2006/2007 New Years @ Byron Bay

This is a fairly long write-up, be warned most of it comes from the top of my head.

07-01-07 - Happy New Year! This time was my first trip up to Byron for new years, 2005/2006 was the first time someone began organising a major group to go to one location since maybe Schoolies. That year I had to attend summer school so I missed out but from the stories I heard, I couldn't miss it again. Let me tell you now, none of the stories are exaggerated, I don't know if I've ever drunk so much or did so many stupid things before and I don't know if anything else I do could top this event (maybe next new years ;) ) Although not everyone came up, it did certainly feel good seeing old friends and catching up with them in a great atmosphere. Byron was awesome because it was so carefree. No one had to work the next day and thus had to leave early or couldn't drink because they were driving or anything like that. It was just a week of crazy, no-holds-barred fun. I'll try to recount what I remember so this adventure won't get lost in the many that are certain to come.

Throughout the year preparations and bookings were made well prior to our departure and as the date due closer the anticipation grew, Christmas came and went, a few people like Luke and Lee departed earlier than most while the rest of us timed our departure to coincide with when we got the house. This meant meeting at 3 in the morning on the 30th and driving for around 9-10 hours to get to Byron Bay around 2ish. Our house located on Giaour Street, Belongil which was very close to the Bar 333 House on Childe Street, their house was made up of Lee, Bede, Lisa, Ben, Sam G, Sam I, Adam, Jordie and Cass (That's all I can remember from that house). It didn't take us long to settle in, start drinking and for Andy to start spoiling the pipes of our toilet. Also if you ever need anyone to drive you long distances, KC is the man to talk to, he had like 10 hours of solid driving Matt's car by himself all the way up and back down so Thanks KC.

That night we got absolutely wasted, Luke and Cass as you can see in the pictures are already fucked off their faces on the first night. Some Mashed was played and crazy DotA was listened to and this is when we were first introduced to the deadly Jägerbombs, one shot of Jägermeister dropped into half a cup of Red Bull. This dangerous concoction, at first doesn't seem to be that bad but the depressant/stimulant nature quickly kicks you off your feet. Also the Red Bull seems to mask the taste of straight Jägermeister nicely so before you know it, we had 3 empty bottles of Jägermeister. Other sillies include paddling out in Matt's inflatable death trap of a raft aka "Seaspray", almost everyone who comes over seems to take it out on the stinky waters behind our house, naturally, us being bastards wielded our trusty cricket bats and whacked rocks strewn around the patio and try to sink the unfortunate duo paddling around in circles. Cass and Bede paid us a visit with Cass passing out on our kitchen bench top, his reason was that he wanted to spew but also wanted to sleep, Great thinking Cass. Later a few of us managed to walk into town and go to the Beach Hotel which was pretty average for that night. Pretty good effort for the first day I'd say.

The next day was New Years Eve and we cooked up a huge breakfast with like 1 kilo of bacon, sausages, eggs etc we were ready for another day of the beach and drinking. A few of us brought some drinks down to the beach so Luke, in his eternal wisdom decides to go out into the surf with a few beers and even managed to stand up on his board to crack one open, we played some beach cricket with the boys from the other house. Later back at home, we had this game while waiting for Matt and Hannah to return in the raft so we could pelt them with rocks, which first involved getting a rock as close to the edge as possible, after that was accomplished the next task was to hit that rock off the deck (so for those of you who wonder what that video was all about).

Meanwhile, Murray developed some crazy rash on his back that made him incredibly itchy after going to the beach, it was funny because as it seemed like his red hair was expanding over him. Anyways the guys from the other house came and paid us a visit and we drank a lot more and this is where my memory gets hazy, I remember walking on the train tracks and dancing but next thing I know I'm buying drinks for everyone at the Beach Hotel and I vaguely remember counting down to new years. Damnt there goes another countdown I missed, oh well there's always next time.

Next day and it's New Years day so what better thing to do than to drink some more, I think we finished our 6th or so bottle of Jägermeister here and this is when Lizzy struck, this freaking huge lizard suddenly runs up a post on to our second floor and starts harassing Ben. This is also when we met some crazy one eyed dog, kinda reminds me of Kendall ;) j/k anyways this crazy lizard starts running around our gutters and roof before getting into the rafters where we lost it and prayed it didn't come down and claw us in our sleep. A lot of crazy things happened that night like, Andy molesting a lamp, Andy crushing cans on Prescott's head and eventually punching him in the head (I mean who wouldn't? j/k) and some things were said about "spoiling" someone/something that could have been very misleading (I'm looking at you Jimbo).

The next day (2nd), we got pissed again, seeing a pattern here yet? by this stage getting pissed wasn't a hard thing to do anymore, had we just started to sober up from the previous day's drinking we were at it again. Lizzy makes another appearance running back down to our drinking area, I don't know why but for some reason it leaped for a leaf that was attached to a plant like a metre away and fell a metre and bit straight onto the ground. Moving on, today is when Ralph left us as he had to start his apprenticeship or something the next day so we drank some more Jägerbombs and noticed our pile of rubbish in the corner had started to grow both in size and smell. This is what happens when you let a dozen or so guys drink and eat themselves stupid. I think the glassware we used could have been used to make windows for our whole house and some.

That night we hit the town, while at the Beach Hotel some random dude runs up to a group of us and vomits all over the ground before running off. Apparently he went out of his way to get in the middle of the group to maximise splashage or so I'm told, afterwards Andy gave us a lift home since he was the only one not drinking for that night and me and Jimbo pretended we were being kidnapped and Andy went crazy with the driving like U-turning in a one-way street and going the wrong way around a round-about while we're using Luke's PA and yelling at everyone. Ahh good times...

Another patchy memory should fit around here but I can't remember if it happened on the 2nd or the 3rd. What I remember is going to the other house for a doobie where we met Celeste, Milly and Maz. Meanwhile Cass is dinging off tap in town (DOT) and somehow manages to buy like $100 dollars worth of kebabs and get a taxi back to us where we feast on these awesomely random munchies. Weirdest meal ever, sitting there listening to Cass rave on about playing drums and use hand signals to catch a ferry with some Aborigines in town and then how the kebab dude must be a pot smoker from the way he rolled up the kebabs. Naturally all the kebabs had chilli sauce on them but we didn't care, even Sam I who had lost his voice (irony?) and hated hot stuff was trying to munch it down. One of the most randomest nights in my book.

Our next day (3rd), we awaken relative early to get breakfast at the Cicada Cafe on the corner of our street, to our surprise it wasn't that expensive like others had remembered. $33 bucks for 2 huge big breakfasts with eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato, toast and mushrooms and coffees for me and Luke, very yummy indeed. The day brings about even more Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories, even more DotA, even more Mashed and most certainly more drinking. We were joined by Emily and Bec who came down from the Gold Coast after their vacation up there. Like sheep led to the slaughter, me and Bing were bored so we took Seaspray out onto the river thingy, a quote comes to mind, "he who forgets the past is doomed to repeat it" so yes we got pelted with rocks from the shore and I got stinky river water all over me. I got to stop drinking so much....

We played more mashed on the next day (I know, I know, but we had nothing better to do), washed more Terry Tate Office Linebacker "You can't walk away from a K-22 Paper jam! You must be out of your mind son! This is my world, Donny, You just work here baby!", sigh even more Charlie Murphy, DotA etc. etc. I can't even count how many times we've watched the above mentioned videos but if any of us were sober, there is a good chance they would be insane. Jimbo and Prescott left us today, I can't remember why but we had some good memories and thanks for all the Jägermeister. Anywho we hit the piss again playing circle of death and before you know it the girls from the other house had joined us, this includes Lauren, Hannah, Sarah x2, Lara, Rhiannon and George. Rhi shows us how much of a tomboy she is by following Luke and climbing through our rafters onto our second floor and back down (like you couldn't just use our stairs). By this stage Andy, Bing and Paul had ganged up on Bec and given pretty much a bottle and half of wine to Bec to drink in the circle of death game so she's pretty much gone but she troopered on and before we know it, it was time to go into town, some of the girls took a taxi while the rest of us stumbled towards town on the railway line. Luke and Rhi try to explore the abandoned plant thingy but get chased away by some hobo who had settled in there.

Once we get into town, we find out Bec had left her ID back at home (nice one ya drunk) so off we go back home in a taxi, I remember talking crazily to the taxi driver which was pretty sweet as he was a pretty decent guy. At first we try the beach hotel but silly Bec gets refused entry **sigh** eventually she gets let in and we all had a good time there. Then we headed off to the fabled Cheeky Monkey that everyone seemed to rave about, we dance quite a bit on the tables and at the front stage bit, pretty crazy place to be. Andy met some random Irish guys and I think Cass got into a punch on but our night didn't end there. After we got back to our house, we got a little bit too crazy and some things were said to the neighbours and one thing led to another and the police were called and Tom got hit with a warning, keep in mind we were still pretty wasted and jumping around at like 4 in the morning with the music up. Hectic night...

So on the 5th, the day before we were supposed to leave, the mess in our corner was growing out of hand as the smell was getting pretty funky and we'd already filled up both our wheelie bins we had to find a way of getting rid of the rubbish. We go to the beach and Murray gets wiped out taking Seaspray out as it was heaps choppy and windy. After that Tom, Matt, Hannah, Paul and me try to go snorkelling at Broken Head, the place where Tom and them camped before they got the house, but it was too choppy once again and lots of jellyfish. I brought along this waterproof pocket thingy to put the camera in so I was testing it in the surf and it seemed to work well in keeping water out but the water beads on the lense could be problematic.

Moving along, after the snorkelling we tried to clean up but our bins were already full from before so Paul and Matt take bats to the bins to try and break some of the glass in the bins so we could fit more in. So here we are whacking our recycling bin and making the loudest noise rackus and keep in mind this is the day after we get a noise complaint, I'm sure our neighbours will be happy we're leaving =) Later on we had dinner at the Hog's Breath Cafe with the girls from the other house which were pretty yummy, err the steaks were yummy but I'm not saying that the girls weren't.....ahh screw it. Pressing on, when we get back, the other fellas had bagged all our rubbish from the corner and were planning on dumping in a skip behind the cafe at the corner of the road but all the kitchen hands were around there so they instead drove around and sneakily dumped rubbish in everyone's bins so that solved that problem. Afterwards we pretty much sat back and relaxed, tried to finish the rest of the alcohol in the fridge but that stuff wasn't going anywhere fast.

The next day we all drove home and lived happily ever after... until next time :P

Notes - Thanks for reading, I hope I didn't bore too many people to death, it was indeed quite a long write-up but keep in mind I want to remember and share as much of our trip as I can. This write-up took ages to do for some reason and I think I'm missing some bits here and there but if you're successfully finished reading up to this point then I'm happy that you took time to read this. Though something strange is still nagging me as it took me the same amount of time to write this write-up as I spent on holidays, weird, oh well. Alcohol is one hell of a drug...