That's right, I turned 21 last Tuesday. It wasn't too shabby of a birthday either :). I woke up and was surprised when one of my roommates told me happy birthday- I had forgotten already haha. I didn't have anything to do until 4:30, and it was gorgeous outside, so I decided to hi the beach for a few hours. Katie joined me, and we both talked a little about our rough life haha. I wasn't really hungry at all even though I hadn't eaten yet, but it was past lunch time and I had decided yesterday I wanted to get fish and chips at the little place near City Beach, so I did, and ended up giving most of it to Katie.
Went home, showered, decided it was within my 21st birthday rights to skip my tutorial (honestly, I didn't miss a thing). In my defense though I spent the time being pretty productive. It also turned out to be a good thing since I was the only person home when flowers from my parents came :). They were gorgeous native Australian flowers that I've never seen anything like before. Some of them were so soft and fuzzy they almost felt like stuffed animals! For dinner we went out to the Outback Steakhouse. It just cracks me up that they exist here, especially since they were started by two Americans from Florida... I ordered the Wallaby Darned cocktail, because honestly, who can not have a drink on their 21st, even if they are in a foreign country? I weirdly still wasn't hungry at all, which was a bummer since I was all psyched about splurging on a really good meal. I still ordered a salad and brought it home for later. It was the five of us from the PH, plus Heather and one of Ashley's friends who I can't remember the name of :/. Jason had given me this ribbon thing to wear that said "It's my fucking birthday" that I was proudly sporting all night haha. They also ordered me a delicious brownie/ice cream dessert (that yes, I did find a little bit of space for a few bites haha). When we got home I discovered the cake they had made for me earlier too. I admittedly knew they were up to something in the kitchen, but I like surprises so I hadn't investigated until we came back lol. It was simple but yummy :) I just wish I had been hungry that day...
So I had a quiet but pretty good birthday, I felt loved :D. I found out why I hadn't been hungry all day though - that night when I went to bed I came down with a super random high fever until early morning. I thought it was just a freak thing and tried to go to my classes the next morning, but ended up coming home early when it came back. I took it as a bad sign that everyone in the class was sweating in the room as I chattered my teeth in jeans and a hoodie clutched around me. I slept for like 4 hours that day and just generally felt awful. That kept up for another 2 days, and Friday I spent almost all of in bed. Finally Saturday I felt a little better and actually had a late lunch - I had been going on 5 days of not eating by then. Since then I've felt a bit off, but that was really all it was - fever and lack of appetite. Really weird.
Monday was a national holiday so we had no classes, which was nice. Other than that the week has been pretty normal. yay for finally catching this blog up with real life! lol
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Melbourne Weekend
Righto, so after a whirlwind 4 days of class after getting back from Cairns, I grabbed my things after class on Thursday and walked to catch my train to the airport. I was headed to Melbourne, which is to the south, in Victoria. I was sick, and it was no fun flying congested :(. By the time my plane landed it was pretty late. I took a shuttle to Southern Cross Station, but the free bus that normally would have taken me to my hostel wasn't running anymore, so I grabbed a taxi rather than wandering around by myself at 11pm. Ashley had gone the day before, so I met her at the hostel and managed to get put in her room for the night, where we hit the sack pretty quickly.
The next morning we didn't have to meet our group until 3pm, but me and Ashley grabbed breakfast and went to check out the aquarium. When we got there we realized there was a shark and fish feeding, so we weedled our way down to the very end area to watch it - where we were greeted by a couple divers with the MASSIVE stingrays. After watching them feed the sharks, we spent the next hour or so trying to make our way through the aquarium backwards, which proved to be impossible in the end (we had to go out and back in the front). We had incentive to get back to the beginning though because they had Australia's only Antarctic penguins :D.
After the aquarium we went to check into our new room since we were staying with Study Australia and meet up with them. Surprisingly there was only about 20 people on our trip - normally there is more like 50 I think, but that made it nice that we weren't a massive group. That day started out with a tour around the city. Melboune is a really cool super artsy place. It's a big city but it's not clausterphobic like a lot of other cities are. They also have tons of public transit, including a free tram and free tourist bus that makes a huge loop around the city. It has a huge shopping culture and has everything between super expensive boutiques to little cool shops and a massive market that we explored later in the weekend. Our tour lead us to this awesome little place called Mme Brussels which was set up like an old lady tea party on a terrace and all the waiters were dressed as pool boys. Lauren our tour guide ordered us some mocktails and we hung out until it was dinner time. Dinner was in chinatown at this restaurant with the best dumplings, it was so good. The only thing better was our dessert, which we went to a chocolate bar for. Also soooo good. We've decided chocolate bars definitely need to become a new trend in the US. Someone get on that :D.
After dessert we headed to our comedy show for the night. Melbourne has an annual comedy festival that lasts a number of weekends, and we caught the end of it. We saw Charlie Pickering, who was hilarious actually. I was kind of skeptical since the comedian we had seen during orientation at school was supposed to be really well-known, but I hadn't thought he was funny at all. But I was so glad we went to this show, definitely had us all belly-laughing more than once.
After the show a bunch of us headed for this science-themed bar we had been told about along the tour. There are a ton of really neat little bars and restaurants that are hidden away down smelly sketchy alleys. I definitely would have never gone by myself, or probably even with a couple people, but we had a fairly large group, and we all realllly wanted to go check out this science bar, called the Croft Institute. The ground floor was set up like a science lab, complete with bartenders dressed in labcoats. We couldn't resist getting some syringe shots either lol. The upstairs was set up like an old school gym, complete with risers on one side. Im glad we went- it was a lot of fun and a cool little place.
The next day was mostly free, and me and Ashley spent most of it in the Queen Victoria Markets that are these huge basically permanent markets right out back of our hostel. I bought a scarf for the aussie rules footy game we were going to that night, and we bought an apple while marveling at all the shouting going on in the produce section. DOLLA FOURTY BANAANA! lol. I briefly said hi to Jess from spring break who lives there and was doing some shopping there, but we were headed in the other direction so we didn't hang out for very long. We killed some more time by grabbing lunch and finding a gelato place that was really yummy. We did a lot of eating on this trip in case you haven't noticed. It's probably better I don't live there because they are all about the experiences- eating being right at the top. That's also why they have like 4 stadiums and tons of sports. That night we got to see one of them, as we went to see Collingwood vs. Hawthorne play in Aussie Rules Football (AFL). I actually really liked the game - it was pretty easy to understand and interesting to watch. We also creamed Hawthorne, so that was a plus too :).
The next morning we got up super early and met our bus for the day (yeah, another bus). We spent the day driving the Great Ocean Road, which has been voted one of the best drives in the world. Our first stop was Bells Beach, a famous surfing beach. It was kind of funny to me because I had just watched Breaking Point back in Cairns with Kazu when I was killing time after the trip, and it's based in Bells Beach. There's an annual surfing competition there that had just finished a few days before we got there, and there were still some stands up and stuff from it. The waves were massive as well, I can never get over how huge waves are here, but especially there.
We stopped for lunch at this sort of random place, but we walked up the road from there, and in someone's front yard was a wild koala! We found another one a little farther down the way as well- it was really cool to see them just chillin, outside of a zoo. There's just a bunch of koalas in the area apparently and they eat all the leaves off these poor particular eucalypts. Turned out the food was really good as well.
Other than a lookout point along the road, our only other stop we made was our main stop at the Twelve Apostles. We didn't really stop anywhere else, but just the drive itself was gorgeous, as it's right along the beach and mountains - a very windy road. The Twelve Apostles is basically huuuuge rocks shooting out of the sea. One would presume that there used to be twelve, but there isn't anymore since they are constantly being eroded by the sea. It was really pretty and we went to a number of different lookouts to see them. One of the things we did in the area was walk down to this beach area that had these cave-ish areas. It's hard to explain, but it was really pretty.
From there we headed back, which was quicker now that we weren't following the road along the ocean anymore, but it was still a few hours. We stopped by the airport to drop off the people who had flights out that night, and then we got dropped back off a the hostel. Me, Ashley, and Joey stayed that extra night since Monday morning flights had been less than half of the price of sunday night flights. It was nice because we just stayed in the same room as before and it was just the three of us. We went to bed early and got up before 5am Monday morning to begin the trek back to Wollongong. Thankfully I was feeling better and wasn't really congested anymore lol. I'm really glad I went- Melbourne was the last major place I really wanted to go in Australia before I left. If I had endless money and time I would go a million other places, but Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles made my majors list. Fun fun fun.
The next morning we didn't have to meet our group until 3pm, but me and Ashley grabbed breakfast and went to check out the aquarium. When we got there we realized there was a shark and fish feeding, so we weedled our way down to the very end area to watch it - where we were greeted by a couple divers with the MASSIVE stingrays. After watching them feed the sharks, we spent the next hour or so trying to make our way through the aquarium backwards, which proved to be impossible in the end (we had to go out and back in the front). We had incentive to get back to the beginning though because they had Australia's only Antarctic penguins :D.
After dessert we headed to our comedy show for the night. Melbourne has an annual comedy festival that lasts a number of weekends, and we caught the end of it. We saw Charlie Pickering, who was hilarious actually. I was kind of skeptical since the comedian we had seen during orientation at school was supposed to be really well-known, but I hadn't thought he was funny at all. But I was so glad we went to this show, definitely had us all belly-laughing more than once.
After the show a bunch of us headed for this science-themed bar we had been told about along the tour. There are a ton of really neat little bars and restaurants that are hidden away down smelly sketchy alleys. I definitely would have never gone by myself, or probably even with a couple people, but we had a fairly large group, and we all realllly wanted to go check out this science bar, called the Croft Institute. The ground floor was set up like a science lab, complete with bartenders dressed in labcoats. We couldn't resist getting some syringe shots either lol. The upstairs was set up like an old school gym, complete with risers on one side. Im glad we went- it was a lot of fun and a cool little place.
From there we headed back, which was quicker now that we weren't following the road along the ocean anymore, but it was still a few hours. We stopped by the airport to drop off the people who had flights out that night, and then we got dropped back off a the hostel. Me, Ashley, and Joey stayed that extra night since Monday morning flights had been less than half of the price of sunday night flights. It was nice because we just stayed in the same room as before and it was just the three of us. We went to bed early and got up before 5am Monday morning to begin the trek back to Wollongong. Thankfully I was feeling better and wasn't really congested anymore lol. I'm really glad I went- Melbourne was the last major place I really wanted to go in Australia before I left. If I had endless money and time I would go a million other places, but Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles made my majors list. Fun fun fun.
Monday, April 26, 2010
One Fish Two Fish, day 9, 10, and more
DAY NINE:
The last day of our trip had a nice late start. We grabbed some lunch and met up, hopping on that same open-top bus to head out towards the rainforest. While it was a really nice ride and you could see all the scenery really well, being on top of an open double-decker in the rainforest really isn't all that pleasant. Definitely got owned by a tree or two on the way. It got really interesting when we parked IN a tree practically, not to mention when we left we had to do a however many point turn to get out of the parking lot, which meant the giant tree branches were being swept back and forth across the top haha.
Anywho, we actually stopped at this beach first, although I have no idea where it was and I had no idea we were going to the beach previous to getting there. It was one of the many beaches that has a small swimming area with a big net around it to keep out jellies and sharks and whatever else is in the aussie waters that can hurt you.
From there we drove to an area with an opening to a trail for Cascade Falls. It was concerning because we were greeted at the front by a sign for a stinging tree. Basically everything in Australia is out to get you. So I was paranoid about said tree for about the first quarter of our walk, but then the trail became much less of a tame hiking trail and much more intense as we had to climb over and around wet rocks along the river, in and out of the water, straddle over or crawl under fallen trees, etc. The struggle was worth it though, as we ended at the falls, where we jumped off the rocks into the pool beneath the waterfall and swam a bit.
By the time we got out we were all nice and muddy. I booked it from the bus when we got back and snagged first shower for once haha. Not long later we met up again and headed back to the Woolshed for our final party. We had an area set aside just for us and it was really nice, with name plates and drinks sitting out when we got there. It was kind of crazy to be on the last night after doing SO much. Kazu and Doggie had put together a bunch of their pictures and videos on a DVD that went back over the past 9 days. It was really nice - I could hardly think back to what we had done the first few days - it felt like months before practically! After that they brought out the food, which everyone pounced on as we were starving and it was delicious haha. We spend the night saying bye to a bunch of people who were leaving early the next morning.
DAY TEN AND AFTER:
I had to get up the next morning, pack, and checkout even though I was actually staying an extra night. I had booked my extra night at a different hostel that was around the corner and couldn't check in for a few hours, so we killed some time at the lagoon there and ate some lunch.
I moved in to my new hostel when I could, and when it was dinner time I headed to this bar that I got a free dinner from through my night's stay. It was a pretty good BBQ actually and I ended up meeting a few people there who had just gotten there. My original plan was to go out and meet some people right after that, but I went back to lay down for a couple minutes because I was exhausted. What I had meant to be a 10 minute nap accidentally turned into an hour nap, and I woke up in panic in my lit room thinking it was 11am and I had missed checkout and my shuttle. When I realized it was still dark outside and it was actually only 11pm, I ended up going back to bed shortly after.
The next morning I checked out, and killed time hanging out with people a bit until I had to catch my shuttle to the airport. Thankfully my flight home wasn't nearly as eventful and the way in, and in fact they didn't even check my ID at check in! Overall the trip was an amazing experience. As I'm sure you would agree, we did a crazy amount of stuff, and I'll never soon forget any of it. I feel like studying abroad is all about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. A lot of people do this already by going to a new culture or language, but I feel like since I've lived abroad before, the change of Australian culture been amazing, but well within my comfort zone. This spring break trip definitely managed to pushed me out of my comfort zone- I was really apprehensive about all the crazy activities when I signed up for it, but I ended up loving it.
The last day of our trip had a nice late start. We grabbed some lunch and met up, hopping on that same open-top bus to head out towards the rainforest. While it was a really nice ride and you could see all the scenery really well, being on top of an open double-decker in the rainforest really isn't all that pleasant. Definitely got owned by a tree or two on the way. It got really interesting when we parked IN a tree practically, not to mention when we left we had to do a however many point turn to get out of the parking lot, which meant the giant tree branches were being swept back and forth across the top haha.
From there we drove to an area with an opening to a trail for Cascade Falls. It was concerning because we were greeted at the front by a sign for a stinging tree. Basically everything in Australia is out to get you. So I was paranoid about said tree for about the first quarter of our walk, but then the trail became much less of a tame hiking trail and much more intense as we had to climb over and around wet rocks along the river, in and out of the water, straddle over or crawl under fallen trees, etc. The struggle was worth it though, as we ended at the falls, where we jumped off the rocks into the pool beneath the waterfall and swam a bit.
DAY TEN AND AFTER:
I had to get up the next morning, pack, and checkout even though I was actually staying an extra night. I had booked my extra night at a different hostel that was around the corner and couldn't check in for a few hours, so we killed some time at the lagoon there and ate some lunch.
The next morning I checked out, and killed time hanging out with people a bit until I had to catch my shuttle to the airport. Thankfully my flight home wasn't nearly as eventful and the way in, and in fact they didn't even check my ID at check in! Overall the trip was an amazing experience. As I'm sure you would agree, we did a crazy amount of stuff, and I'll never soon forget any of it. I feel like studying abroad is all about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. A lot of people do this already by going to a new culture or language, but I feel like since I've lived abroad before, the change of Australian culture been amazing, but well within my comfort zone. This spring break trip definitely managed to pushed me out of my comfort zone- I was really apprehensive about all the crazy activities when I signed up for it, but I ended up loving it.
One Fish Two Fish, day 8
DAY EIGHT:
On the eighth morning we woke up early again and trooped to the harbor to meet yet another boat for the day. This was our Great Barrier Reef day. Although it was the biggest boat we had been on, and I really never usually get seasick, me and the rocking of that boat didn't get along too well that morning. Nothing too spectacular, but I did spend a good chunk of our trip out front in the fresh air, concentrating on the horizon lol. It was kind of gross that morning, but thankfully it didn't decide to rain on me, and it was even clear by the time we got to where we were stopping. That's great news for scuba and snorkeling since you can see much more that way. I was in something like the third group to go scuba diving, so we all listened to the briefing and explanation and went to grab stinger suits, snorkels, and flippers. When it was our turn, we met our instructor Kelly :) and were suited up with a weight belt and full scuba gear. Once we were all hooked up, we tipped into the water and swam around to these bars that were on the side of the boat. 
From there we all hooked arms and set off at a very leisurely pace. I had managed to get my underwater camera to reload this time, so I have a bunch of pictures from this, but I haven't gotten them developed yet - maybe I'll come back and put some of those up here. I'm pissed though because I ran out of film RIGHT as we came up to see Nemo! I was admittedly so excited to see clown fish though haha. I saw some in the Melbourne aquarium this past weekend but they weren't as big or bright as the ones in the reef I saw. They were really cute :D. We also saw a bunch of those HUGE sea clams that snap shut when you disturb them. Other than that nothing too dramatic, but it was a really awesome experience to be able to do that. I'm also sorry to say I didn't remember to get someone to take my picture, and the underwater photographer who was supposed to take your picture never came up to us while we were underwater. Lame.
I know it was probably closer to half an hour, but it literally felt like we were only down there for 5 minutes. We reluctantly climbed back on the boat, but we had a delicious lunch waiting for us. We hung out for a bit, and then got back in the water with just a snorkel and flippers this time. They had said we would be at that spot all day, so I picked up one of the noodles which I don't normally like, but I figured I could just float and chill for a while. That would have been fine, except that by the time we got out to where everyone else was, we heard a whistle and realized they were calling us all back in. So we had to swim quite a distance, against the current, fighting that stupid noodle the whole way. Turns out they had decided to move to another spot after all, so I rested up top for a while and then jumped back in once we got there. This was sort of short-lived because once I got to the reef area and started looking around a bit, I heard Jan-Erik shout out "Hey look! there's a big jelly over here!" so I duck down under the water, and sure enough about three feet away is a huge jelly fish. I fought with myself for a second on whether I should get like a foot closer so I could take a picture, but couldn't fight the 'get the hell out of here' response, and turned tail and swam all the way back again, this time thankfully with the current.
After that thankfully I wasn't feeling seasick at all anymore, and I just enjoyed the long ride back to port. We walked back and got ready for our pubcrawl we had that night. It started at the bar at our hostel, where they had a BBQ for us and they had a few people do a game - they did something along those lines at every bar we went to. We also had a bunch of vouchers for drinks, and a lot of the places had some sort of deal set up for us. I think the pubcrawl was 5 bars in total, and we were taken to each one via the same open-air double decker bus we had taken to bungy jumping the night before. It was a ton of fun, we met some of the other people who weren't in our group but on the crawl with us, like this group of guys from New Zealand. They gave us pizza at the second to last bar, and we ended at the Woolshed, which had sort of become our homebase for our time in Cairns between dinners, nights out, and our final party the last day.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
One Fish Two Fish, day 7
DAY SEVEN:
A week into the trip, a bunch of people on the trip went skydiving that morning, but I opted for a lazier, cheaper, alternative of walking around exploring that day. My biggest find was a left-handed boomerang, which I'm super pumped about :D. That evening we all reconvened for dinner and hopped once again hopped on a bus, headed for our night bungy jumping party!
Now, I have to admit I had been trying to talk myself into bungy jumping and had already pretty much decided I wasn't going to. I had no issues with the Minjin Swing through, so me, Katie, and Jess headed for that pretty quickly. I think they have them elsewhere, but it's a huge swing where three people are strapped into these hammock-sort of harnesses (so they are laying on their stomach), brought back and up quite far, and then released so they fly down and out reaaallly fast. This one was 45m high, and I believe you clock 60+mph. The scariest part was actually getting to the top when something switches over and it jostles you around such that for a split second you feel like something went wrong and you're about to fall. The second scariest part was when we had counted down, I see Katie yank the chord for us to release, and we don't go anywhere. Mostly just because that meant we didn't actually know when we would fall. But when we did, we definitely rocketed. So fast that I never even saw the platform at the bottom on the way back. It was fun though.
Again, I had decided I wouldn't bungy jump, but (and I'll tell you the elongated story if you ask, but I'll make a long story short) miraculously, through a series of like 4 people, lots of self convincing on my part, and the guy at the top who was ridiculously good at convincing me without me really realizing it, SOMEHOW, I found myself at the edge of the platform, toes curled over the edge, waving at the camera. At that point my brain was chugging pretty hard to try to work out just exactly how I had managed to get myself there, and more importantly, what that meant for the very near future. Before it could answer any of those questions though, it was interrupted by the guy counting down. And somehow, at 1 I jumped the 50m. Not gracefully, no, but I got the hell off that platform. I can't really say it was particularly amazing, but the actual fall wasn't really scary it was so quick. Mostly I'm proud I can say I did it, particularly since even I didn't think I would.
A week into the trip, a bunch of people on the trip went skydiving that morning, but I opted for a lazier, cheaper, alternative of walking around exploring that day. My biggest find was a left-handed boomerang, which I'm super pumped about :D. That evening we all reconvened for dinner and hopped once again hopped on a bus, headed for our night bungy jumping party!
Again, I had decided I wouldn't bungy jump, but (and I'll tell you the elongated story if you ask, but I'll make a long story short) miraculously, through a series of like 4 people, lots of self convincing on my part, and the guy at the top who was ridiculously good at convincing me without me really realizing it, SOMEHOW, I found myself at the edge of the platform, toes curled over the edge, waving at the camera. At that point my brain was chugging pretty hard to try to work out just exactly how I had managed to get myself there, and more importantly, what that meant for the very near future. Before it could answer any of those questions though, it was interrupted by the guy counting down. And somehow, at 1 I jumped the 50m. Not gracefully, no, but I got the hell off that platform. I can't really say it was particularly amazing, but the actual fall wasn't really scary it was so quick. Mostly I'm proud I can say I did it, particularly since even I didn't think I would.
One Fish Two Fish, day 4, 5, 6
DAY FOUR:
This was basically a free day so I slept in a bit and we spent the day coconut throwing (think bocce ball, with coconuts), feeding parrots, and just hanging out. That afternoon the group a day behind us, which Ashley was on, checked into their rooms as well. When we had first gotten there there was hardly anyone else on the island, so it was exciting to suddenly have 75 more people (they were much bigger than us). It was kind of bizarre to see them exactly 24 hours behind us, it was sort of like watching yourself after you took a time machine back a day.
That night the theme was plastic party, so we grabbed our colorful plastic bags from reception, and made with the creative. I must say I had a pretty sweet lemon-lime dress (they only had green and yellow left), complete with white sash and green hat.
We actually went to bed pretty early that night since we had to get up bright and early the next morning and meet our boat out. The plastic was fun to design, but dancing in it got real old (and gross) real quick lol.
DAY FIVE:
We boarded our catamaran that morning and waved goodbye to Molle Island. Our first stop was this funny little strip of sand which is apparently well known for its turtles. We spent a good chunk of time there getting our snorkel on (which I had never done before, and had a rocky start since my snorkel was broken...). It was really cool, as it was our first time seeing the reef and the super colourful fish. I didn't actually spot any turtles myself, but a bunch of people saw them around.
DAY SIX:
Despite the very early start, I think this was my favorite day because it was our river rafting day! We were met by this swanky bus with leather seats and taken to the officey sort of place to have breakfast and rent shoes (youre required to have them), and wetsuits (since it was chilly). From there we got bused to the river where we grabbed lifejackets, helmets, paddles, and of course boarded up! It was 6 of us with our guide, Chris who was really cool. This was of course another time where I couldn't bring my camera, and I was pissed because I couldn't get my underwater camera to reload in time to take it with me. Which I'm still kind of bitter about since it was soooo gorgeous on that river.
Anyway, first thing we did was go over the commands (such as forward, back, hold on, etc) and then after testing it out we were made to jump out to practice floating down the river properly. It was kind of a leap of faith out of the boat, and then not only were there the huge boulders to try to avoid plowing into, but there were hidden underwater rocks that I realised later gave me some really pretty bruises. I'm glad we did it thought, because I knew that I would read an area without a current, and it gave me a chance to calm down and realize it was fine that I was being carried along. (in the picture that's me facing the camera, the last one in the back of the boat before our guide).
After climbing back in, we continued on our way. The total course was 14km over 44 grade 4 rapids. Some of the highlights included getting owned by a waterfall as we went under it, jumping off a huge rock about 20ft up, being dumped backwards over a drop (on purpose), and getting stuck and then bumped by two other boats over a spot where you REALLY aren't supposed to go over. But. It was all great fun, I loved it.
That evening found us at our ending city, Cairns, where we would spend the next 4 days. We got a nice pub dinner and had a fun night afterward before heading to bed.
This was basically a free day so I slept in a bit and we spent the day coconut throwing (think bocce ball, with coconuts), feeding parrots, and just hanging out. That afternoon the group a day behind us, which Ashley was on, checked into their rooms as well. When we had first gotten there there was hardly anyone else on the island, so it was exciting to suddenly have 75 more people (they were much bigger than us). It was kind of bizarre to see them exactly 24 hours behind us, it was sort of like watching yourself after you took a time machine back a day.
That night the theme was plastic party, so we grabbed our colorful plastic bags from reception, and made with the creative. I must say I had a pretty sweet lemon-lime dress (they only had green and yellow left), complete with white sash and green hat.
DAY FIVE:
We boarded our catamaran that morning and waved goodbye to Molle Island. Our first stop was this funny little strip of sand which is apparently well known for its turtles. We spent a good chunk of time there getting our snorkel on (which I had never done before, and had a rocky start since my snorkel was broken...). It was really cool, as it was our first time seeing the reef and the super colourful fish. I didn't actually spot any turtles myself, but a bunch of people saw them around.
After that we had lunch and made our way slowly back towards Airlie Beach to pick our big bags back up from where we left them. Again we just changed in the bathroom, moved around some of our stuff, and got back on the bus. From here it was about a 6hr drive to Mission Beach, which was our brief stop for the night. It was too dark for me to take pictures, but as we got closer, about every 100 feet there were signs for Cassowary crossings (cassowaries are these huge aggressive birds). I've seen them in zoos here, it just constantly surprises me to see these crazy animals still wild everywhere here. This is someone else's picture:
But yeah, we got in at about 12:30am in a monsoon (it's the rainy season there) and ran to our rooms, only to get up again at 6am.
DAY SIX:
Despite the very early start, I think this was my favorite day because it was our river rafting day! We were met by this swanky bus with leather seats and taken to the officey sort of place to have breakfast and rent shoes (youre required to have them), and wetsuits (since it was chilly). From there we got bused to the river where we grabbed lifejackets, helmets, paddles, and of course boarded up! It was 6 of us with our guide, Chris who was really cool. This was of course another time where I couldn't bring my camera, and I was pissed because I couldn't get my underwater camera to reload in time to take it with me. Which I'm still kind of bitter about since it was soooo gorgeous on that river.
Anyway, first thing we did was go over the commands (such as forward, back, hold on, etc) and then after testing it out we were made to jump out to practice floating down the river properly. It was kind of a leap of faith out of the boat, and then not only were there the huge boulders to try to avoid plowing into, but there were hidden underwater rocks that I realised later gave me some really pretty bruises. I'm glad we did it thought, because I knew that I would read an area without a current, and it gave me a chance to calm down and realize it was fine that I was being carried along. (in the picture that's me facing the camera, the last one in the back of the boat before our guide).
That evening found us at our ending city, Cairns, where we would spend the next 4 days. We got a nice pub dinner and had a fun night afterward before heading to bed.
One Fish Two Fish, day 3
DAY THREE:
That morning found us sleepily disembarking at 5:30am after a long night and not very much sleep at all on my part. Good thing we unloaded in paradise, rainbow and all. We were in Airlie beach, and at this funny little beachy area with lots of palm trees and cockatoos.
That morning found us sleepily disembarking at 5:30am after a long night and not very much sleep at all on my part. Good thing we unloaded in paradise, rainbow and all. We were in Airlie beach, and at this funny little beachy area with lots of palm trees and cockatoos.
We were given breakfast here, and some free time to wander around since we had gotten there a little early. Being that it was so early, nothing was open around town though, so basically there was suddenly a mass of 50 raggedy looking college students bumbling sleepily around the sidewalks lol. Me and Katie walked around by the water for a little bit too, communing with the cockatoos a bit, and then walked thorugh the market which was starting to be set up.
From there we were taken to another hostel where we changed again, packed 3 days worth of stuff in our smaller bags, stored our big bags, and took off again to meet our ride for the day - high speed rafts. We boarded up, split up over two boats, and headed out for the Whitsunday Islands.
It was a lot of fun, except that every now and then it would start raining on us, which really hurts at 60kph lol. We dropped our overnight bags at South Molle Island, where we would spend 2 nights, and took off again. Despite the shoddy weather, the scenery was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me because I was too scared I was going to get it really wet. We reached Whitehaven Island and took a short hike up to a lookout point so see the famous beach there.
We walked down to the beach, which wasn't as white as normal due to the recent cyclone coming through, but it was really a cool spot. Apparently due to the composition of the sand it never gets hot either. We boarded back on the boats there and took a quick trip to a different beach where we spent a few hours eating, playing games, and lounging. More people probably would have gone swimming except that they informed us that it was jellyfish season, and that sort of put everyone off of the water... lol. I personally spent a lot of the time taking a nap on the sand since I was running off of no sleep.
Our ride home was fun and at full-tilt, with the two boats bantering and racing. That was when I was glad I didn't bring my camera since the other boat managed to send us a deluge or two. We said goodbye to our skipper back at Molle Island, and checked in to our rooms. Took an amazing shower, had some time to rest, and went to dinner. That night was a lot of fun with the Beach-themed party, which of course ended in a late night swim in the pool.
1 Fish 2 Fish (day 2)
Alrighty. Sorry it's been so long since the first part of this post, I was in Melbourne, then the next day was my 21st, and then I've had this horrible fever illness and just felt better today. Soooo, yeah, here's the next day from my spring break trip!
DAY TWO:
We got up nice and early, checked out, and stored our bags before hopping on a bus. The bus took us to a ferry, which took us to Fraser Island, the world's largest all-sand island. From there we boarded the most intense bus I've ever been on. Since it's all sand, the roads are sand. So the buses they use on the island are these crazy 4-wheel drive buses that make for a super bumpy roller coaster ride across the island. Our first stop was Lake MacKenzie, which is made up entirely of captured rainwater and has superfine white sands.
This was where I got to bust out my newly bought underwater camera for the first time (the film from which I still need to get developed). We swam over to a hidden beach and then spent some time drying off in the sun before moving on. We kept out eyes open for dingos, which are normally very common there, but since it was Easter weekend, and there were a lot more people that usual, I think they must have just stayed away that morning because we never saw any.
After lunch, we headed for the famous shipwreck that's there. It's just a skeleton of a ship now, and it's all rusted over so it's like bright orangey/red. We only really spent maybe about 10 minutes there and had to hop back on the bus.
Our next stop along 75-Mile Beach was actually backtracking the way we had come, and stopping at Eli Creek. This is a freshwater creek that has, obviously, a sand bottom, and feeds into the ocean right where we stopped. From there you can walk up a walkway, get into the creek, and walk or float down the current. Imagine a natural Lazy River from Splashtown, and you pretty much have Eli Creek. The water is also drinkable - I had some at the top above stream from where everyone was, and it was really good actually.
Unfortunately from there we had to head back to catch the ferry since the tide went out so far. We headed back to our hostel, but since we had already checked out we didn't have any place to take a shower or change, so we pulled our bags out from storage, changed in the bathroom, and packed a small bag for what we needed that night. Thankfully all the water we were in that day was fresh water so we weren't too gross. We got dinner there and then loaded everything in the bus and settled in for a long 12-hour overnight bus ride.
DAY TWO:
We got up nice and early, checked out, and stored our bags before hopping on a bus. The bus took us to a ferry, which took us to Fraser Island, the world's largest all-sand island. From there we boarded the most intense bus I've ever been on. Since it's all sand, the roads are sand. So the buses they use on the island are these crazy 4-wheel drive buses that make for a super bumpy roller coaster ride across the island. Our first stop was Lake MacKenzie, which is made up entirely of captured rainwater and has superfine white sands.
After lunch, we headed for the famous shipwreck that's there. It's just a skeleton of a ship now, and it's all rusted over so it's like bright orangey/red. We only really spent maybe about 10 minutes there and had to hop back on the bus.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
One Fish Two Fish, part 1
Where do I even begin. Spring/Easter break was epic. Yeah, epic is a good word for it. So epic that now I'm suffering from a cold due to lack of sleep haha. I'm going to try avoid making a 3 mile long post, but I make no guarantees.
PRETRIP:
I was running around like crazy two days before, trying to get everything done and get my papers turned in early so I could leave Wednesday afternoon. I just barely missed the train I had intended to take, but I had given myself extra time and my flight was delayed due to some technical failure so I got to the airport with enough time anyway. It was only an hour and a half flight, but Quantas served a full meal plus a drink service. I decided I deserved some of the free red wine after getting all my work done, but as I reached for my ID to show the hostess, suddenly we hit the worst turbulence I've ever been in. The hostess who had been right next to me was thrown over onto the ground and people's drinks were flying off their trays. The pilot announced to be seated immediately, which apparently means that they don't have time to take the cart back to the back of the plane, but instead have to sit down in the aisle and wedge themselves between two seats and a passengers legs, aka mine. Apparently it's only that bad about once a year, and I wasn't scared, but it wasn't particularly fun to be in, especially since I had to have a death grip on the service cart next to me to prevent it from crashing over onto me. Even the landing was super rough, as we rammed into the runway at first, so I was kind of glad to be in Brisbane finally. When I got there I took an airport shuttle to my hostel and crashed early.
DAY ONE:
I got up way too early - I forgot to change my phone to an hour later, so I ended up getting up at 5:30 by accident... and then proceeded to drop my glasses down behind the bunk bed I was on top of, waking up the girl under me, and rendering me blind until she gave them back. Basically that morning was sort of a blunder, and I'm glad it wasn't indicative of the rest of the week. I met up with Katie who had taken the train overnight and had just got in, and grabbed breakfast before trudging off to find the bus. We found it more or less without incident, and boarded up. We had 47 people on the tour, plus our two tour guides, nicknamed Kazu and Doggie. We also met our mascot who incidentally only ended up lasting a few days, but at the time he was an inflatable boxing kangaroo with a joey who we dubbed Alan and Carlos after The Hangover. We all signed our names on him, so my name was on the back of his ear. From then until his downfall he was taken absolutely everywhere we went.
The first couple of activities that were planned were explained to us as we drove towards the Australia Zoo - Steve Irwin's zoo. There we saw all the typical Australian animals, along with some giant turtles, tigers, and Elephants which we fed. Apparently Bindi was there filming some interview for their 40th anniversary, but I didn't see her.
We grabbed some lunch before heading off to our hostel for that night. It was a weird little area and we shared a little cabin with 6 people. We just dropped our stuff off, changed, and got back on the bus though since we had a mini cruise that night. They had a BBQ for us and it was a good chance to start to get to know everyone, not to mention a to see a crazy moon rise that was so low and red we thought it was a ginormous bon fire at first. After a few hours, we headed back, hung out for a while, and went to bed.
That's going to have to be the first installment of the story of my spring break because I have to go to bed. I'm actually headed to Melbourne tomorrow evening for the weekend, so sorry about any serious blogging backlog lol, I haven't even managed to post all my pictures on facebook yet in trying to make sure I don't fall behind in class.
PRETRIP:
I was running around like crazy two days before, trying to get everything done and get my papers turned in early so I could leave Wednesday afternoon. I just barely missed the train I had intended to take, but I had given myself extra time and my flight was delayed due to some technical failure so I got to the airport with enough time anyway. It was only an hour and a half flight, but Quantas served a full meal plus a drink service. I decided I deserved some of the free red wine after getting all my work done, but as I reached for my ID to show the hostess, suddenly we hit the worst turbulence I've ever been in. The hostess who had been right next to me was thrown over onto the ground and people's drinks were flying off their trays. The pilot announced to be seated immediately, which apparently means that they don't have time to take the cart back to the back of the plane, but instead have to sit down in the aisle and wedge themselves between two seats and a passengers legs, aka mine. Apparently it's only that bad about once a year, and I wasn't scared, but it wasn't particularly fun to be in, especially since I had to have a death grip on the service cart next to me to prevent it from crashing over onto me. Even the landing was super rough, as we rammed into the runway at first, so I was kind of glad to be in Brisbane finally. When I got there I took an airport shuttle to my hostel and crashed early.
DAY ONE:
I got up way too early - I forgot to change my phone to an hour later, so I ended up getting up at 5:30 by accident... and then proceeded to drop my glasses down behind the bunk bed I was on top of, waking up the girl under me, and rendering me blind until she gave them back. Basically that morning was sort of a blunder, and I'm glad it wasn't indicative of the rest of the week. I met up with Katie who had taken the train overnight and had just got in, and grabbed breakfast before trudging off to find the bus. We found it more or less without incident, and boarded up. We had 47 people on the tour, plus our two tour guides, nicknamed Kazu and Doggie. We also met our mascot who incidentally only ended up lasting a few days, but at the time he was an inflatable boxing kangaroo with a joey who we dubbed Alan and Carlos after The Hangover. We all signed our names on him, so my name was on the back of his ear. From then until his downfall he was taken absolutely everywhere we went.
That's going to have to be the first installment of the story of my spring break because I have to go to bed. I'm actually headed to Melbourne tomorrow evening for the weekend, so sorry about any serious blogging backlog lol, I haven't even managed to post all my pictures on facebook yet in trying to make sure I don't fall behind in class.
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