So, I am officially done with half of my semester here at UNSW and have decided that I will write a (very long) post about some of my adventures here in Australia. I hope you have all been enjoying the pictures, but some people (read: Kelly Mills) have requested literary elaboration, so here we are.
During the first few weeks of my semester here I was pretty busy with classes and college events. I am taking Coastal Resource Management, Remote Sensing, Environmental Change, and Sustainable Energy – the first three of which will count towards my major – so I am trying to learn the information and do well even though they will only transfer back as pass/fail grades. I have also been playing soccer for Shalom College every Sunday, which is nice because it is the first organized sport I have played since I hurt my leg in February. We are doing pretty well and will hopefully make it to the finals in a few weeks.
Mid-semester break was last week and I flew up to Cairns in North Queensland for an action packed trip. The first two days we were there we spent just settling into our hostel and learning our way around the city, which wasn’t hard because Cairns is really just a small coastal town based almost entirely around tourism. We stayed in a hostel with over 700 beds – our room had 8 beds – so it felt like living inside a round-the-clock backpacker party. We stayed with people from Germany, France, Scotland, and the US. One of our roommates was a UVa student who is also on exchange at UNSW this semester. Small world.
Also, before we continue I would like to note again that many of the photos I post are actually taken by Ben Staples, whose Flickr account was linked in a previous post. For anyone out there like me who was born with a blind artistic eye, I highly recommend traveling with a professional photographer - it pretty much guarantees beautiful pictures wherever you go (unless there is water involved).
Me and Felicity on our first full day in Cairns
Graffiti in an alley across the street from our hostel - one of our German roommates was adding to it while we were there
Day 3 – We – Ben, Felicity, Jen, Ben, Melissa, Noah, and me – went white water rafting on the Tully River (2 hours south of Cairns). The river was supposed to be a level 5, but they said the recent condition were probably only level 4. Having never been rafting before, level 4 felt sufficiently scary for me. We got to stop twice to jump off rocks that were about 10 meters high, swim through the “drowning simulator” rapids, and swim down a waterfall. This was our only day of rainy weather and we were perfectly happy that way because we were going to be soaking wet all day anyway.
Getting soaked through some rapids
Group photo at the end
(from left to right: Noah, our instructor, Ben, me, Melissa, Felicity, Jen, and Ben)
Day 4 – We packed up, checked out of the hostel, and went on a 2+ hour drive north on a tour bus that dropped us at our Beach Hut in Cape Tribulation. On the way up we stopped at a wildlife center in Port Douglass where I held a koala and fed lots of kangaroos. Then we went on a river boat tour and saw some crocodiles, tasted some raw sugar cane along the side of the road, and met a wild cassowary on our jungle walk through the Daintree. The tour guide found some green bugs that squirted a leaf he was holding for us to taste – it was the strongest mint taste I have ever had! Later in the evening we went on a night walk to spot some the of animals and insects that only come out at night. We found lots of spiders (including a tarantula), some frogs, birds, and a snake. I spotted the snake right before the tour ended and the guide showed me how to hold to wild constrictor.
Near the Daintree - in the distance is the island where Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray
The cassowary, an endangered bird living only in North Queensland
Me hugging a koala finally!
After feeding a large, slobbery kangaroo
Day 5 – A relaxing day. We slept in until 8:30am, checked out of the Beach Hut, and went ziplining through the jungle. The Daintree is the oldest living rainforest in the world. Before the bus picked us up to go back to our hostel in Cairns in the afternoon we spent some time hanging out and walking along the beach. All of the beaches in Cairns are mudflats and very dangerous to swim in all year round because of crocodiles and jellyfish.
Me, Jen, Ben, and Felicity on our ziplining tour
They let us go upside down on the last one
Day 6 – I was most excited for this day. By this time the group had slowly dropped to just Felicity, Ben, and me. We took a bus down to Mission Beach and were in the first group to go skydiving. They harnessed us up and flew the plane to 14,000 ft. When it was my turn to jump out of the plane there wasn’t even enough time to be nervous because as soon as I got my feet out, the instructor pushed us out and we were flipping around so fast! Since we jumped so high we were freefalling for over a minute before the parachute opened. Once it opened it was like the whole world stopped. Everything was still and quiet and we could see all the way out to the Great Barrier Reef and up the beachy coast. We even saw a sea turtle from all the way up there. After landing we had the rest of the day to hang out in the tiny town of Mission Beach. In Cairns we decided to have an adventurous dinner and ordered a plate with kangaroo, emu, crocodile, and barramundi (an Australian fish) to share. They were all delicious and the shared experience was just as enjoyable, even though my vegetarian of days past shed a few silent tears.
Day 7 – Another day I was eagerly awaiting. A huge catamaran was waiting at the dock for us to sail out two hours to the Great Barrier Reef. During the process of signing my life away for about the fifth time, I had to disclose that my ear problems. After having the swine flu in the spring of 2010, my ears kept popping for months. When I finally saw a doctor, he said I have Eustachian tube dysfunction so my ears will never equalize pressure normally again. This has not posed much of a problem in my life up until now – not even on flights. But, after phoning the diving physician I not allowed to scuba dive.
The first stop was at a bird sanctuary island that is literally just a pile of sand and dead coral that houses up to 70,000 birds during their nesting time. We snorkeled over the reef and saw tons of different types of coral and fish. The second stop was at the Great Drop-off from Finding Nemo! It looked just like in the movie with a huge part of the reef coming to an underwater cliff. I snorkeled again here and swam next to a shark that came by to check out the scene.
Me and Flick after a long day in the water
Nemo's bright coloring makes everything else look dull
Day 8 – For our last full day in Cairns we took a ferry out to Fitzroy Island and kayaked around checking out some sea turtles and more of the reef. We had a picnic lunch by the beach and then hiked 3.5 km up to the lighthouse and the summit of the island. The weather was beautiful and it was a relaxing end to the trip.
On top of the tallest rock on Fitzroy Island
Now that I am back as school I am trying to get lots of work done before my next adventures. I will be sailing in a university match racing regatta on the last weekend in September before heading back to Queensland – to the Gold Coast this time for the Australian University Games. I will be competing with the sailing team there – skippering for team racing and crewing for match racing. I have to miss classes for an entire week so we can drive up and back, but the university is very accommodating to athletes.
