When I thought about what Australia would be like, I always pictured a town like Byron Bay in New South Wales. This small town had a lot of shops, bright colors and hippie vans. People carrying around surfboards abound, as the town is just a small walk to the beach.

I went to Byron Bay with a traveling company, which takes groups from the university to different places around Australia. The first night we went to a local bar where they have paint parties every Friday night. We wore all white and had paint that lights up in black light put all over us.

After a shower and a good night’s rest, we got up in the morning to go surfing. I had originally signed up to snorkel but the weather wasn’t the greatest. The waves were too strong to take the boat out to the island where we were going to be snorkeling. Not being able to snorkel was a blessing in disguise — surfing turned out to be a memory I’ll never forget.

Coming to Australia, I had a lot of things on my bucket list and surfing happened to be one of them. I had tried surfing one other time while I’ve been here but that was just a few friends and I trying. This time I learned from three guys that surf almost every single day. They were really helpful when it came to determining which wave was the best.

I got up a lot with help, so I knew I could do everything on my own. The feeling I got when I rode my first wave all the way into shore with no help was unreal. I wanted to keep going and trying to catch as many waves as I could. Australia bucket list: check one for surfing.

Australia bucket list: check one for surfing.

That night I got to sleep very early because I was waking up at 5 a.m. to go skydiving. After waking up, eating breakfast, checking out of the hostel and walking to the bus stop we were told the weather wasn’t good enough to skydive. Since we were all up so early we decided to go watch the sunrise at the Byron Bay Lighthouse.

Every sunrise in Australia is beautiful but when you have an amazing view of the ocean it makes them even better. We continued on a path to the most easterly point of Australia’s Mainland. This place took my breath way. Kangaroos hanging out in the green grass, waves crashing on rocks, and a calm beach all placed together. On our walk back from the lighthouse we even spotted dolphins jumping out of the water.

We continued on a path to the most easterly point of Australia’s Mainland. This place took my breath way. Kangaroos hanging out in the green grass, waves crashing on rocks and a calm beach all placed together. On our walk back from the lighthouse we even spotted dolphins jumping out of the water.

I’ll be back in Byron soon and I’ll for sure be skydiving. I’m so glad I’m going back to this little hippie town because it gave off great vibes. As the Byron welcome sign says, “cheer up, slow down, chill out.”