The Great Barrier Reef

We spent the entire day out on the Great Barrier Reef snorkeling, and it was amazing.

The Reef is unimaginably long, roughly 1,430 miles, and is one of the few organic structures that can be seen from space - without a telescope. Equivalent to our beloved Amazon Rainforest in it's biodiversity, the Reef hosts the earth's most abundant collection of sea life.

We were lucky to see soooo many species, many more than we even knew we were looking at.

We did our tour with Silverswift - which both of my sisters used when they came here.  We did 3 locations and had a lunch at our second stop.

At our first site, I was immediately blown away by how beautiful it was. Almost instantly we saw a huge stingray. Tons of bright and colorful fish were surrounding us.  The coral was just as impressive. There were both hard and soft coral and I doubt the pictures from our disposable underwater cameras will do it justice. We found Nemo! We saw huge parrot fish, and some other massive fish, but my favorite were the much smaller and colorful ones. Someone in our group saw a reef shark. Harmless to us, but I probably would have freaked out because they didn't tell us that first.

Our second stop was probably my favorite. It felt a little more diverse, fish wise, but the reef also felt more impressive. We also saw giant clams here. When I say giant, I mean it. I think it could eat me! 

Lunch was delicious. The fresh fruit was so good. I think Mesa and I ate all of the kiwis! The sushi was also very tasty!

Our third and final site, we were holding out hope that we would see a sea turtle. They said the second site was our best chance so I didn't know how lucky we would be. But Mesa spotted one almost right away.  She said she screamed out "Christie" through her snorkel because she was so excited. I would probably have done the same thing - but I couldn't hear her. We were lucky that we were still by eachother because it was swimming away from the reef and I was the only one with a few more pictures left on the camera!  The turtle was big! It was beautiful. No one else in our group saw that turtle. Our guide also brought up a sea cucumber and a few different coral pieces. There was also this HUGE fish that came right up to us when we were by the camera man so he got a shot of us with it and we were able to touch it. In the picture of just the water, the spots you see are the reefs. 

The only thing I would change about the day was the motion sickness. I get so queasy and when I no longer have land to focus on, it's never a good thing. I didn't get sick, but there were a few moments that were questionable. I was so happy to be back on land again. We sent Anna Plewacki a video that she can share with you if you want! :) We got back to our hostel a little after 5 and Mesa made delicious pb and banana sandwiches while I played music videos on youtube. Check out Thrift Shop by Macklemore if you'd like to know our video of choice right now. Or, a Nicki Minaj Starships cover by Megan Nicole and Lindsey Stirling. Ok, that's it for now.

Wildlife Habitat

Today was another hot day in Cairns. Mesa got up this morning and went for a run while I showered and got ready to go.  It was so hot out that my shower only felt refreshing for about the first 5 minutes after I got out.

We had a shuttle bring us into Port Douglas today. It's about an hour drive north of Cairns. The drive was beautiful. The road runs right along the coast and all you see is beautiful blue water and bright blue sky.

The shuttle driver brought us right to the Wildlife Habitat. We had already bought our tickets in advance so we could go right in.  Immediately when we entered, a large Cassowary was hugging the main wall.  This bird is massive. It's got huge feet with a middle toe that can do as much damage as if you were shot with a gun. (I think the guy said like a 25 caliber, but that means nothing to me so I can't say for sure).

The park actually houses more than 180 species of tropical native wildlife, including the cassowaries, parrots, wetland waders, koalas, kangaroos, and crocodiles. I think the best part were the wallabies. They're minature kangaroos, and look so much cuter. When you get into that part of the park, they were just laying around. We stopped to take a few pictures and after that they began to come right up to you. Further on you see many more species of kangaroos but there are some which are quite large and can be rather intimidating.

We also saw a Koala show- which was basically a guy that worked there telling us about the Koala habitat, their food, and mating habits. The koala just slept in the tree.

After the show, we did get to hold the Koala for a picture.  He was much heavier than I thought he'd be. The guy doing the show said he weighed about 8-9 kilograms. But since that also doesn't mean anything to me, I determined it was half as much as my backpack so that had to be quite heavy (the airport weighed my bag in at 16 kilograms).

After leaving the park we took a shuttle to Port Douglas' Four Mile Beach. We were so hot and sweaty all day that the beach sounded great. The water however wasn't quite as refreshing because it was so warm. We were told we had to swim inside the netted area because jellyfish were quite bad right now. We didn't stay at the beach very long since the clouds came in. But we walked to town and had some icecream before the shuttle picked us up to go back to Cairns. There were more people on this ride and we were the last ones dropped off.

We made it back to the hostel just in time for pizza night and spent the rest of the evening chating with the people at our table.

Now time for bed! Oh, and happy birthday to my dad today!

Cairns

We have arrived in Cairns, and of course it's 90 degrees today. We have just been sweating since moment we landed.

This morning we checked out of our Sydney hostel after enjoying the free breakfast.  Now, those of you who received our emails from past trips know that we always love our free breakfast - but this one was probably the best. All kinds of cereals, toasts, yogurt, coffee, tea, etc. Just delicious. The hostel arraigned a shuttle to bring us to the airport and I can honestly say I've never seen an airport so crowded. Of course, once we go through security I'm pulled aside to be the random drug check.  When this happened to me in Brisbane, I told Mesa that it is ALWAYS me that they check. So it was pretty much proven this time. And yes, I'm still not a drug mule.

Our flight was fine, and we could instantly feel the humidity when they opened the doors of the plane. But the even better news was that our bags DID make it to Cairns. Success!

We got to the hostel right away but the office is closed from 12-4. Kind of weird but we sat in the common area (shaded) and had someone give us the WiFi password. We got into our room around 3:30 and organized our shuttle for tomorrow and some of the other things we are doing in Cairns. The hostel offers a free shuttle to the city section of Cairns for free about every hour. We took it there around 5 and found some groceries and looked in some shops. Our hostel gave us vouchers to a bar/grill that would give us a free meal if we ordered a drink at the bar. So we went there! The food was alright but for that price I can't complain.

We took the 8 pm shuttle back to the hostel and are now trying not to sweat our lives away. We have to pay for air conditioning $1 for 3 hours but we are going to see if we can manage tonight without it. If not, we can start paying for it tomorrow. We do have a ceiling fan and a window so here's hoping we can do alright.

The heat is exhausting, I think it will be an early night. Til next time.

Lifes a Beach ;)

Life sure seems lovely in the land down under. Maybe it was the perfect weather or just the way we spent our day, but one could get used to a life like this. :) (don't worry everyone, we do intend to come home)

This morning we had to leave bright and early so we could go to Manly Beach for our surfing lesson. We left the hostel about 7:45 so we could catch the 8:10 ferry. The ride over was nice and we made sure we sat outside to get a nice vantage point of the Opera House as we cruised past it. We made it to our surfing lesson at 9 and immediately got into our wetsuits. There were only 3 others in our lesson, and our guide, Brandon, took us down the beach. I'm going to say right now that carrying my surf board down a good bit of Manly Beach was a workout all it's own, but that probably would not surprise any of you reading this.

Anyway, Brandon gave us a quick briefing on the sand. The only thing I really remembered was to stay crouched low and keep your hands on the board while you moved your legs to get up. Apparently that was enough because I was the first person to have a go at it and I got up with no problems. I was pretty proud of myself. Mesa also got up on her first try too. We had a lot of fun out there and Brandon was a great guide. I learned that he's been working at Manly Surf School for 6 years, he turns 30 in April, he's a 5th generation of Manly, and he really only works about 5 hours a day.  Today he only had our 2 hour lesson and then he had to man the phones for 3 hours. Pretty different from my life, besides that whole turning 30 bit.

After surfing we took advantage of the beautiful day by laying out in the sun for a bit and then enjoyed some lunch right down by the water. Food is really expensive so although it is nice to sit somewhere by the water and be served, we have to do something else before we go broke.

We took the ferry back to Circular Quay only to go off to Bondi Beach. You can't cone to Sydney without going there. It's such a large beach and it's just packed with people. We didn't even go in the water there, but rather just found another nice spot to lay out for a while. The people-watching is spectacular.

We finished our evening with a little bit of shopping, standing outside the Apple store to use their free wi-fi, and meeting Eoin at Pie Face for dinner. What's Pie Face, you ask? Only an awesome, convienient little chain that has so many different kinds of pies - like pot pies.

Mesa had a vegetarian one, I had a thai chicken curry one. Eoin got some crazy thing with mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas on top. It was delicious.

Tonight's our last night in Sydney, so we said our goodbyes to Eoin and plan to just take it easy before bed.

We'd also like to give a special birthday shout out to Mesa's dad, Randal. I think she was the first to wish him well, although she did have a 17 hour advantage!

Bridge Climb / Opera House

G'day Mate! Right now I'm sitting with Mesa at a lovely little cafe called Rossini enjoying some really delicious fish and chips. It's located at the Circular Quay warf and we've just finished our Sydney Bridge Climb. It was unfortunately a gloomy rainy day so our views from the top of the bridge weren't the best.  But we had a fun time anyway. It wasn't very strenuous either, so if you're thinking of doing a trip to Sydney - put it on your itinerary! It's a must! Only 1,437 steps!

Our leader, Tom, was very knowledgeable and told some interesting stories across our radios. Like how this dude was working on the bridge and fell off about 50 meters but luckily he was a high diver and knew to go in feet first. He ended up with a few broken ribs but he went back to work 16 days later. Pretty lucky guy! This year the bridge celebrated it's 80th anniversary. We got to keep our hats too! In our group picture, look closely off to the right to see the opera house.

After lunch we walked over to the Opera House for our tour. It is pretty impressive up close. You always think that it's white, but when you're up close it actually has two-toned tiles: a creamy color and an egg shell like color. The tour guide we had, Alan, was really good. So passionate about this remarkable World Heritage Site. Jørn Utzon was the architect and started construction in 1959. His design almost didn't make it. It was put in the rejected pile but one of the judges was late and asked to look through them once he arrived. Because the project took much longer than the 3 years he estimated and they way overspent the 7 million estimated he ended up resigning from the project in 1966 after pressure about the project. He left Sydney and never came back to see it completed. (I'm not afraid to admit that hearing that made me sad and almost tear up). Luckily, there was reconciliation with Utzon, in 1999 he was brought on as an architect for future renovations and projects and his son is very involved and is in Sydney quite frequently.  I'd say the best part of our tour was that we went into the performance hall for Swan Lake. The male lead had to use an understudy for tonights performance and they were rehearsing when we went in. It was really cool to see the ballet dancers there rehearsing. Unfortunately, the show was sold out 6 months ago so that was all of the performance we will see.

After the tour we walked around to the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens because Eoin said there was a good photo spot there. We weren't disappointed. Although our legs were quite tired, it's been nice to walk around a bit.

We met up with Eoin for dinner after he was done working. I had a delicious chili crab linguine that was tossed in a lemon and mint sauce. Yum! Afterwards, we went to the Shangri-La Hotel. There's a bar on the 36th floor, Bar Blu, that has an amazing view of the bridge and the opera house. They also have a drink called The Martini on the Rock for $10, 000 that comes with a diamond in the glass and a hotel room. A little ridiculous, but maybe some girls like super over the top proposals. Regardless, with the city full of lights, and fabulous company, it was a nice way to end to our evening.

National Maritime Museum

Another nice day in Sydney! I'd even go so far as to say it was the best one yet! But that may be because our backpacks finally arrived! They didn't come until this evening, but at least we got them!

This morning we took it pretty easy since we were up late last night so we went out to Darling Harbor for lunch. It was a little cooler today but we still ate outside. After lunch Liam, Eoin, & Giovanna met up with us and we went to tour the National Maritime Museum. We started with a tour of the Endeavour, a replica of Captain Cook's ship that was reconstructed to be as similar to his original ship that was used in 1768-1771. We also went on the submarine Onslow which served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1969-1999. The sub could stay under water for 6 weeks at a time. The spaces were so tight that you better have liked the people you were with. They gave us these bright yellow clips so they could regulate the number of people going in, which I lost in the Harbor as I peered over the edge to look at all of the jellyfish. After that we toured the destroyer ship called the Vampire. It was the last big-gun ship built in Australia before the introduction of guided missiles. It was used in the Navy from 1959-1986. I've decided that all sailors have to be short because their sleeping spaces are so small.

We had a nice break after the museum and then Eoin, Giovanna, and Liam left so Liam could catch his flight. After that Eoin, Mesa & I went to The Rocks for dinner at a little Italian place. We had some delicious pizza and went for a nice walk afterwards. We went around the Circular Quay and had some nice views of the bridge and Opera House.

We also had our first encounter with the massive fruit bats. I'm telling you, these things are larger than a crow and would swoop down by us as we walked under the trees. So gross.

It's crazy that the weekend is over and tomorrow we'll be leaving Eoin.

Time flies when you're having fun.
Until tomorrow...

Harbor Cruise

Our bags have still not arrived. Quantas gave us another $500 and said our bags should come tomorrow. We have tried to make the best of it but it is quite frustrating. 

Today was still a very fun day. We did a harbor cruise with Eoin's friends. It was terribly hot out so it felt great to be out on the water. We had an amazing view of the Opera House and the Bridge. After the cruise we went out with the group back to Victoria's place. She was the one who organized the cruise.

It was really nice of everyone to be so welcoming.  We are having a wonderful time, now we just need our bags to arrive!