Checking in so to speak

So yesterday was an interesting day. We went to Nimbin which is located in the rain forest. It is a one street town founded by hippies and populated by, you guessed it, hippies. 70's style hippies. There is a very large drug problem in the town comparable to Amsterdam (I'd imagine). It's very green and colorful, as always I have pictures I can upload later. We went through a museum and spoke with some locals which was interesting. We then went down into the valley where things got a bit tropical and we could see the cedars there that the locals initially set up camp to protect (and succeeded, this marked the first successful resistance to big logging companies). We hiked for a bit and reached Protester falls (named after the protesters I presume). A bunch of us decided to go for a swim underneath the waterfall as the locals used to do. (Leech infested waters are fun, none got on me though, so no need to worry Mom). Unfortnuately there was just so much moisture in the air there that most of the pictures are really fuzzy. I'll see what I can do about touching them up and post later. (When I get back and post all the pictures I'll send a bulk email and let everyone know they are up if they care to look)

Today, we went surfing which was fun. We were all able to stand up by the end. Had a few good wipe outs too. At the end we got to surf in some moderately heavy rain which yielded some nice waves. We waited for the waves to crash before we started riding them. After that we attempted to have a BBQ but were thwarted by more rain even though it was off an on. We then improvised and had grilled food indoors which was fun. Then we went to Lismore to see the Lantern Parade which was cool. I asked some locals about it afterwards as I walked into some shops and it is supposed to promote entertainment in Lismore because other than the Lantern Parade, Lismore doesn't off much else during the year. Still, it was a good parade, lots of fire and fireworks and some live theater. I went into a music store and talked to the owner for a while who was very nice an enthusiastic and we shared our opinions on artists and manufacturesrs and recording artists and the like. Never have I seen a small scale private music store with such a wide variety. We then came back to Lismore. We will not be climbing Mount Warning tomorrow as it is supposed to be rainy. As a result we have the day free which isn't too bad. Maybe I'll write my last assignment and finalize a few of my bookings at hostels.

Hard to believe it's the last week of class already...


Update:
I think I forgot to mention that the water we went swimming in was quite cold, on the order of 5 degrees C (41 degrees F for anyone to lazy to do the math, it actually works out exact which is nice). Also, as we got to the main waterfall, there was (as one might expect) a river that we followed with other smaller waterfalls. One of which I climbed which was fun.