Amazingly, I was awake before 9am. I just couldn’t get back to sleep so I forced myself up and started on errands. Also amazingly, I wasn’t hung over. A large glass of water and I was fine.

The only bad result of the night out was my shirt stinking of smoke. Oz’s “no smoking indoors” policy varies from state to state and I don’t think it’s too well policed in resort areas, which sucks. It’s lovely and sunny here, so I did a quick was in the sink with some shower gel and hung the now none-smelly garment out to dry.

Breakfast was some fruit that I’d collected from the last hostel’s “free food” section and then I extended my stay by another two nights. Nice place, so no need to move on.

I needed to get myself to do something here, so I went to the travel office and sorted myself out with a surfing lesson for the afternoon (Black Dog Surfing) and a dive the next day (Byron Bay Dive Centre). Apparently the water here is great and the dives at Julian Rocks are only a couple of minutes’ boat ride from the shore.

I had been intending to do horse riding on the beach, but it’s $100 (more than a dive) and would take up an entire afternoon. I have a feeling I’ll return to Byron Bay sometime so it’s something to do then.

Surfing was great fun. The motto of the company is “If we can teach a dog to surf, we can teach you”. Well, they taught me. And that meand they can teach anyone. They guarantee to have you standing after one lesson or your next is free – everyone in our group was stable (ish) on a board at the end of the three hours.

I really wanted to get the pics they took, but at $15 per CD I just couldn’t justify the cost. I can surf again another time (board hire’s really cheap) and get someone else to take pictures for me.

Chris yesterday had got me talking about food and cooking, so I had a hankering for some decent grub. I bought a stack of veg and mince and treated myself to one of my for-the-lazy-cook stews. The bar here does happy hour (two for a fiver) beers from five till seven and I took full advantage of that while chatting to some of my fellow inmates.

Cheeky Monkey’s wasn’t as much fun as the previous night as I didn’t know anyone in there, so I just had the one beer before heading back to the hostel and a nice deep sleep.