Byron Bay to Port Macquarie down to Sydney

My original idea was to hitchhike from Byron Bay to Port Macquarie. There's tons of people who hitchhike so that's not even hard to find. Luckily Pascal and Raf (guys I have been camping with) live in Sydney so they said they would drop me off in Port Mac. Problem solved. Raf installs air conditioning so we were traveling in his work van. Of course, I sat in the middle and it was very uncomfortable, but I couldn't complain because it was a free ride with some cool guys. The drive typically takes 4 hours to drive down but since its holiday season and everyone who drove up north was heading back south, traffic was hectic. The roads that they call freeways out here are far from it. There just 1-2 lane highways. Sort of like driving to the Oregon beach. Sometimes the roads are 2 lanes but most of the time there 1. So the 4 hour drive ended up taking over 7 hours! Long and slow. Its all good though, I got to site see a little bit longer and burn those images into my brain. Pascal and Raf couldn't really believe how I have been living. Crashing peoples houses and living in random places all over Australia. They have never done such a thing. So when we arrived in Port Macquarie and they dropped me off they were super hesitant about leaving me in the streets. There like, "what are you gonna do, where you staying." Me being all laid back I said, "I donno, I'll figure it out, don't worry about me, I'm a big boy." In all reality I really had no idea what I was going to do, but that's how I role son. Anyways, I said thanks and we exchanged info and they headed off home. Thanks guys. From there, I walked aimlessly around town looking for some Internet. I stumbled across a Internet cafe and started to couchsurf and look up some accommodation. I found this guy on couchsurfing, called him up and 5 minutes later he picked me up. Too easy. He took me to this pub 100 meters from where he picked me up and we chit chatted about things, and then asked me how long I was going to stay for. As we were sitting there, he got a phone call from his friend. He suggested we go to this concert about 1/2 south and a party bus was going to pick everyone up in 30 minutes. He asked me if I wanted to go, I said yes and we got up and ran to his house to get ready. 10 minutes later, I changed my shirt, had a deodorant shower and we headed off. Easily making it on time, this party bus was packed. Every seat was taken. Now it was prime time to mingle and meet new friends. Port Macquarie isn't well known for backpackers to make a stop in town. They usually bypass it. In this case I was the only backpacker for miles and the only foreigner that didn't speak Australian. You make friends real easy. As we got there, the line was massive. Finally, we got to the security guards and showed them my ID. Since they have never left this tiny town in there whole life, these bouncers thought my license was fraud. Only because they have never heard of Oregon. I laughed, and grabbed my ID and went in. Saw some cool bands play. One in particular was "The Boxer Rebellion." They were a band from London or something and said they had the #1 downloaded song on iTunes. I beg to differ but still haven't looked it up on the Internet. The Silent Comedy puts these guys to shame. After the concert was over the party bus immediately leaves. Kind of a bummer because I just started to make some new local friends and the girls were real hot (they were my new friends). So, I took a deep breath, pondered leaving with the bus but ended up getting on that damn party bus. Nights over.

Next day Adem and I just relaxed and watched some movies, went down to the beach and kept things mellow. He cooked me up meal after meal and opened his house to me like I was family. Such a rad dude, you have no idea. Oh yea, to describe Adem: he's a 39 year old guy who is a booking agent for bands. The whole town knows him. He has concert posters all over his house and has a two year old daughter, and loves couchsurfers.

My last day in town, Adem lent me one of his bikes and I decided to ride up the beach for as long as I could. This town has over 20 beaches, easily. I rode up and down hills looking for the best beach to stop at. Finally, I found this little oasis beach with a couple people on it. Took the bike down there and went in for a swim. As I got out this tiny dog came up to me to play, so I played back. His owner came out of no where and we started to talk. I forget his name but he looked like the typical grandpa that had lots of wisdom. I told him my life story and he told me his. Then it moved onto politics which I hate but the best part was he told me the things he hated the most. All of which related to America. He hates guns, 4x4's and religion. I told him to never go to Texas or he'll die. After that I started to just daydream as he talked his heart out and then told him goodbye and I left.

After I felt refreshed from the dip in the ocean I had to huff and puff up and down these hills to make it back to Adem's house. I finally got back and he asked me what we should do for dinner and if I wanted to go see Avatar! My answer was Yes. I've been trying to see this movie for so long. The hype did not disappoint me. Avatar was so good. I can't even describe how good it is, I now want to buy the movie just for inspirational purpose.

6:00 a.m. the next day I had to jump on my last bus ride to Sydney. This girl Holly from couchsurfing said she would host me for a couple of days when I arrive. 7 hours later I got off the bus and Holly was waiting for me. Super nice Christan girl who had a smile on her face the whole time I have been with her. Even if something wasn't even remotely funny she was smiling. Kinda reminded me of a Mormon family from south park. Whatever, she's cool. She took me out to lunch and we hoped on the train 1 hour south to Sutherland where her and the family lives. We went down to the beach, hung out and then went home around dinner time. I met the family and they treated me like family. Opened there house to me and fed me a nice warm meal and watched Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm still here right now (first night) and will probably stay here tomorrow night. They even gave me my own room to sleep in. Wow, that hasn't really happened yet. The dad made up some huge itinerary of things we might do tomorrow. What a guy, typed everything up, color coated things and everything. I'll let you know how things work out in the next few days.

-Sean