Back to the Reef

We booked a snorkeling/ scuba trip through our hostel and ironically we booked the same boat I had already been on. On top of that, the night before in town I saw a guy I met, ryan, on the boat, and he was also going back out. So alexa and I got up bright and early ready to snorkel. The down side was the weather was pretty awful; it started raining as soon as we boarded plus the wind was making the seas really wavy. As a result, alexa spent most of the ride to the reef curled up in the fetal position with a sea sick bag in her hands at the back of the boat; she was definitely not alone either. I couldn’t even tolerate being in the inside, it was a tossup between fresh air or getting wet. Eventually Ryan and I ended up sitting on the top of the boat outside in the rain with suckers in our mouth (there supposed to help with sea sickness) to keep from joining Alexa.

Eventually we made it to the reef, and the clouds cleared up a bit.  It actually turned out to be a great day; I took one dive and then snorkeled with Alexa the rest of the time. Some of the passengers switched over to the overnight boat, so we said goodbye to Ryan who was going to work over there. The way back was just as rough as the way there but we were more prepared this time. Alexa and I sat with an Australia Josh that we met that day and a Scottish guy Cam I met my first time on the boat. We all took turns buying rounds of lollipops and trying to distract ourselves from the tousling of the boat. It actually worked pretty well, Alexa didn’t even grab a puke bag.

After we got some dinner with Josh and explored the town a bit. And by keeping in American Style, by explore the town, I mean get dinner then go search for Reese’s peanut butter cups (which virtually don’t exist in Australia), then go get ice cream. We basically converted him to a fatty American.

The next day was pretty lazy, we were hoping to head up to the Daintree Rainforest but there wasn't a bus and we couldn't find anybody who would rent a car to under 21 year olds. So we ended up just laying by the lagoon and taking it easy. I left in the middle of the next day, while Alexa was going to go back out on the reef and then leave that night. I, however, had a miserable 15 hour overnight layover in Sydney where I had to write a paper worth 10% of one of my grades due the next day (I seem to keep forgetting i'm over here for school). In the end, I finished and turned in the paper on time and managed to catch a little bit of sleep on the airport floor. The wierd part was how excited I was to get back to New Zealand, after only 2 months I was considering going back to Wellington as going home.

Skydiving over the reef

Didn't get any actual action pictures (sadly)

Waking up early to catch the bus was nothing, because Alexa and I were going SKYDIVING today! It hadn't comletely hit me yet that I just paid money to jump out a perfectly good plane with a complete stranger strapped to my back, so I was more excited than nervous. The 2 hour bus ride mostly consisted of signing my life away..their not liable blah blah blah...aware of the inherent risks blah blah blah...all that stuff. We finally got to their office, they paired us off with instructors, gave us a 5 minute tutorial and then strapped on our harnesses. Surprisingly I wasn't too scared yet. However, when we pulled up to the plane things changed a bit.

The tiniest little plane, that looked like it couldn't fit one pair of people let alone the 6 that were supposed to squeeze in. It was also now that Sinno, my instructor, lets me in on the fact that we are jumping first. Now the nerves are working. Cause were going first, were the last ones in the plane sitting by the door, and by door I mean plexiglass roll up panel which was open the whole time during take off. We climb to 14,000 ft. Way above the clouds, which i think made it easier because you were just jumping into the clouds, the threat of falling to the approaching ground wasn't really on my mind. The scariest part by far was when he opened the "door". Keep in mind I am stapped as tightly as possible to Sinno, so if he moves, I move. His job once the door was open was too lean out of the plane and look down, no idea why, I guess making sure we were in the right spot. So he tells me to stay in the plane! of course i want to stay in the plane! but as this 200 lb man is leaning out and im strapped to him, how am i supposed to stay securely in the plane! Those 20 seconds were by far the scariest part of the jump and I hadn't even jumped yet! Finally, I threw my feet over the edge, looked down and tumbled out of the plane. The 60 seconds of free fall was the most amazing feeling. The first bit was falling through the clouds then you break the cloud line and your just falling to the ground. Out of no where the shoot  pull and your yanked to a halt. From there it all turned peaceful, just gliding to the beach. He pointed out different islands and several parts of the Great Barrier, before we landed on a little beach. It was an amazing experience! and would love to do it again!

Kuranda Koalas

Checklist for today:
1) Hold a Koala
2)Feed a Kangaroo
3)See Alexa

I met up with Eva and Andreana to head to the Kuranda, a rainforest just outside of Cairns to a Koala wildlife zoo type thing. I got to hold a Koala (which is illegal in Melbourne and Sydney) and then got to feed some Kangaroos and Wallabies, but see some other pretty cool wildlife inbetween. Then it was back to Cairns. It was a pain in the butt, but i then got a bus out to Lindsey's apartment (about a 35 minute bus ride) to pick up my bags. Lindsey got a kidney infection and wasn't feeling too hot so I told her alexa and I would stay in a hostel to give her some space. Then i had to take the stupid bus 35 minutes back into town to meet Alexa.

Keep in mind I haven't seen her in just about 7 months, let alone half way around the world. I was pretty psyched. We meet up, did a quick catch up but then had to find a place to stay for the night. We did eventually find a hostel to stay right in the middle of town. However, we did share our 4 bedroom room with a guy and a girl who met while working a carnival....they turned out to be incredibly "interesting" roommates to say the least.

Scuba Diving the Great Barrier!

Our group (from the left John, Georgie, Me, Paul and a
 french couple that only did 2 dives with us)

Kind of hard to tell, but the reef from the boat

Bright and Early the next day I was at the dive shop. The company has two boats, one of which is the day boat which I boarded in the morning then took a 1 and a half hour ride to get to the outer reef. Then I met my instructor Paul, a Belgian guy, and the two other people getting certified John, a Brit who’s working for a year as a travel agent at a hostel in town and Georgie, a Norwegian guy who just finished a couple of months of farm work somewhere in Australia to support his travels. I was INCREDIBLE relieved to hear they were staying overnight too so I would not be completely alone on the other boat. We did first dive on a place called Norman Reef  and then had an amazing lunch, keep in mind though that I have been eating mostly Peanut Butter and sandwiches or cheap Fish and Chip Takeaways so my standards weren’t too high. Then we took our second certification dive, seeing the reef in the process. It was beautiful! Later the day boat parked next to the overnight boat, Oceanquest, to unload supplies and swap the overnight passengers. It wasn’t nearly as intimidating as I expected. I met a bunch of people of people on board, crew and passengers. The boat holds around 40 but they were sitting at about 22 people that night so in a matter of hours you basically knew everybody. Plus my roommate Maria was great. She was a Spanish girl, who quit her job and bought a round the world plane ticket, and has been travelling for 4 months so far with just her backpack.

Over night boat, Oceanquest

Anyway, we did 1 more dive off the overnight boat before dinner (which was even better than lunch!). Once sun set, there was an option for a night dive. Sadly since none of my group was certified we could go. Instead John and I joined one of the crew on the top of the boat. His job was to keep watch of the divers, but from the top you could see the different groups of divers swim around by the glows of their lights underwater, plus you could see all of the sharks swimming in the boats spot light. Needless to say, one of my major life goals is a night dive now, I even considered staying another night on the boat to be able to do one. The night was pretty chill, most of the dive instructors and some crew plus a few passengers just sat around with a few drinks, swapping stories and talking.

Day boat, Reefquest

The next day, our group had our last certification dive, which was really just exploring the reef more. And finally we were done with our course. Plus we got one “fun” dive before we got back on the day boat. So John, Georgie and I went out without our instructor. It took some getting used to, mostly because we just followed Paul to the best spots on the reef but now we had to find them on our own. We did find a tunnel through the coral which was the goal of our dive.  Sadly after a few hours of diving, sun bathing , and reading, it was time to go back to Cairns. Besides missing the night dive I wasn’t too sad, mostly because Alexa, my friend from highschool was coming the next day!

Good-bye Sydney, Hello Cairns

WAY too early for a Sunday morning, Wally picked me up and I was headed to the airport headed to Cairns! Cairns is an unusual little place. I love it though! It's definitely a back packers destination with a different hostel every 5 feet. Which in turn means tons of bars and young travelers through out town. It’s also known for being the best access too the Great Barrier reef, so I was picturing it as a beachy diving town, but the entire town doesn’t even have a beach, the nearest one is about 30 minutes away! To make up for it the city built a lagoon on there water front (and by waterfront its more of mud field.) And as a result of all the backpackers, the lagoon is usually filled with hungover 20 something year olds  sleeping in the sun. There’s a ridiculous amount of things to do in the area. I stayed for a week and could have easily stay another or two and never have been bored.  Another friend of mine from Colorado, Lindsay (not the same Lindsey from Sydney….I know….VERY confusing) is doing her exchange at a uni right outside of the town so I was going to staying with her.

I also had 2 days until Alexa got to Cairns! She studying at a university in Brisbane but has never been to Cairns so she was going to fly up and see me. In the mean time I had to get scuba diving certified. So the day I arrived my first stop was the 24 hour cairns medical clinic to get a scuba diving form filled out. Then I went to the dive shop to sort out my certification. I decided to do a 2 day 1 night deal on the reef and by the end of it I would be certified! I was a little hesitant because 1) I have never been diving in the sea and 2) I would be on a boat for 2 days and a night where I don’t know anybody. Regardless it was an awesome experience!

Downtown Sydney

Tours on top of the bridge

Opera House

Trying to rid myself of a hangover caused by a Friday night in Sydney, I definitely got a late start to the day. But it was my last day in Sydney and I still needed to see the sights, so I dragged my butt out of bed (and by bed I mean the couch cushions laid out on Lindseys bedroom floor). I headed back into town for a ferry ride around the bay with Eva and Andreana (it awesome being able to meet up with people who needed to see all the tourist sites too). We ended up taking the ferry up to Manly Beach and back, basically just a 1 ferry ride through the harbor. There were great views of the bridge and the opera house and the different sections of Sydney. We headed to the opera house, which as far as I could tell was just a mecca for asian tourists. We couldn’t really go in but we walked around the entire thing, and waited for the sun to set behind the bridge. It was really interesting seeing all the tours climbing the bridge trying to make it to the top before sunset. Leaving Eva and Andreana to walk around the city, I went to meet up with my friend Wally to catch up (he did his exchange in Colorado but lives in Sydney). There was the last rugby game of the tri nations tournament on and it was NZ vs. Australia so we went to a pub for dinner and to see some of the game, sadly NZ lost :(.

Sydney Beaches

Looking back at Coogee beach

View from the Path

Today was a much needed lazy day. Linsdey didn’t have class so she took me on the Coogee beach to Bondi Beach walk. It was about a 4 km path along the ocean front. Gorgeous views! Pretty comparable to the Great Ocean Road just on  a smaller scale. At Bondi, a kilometer (.6 mis) long beach filled with surfers, we just sat for most of the day just watching surfers and laying in the sand. Apparently it was one of the first warm gorgeous days they had in a while so everybody just flocked.  

Overlooking Bondi Beach

Blue Mountains

Giant Staircase, 1000 steps to the valley floor

Eucalyptis Tree...It's oils give the mountains their blue hue

View of some of the blue mountains

After a late start, and a slight misinterpretation of the Sydney bus schedule I ended up sprinting through the city for the railway station (which draws quite alot of attention seeing as a can barely run). I was meeting back up with andreana and Eva who had also arrived in Sydney the other day. We were taking a trip to the blue mountains, about 2 hours out of the city. They were amazing. I could have easily spent a few days there. A lot of Sydney resident go there for climbing, trekking, repelling and all that. Since we had one day and had to stick to the stupid train schedule we did the touristy hike, which was awesome none the less. At the end of the day we hike for a couple hours, climbed the 1000 stairs, saw katoomba falls, and hiked around the 3 sisters. And then like the typical Americans that we are we stop for a lunch at subway before heading back into the city.

Katoomba Falls

The 3 sisters

Sydney!

Wasn't  a bad place to chill for an afternoon

I am horrible with making busses or trains on time,  and am notorious for reading the time table wrong or getting lost on the way to the stop, so naturally I  left room for error to get to the airport to go to Sydney. So I wake up at 5:30 in order to catch my bus to get to the airport. However, the one time everything goes perfect and I ended up sitting at theairport for two hours when I could have easily been sleeping in my hostel (I was quite angry with myself). But Sydney was an awesome city, I could definitely see myself living there at some point. It was pretty bustling western city, but it still maintained the laid back aussie vibe. I loved that it has the huge business buildings filled with suits and ties and then surfers in wet suits right down the street. I stayed Linsdey, a friend of mine from back in Colorado. It was definitely a nice change of pace to see someone from back home. She lives in an apartment in Coogee beach. A beautiful little beach town about a 30 minute bus ride from central Sydney. When I first got there I had to kill about 2 hours until Lindsey finished class so I just got lunch and sat by the harbor. I had a view of the bridge, the harbor and the opera house from my chair, I could have stayed there for hours. After meeting Lindsey we walked around coogee beach and made dinner at one of her mates houses. Great intro to Sydney!

Healesville Sanctuary

With koalas being one of my new favorite animals, we set off for healsville sanctuary. We did have to take a train and a bus to get there (which we had to run too because my alarm didn’t go off) but in the end we got to see a lot of Australian wildlife. We had an up close encounter with a koala. The running joke with Australians is that they all want to come back as koalas because they are high all of the time due to their diet of eucalyptis trees. Because of that they sleep 20 hours a day. Not too sure if its true, but they do look high all of the time. We also saw kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, wombats and some birds. Back in Mlbourne we got some dinner and headed to the Crown. The biggest casino on the southern hemishhere (so they say) but it was HUGE! They have around 60 restaurants in the complex and three hotels. Of course, I had to say I’ve gambled in the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere so I played some penny slots for a while. In the end I was up $15, just enough for the first round at the bar that night J

Melbourne at night

Random bird I thought was cool

Philip's Island

At the Chocolate Factory

We booked a day tour for today of Phillip’s Island just outside of Melbourne, so our drive Katie (who was awesome) picked us up near our hostel. We lucked out the tour is usually around 20 people but we only had 7, so she could show us some extra unique things. We drove for a while until we reached a little seaside town for lunch right at the base of the bridge to cross onto Phillips Island. Our first stop was a chocolate factory where you could follow the chocolate process and sample plenty. Andreana and Eva are definitely two certified chocoholics so they were quite excited by for the stop and they were not disappointed either.

Benny the Koala

Our next stop was the Philip’s Island Koala sanctuary. There are 35 koala’s on the tree tops throughout the property, luckily Katie makes about 3-4 stops a week to the sanctuary so she knows just where to find almost every koala. On our way out, we did get the opportunity to see a mamma koala with her little Joey (baby koala) in her pouch. Because of all the adorableness at the sanctuary we were actually late for our next stop a wine and cheese tasting on a vineyard. I’m not a huge wino so I didn’t completely appreciate the wine tasting, but don’t worry, all the cheese was definitely gone by the time I left. Plus the views were amazing, you could see straight across the island, with water on each side, plus gorgeous views of the vineyard and the surrounding land.

Little Penguins hiding under the boardwalk

After the winery, we had some time to kill before sunset so we went to a seal watching spot on the tip of the island. We couldn’t actually see any seals, they were on a rock pretty far out, even though they did have live video cams of the island. Instead we walked throughout the board walks. Katie had the insider tip that if you look at certain spots under the boardwalks little penguins were hiding. ADORABLE! As the sun was setting we headed off to the penguin parade. Just after sun set, the little penguins (the size of a wine bottle) appear out of the surf and make there way to their burrows on land. According to Katie, some walk as far as ½ a mile to get home. That night around 400 penguins climbed the beach. On boardwalks, you could follow the little waddling penguins paths to their respective homes.

Wallabies throughout out the fields