Due to a few problems registering the van in Queensland we arrived late for Christmas. Not to late to get festive, but too late for beach activities and too late for fish and chips. Not to worry, getting festive has always been the main aim of Christmas Eve. A sweet night saw us break from tradition and head to Coco Mangoes instead of Cheeky Monkeys, and another break from tradition saw Bowling actually get let into a club!

Thankfully the girls let me spend Christmas Eve in their room so I didn’t have to wake up on Christmas day in a van. They had also been and bought Christmas day supplies so that we could have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, with a glass of bucks fizz for breakfast. Awesome!

After slothing about in the hostel for a couple of hours we headed to the beach with intentions of being incredibly active. What actually happened, was a few hours of soaking up the rays, drinking goon and Bacardi Gold. Strangely enough the afternoon seemed very festive, as the beach was full of people having drinks wearing Santa hats. One group even built a snowman, out of sand.

Dinner was the next item on the days agenda, and in stereotypical Australian style, we had a BBQ! Everyone contributed something to the day, breakfast, shopping, salad, canapes, etc. Ash and I had been given the big responsibility of preparing and barbecuing the meat. A responsibility we shouldered with great enjoyment! We managed to feed everyone without a single case of food poisoning, and had it all cooked in good time.

After several hours of eating and enjoying the bottle of raspberry vodka Toby bought me for Christmas, a few of us headed for the lighthouse to watch sunrise. A forty minute walk took us to the most easterly part of Australia, which had beautiful views, that on a non-cloudy day would probably have produced an amazing sunrise. It was still a worth while activity though, and we had some drinks and a left over apple pie to keep us going. An apple pie that Marco and I pretty much finished by ourselves, no cutlery required.

By the time we returned the locals were walking dogs and doing their morning exercises, so we figured it was definitely time for bed. Apparently I fell asleep in Kat’s rucksack, which meant the end of a very different but very enjoyable Christmas in Byron Bay.