Concluding four months in paradise is far from easy.

This is really depressing, but this will probably be my last post written in Australia. :(

I am beginning to grow very sad, over the past week I've been on some incredible adventures, and I am in no way ready to leave in a week. Exactly a week from now I will have left Australia, and have a week to cry on the beaches of Fiji.

This past week for "study week", I went with a few friends to Cairns. Cairns is part of the tropical northeastern Coast, about an hour and a half north of here by plane. Cairns is most famously known for it's the Great Barrier Reef and it's bars. We stayed at a hostel called Gilligan's which everyone who has been raves about. It's definitely one of the nicer hostels I've stayed in, which a cool bar and a night club. But I could have done without the sub-woofer from the night club until 5 am the first two nights I was trying to sleep. Other than that I liked Gilligan's.

We arrived Saturday and we spent the day at the market, and then by the lagoon. Just like Airlie beach by the Whitsunday islands, there is no beach here. No sand? Too many Jellies? not sure. Instead there is a man made lagoon filled with a very interesting mix of vacationers.

Sunday (Easter) we went white water rafting. This was so much fun!!! For those of you who aren't sure what this is, it's basically when you get in a raft with a group of people, and paddle through the rapids of a river. Sounded scarier and more dangerous than it actually felt. We wore helmets, so no concussion part two. There weren't any instances where we felt out of the raft unintentionally. The three of us girls were with three germans, and a very cute raft guide. There were many instances where we got to jump out of the boat and float down the river through the current. There was also two occasions where he purposely flipped the raft, which was so fun - not as scary as I had anticipated. There was a huge rock we got to climb up and jump off of... it was so fun it made me want to move onto bigger jumps! (One of my biggest regrets is never making it to the national park nearby the Goldy that my friends have been to, where you jump off pretty high cliffs into a water fall). Anyway, overall this day was incredible.

Monday we went to the Great Barrier Reef. I almost cried while I was snorkeling (which would have made seeing/breathing difficult) because the reef is so unbelievable and realizing this may be the last time I see it as quite unnerving. This experience was much different than my Whitsundays reef trip. Boat with a hundred tourists... much less of a personal experience. I decided to Scuba Dive again because I did not want to regret not doing it. This time I almost didn't make it down. I can't believe how much I was panicking! ...considering this was my second time. When we got in the water, I really almost had a panic attack. I think it was due to several factors - I had taken Excedrin & drank coffee, double dose of caffeine & I was surrounded by others panicking. I got really lucky at Whitsundays, because I got to go down with the certified divers - their confidence rubbed off on me. Also the personal experience of having lived on the boat for a day with the instructor.. where this time it felt more rushed and intense. But then once we were down, and I finally stopped panicking, I saw a HUGE maxima clam. Maybe about a meter in length. We go to touch it! But sadly this dive felt very short and I felt that I enjoyed the experience and the freedom we had with the Wings tour. But the coral reef while snorkeling was absolutely breathtaking. I saw a reef shark! It almost attacked me but I fought it off. Just kidding.

Tuesday may have been my favorite day in all of the four months that I've been here. We went on Captain Matty's Barefoot tours - a tour recommended to me by Christi. We took a tour of the Tablelands rainforrest. This is a small tour run by 32 year old hippie, created his own business, which is now trip adviser's #1 tour in Cairns. The day is perfect because it's a small VW-esq van, fewer than 20 people, and a day full of activities, none of which are on a timed schedule. I swam in Lake Eacham, climbed a tree to jump into the lake, Mila Mila waterfall, another whose name I can't remember, saw a volcanic crater, 500 year old cathedral fig tree,  went down rock slides at Josephine falls. The tour guide, Captain Matty, knew so much information. I learned so many facts this day. The views along the drive were insane. My camera died this day, so I have to store everything up in my head. There is no way a camera could do any of this justice.

I felt so incredibly happy that day in the rainforrest. I could truely live there, in a small hut. This was the day I made a promise to myself that I will be back in Australia before I turn 30.

Finals have started, and its unreal how seriously they take everything here. Finals are worse than SAT's ever were. Assigned seating in the sports hall with hundreds of other students taking various tests. Pre-recorded prompts at the beginning and end of the exams. Crazy.

Yesterday I went back to Byron for the night. I am obsessed with Byron Bay. I would live there. Possibly my favorite place in Australia. And it made this really hard... leaving.. 4 months in paradise is simply not enough. Got our favorite Portuguese chicken burgers from Beloporto yesterday and today. Went to the bar at the beach hotel (my favorite bar I've been to in Australia - for sure). Laid in the sand on the most beautiful beach. Impulsively shopped. Now I'm back on campus, spending my time writing in my bond and dwelling over the memories rather than studying.

I'm not ready to face reality. It's cruel how fast time flies.

I've decided not to come home.

April fools!

Just came back from Sydney yesterday. I had a lot of time to think during my one-on-one time with the Royal Botanical Gardens/flight alone. Leaving Sydney was surprisingly hard. I really like the city, and I feel like I have a lot more I didn't cover. Except last time I knew I could come again, now I'm realizing in the next few weeks there will be no new trips. These fourth months have blown by, and I think in the phase of culture shock I am hitting stage 4, a person gets depressed about leaving. I'm thinking, that if I ever come back to Australia in my lifetime, it will not be soon. I feel like there is just so much to cover!

A trip to Sydney on a weekend that was beautiful weather conditions -, not rainy, dreary, depressing - was a must. I feel like I love this city, and I also feel like I didn't do much. We did a lot of wandering, but by doing so got to see a lot. Spent a lot of time at darling & sydney harbor, hung out on the opera house steps, returned to Manly beach (which I enjoyed so much the first time I had to go back), attempted to check out the night scene, & on my last day I spend the day in the Botanical Gardens. Absolutely beautiful. I spent a good amount of time watching the fruit bats... which were surprisingly active during the day.

Now I have booked my flights to stop at Fiji for a week on my way home to the USA... (also just learned there's flooding in fiji right now &no flights to/from the country - hoping this doesn't affect my trip?). Still need to book a resort or a hostel... still need to book activities for Cairns... fit in a few activities on the gold coast that I feel I have to do.. and somehow fit in time to study for finals. It's all happening too too fast. But again, I do have a lot to look forward at home! Tracy just had a second beautiful baby boy, Lucan. I am very very sad that I cannot be there!

I will be arriving 12:30 AM to JFK airport, on April 30th. Most of May will probably be spent in New Jersey. So much of my life to get in order!!

xoxo

Autism Awareness day!!

Just a reminder - wear BLUE for Autism Awareness today (April 2) !!!!

MarchI

Time has rapidly flown by since the stories in my last post...

The first weekend in March I went to Sydney for Mardi Gras weekend. The trip was planned through "student flights". We took an overnight bus down... about 12 hours long. That was brutal. The weekends event started immediately when we arrived. Unfortunately, the weather could not have been more miserable. It was raining the whole entire time we were in the city. First we went on a walking tour of the city, with our rain coats and umbrella's. Saw a war memorial, St. Mary's Cathedral (which was really beautiful inside), the botanical gardens, which were very wet & green and I saw a ton of huge fruit bats in the trees. We saw the Opera house, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge (considered the biggest in the World). Didn't feel as spectacular as it should have because the weather was so gloomy. We climbed the stairs in one of the pillars on the bridge to get a good view. It was pretty cool, even though it wasn't the real bridge climb I expected when I signed up.. the one peopledo over the arch of the bridge. After the day of touring, we had like an hour to wander around back to the hostel. Didn't have a lot of time to much, but we bought some delicious banana bread from a street market. That night we had a party cruise, all inclusive food and drinks. The boat sailed around the harbor so we got to see it at night . That was a lot of fun. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early to get back on the bus to drive to the Blue Mountains. Some people considered not going so that they could spend time in the city. Christi advised me not to skip the Blue Mountains. So I went... Well I can honestly say I have NEVER in my life seen anything like it....... it was so foggy, SO FOGGY, that you could not see the mountains, or the waterfall, or anything. It was literally a white wall of complete thick white fog. I could hear the waterfall so I know it was there. It was like what looking out into nothingness must be like. Before the universe was created possibly. Our last destination was the "Three Sisters". Its three gigantic rocks, (pictures I have seen look cool) named after an aboriginal tale about three girls who got turned into stone by a witch doctor to keep them from seeing boys from another tribe until they could figure out what to do... then the witch doctor died and now they are still stuck as rocks for life. We got to climb down rocky steep wet stairs to see the one that we would be able to touch. Sadly I forgot my camera that day so I couldn't capture the nothingness, but I made Jared take a picture of me.

Here they are.. the blue mountains..

Saturday night was the Mardi Gras celebration. We went to Oxford Street, the location of the parade, and had free entry into this one bar all night. The parade... was nothing like anything I've ever seen in the states. Mardi Gras here is a gay and lesbian celebration. The parade was several hours long, hard to see becase everyone buys crates to stand on, and it was raining, but it was a lot of fun. Hours long of bright loud floats with people wearing weird outfits, or close to nothing, dancing. The city was absolutely wild that night, and I had a lot of fun.

Sunday the sun finally came out!! Just in time for our beach day! We went to two different very famous beaches. First we took the ferry to Manly beach. I loved it here, cute little shopping area and a beautiful beach. Then we went to Bondi beach, where we walked around the cliffs overlooking the ocean, and stopped somewhere to eat dinner before the miserable bus ride back Bond Uni. Overall besides the weather it was a really great weekend.



Since I haven't done anything too exciting, the Uni work finally piled up and life got a little rough in that aspect. 

But I did go to a place called Byron Bay the week after Sydney. And once again last weekend. I love it there! It might be my favorite place. It's like, real Australia. More of what I expected than touristy trashy beach city stuff up here. It's about an hour south in New South Whales, and we get there because friends rent cars and drive down. I was only going to stay one night the first time, and ended up staying the whole weekend because I loved it so much. It was a small beach town, lots of hippies, lots of good shopping and good food. Finally had my first aussie bloody mary (that I had been searching for the week earlier), at the Beach Hotel bar. Really cool bar right in front of the beach, that had live music and happy hour. Beach was beautiful. Only thing I missed out on was seeing the lighthouse which was up a hill a few miles. So this is why I could hardly say no to going this past weekend when the Northeastern boys got a house for the weekend, right by the lighthouse. The weather wasn't great, but the house was really cool! And the next morning I did the lighthouse hike. Real tiring and very worth it. I took a bus home Saturday afternoon so that I could get my work done :(
Byron is one place I really would like it back to!

Sooo with a month left.. the feeling is really bitter-sweet. I am over ready to come home to see my family and friends... but realizing that I am leaving here for good is sad. No more work until Finals in two weeks... and a couple more trips planned. I am going back to Sydney tomorrow for the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!!! And then the following week I'm going to Cairns (for more Great Barrier Reef rainforfest fun). I'm not sure what my plan for coming home is yet, I am currently trying to change my flight so that I can stop at Fiji for a week when class is over. Trying to come home the 29th? It's going to fly by.

Pictures to follow for those of you not on facebook, I love everyone!

UPDATES SOON I PROMISE......

Whitsunday Islands & the Great Barrier Reef

This weekend was an unreal vacation within a vacation. Truthfully does not feel like I was actually there, looking back at the pictures.

The trip was planned through the Student Flights group at my school. Cost a lot but everything was pre-planned and well worth it.

Thursday we took the bus to the train around 7 am to Brisbane. It's about a 2 hour train ride. To our dismay, the train ride to the Brisbane airport did not cost the light fee of $6 as does the train ride into the city. Instead it was over 20. Australia never ceases to surprise you with absurd prices. We had about an hour and a half flight to Airlie Beach, north of us along the coast.  We checked into our cute bungalow-esq hostel. We were very impressed with the fridge, size, jacuzzi sized tub (even though we wouldn't use it), and overall size - until we discovered all of the critters that lived with us. It wasn't the most pleasant night sleep as I worried an aussie spider would try to come snuggle with me. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the town. We were staying along a cute little street, parallel to the coastline, containing many quaint boutiques and cafes where we did lots of shopping and had a great lunch. The harbor was beautiful. There was not actually a beach we could swim in, (because of jellyfish) instead there was a lagoon - a small pool type thing, I think it was filled with salt water, surrounded by palm trees and space to lay out. We sat by the harbor for a while, as the sun set behind us. We had thai food for dinner. I was not too impressed. I've fallen in love with the pad thai right near campus and this did not compare.

The next morning, we woke up, packed, and went for breakfast at the same cafe from the day before. We had some time to spend on this street before making the 10 minutes walk to the harbor where our catamaran was picking us up.

Around noon, all 27 of us checked in, and climbed aboard. As we departed, we had an introduction from our three crew members, followed by a long speech about safety & such in the hot crowded kitchen/lounge area. There were three tables that barely fit all of us, with a small kitchen area. Soon enough they showed us to our sleeping quarters, and we were able to escape onto the front deck. The catamaran was crowded, but at the same time there seemed to be enough room for us to spread out comfortably. There was a hot tub (I thought this was crazy), and nets at the very front of the boat where you could lay, and at rougher parts of sea get drenched by huge waves. We had out Scuba debriefing up front. This was around when my motion sickness pills and exhaustion set in, and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.

The views were incredible. Crystal clear teal-blue water, mountain ranges on the main land and the islands. I took an absurd amount of pictures of the landscape.

Soon enough we arrived at our first snorkel destination. I made the decision that I wanted to snorkel, and scuba dive the next day, even though there were a lot of first timers going. I asked Richie (crew member who sort of lead everything) several times if I would definitely be able to go tomorrow. He promised that I would at the first location. Every part of the marine biologist left in me was filled with overwhelming excitement at the sight of the reefs. While a lot of people paired off and fooled around together in the water, I went into my own little world. I took so many pictures, too many to go through. I saw angel fish, damsel fish, blue tang (aka Dory from "Finding Nemo"), Nemo himself (aka a clown fish in an anemone), and a huge amount of parrot fish. Five years ago, while snorkeling in Key Largo Florida on my school's marine biology trip, I decided these fish were my favorite. This hasn't changed. In Florida I remember these "stoplight parrotfish" they were a blue color with painted spots and lines on their faces, painted something like a clown. This day I saw even more beautiful types, I think most of them were rainbow parrot fish. It became my mission to stalk and take pictures. They are harder to snap shots of because they are constantly on the move. They eat something on the reefs, I should look into what this is, but it makes a loud cracking sound that you can hear throughout the water. I even found myself swimming above a huge school of them. This was very exciting. I also saw a huge fish, can't remember what it was called, but I should find out. They named in Priscilla because they know where it always hangs out. The coral itself was impressive. So many different kinds, wish I could remember the names of more than a couple. There were some small jelly fish, but nothing too exciting. One of the crew members pulled up one of those disc like jellies that often are washed up at the jersey shore, or the cape. People were completely in awe and all wanted a turn holding it. All I could think was, wow what a bunch of amateurs.  Saw some huge clams, which I later learned were called Maxima Clams from Emily Garland when she sent me this link:
http://scientificillustration.tumblr.com/post/17966680468/katewadsworth-first-project-for-my-scientific
My own photographs are going to have to come in a following post because there are just too many I don't know where to begin!
I ended up being the last one out there that day, didn't realize until it had been a while and I looked around and saw no one else with their snorkel tubes sticking out of the water, just me and the captain waiting in his dingy.

The meals provided for us were way above my expectations. Rachel was the crew member in change of cooking. Learning Rachel's story was astonishing. 19 years old and from South Africa. Graduated high school early at the age of 16, did Uni in S.A., did some work in Africa, traveled to Europe and backpacked there for a while, and now she's living and working on a boat in Australia. Amazing. Anyway, she prepared snacks, and full blown meals in the tiny hot kitchen. First "home cooking" I've had.

We watched the sunset over the ocean. Breathtaking. Took tons of pictures. First night sleep under the deck in my little bed wasn't the best one. I realized my bed was like directly under the hot tub, so between the ocean hitting the boat, and the slight sway causing the water to move back and forth in the hot tob, my slumber was very interrupted by the sounds of swooshing water.

 Awoke at 5:30 am for the sunrise. Another breathtaking scene. These days were longer than any I've experienced in my life.

 Had breakfast, fruit & cereal, and it wasn't long before we were off to our next reef location. Spent the downtime on the boat reading "The Hunger Games" (which I finished today - pretty good book!!). Finally got to the next dive location. One thing about the crew members I haven't mentioned is their flakey personalities - random bi-polar rude behavior. Richie was asking who wanted to go for a second dive, then the certified divers, and when I asked about first time divers, he told me he'll try to work something out if they have time. This infuriated me. When I followed him to question him about this change in option, he told me "I said I'd try to work it out". I was pretty unhappy about this, but then I ended up getting lucky and having basically my own personal dive lesson, because I went down with the three certified divers in our group. Scuba diving was a very crazy experience. Unlike the day before, where the new divers gradually worked their way in from a beach - I was basically dropped into the middle of the ocean. Learned a couple basics here and there, and boom, plunge to the deep ocean floor. Just kidding it wasn't a plunge it was safe and slow. I was definitely really nervous at first, and very uncomfortable when I first started descending. My first thoughts were "oh my god let me go back up" and "this is why I could never sky dive". But Richie was great, held my hand pretty much the entire time (until I was comfortable). I was really nervous about my ears, but I made sure to equalize the entire way down (plugging my nose and blowing to pop your ears). But for some reason my left ear never was satisfied (and continued to bother me for the next week). Once I finally accepted the fact that I was breathing under water, and although it's unnatural I would survive - I LOVED IT. Being so up close and personal to coral that I could never see from the surface was unreal. I even saw a huge sting ray! Richie purposely scared it so we got to see it fly up from the ocean floor and dart away. It was a weird feeling having a hard time maintaining my locations (difficult from preventing myself from rising or falling unintentionally). I also had a hard time not breathing out from my nose, had to concentrate really hard not to allow this to happen.... which I find very strange because I never had this problem snorkeling. Overall it was a great experience, I might do it again in the future.

That afternoon we went to an island where we hiked to Whitehaven Beach. One of the most famous beaches in the world... because it was absolutely breathtaking. The sand was actually pure Silica - incredibly white and soft... which is produced because of two tectonic places rubbing together. The water and sand is woven together, making one of the most beautiful sites I have seen all of my life. Word's cannot describe and these pictures do not do it justice. We spent some time on the beach itself (after we looked at it & took pictures from above). Sadly we had to swim in our wet suits because of jelly fish. But it was a great way to spend an afternoon, lying in the waves letting the tide roll me around.

 That evening we saw the  most breathtaking sunset ever. The clouds gave it a huge variety of hues, shades, whatever you call it (artists?). Amazing.

Sunday, we were snorkeling by 7 am, en route back to Airlie beach by 8 am. Most productive morning of my life. I saw sea turtles!!! Sadly my camera was dead (So I've stolen others pictures). Proudest moment: finding a sting ray on my own. I was moseying along, stalking a turtle, when suddenly I saw a long pole on the bottom of the ocean. I thought, gee wonder what that is. After a few moments of staring I realized it was a huge stingray, camouflaged by the sand. So cool!

Overall this weekend was unforgettable. Made a few new really great friends, saw fabulous sites, and I never wanted to leave.

HERE IS A LINK TO A PHOTO-ALBUM OF THE WEEKEND --> Whitsunday Photos


This Blog entry was a little overdue... I went to Whitsundays February 16th through the 19th.  I began writing it weeks ago, but because I have been taking my studies so seriously I never had the chance to finish it... ;) I will update with photographs soon, but since you all are so eager to hear what's been happening I figure I better post the story first!

Coming soon... my Mardi Gras weekend in Sydney & a weekend by the beach at Byron Bay.

I miss everyone very much!! And time is flying by so quickly, I will be home in the States before I can say G'day. Very sad, but I do have a lot to look forward to.

Photography update

This is just a quick picture update, in case you did not realize I created picasa web albums (for those of you not checking facebook as regularly),

Click here to see my album from Currumbin Sanctuary!
Click here for my Melbourne Album!
Click here for my Great Ocean Road album!

More to come... and soon an update about my trip to the Whitsunday islands and the Great Barrier Reef!!

Love and miss everyone!