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.
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