Surfin’ to Newcastle
Hi all!
So we are now in Newcastle… we arrived yesterday morning and broke down and bought a YHA card. (We’re staying at a YHA)
We found out that there was a big surfing competition that day (“Surfest”), with the main event being the men’s world champ (Andy Irons, I think) vs. the women’s world champ (Layne Beachley). So of course we made our way to the beach and it was LOADED with people, I think about 20,000. (I read in the paper.) Ih ave to mention that I don’t know a THING about surfing and I’ve only heard of Kelly Slater, and that’s it.
Unfortunately the waves were horrible and no one could get anything really big to ride on. It was still really neat to see since I’ve never seen surfing before, aside from on Manly a few days before.
The weather was sort of hot, but you could FEEL the sun BEATING down on you, and I was paranoidally (I invented that word) putting unblock on me every 2 seconds. (thanks to Katia for scaring me about the Ozone thing).
So finally the guy vs girl thing happened and it wasn’t that great because the waves sucked, but you could see there was a lot of media attention.
I had more fun walking barefoot on these really cool flat rock formations by the water, where every few feet the rocks had a big hole where water filled it, and there were plants, shells, snails, and sometimes little fishin them. We even saw one with a jellyfish trapped inside! But the water was crystal clear and it was so cool to look in these holes, and sometimes you could stand in them because they were sand-filled. The water was quite cold.
Also, if you went near the edge, sometimes the water would crash up and come over your feet and legs. That was so awesome!!
I am running out of time so I have to move on…
So the competition ended (the woman lost), and we went back to the hostel and both just passed out for a few hours accidentally (that is a great thing about backpacking.. you nap when you need to). Then we decided to eat at an Italian place that gave YHA discounts.
So we go and the lady waiting on us tells us that the woman at the table next to us is the female surfing champ chick! So that was kind of neat. She was with a bunch of her friends just having fun.
Then there was some pretentious art gallery opening right next to the restaurant (our tables were outside) and we were both sort of snickering at it, so they motioned for us to join their table, and we did… so there we were, having dinner with the women’s 6-time world surfing champion!
(Note: She’s next to me on the left. I look like a cow in that picture, but honestly its just the way I am sitting and a bad picture!)
She was very down-to-earth and everyone laughed and had fun. At one point, some young surfer boys walked by and stopped to talk to her and shake her hand, some people asked her to pose in pictures, and others said hi and congrats and stuff. Surreal! I have a picture and I’ll show you later.
So that was a nice little night. The next day (today), we went on a Wine Tasting in the Hunter Valley! (I know my old boss Dno will be impressed.) I don’t have time to talk about all the Sauvignon Blancs and Merlots–later. Tee hee. But at one point the surfing competition came up and we mentioned that we had dinner with Layne and the Aussie girls were amazed and we showed them the digital pic. Ha ha, it was kind of funny but neat.
Anyway we have a hellish 10-hour bus ride to Byron Bay tomorrow…. just want to get it out of the way! See you later gators!
Tags: Australia
Kelly
omg that’s so cool, hun! you’re having the funnest time ever!
hoorah for wine tasting in the hunter valley!
hoorah for putting loads of sunblock on (because it is dangerous – I’ll keep saying it over and over again to make you even more paranoid). hehe.
hoorah for surfing and beautiful beaches! (oooh I miss it so much)
I’m so glad you’re having the best time 🙂