Australia, summer of 2009

In a plane going from Tucson to LA
Saturday, June 6, 2009
7:59 PM (Arizona time – unless otherwise noted, time will be Australian time)
Well, we’re off. We still have a ways to go, nearly 24 hours worth in fact, but at least we’re going.
I drove myself to the Tucson airport (my mom was in the car, of course) where the Arizona People to People Delegation gathered in the lobby to get our tickets, sign some last minute paperwork, and wait for everyone to arrive. After this all was accomplished we said our goodbyes, which I admit were hard, and then on to security.
After heading through security, we, we being Katie, Megan, Emylee, Mariah and myself, waited for maybe an hour and a half to board. After boarding we waited some more because something was up with the planes AC and “air start” of the engine or some such thing. After waiting in the back of a hot plane for a while, they finally decided it couldn’t be fixed (it was only important to starting the engine and they had machine to do that, and once the engine started so did the AC), and we took off. Always gives me that feeling of joy as we take off. The joy that I am flying and I am going somewhere. Doesn’t matter where – it’s just somewhere. It put a smile on my face, helped by the gorgeous sunset – peach and pink sky meeting purple clouds over the Tucson skyline. A nice beginning to what promises to be a wonderful trip.

In a plane going from Brisbane to Cairns
Monday, June 8, 2009
10:10 AM
We had a three hour layover in LA, though it was shortened by the delay in Tucson, but we ended up needing just about every second of it. We got off the plane and hustled over to the Qantas Airlines check-in area to get them to collect our luggage from United. Then we got to go through security for the second time. By the time we finally got to our gate we had just enough time for those of us who wanted food to grab some and then board. The Louisiana delegation met with us in LA, but because of the time crunch we didn’t get much of a chance to talk to each other.
The plane taking us across the ocean was one of the huge 747s with 11 seats across in a 3-5-3 layout. It was actually a pretty nice plane. They gave us a little gift bag with things like socks, toothbrush and toothpaste (the cutest toothpaste you ever saw – it was tiny), and sleeping masks. They fed us dinner about an hour and a half after we got off the ground, and it was a full meal. Good, too, especially from airplane food. I was impressed. We got breakfast about an hour before we landed and movies were offered throughout. It was enjoyable, for a flight.
It was really awesome, though, that the flight attendants I could hear and some of the passengers had Australian accents. I shouldn’t be surprised. And I wasn’t, really. It was just awesome and exciting.
It was night as we left LA, and as we flew off the city lights were clearly visible. From my seat behind the wing, the hot exhaust from the engines blurred the lights just enough to put them slightly out of focus. This made the view just post-card perfect.
After an approximately 12 hour flight filled mostly with sleeping and two movies we arrived in Australia. For most of the flight nothing could be seen, especially not from my seat in the center of the row. Mostly, though, it was too dark and we were flying over the Pacific. As we got closer to Brisbane (pronounced Bris-bun), we could see lights on land and even a few in the water. Once again, the view was blurred, but this time it was more frustrating that picturesque. I wanted to see Australia, not some blurred picture of it. The view wasn’t too horribly ruined, though, I was just picky. As we taxied into our gate, the sunrise began. Though not mind-blowing, it was pretty. More importantly, it was Australian.
Our time in the Brisbane airport was spent making the mundane extraordinary. The air, the sun, the accents, the trees, the speed limit signs, the placement of the steering wheel of cars (the right), and the list goes on. It really was nothing great, but it was Australian, and that was enough. Right now, just writing the word Australia thrills in my mind. I almost forget where we are sometimes. The forest near the airport reminds me of Oregon. Unconsciously I began to think, just a tiny bit, that that’s where we were. Remembering where we actually were, made looking out the window that much more exciting.
Before we got on the last plane, though, we took a (very smooth) train to the domestic terminal and got lucky enough to re-enter security. Our third time going through security in as many airports. Australian security seemed to be less strict, though – they appeared to be most worried about umbrellas and aerosol cans.
After that, our 2½ hour layover was down to about half and hour, which we spent getting food and Australian money. The bills are very colorful and awesome. I’m rather jealous, actually. (I learned later that they were made of a plastic-y material so they would be harder to tear and could go through the wash without a problem. Each denomination is a different color and slightly different size.) We got food at Hungry Jack’s. This is Australia’s Burger King. I mean this literally. They have the same logo, same trademark names of foods, everything is the same but the name. That was neat.
So here we are, headed to Cairns (pronounced Cans). It’s probably 11 AM by now Australia time, which means is probably around 6 PM yesterday at home, which probably explains why it feels like late afternoon even though I know it’s not. I just hope I don’t crash too hard at the end of the day, when it’s late back home.

In Room 1109 of The Lakes, Cairns Resort and Spa
Same Day
9:03 PM
Well, I didn’t crash. There was a definite downward slope at the end of the day, but no crash.
So, we landed in Cairns. Just before landing we were flying over the ocean, as the airport is quite close to the coast, and we had some very nice views of the Great Barrier Reef from above. It discolored the water and stood out very obviously. That was pretty neat.
After landing we collected our baggage and headed over to the bus we’ll be riding for the next 18 days. We also met our delegation manager, Colin, a nice guy who seems to have a good sense of humor and a kind personality. We hopped on the bus (a Grayline) and headed of to the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Before you kill yourself trying to pronounce that name, it is said Cha-puh-kai. The middle syllable starts with a hard almost b sound and the uh part is very understressed.
When we arrived at Tjapukai it was about 1 PM so we ate lunch – a sandwich, some sultanas, crackers and cheese and a piece of pie – before getting started on the activities. It wasn’t fancy was quite good. Before I continue, this park is the National Park type of thing, not the kind you take your kids to. It is a full-blown forest.
There is a river with eels, turtles, fish and ducks in it. It’s a pretty neat place, actually. It’s humid (though all of Cairns is somewhat humid), and the vegetation, completely unfamiliar, is almost jungle-like.
After lunch we saw an Aboriginal dance performance, which was a unique experience. They danced and simultaneously explained the meaning of the dance, their dress, their face paint and their customs. It was fascinating.
This was followed by two activities taught to us by the same people – throwing a boomerang and throwing a spear. Both were harder than they sounded at first, at least to me. It was fun, though, to try to see if you could get the boomerang to come back to your general direction or to see if you could actually get the spear more than 5 feet away from you. I wasn’t successful at either, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was interesting to me that not even the Aborigines, who were good at throwing boomerangs, could make it come straight back to their hand. I’d gotten the impression somewhere that that was how it worked, but looking back it doesn’t make much sense that it could come right back to your hand.
After a condensed visit to the gift shop we rushed off to a place called the Skyrail before it closed. Just a short walk away, this is basically an enclosed ski lift that takes you up a nearby mountain and back down the other side. We had a lot of view of trees, and even better was the view of Cairns and the ocean behind us.
The most breathtaking view, though, was certainly Baron Falls. On our path up and then down the mountain we made two stops to get off and look at trees up close and enjoy the view from the ground. One of these stops overlooked Barron Falls. They were as gorgeous as any waterfall, and the sound of the rushing water was somehow both relaxing and the opposite. Still, it just added to the enjoyment of the Skyrail.
The bus picked us up at the last stop and we went over for dinner at a fancy restaurant called Ochre. The food was delicious, but the experience is significant more for what the food actually was. I, and most of the other delegates decided to try something new. I had a kangaroo steak. It tasted good, but the meat itself was nearly identical to regular steak. A tad anticlimactic, but meat will taste like meat, I suppose. The rest of the meal (sweet potatoes, fries and pavlova) were just as good. Nearly asleep at this point, we headed here, to The Lakes.
This is a posh place. There is no way it’s cheap, not with the multiple pools around, the kitchen, living room, and washer and dryer in each room. There are two bedrooms with two relatively comfortable beds each. And now, after a nice, long shower, I’m going to sleep in an actual bed after a long, long trip. I look forward to tomorrow!

Same place
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
5:57 PM
So today I got up, called home, breakfasted, hopped on the bus and headed to the ship that would take us to the Great Barrier Reef pretty uneventfully. Upon arriving at the port I made a short detour to purchase an underwater, disposable camera at a nearby. The group then headed out to the boat, a nice, big ship with indoor and outdoor seats and two levels. It had a place to buy food and drink. It was a comfortable 90 minute ride out to the reef. I enjoyed the rocking motion of the boat. The motion would change directions, sometimes swaying side to side, other times forward to back. It was an interesting feeling, and after we got pretty far from shore the waves were big enough to discourage you from walking around the boat unless you really needed to.
After the ride the boat docked up to a permanent platform from which we could base our activates. Helicopter rides and scuba dives for both certified and non-certified divers were available, though they were spendy and I’m not sure People to People students would have been allowed to do them without parent permission. However, there were also guided snorkeling tours. One was called something like The Adventure, and on this tour you were boated out a ways to the edge of the reef, where it drops of pretty suddenly into much deeper water. Deep enough that there is no way you could see the bottom.

Same place
Same day
9:25 PM
Continuing on for a little while, at least. I’m drained.
So, I heard about this tour, and I really wanted to do it. However, I’d never snorkeled before and a couple people recommended I take a beginners tour first – for another $30 on top of the $40 for The Adventure. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to cough up 70 bucks, so after speaking to a few more people, I decided to have my friends who knew how to snorkel teach me and then go on the second tour, which would be at noon. I would pay after just in case I couldn’t or didn’t want to snorkel.
I needn’t have taken the precaution. Snorkeling was amazingly, breathtakingly fabulous. And it was ridiculously easy. Not easy to do well, perhaps, but easy enough to do it well enough for my purposes.
Now, from this square platform the boat had docked onto the reef could be seen quite clearly. It was farther away than I had expected, but the nearest section was only maybe 25 feet away, so it wouldn’t be too much of a swim to get over to it.
After collecting a snorkel, mask and flippers (the water was warm enough not to need a wet suit), I climbed down a few steps to a submerged ledge that allowed one to put on your and get in. The water was slightly warmer than a pool – it took half a second my body to get used to the temperature and then it was fine. I put on my flippers and had my friend Mariah help me figure out the snorkel and mask. I then flopped out into the water to head for the nearest section of reef. I put my head underwater and right there in front of me was the reef. Right there. Just deep enough not to be visible from the surface, but not very deep. At some points it was probably 20 feet under water, others just 2 or 3. It wasn’t as colorful as it is in pictures, but in terms of structure and shapes it was much more interesting. One coral would be completely different from another. Fish were swimming right underneath me and they seemed to take no notice of me. Some came close enough that I felt I could have touched them, but if I made any sudden movements in their direction they would swim out of reach. It was amazing.
Snorkeling, as I mentioned, is pretty easy. You just sort of float around on top of the water. You can just drift most of the time, and you don’t even have to do much actual swimming. The hardest part of snorkeling for me was swimming right over top of coral very close to the surface. I’ll explain why tomorrow.

Same place
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
7:07 AM
I’m falling behind! I just have too much to write and I’m so exhausted at night, my chance to write.
So, why? Because for an inexperienced snorkeler like myself, my mask or my breathing tube would occasionally get a little water in it. By occasionally I mean about every 2 minutes. So the easiest was to try to get it out is to tread water vertically and dump it out. However, if you’re swimming right over any coral, it’s pretty impossible to do without hitting the coral. Which you are not supposed to do and which I don’t really want to do. If the coral is very close to the surface, even swimming horizontally I get freaked out. I tense up and don’t move much until I’ve floated away to a bit deeper water. I don’t want to kill the reef!
So a couple of friends and I snorkeled for maybe 15-20 minutes, got out for a little while, then went back in for a similar length of time.

On a bus going from Cairns to the farm stay at Woodleigh station
Same day
3:19 PM
After these first two short adventures with snorkeling we only had a half an our or so until our noon guided tour. We spent the time doing a little bit of sunbathing and getting wet suits mostly because we were told they would help our buoyancy.
After gathering about 20 people, the guides loaded us onto a small boat, maybe 30 feet long. It was a short ride to the point where we could hop into the water in two separate groups and start the tour.
Looking down at first, I could only see the somewhat murky water underneath me. Then I noticed the looming shape of the reef no too far away. The 10 of us swam over. The coral sloped off toward the ocean floor in a steep slope. The reef here was just as diverse. The water muted some of the colors of the coral, but still I could see purples, blues, oranges. The reef wasn’t too different from the reef just off the platform, but there did seem to be some different species of fish. It was also really interesting to hear more about the reef and the animals on it from our guide.
The fishes’ colors were not as muted as the corals. I saw black and yellow butterfly fish. My favorite, the deep blue parrot fish swam by, and if you were lucky you got to see it gnaw on some coral. We also saw other types of animal life. The guide dived down and brought up a sea cucumber for us to look at and touch. It does have the shape of a cucumber, but it is soft and slimy with small bumps on it. Almost like the texture of your tongue. We saw a few giant clams. They weren’t giant yet, the largest was maybe 1 foot across, but they were neat looking.
After about an hour and a half the tour ended. We had just enough time to shovel down some lunch before the fish feeding and then the tour on the semi-submersible. The fish feeding was neat, but we were late to it so we didn’t seem as much as some others. It just allowed to you to get a little closer look at some of the fish. The semi-sub was a ship with glass windows under the water so you could see the coral and the fish with a guide and without getting wet. It was fun, though the view was not as good as it was when snorkeling. It was curious as to how the boat was navigated so it wouldn’t hit the coral because we seemed to get pretty close to it.
We saw giant clams and sea cucumbers on the semi-sub as well.
There were a couple of hours before the boat would head back to Cairns. The salt water is hard on you after a while, so I decided just to relax the rest of the time and enjoy the view.
We got back to the hotel and finished our day with nothing special, just dinner, packing, pool time, laundry and bed.
Today was had a later start – breakfast at 7:45 rather than 7:15 – but we had to bring all our luggage down with us as that was our last night at The Lakes. After breakfast we headed back to Tjapukai to buy souvenirs because we’d run out of time two days ago (seems longer ago). The stop ended up running about ½ an hour longer than expected, but that didn’t appear to mess us up too badly.
The next stop was the Cairns Tropical Zoo. It was a very nice zoo with mostly, though not completely, Australian animals. Our first activity was a bird show where different birds would fly around and a zoo keeper would talk about them. It was interesting, and I learned that the black and white bird I had been seeing around was the Australian magpie. One of the birds they had out was the largest species of eagle in the world. I don’t remember what it was called.
Afterwards we watched another zoo keeper talk about first lemurs and the red pandas, both of which are the cutest things you every saw.
Next was definitely the highlight of the day. I’ll explain about it later. I think we’re getting close to the farm.

In the girls tent at Woodleigh Station
Same day
10:09 PM
So the highlight of the day was holding and having my picture taken with a koala.
I didn’t get to hold it long, but it was long enough. The koala was absolutely adorable. Not super soft, but very fluffy and not very heavy. The cutest thing ever.
Lunch followed this awesome experience, succeed by an hour or a bit less to explore the zoo on our own. We did. We saw kangaroos, alligators, lizards, turtles, wombats.

I even got to pet a wallaby. These mini-kanagaroos come very close to the koala in cuteness, though not in placidity. The koala just sat there as it was passed from person to person. They sleep something like 20 hours a day. The wallaby however, seemed only to put up with us because of the food that was around.
After petting the wallaby my friends and I raced back to the bus so we wouldn’t be late. We drove to Woodleigh Station, the farm, in about 3 hours.

Same place
Thursday, June 11, 2009
9:38 PM
Tonight is the last night we spend here at Woodleigh Station and we are off right away tomorrow. I won’t miss the cold or the showers, but otherwise I’ll miss most everything else, especially the relaxed atmosphere of the area. But I’ll get to that.
Going back to yesterday afternoon. We arrived here on a nice day. Here is what Australians call a station, this one named Woodleigh Station. Woodleigh Station is basically a huge cattle ranch. They have a fantastically large property, though they are smaller than most other stations, on which they raise cattle. Every so often they go out mustering to collect all the cattle and sell most of them off to slaughter. The place where they live looks much like I expected a farm to look. They have a couple dairy cows, goats, chicken, geese, a pig and maybe some other animals. It’s a beautiful place with interesting vegetation. Gum trees, or eucalypts, are very common. It’s much dryer than on the coast.
We had some free time to unpack and hang out just after arriving. We are staying in big circus tents, which they call marquees. All the girls share a tent, as do all the boys. A floor was put down over the ground and the tent is filled with about 12 bunk beds. Sleeping bags lay on top of the mattresses rather than sheets.
After a little while the mother of the family that owns the farm, Kate, and her daughter, Bridget, tried to teach us how to crack a whip. I failed miserably. On my second or third try, completely by accident, it made the cracking sound and never did after that. It was fun, though it was also somewhat painful when you hit yourself with the whip. Which I did plenty of times, but not as often as other people did.
We had some more free time until 6:30, which was dinner. I think we had grilled potatoes, corn, peas, beef and gravy, and apple crumble for dessert. I do remember it was good and there was plenty of it to go around.
By the end of dinner it was getting darkish and coldish, so a bonfire was set up.

On a bus going from Woodleigh Statoin to Ayr for our civic welcome
Friday, June 12, 2009
6:31 AM
It’s already Friday! I can’t belive that we only have two weeks left here. I am going to miss Australia so much – I love it here. I love the nice people with their awesome accents. I love the interesting plants and different animals. I love driving on the left in these tiny lanes. It’s wonderful here.
We are currently driving past some power generating windmills – those white, tall ones. It’s so pretty because they are stationed on these rolling green hills and the background is a dark grey, cloudy sky. It’s really neat looking.
So I was writing about the bonfire. We spent a good amount of time there, hanging out and listening to stories.
This lasted long enough that it was getting late, so we did one last thing before heading off to the tents. We had a chance to look at the stars. They pointed out Scorpio and the Southern Cross. Our bus driver, Steve, helped me and a couple of other people find it and the pointers that help you find south. Once you know how big and how bright a constellation you’re looking for (medium sized and very bright), it’s really easy to find. It’s so quintessentially Australian and Southern hemisphere that I was really excited to see it.
Afterwards I just got ready for bed. It was pretty cold out, but warm and comfy enough in the sleeping bag. The next morning, though, was very cold. Trying to shower with low water pressure in the freezing morning was not necessarily my idea of fun. Once I got out and got dry, though, it wasn’t so bad.
The morning was gorgeous, too. There was some low-lying mist on the pastures, and the sun was just beginning to rise even though it was already 7 or so.
It wasn’t too long until breakfast was served, and after breakfast we fed chickens. I only saw one, though, and it didn’t look too interested in being fed. I saw some geese and a pig, and we did find some eggs to collect.
Next was our chance to milk a cow. I did. It was a bit odd, but not too hard to do. A neat experience for someone who’s never done that.
Kate then spoke to us more extensively about what they did at the farm and while mustering. It became very clear that this was a business, and the cows were not pets in any way. I’d known that, but the talk really reinforced that for me.
We had a bit more time, which a lot of us spent cracking macadamia nuts open from the tree nearby. It’s actually pretty hard to do because the shells are so hard. They were very good though, once you did crack them.
After free time was morning tea, which on stations they call smoko (I have no idea how to spell that, but that’s what it sounds like). I hadn’t realized before I came how big Australians were on tea, but everywhere, even planes and the reef cruise, offer morning and afternoon tea. Morning tea in this case was biscuits (which they call scons) with golden syrup, which tastes like a combination of honey and maple syrup. It was delicious.
To walk that off we headed down to the river that runs through their property. It’s clean enough that they drink it without putting any chemicals in it. It was a nice spot. Ankle deep but still quite cold. I actually skipped a stone, too! I’ve never done that before, so I was proud.

We headed back to the farm to collect our swimsuits and then went to a closer, much deeper part of the river – I think they said that it was 30 feet deep at one point in this section of the river. On the way over we saw some of their horses. They have a ton of semi-wild horses that they ride when they go mustering. They’re very beautiful, and I’m a sucker for horses. The water in the river was freezing, like ocean off the coast of California freezing. When we got out it was time to head back for lunch and then some free time. At the river I asked Bridget what the white birds I’d been seeing flying over head were. She told me they were cockatoos. It’s so cool to see something I just think of as a pet in the wild!
At 3:30 we all met to do some more activities. We had a tour of the older part of the farm. There were some old photographs and tools, and the house itself was original. That was neat, and was followed by some races that everyone participated in.

Same place
Same day
9:32 AM
We just stopped for a short rest stop in a place called Cartwell. We’re back on the coast and into the greener vegetation.
So, after the races we had some more free time before dinner. We had a tiny bit more free time after dinner and then we all went to the bonfire to do what they called Red Faces, which was basically a talent show. It was fun, but very random.

Going from Ayr to Airlie Beach
Same day
3:59 PM
After Red Faces it was fairly late so I just headed back to the tent. That night was much less warm, but once I fell asleep, I was out.
For that reason I didn’t wake up that night. I heard the next morning that Bridget put a turkey in our tent. I guess some of the girls absolutely freaked, and the boys did as well when the same thing happened to them. I guess the turkey went to the bathroom in the boys tent. The first plan, I heard, had been to put a cow in the tent, but the cow wouldn’t cooperate. If you think about it, though, that’s actually a really good prank.
We had to wake up bright and early for a 5:20 breakfast the next morning. It seemed colder, probably because it was earlier. We got started and drove off to Ayr (pronounced air) at 6. We arrived at around 1.
A council member of Burdekin Shire (basically a county) spoke to us about the area’s attractions and sugar cane. Burdekin Shire produces a lot of sugar, apparently. It was an interesting talk and the videos that gave us more detail about Burdekin Shire and sugar cane were interesting as well. It didn’t last long. At the end we gave the speaker a gift and received certificates of acknowledgement and then headed outside to get our picture taken for the local paper. We had lunch in a small square in Ayr and then had a chance to look at the town a little. At 2:25 we were off again.
Now I’m finally caught up. Yes! Now I just have to keep it up. We’re now driving to our hotel, the Club Crocodile Resort.


Room 1204 at the Daydream Island Resort and Spa
Saturday, June 13, 2009
10:11 PM
So this morning we left the hotel, which wasn’t a bad place by any means, though it wasn’t as fancy as the other places we’d been staying at. Brekkie was fine, but the shopping afterward in Airlie (pronounced Air-lee) Beach was much more fun. We just wandered around and enjoyed the interesting touristy shops and street fair that was really more of a beach fair.
Afterwards we hopped on a ferry for a very quick ride over to Daydream Island. This hotel is absolutely amazing. It’s gorgeous, full of activities, nice rooms, pretty views, interesting features. It can’t be cheap. I am loving it.

One of the cooler things is the pool you can see from my room window. This isn’t one you can swim in – there are sharks, sting rays, colorful fish, coral, starfish. It’s like a tide pool. On steroids. That you can see from your room. It’s so fascinating. Just as awesome are the wild cockatoos that are so common. They aren’t too afraid of people, so you can get fairly close. I saw one cockatoo sitting right outside the room window. I love it here.
When we arrived we were all given shell necklaces as a welcoming gift, and then we had a tour of part of the island. Afterwards we had a chance to do some of the activities offered. I really wanted to kayak so I only got a chance to stick my foot in the ocean before going to do that. The most convenient beach is a coral beach. Literally until you get to the very edge of the water the beach is covered thickly in coral. Sand is buried probably feet underneath the coral. It hurts to walk on barefoot, but it’s cool to look at.
I’ll talk about kayaking tomorrow.

Same place
Sunday, June 14, 2009
9:12 PM
So Katie and I went kayaking together – I sat in the back of the small, bright yellow kayak and she sat in front. We weren’t allowed to go far, maybe 350 feet or so from shore, but even with those limits we had tons of fun. We could go pretty fast if we really tried, and it didn’t take long for us to figure out how it all work. Not too far in the distance was another island – smaller, with no one on it. I really wanted to go across to it, but of course that was not allowed.
After kayaking we went for a short swim before changing. We met up with the group in the atrium, at 5 so we could see that every one was there. If you wanted, bingo was an option, but it wasn’t free. A lot of the activities weren’t free on the island, and a lot of other things weren’t free either. At many of the hotels we stayed at you had to pay if you wanted to use the room phone even if you were calling a toll free number. Also, at no hotel we stayed at was the internet free. Usually cost a couple bucks for 10 minutes. That was kind of a hassle.
After this meeting we had a tiny bit more free time before dinner, but after dinner was tons of fun. Some of the group sang with a member of the band they had playing in the lobby. It was actually a four-member band but only this one man, named Steve I think, was still around. He played piano and sang very well and he was patient enough to let us go up there and sing with him. It was very fun to watch.
Speaking of Steve, that’s also our bus driver’s name. He’s really cool. He’s from New Zealand though he lives in Australia now, and he’s a really nice guy. He’s the best bus driver ever.
Anyway, after this impromptu karaoke session that was the end of the night.

On a bus going from Airlie Beach to Yepoon
Monday, June 15, 2009
9:13 AM
Daydream Island is one of the Whitsunday Islands, which are group of 60 islands or more. I don’t quite remember how many there are. They were discovered by Captain James Cook. When he was sailing around some time, he came to this group of islands. Thinking that it was Whit Sunday, which is a feast held seven weeks after Easter and is also callled Pentecost, he decided to name the islands that. Apparently, though, it actually wasn’t Whit Sunday, it was the day before or the day after. But the name stuck, I guess, because they’re still the Whitsunday Islands.
So, yesterday, which was Sunday morning, we got up somewhat early for breakfast at 7:15. We ate at the Waterfalls restaurant, the same place we had dinner the night before. Waterfalls in part of the Resort – Daydream Island Resort is the only thing on this island. It’s a really neat restaurant because right outside the window is a small waterfall that slides down a 20 foot rock into the pools filled with animal and plant life below.
After breakfast we headed en masse, as we do most things, over to the dock to wait for our sailboat. It arrived shortly, and we boated out to it ten at a time as it couldn’t pull up to the dock itself. This was a large, 80 foot long Maxi yacht called the Condor. The Condor is apparently the world’s most famous Maxi yacht. Built in 1982, she was state of the art and built to race. She ended up racing in every world Maxi yacht race and winning each one at least twice and sometimes three or four times. So we were pretty lucky to have sailed in the Condor.
Now, on a sailboat there is a safe side and a “suicide” side. Depending on which was the wind is blowing, one side sits noticeably higher in the water than the other. That is the safe side, because if anything falls, it will fall towards the suicide side. Everyone has to sit on the safe side. Emylee, Katie and I were already on the correct side when they told us so we didn’t have to move and we got to sit on the edge of the boat with our feet dangling over the side rather than behind someone else.
We boated out for a while, heading over to Tongue Bay. The ride was very nice. I just sat and enjoyed the view of the islands we passed, the wind, the occasional splash of water on my feet.
After a while, I have no idea how long, we arrived and had a chance to go snorkeling. Katie, Emylee and I went in together. The boat couldn’t get too close to the reef for fear of hitting it, so there was bout a 100+ foot swim to the reef. This was a fringing reef, which means it starts right at the shore of an island and then drops off suddenly at the other edge. Platform reef, which I believe is what we first swam on, is the same except it drops off on both ends rather than one end being connected to an island. The third type is ribbon, and it looks like a ribbon from above. The most common type is platform, I believe.
Because this particular section of the reef is fringing, it’s very shallow and looks somewhat different. Because it was so shallow we weren’t give flippers. It was warm, so we didn’t need wetsuits, and apparently the water here is particularly salty, making you more buoyant. A wetsuit wouldn’t help with that, either. So we got in with our masks and snorkels and set off. I saw some similar corals and similar fish – parrot fish are the easiest to identify. I saw a bunch more giant clams. These were probably 10 inches or so big, and they are very cool. You can’t see all of their shell, maybe half of it. Their mouth area is pointing straight up and the animal itself fills in the mouth so it looks like lips. When they sense motion in the water they suck in their lips. It’s really neat to look at, especially because they can be so colorful. I saw most commonly a bright navy blue color, but I also saw an aquamarine blue and maybe a purple.
After about an hour we got out for lunch and more sailing over to Whitehaven beach, on Whitsunday Island. This was a shorter trip, and for part of it I just lay on my stomach to dry off from snorkeling and enjoy the ride and the sun. It drifted off into my own little world, and it was wonderful.
So, we landed on Whitsunday island where we would walk up to a lookout, over Whitehaven Beach, then walk down the other side of the hill to get to the beach. Whitehaven Beach is the third best beach in the world. It has pure white sand made from quartz and other minerals. It’s illegal to mine, now, so you aren’t allowed to take any of the sand back with you. It didn’t used to be illegal to mine, and because it was so pure it was used in the lens of the Hubble telescope.
It was a 20 minute walk up to the lookout. It wasn’t hard, and it wasn’t too hot because the path was shaded completely by trees. You can’t see past the next turn in the walkway. Then, as you turn a corner, you hear everyone in front of you gasp. Once you reach the point, you can look out and see Whitehaven Beach in all it’s beauty. The sand on the beach is snow white, and the water is a glacial blue. It’s really, breathtakingly gorgeous.
We walked down to the beach and had 40 minutes to do what we wanted. The sand was very fine, and soft. It reflects the sun, so it stays cool, as well. It comes from an extinct underwater volcanoe nearby.
There are baby sharks and sting rays in the water, but they don’t like to be around people. They can sense the vibrations made when you step and swim away. Emylee and I think we may have seen some baby sharks, but we didn’t see them close enough or long enough to actually tell. In all likelihood they were just fish.
The water is a nice, semi-warm temperature and it is pretty shallow for a ways out, so we, Emylee and I just waded around. The two of us tried, and got close, to a drop off (which you could see because of the darker blue water), but we had to go back.
After our time was up, we went back to the boat for a few more hours sail to Daydream Island. While we had been looking at Whitehaven Beach, the crew on the Condor had taken the sail down, so we got to help them put it back up. About 8 of us, myself included, were on the grinders, which tightened rather than hoisted the sail. That part was really rather easy.
We got back around 5:20, so I showered and packed before dinner at the Waterfalls restaurant. I was exhausted so I didn’t hang out too long after dinner before going up to the room.
This morning we had an early start with breakfast at 6:30 to catch the ferry at 7:15. It was a much longer ride back to Shute Harbor, over an hour, because we went to Hamilton Island first. People to People didn’t get off, but the ferry stops there. I enjoyed the ferry ride, though, so I didn’t mind how long it lasted.
After this we got on the bus, where we are now. Let me talk quickly about the bus. I told you about Steve, the bus driver, who drives this Grayline coach. It’s spacious and comfortable enough, it’s very much like a Greyhound or other tour bus. Whenever we come to the end of a long ride, we have to “CRAFT” the coach. Curtains get tied up, Recliner gets straightened up, Armrest gets put down, Footrest goes back up, Trash gets picked up.


Same place
Same day
3:32 PM
We haven't done much but stop in Mackay (pronounced Muh-kai) for lunch. The scenery has gotten much drier. The trees are still green, but the grass is less so. It’s more what I expected from Australia. It was pretty hot at lunch, also, though in general the South is colder than the North. An island off the coast of Melbourne, which is much farther South, is cold enough you can see penguins there.
Quick note – I’ve only heard a very few people say mate or g’day. More stereotype than fact, I think.

On a bus going from Yeppoon to Gin Gin School for lunch
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
8:57 AM
So on Monday afternoon we arrived in Yeppoon and we went to Capricorn Resort, which is this nice resort with a ton of land. It’s on the beach and there’s a bunch of different activities within the resort. Even coolor, though, is all the wildlife. I saw 3 kookaburras at the hotel, two different species. I saw this other, big, almost crane-like bird. I saw kangaroos or wallabies – I can’t tell them apart because the only difference is size and there can be small kangaroos. They have so many animals that they have one of those “Slow down for kangaroos” signs.
We arrived at the hotel, had an hour or so to get situated in our rooms before dinner at a resort restaurant, The Billabong. I tried to sneak into one of the two washers before everyone else could, but I was too slow. Dinner wasn’t anything special, though it wasn’t bad by any means.
Quick interruption – we just passed through the Tropic of Capricorn. We’re in Rockhampton. There are big statues of cows here all over the place because it’s the beef capitol of Australia. I’ve also seen a big mango and a big crab.
So, yesterday morning breakfast wasn’t until 8, so I got to sleep in. Breakfasts so far have almost always had spaghetti offered. The hashbrowns are more like tater tots in a larger, triangular shape, and I like them better than regular hashbrowns. The bacon isn’t in strips it’s is slices that are more square. Beans usually are offered, and vegemite is always available. The rest is pretty similar, but the overall breakfast bar is a little different.
After breakfast we drove an hour to the Capricorn Caves. When we arrived, a group of wild kangaroos were there to greet us. Very cute, and on a couple you could see the lump a joey formed in their pouch.
After admiring the kangaroos we headed into the caves. The entrance was really cool. After walking through a dry rainforest we came to an area with rock walls which had apparently been a part of the cave until tree roots broke the rock and the roof fell in. This was thousands of years ago.
We entered the cave and had a short tour, looking at the different types of rock, like cave coral, or different shapes, like rock outcroppings supposed to look like a camel, or a jelly fish, or a cockatoo. There was even Australia and Tasmania. It’s a neat cave, but it wasn’t spectacular. It’s dry and it doesn’t go very deep below ground.
The neatest part of the cave was the Cathedral. This is a room in the cave with amazing acoustics.
It’s spacious, and they added pews, a choir platform and a place for a minister to stand. Weddings have been held there and it’s really quite neat. At this point in the tour, our guide turned off all the lights in the cave so we could experience complete cave darkness. This is a one of kind experience. Because there is absolutely no light, your eyes never adapt. You can literally put your hand as close to your face as you can get without touching your face and have no idea it’s there. That was really neat.
After our tour ended we broke off into groups to do different activities involved with cave exploring. I wanted to do the hardest activity, but that one filled up pretty much immediately, so I did the medium activity. We left the cave and walked through the forest to another entrance. There the sixteen or so of us, entered a small tunnel about one flashlight to every 3 people. When I say a small tunnel, I mean you were crawling on your hands and knees the whole time. It was only probably 100 feet long, and the exit was about 20 feet from the entrance. It was a neat experience though, and what was even neater was the opportunity to do the tunnel again without flashlights. All you could really do was follow the person in front of you and grope around so you wouldn’t miss a drop down or a rock at head height.
Lunch followed this, and towards the end of our lunch another People to People group pulled in. These were elementary students from Texas, and they were quite cute. They had also been staying at the Capricorn Resort, though they were in a separate building. Not long after they sat down, a lady from the Capricorn Caves came out with a fruit bat. Apparently fruit bats don’t mind being out during the day, so she brought him out and spoke about bats in general and the differences between fruit and insect bats. The bat was very cute.
We drove the hour home, afterward, and had a chance to partake in the activities offered at the resort. Emylee and I wanted to go kayaking, but the kayaks wern't around or something so we ended up over at the ping pong table with some people. I threw some Frisbees with Kathie until the waterslide (which was really fun) at the pool opened. Around 4:15 Emylee wandered off to take a picture of the kangaroo sign and then get ready for dinner.
This dinner was a special dinner – we were eating at a crocodile farm. It was about an hour drive out, so, being winter, it was dark by the time we got there. We had a crocodile chowder as a first course. The soup itself was a little too000000000 chowdery from my taste, but the croc itself tasted fine. A lot like chicken with a slightly stronger flavor and more of a fishy texture. As we waited for the main course we had the chance to look around the shop for a while. There were huge croc skins on the wall and stuffed crocs in a few places as well. There was a picture of a 6 meter (about 18 feet) croc, which is just mind-blowing. There were also some kangaroo skins for sale. That was sad, but they were really soft.
After a dinner – fish – we went out to go look at some crocs. A man whose family owned the farm was our guide. First he showed us the biggest croc on the farm – 16 ft long. He was really cool looking, though he didn’t move much because it was too cold. When he did move, it was graceful and very smooth – almost catlike. I was glad to be behind a fence, though our guide trusted him enough to hop in the pen with him.
The next croc was really big as well. He had gotten half of his lower jaw bitten off by another croc a while ago. It was pretty gross looking because when he lifted his head up his tongue would just sort of spill out. I think this is the croc that they took from a zoo that was going to kill it because it had killed a zookeeper. Crocodiles are really sensitive to vibrations in the ground. That's why our guide warned us not to stomp around, for fear of scaring the crocs away.
The third croc we were shown was the guide’s favorite, sort of a pet, I think.. The farm had rescued it and healed it. It had had a calcium deficienty and couldn’t chew it’s food. Calcium deficiency can get so bad in crocs that their jaw can be bent back to a 90 degree angle. This croc had ripped the legs of another croc, which is pretty creepy.
Some interesting facts about crocs. If a croc eats a large animal it can slow down its metabolism and survive for 12 or 13 months without eating again. Crocs have a brain about the size of your brain. Also, they can cut off blood supply at any joint. That’s why the croc that had half of his lower jaw bitten off didn’t bleed to death. Crocs can hold their breath for 5 to 6 hours.
So, after looking at these 3 we headed over to another, larger paddock to go croc spotting.
Quick side note about Australia: the lanes here seem to be skinneir than in the US. There also seems to be less curb. The lane size has a correlation with car size as well. They simply do not have big cars here. They are so much greener than Americans.

Going from Gin Gin School in Gin Gin to the Sunshine Coast
Same day
2:20 PM
To go croc spotting, you take a flashlight and put it at eye height. There weren’t enough flashlights to go around, so those who had them would put them on their shoulders and the rest of us stood behind them. As you shine the light around, you can count the red reflections of their eyes and see how many there are. There were probably 25-35 of them at varying distances from us. It was really intresting. Our guide explained that if you do that and you see a blue eye reflection, that’s a spider.
Afterwards everyone turned off their flashlights and we looked at the stars. Because the farm is sort of out in the middle of nowhere, there are few lights around so the stars are bright and numerous. There were a ton more than I can see in Rio Rico, as we have a pretty dark night, but at the croc farm the Milky Way was much, much clearer. It looked like a cloud – it was really pretty. I found the Southern Cross (on my own!), and the guide pointed out Taurus and Scorpio.
After enjoying the night sky we went back in for dessert.
Towards the end of dessert a baby croc was brought out that we could hold. It’s underbelly was so smooth. It’s back was actually pretty smooth as well, but the ridges on it’s back make it less so. Even baby crocodiles can hurt you. This one had it’s mouth taped, but if you hold it too close to your face and made it mad somehow it could whip it’s head back and break your jaw.
This ended our time there, so we headed back and got to the Capricorn Resort probably around 10:10.
The next morning we loaded our bags onto the coach at 7:45, ate breakfast and headed out for Gin Gin at 8:30. We got to the Gin Gin State School, an elementary school, at 1 or so, ate lunch and played around on the playground with the kids. It was so intriguing to hear little kids with accents. Of course they have accents, how could they not? But I guess I’ve never heard a person with an accent. At least not an Australian one. I heard a comment, and my friend heard similar comments, something like “The Americans are taking over Australia.”
Some info about the Australian school system. There is kindergarten, then elementary school (grades 1-6), then high school (grades 7-12). School is mandatory up to 10th grade (voting is also mandatory at 18, I believe, and the legal drinking age is 18). To go to university you have to complete high school and then take a test.
So we got back on the bus, which is where we are now. As we’ve been driving, the vegetation is getting greener again. You can tell our distance from the coast as we travel.

Room 715 at the Rydges Oasis Resort
Same day
10:09 PM
Not too much has happened since I last wrote. We arrived on the Sunshine Coast, had a Anglicized Mexican dinner (which showed just how spoiled I am by living on the border and eating real Mexican food.) We met the Delegation Manager of another, middle school delegation staying at the hotel as well, and she was very nice.
After dinner a couple people went to the spa. This spa, like every spa we’ve tried with the exception of the one at the Club Crocodile Hotel, was lukewarm. Not at all hot. It’s very odd, because that’s sort of the point of a Jacuzzi in my mind.

Room K09 at the Tangalooma Island Resort
Thursday, June 18, 2009
10:21 PM
Breakfast wasn’t too early this morning, which was nice. We learned at breakfast that one of the Louisiana delegation leaders, Cheryl, was going to be going back early because she was so sick. I felt bad that she was that sick and that she wouldn’t get to see the rest of the trip.

After breakfast we headed out to the beach in Maroochydore (above you see Emylee, Katie, and me) – the hotel was in Caloundra. Both places are along the Sunshine Coast. As we drove, it began to sprinkle. Just lightly and not for long, but it was rain none the less. Australian rain. The first time we’d had that. Not that it was any different from our rain, but I still got sort of excited. However, it’s not really what I wanted on the trip. As I said, though, it didn’t last and didn’t end up being a problem. It’s funny, though, that our one day on the Sunshine Coast is the one day, so far at least, that it rains.
Our group arrived on the beach and got into our “swimmers” and wetsuit and prepared to learn how to surf and how to boogie board. We split into two groups – my group went surfing. Before getting in the water they showed us how to stand up onto the board. You lie flat with your feet at the tail of the board push your upper body up, slide on leg forward so your toes are perpendicular with the board, then bring the other leg up. It was really easy… on land.

Same place
Friday, June 19, 2009
9:15 PM
So then we got in the water and it got about 100 times harder and 1000 times funner. The first one or two times I tried to surf I was just too caught off guard to do anything other than let it carry me forward. By the third time I was able to try to stand up, but the way to stand up would totally go out of my head. Finally, on my second to last wave, though I didn’t know how much longer I would have at the time, I made a very conscious effort to remember to do what we learned. I only got to the push up, but I remembered! One of our teachers told me not to be in such a hurry to stand up, and so for my last wave I had both my feet just about in position when I fell onto my hands and knees. The board is really slippery, so that’s my excuse. Just then, they called us in. I was really disappointed because with more time I could have done so much better. I’d just realized how much time I actually did have on the wave.
Our hour with the surfing lesson was over, so we headed over to body boarding. This needed basically no instruction, so we headed out pretty quickly. I was a tad confused about what to do at first, but basically you just chose a (hopefully good) wave, hop into it just as it crashes if you can and ride it into the shore. That’s fun, but I enjoyed surfing more.
During our time surfing and body boarding there was a current pushing us toward a ‘hole’ with less waves and a rip, so the whole hour was a constant battle to move up the beach and thus a constant strain on the calf muscles. I ended up with some bruises from falling and fairly tired legs, but it was so worth it.
Afterward we had time to shower, change and eat lunch – there was a nearby public restroom for the first two things. I was really hungry after working actually pretty hard. This morning when I woke up, I was sore all over my upper body. I’m sure it’s from being tense during surfing as I tried to stand up and not fall off.
Anyway, back to yesterday. We got onto the bus and headed for Brisbane (Briz-bun). This over an hour drive was partly to allow us to see Brisbane, partly to take us to a shopping center and partly to drop Cheryl, the sick leader, off at a hospital until her flight.
By this time it was mid-afternoon, so we headed over to the ferry that would take us to the Tangalooma Island Resort on Moreton Island. I guess we were early because they had us play cricket while we waited for the ferry. However, they decided only to tell us a few basic rules and then leave us to figure out cricket from there. We ended up just halfheartedly making up a few more rules as we went and throwing the ball around. It wasn’t long until the ferry arrived.
The ferry ride wasn’t nearly as pretty as the one going out to Daydream Island was because Brisbane River has a lot of Industrial building along its banks. It was nighttime, and soon enough we were out onto open waters, but it was still not quite the same.

On the bus going from Brisbane to Byron Bay for lunch
Saturday, June 20, 2009
10:46 AM
The island, though, was gorgeous. Despite the fact that the sun had set on the ride over, you could still sort of see the island. My attention was more focused on the group of people on the wharf, though. It took me a while to figure out what they were doing, but then I realized… there were dolphins in the water.
Of course I and everyone else were drawn to the dolphins, but Colin insisted we had plenty of time so we headed past them, put down our bags and were given some quick instructions on how to feed them. After this short lesson we headed over to the lines that had formed to feed the beautiful creatures. You feed them in pairs because the dolphins wait in pairs to be fed. Emylee and I got in line together. After a not-too long wait we waded in with one of the Tangalooma employees up to where the water was about waist deep. Emylee and I had each taken one fish from the bucket on the beach, so once we got out to the dolphins the worker put our hands under the water at the same time so both dolphins wouldn’t go for one fish. Then the worker would hand us another fish and we would feed the dolphins again. The water was somewhat cold, but I honestly didn’t care. I was just in awe. I kept thinking, over and over again, Oh my gosh! This is so awesome.
The dolphin I fed was name Nari, and Emylee’s was named Echo. Nari had to be rescued from fishing line and also from a huge shark bite that few though he would survive. However, with the help of Sea World, he pulled through and apparently got a fair amount of news coverage thanks to that.
After the dolphin feeding we went to our rooms. Dinner wasn’t until 8, so we had about an hour to dry off and get settled. After dinner, I didn’t do much. The next morning, which was yesterday, we ate breakfast and then went to watch the pelican feeding. Pelicans are actually quite pretty birds, and they are very interesting. Anything they can fit in their 13 liter or so bill, they’ll eat, be it fish, a puppy (that has happened) or a seagull. We watched them catch the fish the workers threw to them, as did the cormorants all around them and the few seagulls. There aren’t very many seagulls around because they don’t want to get eaten.
The cormorants around were called pike cormorants. The workers try not to feed these birds because they don’t want them jumping up trying to grab the fish. Pike cormorants have exteremely sharp tips on the end of their bill. One worker had a pike cormorant bill pierce the palm of her hand and come out the other side. But from a distance, they were very cute little animals.
We had a small amount of time before those of us who wanted to could go snorkeling around the Tangalooma wrecks. There were about 6 ships 2/3 of a mile down the coast of Moreton Island, not too far off shore. The water here was fairly cold, and the wrecks could be sharp, so for the first time we were given full body wetsuits. Boy, let me tell you. That things was just about impossible to get on. To pull it over your arms and legs and get it all the way on took a lot of effort. However, when we got in the water I was really glad to have it on. I would have been freezing without it, but with it I was just fine.
Snorkeling around a shipwreck was really neat. We were following a current down through the wrecks, so it wasn’t much work. Above water, the ships just looked like rusty metal, but underwater they looked like they do in the movies. The sides of the ships and the floor were covered in algae with occasional pieces of coral. Some schools of fish would swim by. While there wasn’t nearly as much life as around the coral reef, there was certainly life.

On the bus going from Byron Bay to Coffs Harbor
Same day
2:48 PM
The fish around the shipwrecks weren't as colorful at those around the reef, but they were still interesting to watch. More interesting was seeing a ship – the deck, the mast, the sides,– underwater. Also, there was wildlife other than fish around.

Same place
Same day
4:57 PM
We saw some cormorants on the ships and some swimming around in the ocean. Even cooler, though, were the four crabs I saw. Three were reddish and about a couple of inches long, and the fourth was the same size, but black. I wouldn’t have wanted to have one on me, but they were neat to see from a couple feet away. Overall, the experience was so different from snorkeling around the Great Barrier Reef but it was really fun anyway.
After getting back on shore we had an hour, about, before lunch, so I decided to dry off and shower to get rid of the salt that had dried on my face from the seawater.
At lunch we met Dan, an Australian delegation manager who would be taking Cheryl’s place. He's really nice.
After lunch we had a small about of free time before we headed our to the sand dune. We took this four wheel, all terrain type bus out to the sand dune. We started out driving through pretty dense trees on a small road until suddenly the trees just stopped and there was this patch of sand probably with a diameter of a mile or ½ mile. To one side of this patch of sand there was one huge sand dune, maybe 200 feet tall. We stopped about half way to the dune to look at this patch of sand that seemed to be covered with pebbles. It was actually raw glass melded together by lightning attracted to the high concentration of metals in the area.
After this quick stop we drove another minute, maybe, over to the bottom of the dune to go sand toboganning, which is basically sledding down a sand dune. To do it correctly you have two lie on this board, keep your legs together and your elbows up and slide on down. But first we had to collect our boards, put some wax on them with a crayon type thing, grab some goggles, and walk up the sand dune. There was a little path up the center of the dune, but even so it was hard walking. When you finally got to the top, there was a nice view of trees right down the other side. It was windy, but it felt good after the walk up.

Room 3205 at the Coffs Harbor Pacific Bay Resort
Same day
7:03 PM
It was a long way down from the top and I felt sort of nervous about if I would be able to make it down without crashing somehow. As we were walking up (I was one of the last people to wax my board), some people started going down the slope. No one was crashing, so I was comforted. I waited in one of the two lines – our guide would get us laying on the board correctly and such, and we would all go down in the same place, until it was my turn without really feeling nervous.
The board for sand tobogganing is basically a thin, smooth piece of plywood about 1 by 4½ feet and a centimeter or so thick. You lie on your stomach, and the man gives you a push and you slide on down. The scariest part is right at first because it’s the steepest, and you pick up a lot of speed, but it’s a ton, a ton of fun. I went three times in all. I would have gone more often but the walk up is just exhausting.

Same place
Same day
8:26 PM
We loaded back on the bus after a couple hours and drove back to the resort just in time for an informative session about Moreton Island, marine life, flora and fauna on Moreton Island, dolpgins in general, the dolphins Tangalooma feeds, and more. Basically, a lot of stuff. It was really an interesting talk. I learned quite a few things.
For one, Moreton Island is the third largest sand island in the world.

Same place
Same day
9:20 PM
Because it’s a sand island, it moves. It is moving, at some parts of the island, 1 meter every year toward the mainland. There are 3 villages on the island, the largest with a maximum population of about 40, and the smallest I think 12. Any water or electricity must be created at your house. Some parts of the island have as many species of fish or more than the Great Barrier Reef. The time of year we were on Moreton Island, humpback whales pass by. Moreton Island’s Aboriginal name is Tangalooma.
The dolphins Tangalooma feeds are inshore dolphins, so they are smaller than offshore dolphins. They can hold their breath for 15 minutes. There are 11 dolphins, 2 of which are calves, that show up regularly to be fed. Tangalooma goes out of its way to be sure that the dolphins do not rely on them and could survive if the resort were to stop feeding them.
Dugongs are a type of marine life very similar to manatees, though they are skinnier and faster. They are completely marine, unlike the manatee. Dolphins have a bigger brain than a human.
The talk was very varied and interesting. Afterwards we went to watch the dolphins come in. We had been told about identifying marks the workers at Tangalooma use to identify the dolphins, but not being trained I couldn’t tell them apart. Still, it was neat just to watch them, especially since there was a baby around.



On a bus going from Coffs Harbor to Taree for lunch
Sunday, June 21, 2009
9:04 AM
Both yesterday and today have been very, very gray and pretty rainy. Luckily it doesn’t matter much because they are both travel days.
Yesterday morning, following breakfast, we had a “debriefing” session which turned out to be basically a summary of what we learned on the island. We waited a while afterwards for the ferry to arrive, and I entertained myself by watching the cormorants and pelicans.
I also kept myself entertained by looking into the aquarium type thing they had. It was the weirdest aquarium ever, though, because it was made of cement wall probably 4 and ½ feet high, so the only way to see the fish was to stand on tip toe and look down from above. The reflection on the surface of the water made this hard to do, and it wasn’t very decorated or colorful like most aquariums are. I think on the side they had some sign that said something like “Dangerous fish”. Or something. It was weird.
Throughout our time on Moreton Island I saw these really pretty birds flying around in small flocks. I never got very close to one to see them in much detail or take a picture, but they were about dove sized, I think. Maybe parrot shaped, I’m not sure. They were grey on almost all of their body, in sort of an African Grey pattern, maybe, or I might just be making up the details, but under their wings they are a light but bright pink. It was really pretty.
Anyway, it didn’t take too long for the ferry to arrive, so we said bye to Moreton Island and headed back for Brisbane. After the ferry ride, the end of which stunk very badly thanks to the (paper?) factory nearby, we hopped on the bus and drove to lunch in Byron Bay at a bowling alley.

Same place
Same day
10:48 AM
Before I pick up where I left off – we just had a rest stop in a place called Kempysey. We stopped at a nice looking, pretty empty little park. As we walked up to the toilets there was a sign saying something along the lines of “Enjoy the park but be warned that this is a high crime area.” It went on to ask you to call their version of 911, 000, if you saw anything. It was odd because it seemed like such a peaceful little place, and I’ve never seen a sign like that before. Also, I think the Australia version of hazmat is hazchem because I’ve seen ‘hazchem’ in a few places. Unless we have that in the US, too.
So, we stopped for lunch and afterward had some time to shop in Byron Bay. Byron Bay was a touristy little town with a ton of shops. I indulged and bought myself a caramel milkshake.
We got back on the bus, stopped once more midway through the afternoon and then arrived at the hotel. The only really exciting thing that happened during the drive was a seeing a big prawn.
Last night's hotel was very nice – three people to a room with no bunk beds or small beds. It was slightly cramped but quite nice. Fancy, as all of the hotels have been so far.
Dinner was good, and I pretty much went straight back to the room afterwards.
This was a one night stop on our way to Sydney, so this morning we packed our bags onto the coach, ate breakfast and continued our jounrey into the colder South. Not much interesting has happened except seeing a big banana.
Yesterday we crossed over from Queensland to New South Wales, and Colin decided to play a joke on us. He told us we needed our passports out, and we should hold them up to the window when we crossed into New South Wales, which was supposedly at this underpass. The leaders went along with it, so after thinking for a second that it was weird we needed them to cross state lines I just thought, Oh well, it’s some weird Australian thing. Oh, my gullible self. What was even funnier was that some people’s passports were with our luggage under the bus, so the leaders just told those people to duck so people wouldn’t see them when they looked in the window. It’s definitely an Aussie thing to play jokes on foreigners

In Room 724 of The Sebel Surry Hills, Sydney
Same day
10:15 PM
It was a pretty unexciting drive to Sydney. We saw a big oyster (none of these big things are real, just to be clear), and that was about it. We arrived in Sydney in the dark, but we could still see the Sydney Opera House as we drove over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was so exciting to enter Sydney – the city lights were beautiful and it’s our last stop before we go home. As we drove it, I just was so happy to be there.
We ate a good dinner and then walked around a bit (in the rain) back to the coach which took us here, to this nice hotel.

In a plane going from Sydney to LA
Thursday, June 25, 2009
6:15 AM (Arizona time)
I just did the math – because we’re flying and crossing the International Date Line, the 25th will be a 41 hour day for me. Isn’t that weird? I will arrive at LAX 3 or 4 hours before I even left Sydney.
So, before I get on with the events of the past few days let me just talk a tad bit more about the hotel we stayed at in Sydney. As I said, it was a nice hotel, but it has one quirk – there are no stairs for general use except a short flight from the lobby to the first floor, which contains the dining area. There are fire stairs but none that can be used when it’s not an emergency. Let me say that it’s sort of a hassle when there are 49 people who have just gotten off the bus and are trying to get to their rooms with all their luggage. It took a while.
The cool thing about the hotel is that near reception, in the lobby is an aquarium. With actual fish and plants. In the floor. That you could walk on. It was pretty awesome.

In LAX Airport
Same Day
10:03 AM (Arizona time)
So now let’s get back to last Monday. This was an early-start day. Breakfast was at 6:30 so we could head out for our Full On experience. Full On is something every People to People group does as a team building exercise and a way to push the limits of your comfort zone. Our Full On experience was in the Blue Moutains which were a twoish hour drive away from Sydney. They are the Blue Mountains because an oil that is secreted by the eucalyptus common in the area forms a blue haze when it evaporates.
We arrive at the Full On station just in time for morning tea – a cookie and drink – and then a talk about what positive thinking can do to help you actually do better.
After this talk, the two groups (another PtP group was having their Full On experience with ours) got on their respective buses to head over to the site where we would begin our walk down to two rappels. The trail down was not one of those manicured, basically paved trails you sometimes see, but it wasn’t hard walking because it wasn’t very far or very steep. Before hiking down we spent a while playing a game to allow the other group to rappel, or abseil, first.
After the game we walked down in three smaller groups with a leader from the Full On team (the leader of my group was named Scotty) for a warm-up rappel. It was 60 feet high, and quite close to the place we had left our lunches. I was one of the first to go so I didn’t have much of a chance to get nervous before it was my turn. I started to feel butterflies in my stomach but the moment I got over the edge I felt totally confident. I really enjoyed rappelling down.
Because I went so early I had a while to hang out while the rest of the delegation rappelled down. I ate lunch and waited for I have no idea how long until the last person went and we headed over to the “Big Fella”.

In a plane going from Lax TO Tucson
Same Day
12:29 PM (Arizona time)
Now, the Big Fella is a 200 foot rappel about a tenth of a mile further from the lunch site. Being so much higher up, it’s not as covered by trees. There is a gorgeous view from above – it looks almost like an Italian countryside with its rolling green hills and picturesque farms. However, the tree tops were a long way down and I knew that ground was a ways below that. I tried to think positive and unscare myself, and while it worked, the effect was only temporary. However, I was determined to do it, so when my turn came I hooked in and began my rappel down the cliff. The first probably 75 feet you have your feet touching the wall until then it curves in and you’re just hanging. Because you can’t brace against the wall, I kept starting to recline, which was hard to prevent But, I made it (upright), and I was really proud of myself afterwards. It was a great experience.
After rapelling down a group of us headed to the Cave, which was more of a large alcove in the rock, where we had put our stuff. We grabbed our stuff and hiked up to the bus to the Full On Centre. We had a quick snack, evening tea, I guess, before another lecture to conclude the day.
After the lecture we had dinner and drove back to the hotel in Sydney. It wasn’t too late, maybe 9 ish, but it was dark by the time we left the Blue Mountains.

In my room at home
Friday, June 26
10:18 PM (Arizona time)
Well, as always, it’s sure nice to be home. I miss Australia and all the friends I made on the trip, but I’m so glad to be with my family again as well.
As I had been told and as I had guessed, recovering form jet lag is much harder coming east than it is going west. At least I’m at home as I have trouble getting over it rather than in Australia where I would be much more busy. Its harder because at bed time, right now for instance, it’s only 3 in the afternoon in Australia. Once I manage to fall asleep, I don’t want to get up because 8 in the morning in Arizona is 1 in the morning to Australia. However, going west, when it’s bedtime is been night for a while at home, and by the time it time to wake up you would have been up for a while at home. The only hard part is staying awake in the evening, but that’s not nearly as hard as trying to go to sleep when you’re not tired.
Anyway, back to the trip. Breakfast was only somewhat early, at 7:30, on Tuesday. We took our coach to the Sydney Opera House. This was a rare day where we would be using the coach hardly at all – in fact, we wouldn’t see it until after dinner.
It was so amazing to see the Sydney Opera House. It’s such an icon, and for a good reason. It’s truly a gorgeous piece of architecture. With the Sydney Harbor Bridge, ocean and Sydney skyline in the background, it was a simply breathtaking view. We didn’t have much time to drink it in because we had to meet a tour guide at an underground level.
The tour was a very interesting, maybe 40 minute deal. We were shown three videos, starting off with a video about the beginning of the idea of the Sydney Opera House. A competition was put out throughout the world to design a building that would become the Sydney Opera House. The design that was eventually used was at first discarded, but then a judge who joined the adjudicating team later on wanted to review all their options.
The second video was about the design. Apparently the Sydney Opera House was truly a pioneer in terms of design. Most people thought it would be impossible to build. It took literally years, between 5-10, before finally a design was constructed so that the building would stand. The fact that they were able to do this is really amazing, if you ask me.

Same place
Saturday, June 27, 2009
11:12 Am (Arizona time)
The third video was about the continuing improvement and additions to the Sydney Opera House. The original designer died in the past few years, but the Sydney Opera House continues to work with his son on how to improve the Opera House.
In between the first and second video we were shown the orchestral main auditorium. It was huge, dwarfing the stage. There was an organ that had around 15 thousand pipes, which was impressive. The design of the auditorium was both acoustically and visually appealing. The seats were by a doctor designed for comfort. It was pretty impressive.
After the second video we headed into the other main auditorium – this one designed for opera. To get the best acoustics, different designs are needed for opera and orchestra, so that’s why they’re separate. There are 4 – 6 more auditoriums in the Sydney Opera House, but they are smaller and not part of the tour. All auditoriums and even the lobbies can be rented by anyone who wishes to use them. Whoever is renting sets the ticket price. Schools often perform, and children’s theatre and much more is done here.
The second auditorium (Incidentally, we were not allowed to take pictures of it or the other auditorium because of copyright laws, the guide said. I’m not sure how that works. We were allowed to take pictures of the lobbies, though.) looked much more like a regular theatre – seats only in front of the stage rather than surrounding it, for instance. It still had a neat look, though.
After this we were shown the tiles that cover the roof of the Opera House. They and the glass were the only things imported to build the Sydney Opera House. The former was made in Sweden, I think, the latter in France. From a distance and from most pictures, the Sydney Opera House looks pure, uniform white. However, that is not the case. The tiles were actually two shades of off white to prevent it from being blinding when the sun hits it. Also, the tiles are self-cleaning when it rains so the workers are spared from having to climb all over the roof to do it themselves.
After the tour we had some time to shop at the shops on the underground level and take more pictures outside the Sydney Opera House. I did both. In a hour and half or so the whole group met up and walked over to lunch at a restaurant not too far away.
After lunch we walked 20 or so minutes to a mall for just some free time. It was nice just to be able to wander around for a little bit. We met up in an hour 40 minutes. From our meeting point you could look directly up and see the Sydney Tower, the tallest building in Sydney. You can see the network of cables stabilizing the building. Out of sight is a huge water tank that counterbalances the building if the wind sways it, which it can. The Sydey Tower will remain the tallest building because it reaches the height limit for buildings in Sydney. It was impressive and somewhat intimidating.
We went in an took a couple minute long elevator ride to the lookout floor. There was a spectacular view of Sydney, a complete 360 degree view. You could see the Sydney Opera House, the ANZAC bridge, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Sydney Football Stadium, Darling Harbor – everything. It was awesome.
Our group was signed up for something called the Skywalk, as well. In this you put on a jumpsuit and harness, get connected to the Sydney Tower and walk around the outside. There are two platforms 180 degrees apart from each other that jut out slightly over the edge of the Tower. They have glass floors so you can look straight down and see the road beneath you. It was really a neat thing to do. It was a little freaky stepping out at first, but that feeling only lasted a second. As I said, we walked all around the building. The second platform actually expands. Our guide decided to expand it without telling us. So as we are standing there looking out all of a sudden we hear a noise and then we start moving. It caught me off guard, I gotta admit.
Because it can be really windy outside the building you are not allowed to bring any loose items like cameras. However the guides took pictures of us in our jumpsuits out on the building. I’m in the middle.
Because only two groups of about 15 each could go out at a time, we had some time inside the Sydney Tower to enjoy the view from there, which was nice. After everyone got a chance, we headed back down to the ground floor. Those of us that wanted to stayed to watch this 3D movie about Australia while a few others went to the mall. The whole thing lasted about an hour, but the sun was setting by the time we met up with those who went to the mall.
We headed over to dinner by the water. Afterward we had the chance to see the Sydney Opera House at night. It was actually very different.

Same place
Same day
3:00 PM (Arizona time)
So, continuing on to Wednesday, my last full day in Sydney. Breakfast was at 8, and after breakfast we headed out to the Sydney Cricket Ground. We ended up leaving right on time, which was pretty rare, and if we went straight to the Sydney Cricket Ground we would end up being early. So we made a detour to look at the pretty famous Bondi (Bon-die) Beach (You can see it here through the front window of the coach).
After driving by it and having just a short chance to get out and take a look or photo, we headed on over to the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Footballl Stadium.
We arrived and before getting a tour we had a chance to learn a bit more about cricket. On the way over Colin had tried to explain the game to us, but I was lost. Something about three types of the game that last different lengths, from 8 hours, I think, to 5 day. A bowler bowls the ball and then the batter-type person hits it and switches places with another batter who was standing on the other end of the field by ‘the stumps’. The outfielders try to catch the ball and hit the stumps (there are two, each on either side of the field). Colin then went into more detail and that was when I was completely lost. The upshot is that we ended up getting to try our hand at bowling, hitting the ball, catching a high speed ball and hitting a high speed ball. Everyone did the first two activities, only a few did the second. We all went into this big room which used mesh nets to separate it into corridors so the balls wouldn’t go flying everywhere.
We broke off into groups of around 7, and each group had a corridor and some tennis balls, rather than the much harder cricket balls, to practice with. When bowling you must always keep a straight arm. You sort of swing your arm backwards in a circle and when your arm is 30 degrees-ish past straight up you throw the ball. It is supposed to go towards the ground, and usually it bounces once before the batter hits it. I was proud because I actually managed to throw a couple of the balls straight.
Next, still in these small groups, we were given a bat to practice batting (I’m not sure if they called it batting or not). We would bowl to each other, so we weren’t exactly dealing with tough pitches or anything, but for inexperienced batters it was still pretty hard to do.
When my turn came around, though, I managed to hit all but one of the balls bowled to me. It was really fun.
Then a pitching machine was set up the throw the balls like a batter would hit them and a few people, myself not included, got to try catching them. Finally, the machine was sped up to throw balls as fast as a professional bowler would. The top bowlers in the world can get up to 93, 95 miles per hour. I’m sure that’s not how fast these balls were being thrown, but even not batting you could tell they were moving fast.
After spending an hour, about, doing that, we headed off first to the Sydney Cricket Ground to get a tour.
Let me explain before I go on how huge of a deal this would be to an Australian. We got to stand on the grounds and go inside the players dressing rooms. This is a very old, historic field – it’s been around since the early 1800s, I think. Tons of famous people stood and sat and walked exactly where we were. We Americans have never heard of them, but there have been the Michael Jordens of cricket where we were. One man especially, Sir Donald George Bradman, is regarded as the best cricket player of all time, and he played on these grounds. So this was a pretty big deal.
We started out in the dressing rooms, and we were able to sit on the original benches and lockers actually used by the players. Gabe, the (totally awesome) Louisiana delegation leader, helped himself to a seat. Even not knowing who the players were there was an air of history about the place that made it just really awesome to be in.
Next we headed out onto the field. This is a smaller field than most cricket grounds, and circular rather than oval. We were able to walk out and look out onto the stands. Despite that fact that no one was in the stands, I still felt like the center of attention as I was surrounded by some 46,000 seats (to see a picture, see the picture of Dan and myself).
Having spent some time there we just dropped by the Sydney Football Stadium. This is a much newer stadium, and its curved roof (which apparently some think looks like a toilet seat) makes it stand out much more from the Sydney Tower, for example. It’s designed that way in order to allow a breeze to come through the stadium, which apparently strengthens the grass. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to stand on the field of this stadium because a photo shoot for some advertisement was going on.
After this we got back on the coach and headed over to the harbor where we would be getting on a boat for lunch and a cruise around Darling Harbor. There were two levels on the boat. The leaders sat on the upper level and we sat down below to eat lunch. It wasn’t that exciting at first, even as we passed by some famous sites like the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The windows were insanely tinted, marring the view. It was nice, but nothing special. After lunch, though, we had a chance to go to the upper level. Then it became a really awesome cruise.
Both at the front and back of the boat were outside places to stand or sit. Inside, the windows were normal and the view was better. Being higher up made it easier to see and much more enjoyable. Most of us stayed up top for the rest of the ride. We had views of the Sydney Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Prime Ministers House, the ANZAC bridge, and the coast itself. All breathtaking.
We spent an hour or two on the boat with another People to People Delegation before the cruise ended, and then had a quick stop at a place called Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. This is a point that sticks out into the water and has a great view. This was named after Governor Macquarie’s wife who enjoyed the view from this point.
And it was a spectacular view. Now the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge can be seen to the left, and there is a small island to the right. Behind, on land, is the Royal Botanical Gardens. This was as much as we got to see of them on this trip, but even only seeing this corner hinted at their beauty. A very nice spot.
Our last real activity for the day was at an opal store where we learned about mining and opals in Australia. Australia is a major miner of opals, and three main regions mine three different types. Not all are the white kind we see most commonly – there are much darker types as well. After a video, we were shown the store’s opal, priced at 1 million dollars. Sure, it was pretty, but personally it didn’t seem worth a million bucks to me. But I’m obviously not a connoisseur of opals, so who am I to judge.
We went back to the hotel so we could get ready for dinner – our last dinner in Sydney, our last in Australia. We were all given to option to dress up, just for fun. We had been told to bring nice clothes and hadn’t used them yet, so this was our chance. Most, though not all of us, dressed up. The restaurant had good food and a party like atmosphere. It was good conclusion to our trip. After dinner everyone with a camera took a bunch of pictures with the rest of the delegation because this was the end of the line. It was a sad moment, though most of the sadness was overridden by everyone having fun hanging out with each other.
We walked back to the hotel, enjoying Sydney at night, and upon arrival at the hotel, after saying goodbye to Dan, who was heading out that night, I headed to the room to clean up the explosion that had become my stuff and stuff it all back into my suitcase for our Thursday morning departure.

Same place
Sunday, June 28, 2009
10:34 AM (Arizona time)
Thursday was a fairly early start because we wanted to be on the bus at 6:30 or 6:45 to head over to the airport. I had pretty much completely packed Wednesday night, so luckily I didn’t have to get up early to do that. I grabbed a couple of packets of Vegemite as a memento from the hotel, and after breakfast we were off. Steve had left during breakfast to drive another group, so we had a different bus and different driver to take us to the airport. This was the first time the bus had been used, and it was a really nice bus, too. Seemed more spacious and fancy. But it was very sad not to have Steve around to say goodbye. It was quick, maybe 10 minute ride to the airport, but a sad one. Sydney was looking gorgeous in the morning light, and this was our last time to see these sights. We arrived at the airport and checked in. It was no surprise checking in took a while since all 47 of us had to do it. Luckily we had 3 and a half or so hours before boarding.
Once everyone had gotten their ticket and filled out their customs form to leave Australia we headed over to security. At this point we had to say goodbye to Colin. Certainly a sad moment – even having known him only 20 days, I felt I’d really gotten to know him and I think other people felt the same way. After everyone had a chance to say goodbye, we went through security. Their security is a little different than ours. They don’t require you to take off your shoes unless you set off the metal detector, and all your liquids don’t have to be in a bag. Each one just has to be under 100 ml, which is about 3.5 oz. To give you a sense of how long it takes us to do even relatively simple stuff like this, we were down from 3 and ½ hours to about 25 minutes. The gate wasn’t far, so we headed over and still had time to spare before we boarded.
Both the Louisiana and Arizona delegations were going to be on this plane, and we were joined by a completely separate group as well. It ended up being a 13 about hour flight, and not a bad one as flights go. Mostly I slept, ate or watched movies. Nothing too spectacular. Eventually we arrived in LA at about 6:30 AM, 3 or so hours before we even left Sydney. Which is pretty awesome. After getting off the plane and going through US customs, we collected our bags and said a quite tearful farewell to Louisiana. A lot of friendships had been made in these last 20 days, and it’s so hard to say goodbye when you know you will probably never see these people ever again. At least the other Arizonans live close enough that I can hang out with them sometimes. We said goodbye and went off to our respective gates.
Lucky us got to go through airport security again before we could go to our gate. That was tons of fun. All the goodbyes and security used up a little more than half of our 6 hour layover. We hung out in LA for a while, waiting for our plane. This was probably the worst part of the trip. At this point I was torn between really, really wanting to be in Australia and really, really wanting to be home. And here we had three hours to sit around in a place that was neither. The time passed quickly enough, though, and before we knew it we were flying home. The 2 hour or less plane ride seemed even shorter after a thirteen hour ride.
And we were home! It was wonderful, honestly. So nice to be with my parents and to be in a place where I knew how everything worked. I didn’t have think about all the hassles that come with living out of a suitcase, from packing, to washing, to not forgetting anything. It’s good to be home.

Same place
Same day
3:48 PM (Arizona time)
Just to wrap this up I’ll just mention some last thoughts about the trip. First of all, it was absolutely amazing in pretty much every way possible. Most importantly I had tons of fun. We did so much cool stuff that you couldn’t do anywhere else. We got to experience so many unique opportunities, from holding a crocodile to staying on a station. I made a lot of friends, as well, and a couple really good friends. I got to meet new people, test my limits, stretch my imagination... I really feel I have broadened my horizons after this.
I honestly feel I could live there. I’ve been joking around about moving, but it is an honest sentiment. I know that I saw some of the best parts of Australia when I was there, but even at the towns we stopped at along the way that didn’t have some major attraction were still pretty, friendly and interesting. It would be a fabulous place to, if not live, at least visit again and learn more about culturally. I am so grateful that I was able to have this experience. Thanks to everyone who helped me have it.