Warning: Really long post coming; not for the easily bored, or those with small bladders. Oh wait, that's all of you.
If you want this post in a nutshell: SPRING BREAK WAS AMAZINGLY FUN!For the rest of you who actually care enough to want at least a few details, grab yourself a cold drink and a snack, go pee, and settle back into that comfy chair, because you'll most likely be here for a while.
I'll start with the Thursday night before Spring Break officially started, which was the Guy/Girl Pub Crawl. The girls went to five or so different pubs, and the boys went to a few more, and then we met up at the end of the night. It was really fun. The theme was Desperate Housewives, but there were a lot of girls who wore aprons and had "accessories" of cooking and cleaning utensils. While the overall effect was cute, they obviously have never watched the show, because I don't think any of those women have actually been near a stove or cleaned anything in their lives. Anyway, enough of the Pub Crawl.
The next day, Friday, Mel, Boosh, and I drove to Mel's house to begin Spring Break. Actually we started the break by babysitting her niece and nephew, and then got to her house late at night. The next day we babysat her other niece and nephews. On Monday we drove along the Great Ocean Road to the 12 Apostles. They are these really cool rock formations sticking out of the ocean in front of huge cliffs. Check out the pictures. Actually just read the whole post first, and then check out all the pictures, because there's several hundred of them. Yes, you read that correctly, several hundred. Hope you brought a big snack with you. Anyway, back to the 12 Apostles. Actually, I should back-track. Before we got to the 12 Apostles, we stopped at the Otway Fly. It's a skywalk that's 2 kilometers long and is 25 meters above the rainforest floor. Talk about scary, rickety, (hole-y), metal suspension bridges. I shudder remembering it. I must've been in an extra-brave mood that day, because I even ventured all the way up the lookout tower thing, where you're 45 meters above the forest floor. That's basically at the top of the canopy! It was really pretty, and a good walk. I wish we weren't stuck in the middle of several groups with small children though, because obviously there weren't any animals that were dumb enough to stick around and hang out while the kids were screaming. It would've been nice to see a few birds and maybe a platypus or something. The rainforest itself was really pretty though. There was a really pretty little creek that reminded me of some of the hikes that I went on my first year of camp, when I did the Wilderness program. After we finished the walk, we drove to a nice spot for a picnic and ate sandwiches and salad (with vinegar and oil, yum!) and TIMTAMS!!!! They're the best cookie ever. And I don't like pre-packaged cookies. I'm bringing a big box home for people to try. Or maybe I'll just hoard them and eat them all. They're MINE!!!! Okay so back to the 12 Apostles. It was a really pretty area, and it made me want to go to the beach, even though it was a bit chilly (and of course, we were at the top of the cliffs, with no way of getting down except jumping....and I wasn't feeling quite that brave). After the 12 Apostles, we continued driving along the Great Ocean Road until we reached Warrnambool (a city), where Mel and I went shopping! I bought a cute pair of shorts and saw a really cute tube top, but I couldn't buy it because the shops closed before I could get in them. That night Mel and I tried cooking a pasta dish from a recipe book she found in her house. It was linguini with chicken and avocado in a cream sauce. I know Mom's probably thinking, oh how fattening! But it was really yummy, and we did do a lot of walking around and climbing at the rainforest. It was a justified overconsumption of calories.
On Thursday the 21st, Mel and I said good-bye to Victoria (and Boosh) and ventured into Queensland. We landed in Cairns in time to eat dinner and go to bed. The hostel, Cairns Girls' Hostel, is run by a lady named Dawn. It's basically a big house, with lots of beds crammed in lots of rooms. Mel and I paid a bit extra so we had a room all to ourselves (we didn't really want to share a room with other girls who we didn't know or trust to leave our luggage in the room with). The room was clean, as was the bathroom, and they had nice kitchen and lounge facilities, although we didn't use either of those. Dawn was nice, and the hostel is very centrally located (we walked to everything the entire time), so for a cheap stay ($22 AU a night each), it was pretty good. We also got "free meal" tickets every night, but we ended up paying $10 more and getting the upgrade of grilled fresh barramundi (a really yum fish) in a lemon butter sauce with fries, salad, and a soft drink. Definitely well worth paying $10 for!!
The first full day we were there, we put on our new bikinis (oh yeah, I bought a new bikini in Warrnambool too) and went to the lagoon. Apparently Steve was right when he warned us that there were only mudflats there, and no beach. It was still good though, because there was a "lagoon" which was basically just a really huge pool right off the main street, by the mudflats so you get a view of the ocean while you swim. Mom and Michele would be really proud- I slathered on that Arbonne like it was nobody's business. I must say that it is a bit shameful to admit that, but my reasoning was that removing the skin cancer I would've definitely gotten if I had burned would be much more painful than to use all-natural sunscreen. Anyway, Mel and I roasted for a bit, and then when we felt that the sun was becoming too hot (we're both deathly white, so we didn't want to end up looking like a tomato on the first day!), we moseyed around the gazillion touristy shops, buying postcards and random little souvenirs. Around dinnertime we walked back to the hostel, showered, went out for our (grilled) fish and chips, and then went to the Night Markets, which we discovered are the best thing since sliced bread. They had good souvenirs too, and the most amazing invention ever-- choco banana crepes. It's a crepe filled with bananas (real bananas! oh the joy! there's been no bananas here because a hurricane wiped out 100% of the crop earlier this year), and a scoop of chocolate ice cream. My mouth is salivating just thinking of them. After that we decided we needed to walk it off a bit, so we wandered around, and found ourselves in a pub that had cane toad races. Talk about hilarious. To give you a bit of background, cane toads are not native to Australia. They were introduced in the early 1900s to control an outbreak of cane beetles that were ruining crops. Well, to say they were successful is an understatement. Unfortunately, I'm referring to their breeding habits. They're now classified as a pest, and are a real problem in northern Australia because they are poisonous, and are killing native wildlife that try to eat them. They're also uncontrollable; since virtually nothing can eat them, so they breed like crazy. So back to the cane toad races. This funny old guy gets people from the pub to name "their" toad, which is painted with a number on its back, and then put in a can in the middle of a sandbox-type thing. Then once all the toads are in there, he lifts the lid, gives the bucket a good kick to get them going, and the first toad to hop to the wall is declared the winner. It was hilarious.
The next day was the BEST DAY EVER, in the entire history of good days. My diary's first line even reads "today was the best day ever!", so you know it really was the best day ever. Mel and I woke up at 6am, and by 7 were down at the pier (the early timing wasn't part of the "best" in that "best day ever" line). We were going to the reef. The Great Barrier Reef, that is. We were set to go on the SuperCat, which was a powerboat catamaran with the company Down Under Dives. Once we got to the boat, they looked at us, asked if we were certified divers, and upon hearing that I was, upgraded us to the Osprey V, which was the more expensive, nicer boat. After getting fins, masks, and snorkels, I was taken upstairs to the "diver" room, and Mel had to stay downstairs in the main room with all the other snorkellers. While I was filling out the paperwork they gave me, I realized that this would be the first time I dove without Dad. It was a rather shocking thought, and for a moment I thought that it was kind of scary and maybe I shouldn't go, and just snorkel instead. Then reality hit me-- if I can dive with Dad and survive, I can dive anywhere and with anyone and survive. It was a comforting thought (no offense, Dad). I made the expert decision to pay an extra $20 and dive with a guide for both dives. I was paired off with a guy around my age named Joel, who happened to be travelling with the Australian Navy, and was vacationing in Cairns by himself. He kind of tagged along with me and Mel, and I think by the end of the day he must've come to the decision that both of us are certifiably insane (which is understandable). Finally we arrived at the first reef-- Saxon Reef. Since Joel and I had about an hour before our group was leaving, we decided to snorkel a bit with Mel first. She's not the world's best swimmer, and had never gone snorkelling before. She got into the water with her purple noodle, put on her mask after spitting into it like an expert, put her snorkel in her mouth, stuck her head in, and promptly began hyperventilating and freaking out. It took her a really long time to get used to the idea of breathing underwater, and also to the idea of not being able to touch the bottom. During this time of trying to coax her away from the side of the boat where people were jumping on us to get into the water, I discovered that the fins they gave me were too big, and had flopped right off my feet! I told Mel I'd be right back, and she said she wouldn't move anywhere while I got out and went in search of size 3-5 flippers. I started panicking when, after a full 8 minutes, all the fins were too big, or size 1-3. How could I dive without fins? I was about to throw a full-on fit when the dive guide helping me look came up with one (1) fin in size 3-5! It was yellow (this is relevant, I swear). After a full 5 more minutes of searching, we found a second fin in size 3-5. It was white. I didn't care. Oh, the colors were relevant because every single dive guide on that boat and a few passengers made sure to point out to me that my fins didn't match. Apparently this was a posh boat we were on. Good thing I had my new orange one-piece bathing suit on, with its little sparkley things on the straps. I looked cute, even though my fins were mismatched. Too bad my bathing suit was covered up by a 5mm long sleeved wetsuit! I didn't think the reef would be that cold. Anyway, after getting new fins, I jumped back in the water to discover Mel missing. When I looked up at the boat I saw she had gotten out, because she got nervous without me there. She got back in and we swam around a bit more, and she even started getting the hang of it, although after only 15 minutes or so I had to get out to get my tank on. Once I was all suited up and weighed down with 16 pounds to offset the huge bulky wetsuit, I made sure I held on to my rented camera and my mask and regulator, and took the big leap. Every time I "step" off the side or back of a boat for a dive, I get this mental image of me walking the plank on a pirate ship. I don't know why it reminds me of that. Anyway, this first dive was down to 20 meters or so. I can't do the things I saw justice. Check out the pictures; it was amazing. Fish were everywhere. I mean everywhere. Every time I took a picture, this same one fish kept coming right up to my mask. I touched several fish just from reaching out my hand. The corals were vibrant blues, pinks, and yellows. I saw many Nemos. No Dorys though. I held a sea cucumber and touched the inside of a giant clam, which I have pictures of. They were really really cool. Describing how they felt is hard; they both felt cool to the touch, and very soft, sort of velvety. Softer than anything else I've ever felt, and fragile in a strange sense, like you could kind of squish it a bit and it'd slowly re-inflate itself. I got really excited about the giant clams and took a lot of pictures of them, but they had really pretty colors and patterns, so it's justified. We were allowed a maximum dive time of 45 minutes, and I was the only one to reach that, so once everyone else went up and I was left with just the guide, he took my camera and took a few pictures of me and a giant clam (I was a fan, I told you) and then it was time to go back up. I peeled off the wetsuit, dumped it and my mask and fins upstairs to dry a bit, and went in to eat some lunch. I ate fresh grilled fish and a bit of salad. Mel and I were smart and brought our own 1L bottles of water so we wouldn't have to buy drinks on board. When we got to the second location, Hastings Reef, Mel was eager to get in the water. This was a fish nursery because it was shielded by huge coral formations. It was a lot shallower than the first reef- this one was only a max of 10 meters, but most of it was at 5 or 6. We got some really good photos of Mel and I snorkelling, and I dove down to get some close up pictures of fish, which was kind of hard to do on one breath. I came up after being down a really long time and popped up next to one of the dive guides that had been watching me, and he was like, "wow you were down there a really long time!" We ended up losing track of time, and long story short, Joel and I missed our dive group. The dive guy said we could just go together alone, it's not that complicated and it's not that easy to get lost, and Joel seemed to make the decision for both of us by saying, sure! and putting on his tank. I decided not to use the wetsuit since I got hot during the first dive, and it was killing my arms and neck (I'm really not a fan of long sleeved wetsuits....talk about full-body restraints!). So I took my metaphorical walk off the plank and went on my first dive without someone knowledgeable there. Well, Joel was knowledgeable enough-- he's been diving since he was 12 too, (in Melbourne, which is the Southern Ocean....talk about COLD WATER!!!), but still, I found out later that was his first dive without his dad too. Good thing he didn't tell me that before we jumped in! I think everyone knows my *great* sense of direction (read the sarcasm there), so I was much relieved at the end when Joel managed to lead me back to the boat long before either of us ran out of air (we were above the time limit though....oops). I must say he did look out for me pretty well, because he told me afterwards that I kept disappearing to take pictures, and he'd turn around and realize I was gone and have to go back and find me. Of course I was totally clueless to this because I was having too much fun with the cool camera! Anyway, so on this dive we saw Wally right away-- he's a big Maori Wrasse that's a whole meter long!!! Talk about a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge fish!!! We also passed near a stingray, which made me a little nervous. There were tons and tons of little fish hiding in corals and swimming everywhere. Most of the pictures of lots of tiny fish are from this reef. I was really excited about the nudibranch I saw-- I have a picture of it because it was just so pretty. It was so small though, it was easy to miss! When we got back on the boat it was time to head back to Cairns, and Mel was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to go back in the water again. The way back was a fun 45 minute ride-- they gave us a mug of white wine that would've killed Lelo because it was so sweet (not to mention served in a blue plastic mug!), cheese, and Ritz crackers, and had a man with a guitar singing fun songs in the corner. When we arrived at the pier, Mel and I dragged our aching, exhuasted bodies all the way from the pier to the camera place, where we waited a while to drop off the camera, and then finally arrived at our hostel. We plopped into bed and didn't move for about an hour before deciding that a hot shower and some food would be a perfect ending to a perfect day. We couldn't make it past the McDonald's that night to get our fish dinner, so we had some yummy, superhealthy cheeseburgers and artery-clogging fries before heading to the Night Markets to meet up with Joel, who wanted a copy of my pictures. I didn't want to give him my new CD to take back to his ship to copy, so I said if he wanted to give me his e-mail address or an address where I could mail him a copy of the CD, I'd be happy to do that. He ended up saying that he'd meet up with us the next day and then never did, so I'm rather happy I didn't just hand over my pictures. Funny how I was fine trusting him with my wellbeing underwater, yet I didn't want to trust him with my CD. Well, I paid a good US $45 for those pictures so you bet I was going to hang on to them!!! Besides, I hadn't seen them yet, and I didn't want someone else to be the first to view my pictures. Anyway, by the time I got to bed I was very exhausted, but very happy with how awesome the day turned out to be.
Sunday we spent relaxing and wandering around the city, and Monday we had a 4 wheel drive through the rainforest and a trip to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures planned. The 4-wheel drive was through the Clohesy Rainforest, which is World Heritage listed (like the reef is). It's the oldest rainforest in the world, at 125 million years old! It's even older than the Amazon. It has some of the most primitive surviving flowering plants. We didn't really see many animals because of all the noise of the bus, but Mel spotted a red-bellied black snake (which is on that list of top 10 deadliest snakes in the world), and a lady in the front saw a turtle in one of the creeks before it was scared off. We saw a curtain fig tree, which sends down roots from its branches to support its weight, a strangler fig tree, which starts out its life as an epiphyte and eventually is harmful to its host, and lots of ferns. After the 4-wheel drive we went to the crocodile park. Our first stop was to eat lunch, since it was 1 and we were hungry! Then we went on a little boat ride and saw lots of freshwater crocodiles. The driver of the boat hung chicken heads from a pole and dangled them in the air so the crocodiles would jump out of the water and eat them. It was pretty cool. The snap of their mouths is so loud-- it was something like 300 pounds per square inch of force. It sounded like a loud, hollow clap. Then we went to a snake show, but the lady only showed two snakes and a blue-tongued lizard, and then started talking about snake safety, so Mel and I left and got our pictures holding a live baby crocodile. It was so soft and squishy feeling! Then we saw a "croc attack" show, where a crazy guy was walking around barefoot in a tank with a full grown male saltwater (the more dangerous variety) crocodile, and he got dangerously close to it several times. I have some really good movies from that show. He even hand-fed the crocodile sardines! Then we walked around the complex, where they had koalas (so cute!), wallabies, cassowaries (which are great seed distributors in the rainforest because they eat every kind of fruit and poop out the seeds far away from the parent plant), and other random animals. Did you know that koalas spend up to 16 hours a day sleeping? They eat eucalyptus leaves, which give them just enough energy to wake up and eat, and then go back to sleep. They looked like they just passed out wherever they ran out of energy. I've decided that Marmie and I would make really good koalas. Another random fact about koalas: they're not bears. Nor are they even related to bears. They're actually closer related to wombats, which are another Australian animal (although it doesn't help that wombats look somewhat like bears). Anyway, after our really full day, Mel and I went and ate our fish and then walked through the Night Markets, but (be proud!) we didn't get our yummy crepes.
The next day we went (sort of on a last-minute whim) to Fitzroy Island, which appeared to be a nice island with snorkelling, beaches, and rainforest too. I must say, it was a bit disappointing. The "beach" had no sand, just broken corals. Talk about painful feet! The underwater visibility was only like 5 feet, so snorkelling wasn't the best of ideas either. I was so determined to just lay out and get some sun that I plunked my towel down under a tree, slathered on Arbonne, and laid down until the sun moved enough to make my shade go away. I did get a little bit tan, even though I was perhaps being a bit overcautious about getting skin cancer. I wouldn't normally be so worried, except that the hole in the ozone layer just so happens to be over Australia, so there's really no protection against UV rays that is normally there anywhere else in the world. Anyway, around 2pm or so Mel and I decided to check out the rainforest. We took the 1km long "Secret Garden" trail, which was really very pretty. Since it was very quiet (just the two of us) we saw glimpses of some rat-like animal, and lots of skinks. After taking our time on the trail we returned to the poolside hut and got a cold drink, since it was our last full day. That night we went out for our special dinner. We ate an "Aussie mixed grill" platter, which had kangaroo, crocodile, and beef, and fries and a salad too. I really liked the whole thing. The crocodile tasted kind of like pork, except chewier, and the kangaroo was somewhat like beef, but drier, and less....beefy. Mom described it as "game-y", and some of my friends have described it as "bland beef", but I thought it had a taste that was almost like it had been roasted over an open wood fire or something. I liked it, although it could've been a little juicier for me. Afterwards we treated ourselves to one last crepe (this time I chose strawberry with chocolate ice cream...yum).
The next day was our last day. We had to check out at 9:30, but our flight didn't leave til 8:20pm, so we were stuck wandering around the mall for a while. When we got tired of loud people we wandered in the movie theater and decided to watch The Wild. It had its cute moments, but it was very similar to Madegascar. Personally I liked Madegascar better, although I must say that the English koala in The Wild was HILARIOUS. He did an especially cute impersonation of the Statue of Liberty. After our movie we slowly made our way to La Porchetta, which is an Italian restaurant somewhat like the Olive Garden but a whole lot better, and I ate tortellini with pesto sauce, which was rather good. We spent a good hour and a half in there, and when we finally left we wandered around slowly some more until it was time to get our bags and go to the airport. We didn't get back to Mel's house until 3AM!!!
On Friday, Mel, Boosh, and I went to Sovereign Hill. It was a gold mining town in the 1800s (or maybe early 1900s...not too sure about the dates), where they found the second largest gold nugget in the world. It was cute; they had a stream where you could "pan for gold" running through the middle of the town, and they had actual houses with furniture from that time period showing rich peoples' houses and poor miners' tents. Mel and I dipped our own candles in colored wax to make them pretty, and we all went on a horse and buggy ride, which was fun. We also got to see a school, and all the little kids who were visiting were the "students" and learned how to use a quill pen and ink. It was fun to walk around, and I ate the most amazing vanilla slice ever. I even had Boosh take a picture of me eating it. Vanilla slice is sort of like a Napolitan (is that what they're really called? I always thought they were Napoleons....), you know, with the cream and the flaky pastry, and the white and chocolate drizzled frosting. Anyway, they're really good.
Yesterday we drove back to Melbourne after lunch time, and I think I was ready to come back and get back into school mode. Don't get me wrong, that was definitely the best Spring Break I've ever had and I can't imagine having a better one, but sometimes I just feel like it's time to go back to school. I guess it's the inner nerd in me trying to come out. Anyway, it has now taken me a full 4 hours (at least) to write this one post. I congratulate you on reading all the way to the bottom! Now you can go check out all the pictures, although, I must warn you (again, in case you forgot), there are more than 200 of them just from Spring Break! And I only posted the highlights of the trip. It's now 1AM my time, and I am exhausted, and have a 9AM class that I can't miss. I think I've earned a good night's rest!
posted by Christina @ 6:17 PM
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