BACKPACKER PROJECT BY SUZANNE KELLY

SWEET!

NAMES: Edward and Tara, Both aged 19.

COUNTRY: U.K. Both are from North East London.

OCCUPATION: Both are university students. Edward studies Business at Plymouth and Tara is studying Economics at Bath.

ARRIVED IN BYRON: Last Sunday (28th July).

LEAVING BYRON: Thursday (1st August).

WHERE BEFORE BYRON: The last stop was Bingara where we went horse riding. We are traveling the East Coast with Oz Experience Bus Company.

WHERE TO NEXT: Brisbane.

BEST THING ABOUT BYRON: The beaches and the nightlife.

WORST THING ABOUT BYRON: The pub shuts at midnight.

FAVORITE NIGHT SPOT: We have only been to The Rails and Cheeky Monkeys. We like Cheeky Monkeys because it's really big, there are lots of people, live entertainment and good music. Lots of Backpackers go there as well.

BEAT PLACE TO EAT: Have only eaten at Cheeky Monkeys and the Backpackers resort. It sounds as if we are doing an ad for Cheeky Monkeys.

HAVE YOU MET ANY LOCALS: A couple, mainly at the Backpackers.

WHY DID YOU COME TO BYRON: We had heard a lot about Byron and that it was a great place to visit. The main places that we hear about in Australia are Sydney, Byron Bay and Melbourne.

WHY MELBOURNE? Because that's where Neighbours is filmed.

HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED ANY PROBLEMS IN AUSTRALIA OR BYRON: Only with cashing travelers cheques. It's really expensive. Sometimes they charge like $4 to cash a cheque. There has been a bit of bad press in the U.K. lately about Australia being unsafe, apparently two girls went missing.

WHAT IS YOUR PASSION: (pause) um, er, travel. (With a bit of prompting they finally admitted that their passion was each other, but each one didn't want to be the first to say it. Isn't that sweet- obviously early days, they will learn).

IF THERE WAS ONE THING YOU COULD CHANGE ABOUT BYRON, WHAT WOULD IT BE: We wish that it were summertime.

HAVE YOU INDULGED IN THE DRUG SCENE HERE AND WAS IT A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE: Not yet.

10 minutes after I interviewed Edward and Tara, I found them on the stairs at Little Wategos having a cuddle; maybe their passion was reignited after the interview. Isn't that sweet!

To find out about Suzanne's experience in doing this project - Click here..