eve. Last year it was (accidentally) breaking in to an apartment complex in Manhattan and stealing a bottle of cooking sherry with the Scottish guy (we ... [Continue reading this entry]

Based on great native advice, we decided to make a trip down to the tiny towns of Yamba and MaClean to see some Real Aussie coastal action. So the plan was to ... [Continue reading this entry]

If you're staying in Byron, you can skip Yamba. The beaches are nice, but hiring a surfboard is nearly impossible. Instead, save your petrol and head barely south to Lennox Head. The town offers both a sandy beach and a ... [Continue reading this entry]

We've taken a day trip to the wine country of New South Whales and southern Queensland. The drive up was beautiful with rain forest and rolling hills. The roadkill was even ... [Continue reading this entry]

We visited the Aloombra Lavender Farm in southern Queensland on our trip to wine country. The proprietor is actually a WWoof host who I didn't contact. Thank God. The store ... [Continue reading this entry]

If you can't make it inland to the famous Hunter Valley, hire a car in Byron Shire and head northwest to Tenterfield and Stanthorpe. There, you'll find "heaps" of wineries, from the boutique Kurrajong Downs (try the Semillon along with ... [Continue reading this entry]

You know how you just add an "o" to the end of a word to make it Spanish? Not really, but people seem to think so. Well, to speak Australian ... [Continue reading this entry]

In Tenterfield, we visited a really small boutique vineyard called the Doctor's Nose, named after a hill in the nearby ridge line. We had a great tasting and conversation with the proprietor. ... [Continue reading this entry]