Australia Day 6: Great Barrier Reef!

Maybe this is just me, but when I think of Australia, 3 places come to mind immediately: Sydney, the Outback, and the Great Barrier Reef. I was more than excited to see the Great Barrier Reef, so we booked a day cruise which would take us out to where we could access the reef. I'm not exactly sure what I had in mind, but this was definitely a little different. You can't see the reef unless you go underwater. You can see how the water is different shades depending on the depth and how close you are to the coral, but without looking underneath, you are not really going to SEE the Great Barrier Reef. Kelly and I wanted to see as much as we could, so we signed up for an introductory scuba dive!

Our boat had about 70 people or so on it. The boat left at 8:30 and got back around 4:30, stopping at 3 different sites. It took a little over an hour to get to the first site and then the boat just anchored in what seemed like the middle of nowhere - just out in the Coral Sea somewhere. On the ride out, we watched an instructional video outlining some basic scuba diving skills. Each dive instructor could take a maximum of 4 people on each dive. For some reason though, Kelly and I had our dive instructor all to ourselves, which was really nice! It was like we were on our own personal dive.

Anyway, I'm jumping ahead of myself. Our dive was not until the 2nd site. At the first site, we just went snorkeling. It started raining for a bit just as we were getting into the water, but that actually made for a really cool experience! Everyone got all geared up with wetsuits, masks, fins and a snorkel-breathing thing (I actually don't know what that's called!).

Then we just went off a platform on the back of the boat and walked right into the water. The water was really warm, but a little rough at the first spot. Since neither of us had ever snorkeled before, we were having a little trouble getting the hang of how to breathe. Because the water was rough, it kept getting into the pipe of the snorkel. We didn't see all that much of the reef at the first site, because we stayed pretty close to the boat.

BUT....at the next site, we went SCUBA DIVING!!!! Seriously, this was definitely one of the coolest, if not THE coolest thing I have ever done. Our instructor Sam got us all suited up, put dive weights on us, attached our air tanks, etc. Then, we were told to walk over to the edge of the platform and just jump in! I was really excited at this point. We then headed down a couple of feet just to practice the skills we needed to know. We practiced how to get water out of our goggles if they filled up, and how to take the regulator (the thing you breathe from) out of your mouth and switch to a different one. Everyone has two regulators hooked up to their air tank, so that if something happens to yours, you can use the spare regulator on someone else's tank.

So, we had to practice taking the regulator OUT of our mouths and then putting the other regulator in. At this point, I was getting a little freaked out by the whole situation. I think that it was finally sinking in that we were UNDERWATER, breathing out of a tank. Kelly swam up because she was starting to get a little nervous as well. When we went back up to the surface, Sam told us just to try to breathe slower, that we were breathing too heavily because we were nervous. So we went back down to finish up the skills. At this point, I was breathing a little through my nose (which you are not supposed to do) and I got some water in my nose. Then, I had to do the skill where you take the regulator out of your mouth, and I somehow got some water in my mouth. This is when I really started to freak out because I felt like I could not breathe. I had to go back up to the surface again. I was so scared that I was telling Sam, "I really don't know if I can do this." I was pretty close to backing out, but I knew that I would have been so disappointed if I didn't have this experience. Sam and Kelly convinced me to try again and I just concentrated very hard on steadying my breath.
We made it down. And it was SO worth it.

If I had missed out on this amazing opportunity, I would have been so disappointed. I have never experienced anything like this before. I could not believe we were actually scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, swimming past beautifully colored tropical fish and coral.

We were just so close to everything!

Kelly and I had rented an underwater camera so that we could capture all of this...and I think that was one of the best investments I've ever made! We just snapped away, taking TONS of pictures to remember this once in a lifetime experience. (I know I have more pictures on this post than usual, but it was just so hard to narrow down and choose which photos to use!) At one point, Sam had Kelly and I kneel down on the sand at the bottom. Then he took the camera from me, so that he could take some pictures of both of us.

After the dive, we went back up onto the boat for lunch. Kelly and I were just sitting there in absolute shock. We just kept saying to each other "We just went scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef." Now that we had the hang of how to breathe underwater, when we got to the third site, we were pros at snorkeling! We were able to keep our heads down for a long while at a time and this site was perfect for snorkeling. There were some really shallow areas where the coral was REALLY close, so we got some great pictures here as well! Once we finally got back on the boat to head to shore, we dried off and sat looking through the camera at the pictures we had taken. We were so excited to bring the camera back to the rental place and get the pictures put onto a CD! We dropped the camera off, went to dinner, and then went back to pick up our pictures. Luckily, there was a computer in the shop, where you could view your pictures. As we looked through all of them (we did get some good shots!) we were still amazed at what we had done.

This was definitely our most exciting day yet! We had SO much fun and it was an absolutely incredible experience.

Australia Day 5: Easter in Cairns

Our morning began with our grocery store breakfast consisting of cereal, fruit and yogurt. I have to tell you about the cereal though, because it was quite interesting. We had golden honey shredded wheat, which sounds relatively normal. It was actually pretty strange though because it was not honey-flavored shredded wheat. Instead, it was regular shredded wheat with a honey filling in the center. It didn't have a bad taste, but the consistency was really weird because the wheat part would get soggy in the milk, but the honey center stayed really gummy. Neither of us were big fans of it.

Ok...enough about cereal! This was Easter for us, so we wanted to go to church. We had looked one up and walked there. We had on skirts and dresses and were all set for a nice Easter mass. However, as it turned out, it wasn't really the most enjoyable experience for us. First of all, it didn't feel at all like Easter...there were no flowers and the church was not decorated in any special way. The microphone and sound system was terrible and we could not hear a word of what the priest was saying. But on top of that, it was so unbearly hot in the church. Everyone was dripping with sweat and fanning themselves with the missalette. (Some people even brought their own Chinese fans with them!) The heat and humidity were just so intense that unfortunately I could not concentrate on anything other than how incredibly uncomfortable I was.

After mass, we walked our sweaty selves to the nearest nice hotel, where we hung out in the lobby to benefit from some of the A/C. I realize that we have done a good amount of mooching on this trip! When we were finally cooled off and rehydrated, we walked along the Esplanade, which is the street that runs along the water.

Now, there is not actually a beach in Cairns. There's a boardwalk (not the kind with rides...just a promendade) and that ends at a really cool looking saltwater lagoon which is open to the public for swimming. By this point, both of us were getting a little cranky from being so hungry, hot and tired. So we decided to remedy one of those issues by stopping for lunch at a little cafe. Next came the relief for complaint #2: we stopped at an internet cafe which happened to be air conditioned. Then finally, we walked back to the hostel for naps to deal with the third issue.

After our naps, we were both in better spirits and headed back into town to find a place to have our Easter dinner. We decided to walk out by the marina, where there were a bunch of restaurants looking out over the water. We decided on a Thai fish restaurant which was delicious! We shared an appetizer of crab and caper bruschetta and then had salmon as our main meal. We then walked around town a bit more and stopped to get dessert! It was a very enjoyable Easter dinner.

Australia Day 4: Cairns Tropical Zoo!

Neither of us slept very well our first night in Cairns, and since we were both awake, we decided to just get up, even though our alarm had not yet gone off. Once we were ready, we went to reception to check-in (we didn't do this last night because it was so late). The woman at the desk was really friendly and helped us book our cruise to the Great Barrier Reef and a day trip up to Cape Tribulation!

When we left the hostel, we walked towards town and stopped in Cairns Central, a large shopping mall, where we got some breakfast. We had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, mushrooms and toast, but we were cracking up because we were sitting at a table in the middle of the mall. Our table was literally right outside of the main department store! We took advantage of the A/C in the mall and used the bathrooms, ATMs and phones there as well!

Then we headed into the center of Cairns to catch the bus out to Cairns Tropical Zoo. It was about a 20 minute bus ride through some very pretty scenery - it drove along the coast. So we spent the afternoon at the zoo, which focused on animals native to this area and Australia. Some of the things we saw included wombats, various birds and snakes, crocodiles, red pandas and lemurs.
(This bird talked and said "hello" to us!)

This is the red panda:

And here's a koala in a tree!

Plus, we got to feed and pet kangaroos! There was a whole gated off area where the kangaroos were free to roam around. And we just got to walk around that area with them! It was so cool just being so close to them...not seeing them from behind a cage, but actually petting and feeding them.

They were smaller than I imagined and their faces look a lot like deer. We even saw one that had a joey in its pouch (you can see the feet and tail sticking out and also see the large lump behind her legs):
So the kangaroos were pretty cool....but the absolute highlight of the visit was getting to have our picture taken with a baby koala! We actually got to HOLD the baby koala and they were so cute!! Kelly and I were so excited about this. They were just the most adorable, docile animals! After the zoo, we rode the bus back to Cairns where we went to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast supplies for the week. We also got some stuff for lunch and went to the local fruit market as well. We stopped in Cairns Central again on our walk back to the hostel, just to cool off and sit for a minute. Back at the hostel, we tried to use the internet, but it was REALLY slow. We then hung out in our room for a bit, doing some reading for school and taking naps.

We left the hostel again later on to go back into town for dinner. We looked at a couple of menus, and then decided to eat at "The Banana Leaf." (I know you might be surprised that I would eat as a restaurant with banana in the title, but I assure you that there were NO bananas whatsoever in my dinner!) This restaurant classified itself as "modern asian cuisine," and Kelly and I both loved our meals!! We both had stir-fry (Kelly's was sweet and sour, mine was in a ginger sauce) and they were both delicious! We were very happy with our decisions!

After dinner, we strolled around town a bit more. We walked through the "Night Markets," which are very touristy, but a lot of fun. They sell lots of different stuff, but mostly souvenir-type things. We went all out with the free samples by trying lycee and passionfruit wine and also getting hand scrubs! We just poked around the different shops in the market before getting gelato and heading back to the hostel for some much needed sleep!

Australia Day 3: Leaving Sydney

This morning we "slept in" until 9:25, at which time we got up to pack and check out. We left our suitcases at reception so that we didn't have to lug them around with us all day. We got brunch at Joe's Cafe, where we had nice omelettes, toast and flat whites. It was a very enjoyable meal, just sitting, relaxing, reading magazines, and chatting. Afterwards, we made some phone calls before heading out. We strolled through a really cute area called Paddington. There were lots of cute shops and boutiques, but since it was Good Friday, none of them were open. So we literally just window-shopped. We eventually made our way back to Darling Harbour, where the "Hoopla Festival" was going on. We stopped to watch an acrobatic show there -- it was pretty cool watching these girls do acrobatics on a rope. We were both feeling pretty lethargic and decided to take it easy and just walk around the Harbourside Mall. Then, we walked around to the other side of the harbor, which we had yet to see. Our plan was to catch the 3:16 bus back towards the hostel, and we wanted to grab a snack beforehand. Now, keep in mind that over the past 2 days, we have walked by a bustling cafe approximately every 5 to 10 minutes. But of course, since we were actually looking for one right now, for the life of us, we couldn't find a single one. (Granted, we did find some places that were closed for the holiday, but that didn't help us at all.) We finally found one where we grabbed coffee and muffins to bring with us to the bus stop.
Ok...one guess what bus we wanted to take? That's right...the 311. We arrived about 15 before the bus was scheduled to come, so we sat down to leisurely eat our muffins. After about 5 minutes, we look up and see the 311 pulling up.....BUT....it did not stop! Apparently, the buses only stop if someone ON the bus presses the button to get off, or if someone at the stop waves the bus down. SO, surprise, surprise...we missed the 311. Another one came after about 25 more minutes and we weren't in a big rush, so it was no big deal. It was just kind of funny to us because of our rocky history with bus #311.

(These are pictures from Hyde Park, which was walked through to catch the bus.)

When we got back to the lovely Pink House, we got our bags and used the bathrooms. We wanted to take some pictures of the house to document our experience. This one girl saw us taking pictures in the bathroom (which I admit IS a little weird!) but she gave us the strangest look. Then when she saw us taking more photos downstairs, she went and told the owner about us! So then the owner comes up to us and asks us it we are staying at this hostel. We told her yes, and then she just said "Oh, that's interesting." It was a pretty funny situation.

The inside of the shower (notice the grime on the walls and floor):

The door to the girls' bathroom:

Kelly standing outside the building on our way out:

We waited outside for the airport shuttle to pick us up. We wound up having the shuttle all to ourselves! We were so ahead of schedule that we arrived at the airport 3 hours ahead of flight, even though it was only domestic. It was fine though, because we certainly would rather hang out at the airport than at the Pink House! So we just took our time, looking in the shops and getting dinner. We got kebabs, which are a staple quick-food here (both in NZ and Australia). You have a choice of meat (usually beef, chicken or lamb), and then it comes with lettuce, cheese, tomato, onion, hummus and a choice of sauces. All of this is wrapped up in a pita and if you are lucky, toasted (and by lucky I mean at the right kebab place). They are quite delicious and are available practically every 5 storefronts in Auckland. So now that you know about kebabs in general, let me tell you about this particular kebab experience: since it was Good Friday, Kel and I ordered our kebabs without meat, which I assure you is HIGHLY unusual. The man at the kebab place was very confused, but made us our kebabs anyway. They were very good and we were still hungry (our bus stop muffins having been our last "meal") so we went back for seconds. Now, the kebab man thought we were pretty funny. He even remembered what toppings we each had on ours and he charged us a dollar less this time!
When we got to the gate, our flight was delayed slightly. When we boarded, we walked on to the tarmac and entered from the rear of the plane. During the customary demonstration of what to do in an emergency, Kelly and I got yelled at by the flight attendant for talking...it's not like we were being obnoxiously loud or anything! The flight was fine and once we landed, everything went really smoothly. We got our bags, took a shuttle to the hostel and let ourselves into our room with a key that was left for us in the mailbox (it was after reception hours). We were actually IN our room in less than an hour from the time we landed.

This hostel, Cairns City Backpackers, is a much better situation than the Pink House. It's still a hostel, of course, but a SIGNIFICANT improvement from our previous accommodation!

Maori Culture Weekend

Last weekend was our second Loyola-sponsored trip. We stayed at a marae, which is a sacred meeting house within the Maori culture. (For anyone who is not aware, New Zealand is a bicultural nation having both Maori people - the indigenous tribal people of New Zealand - and "pakhia" - the people of European descent who settled here.) Instead of a traditional trip focused on sightseeing, this weekend had more of a focus on soaking up the culture of the Maori through various different activities.

When we arrived at the marae, we were instructed to remove our shoes as the marae is sacred. We participated in a traditional welcome ceremony called a powhiri, before we were allowed to actually enter the building. The first night we pretty much just had dinner, watched a movie, and went to sleep. The movie was Whalerider, which is about a Maori girl. I had actually seen the movie a couple of years ago, but it was really interesting to see it again and pick up on and appreciate the Maori culture in it. We all slept on mattresses on the floor in one big room.When we woke up in the morning, pretty much everyone had gotten eaten alive by bugs. After breakfast, we headed to a beach where we had free time just to hang out. It was overcast, and I didn't really feel like going in the water, so I played volleyball instead! After the beach, we went back to the marae for lunch. In the afternoon, we were split up into two different groups to participate in two workshops. My group did the weaving workshop first. We each cut a leaf off of a flax bush, and then walked down to the beach where we learned how to weave the leaf into the shape of a flower. This is my flower:The second workshop was learning Maori martial arts, which involves fighting with a long stick (think tribal jousting). Our martial arts instructor first had us do "conditioning" where we had to run sprints forwards and backwards for a good 20 minutes to a half hour. After everyone was all sweaty and tired out, we began the lesson. First, we learned the various different ways to block an attack and then we learned how to strike our opponent. The grand finale was when he paired us up and had us battle each other! A couple of the boys got really into it and at the end, the instructor faught both of them at once.

Afterwards, we went to the wharf in town and tried our hands at fishing. Overall, we were pretty unsuccessful, but 2 of the boys did catch a small fish each. I also spotted a stingray underneath the dock! After fishing, we went back to the marae where we showered up and had dinner. Once the dishes were done, we went to the "Leigh Sawmill Cafe" to hang out for a little while. A bunch of us were pretty tired out from the day and headed back to the marae early, which the rest of the group stayed for a couple drinks. We kept the doors and windows closed that night, to try to keep the bugs out, but I still got some new bites.

The next morning at breakfast, we were told to split up into our groups. (We had each been assigned to one of 3 groups for dishes duty for the weekend.) There were 3 activities planned for the day and the groups rotated the order. My group did kayaking first. We pretty much stayed within the bay, but it was a lot of fun! We played several games, like tag, which made it interesting. A couple of people tipped over but I think everyone had a really good time!

I don't have any pictures of the actual kayaking, but this is where we got into our kayaks:

Our next activity was snorkeling. We went to Goat Island Marine Reserve, which is supposed to have a pretty good selection of wildlife. Since I had just snorkeled in Australia, I knew how to do it here. The water was pretty murky, but it was still cool to see the fish. It was definitely a very different experience than at the Great Barrier Reef though! Our group ate our packed lunches on the beach before heading back to where the other two groups were.

The final activity was raft-building. We were divided up into groups of 6 and each group was given 2 barrels, 5 sticks of bamboo and some rope. The idea was to build a raft that could hold 3 people and then we would race the rafts. Our group had some trouble building something that would actually float. We were running out of time and had to just make our final attempt work. The first 3 people to take the raft out on the race did alright at the beginning, but by the time they got back, the raft had partially fallen apart. So when it was time for the second leg of the race, we only had half a raft to work with. I sat in the middle and used a kayak paddle to try to move us along, and then Josh and James half sat on the raft, half swam. Our team made it to the finish line first, but there was some controversy as to whether or not we should be disqualified since our raft didn't hold up! We had a fun time though.

Our raft is the one in the back:

Here's our rafting group after the race:

After a long morning and afternoon, we all headed back to the marae to pack up and receive our formal farewell. This was an interesting weekend and I really enjoyed it. We did some fun things, with a Maori twist, and also got to bond as a group. I'm definitely pretty tired out from the weekend though!

Australia Day 2: More of Sydney

Australia Day 2 began with a search for the internet. We tried to use the internet in our own hostel, but it was SO slow that it wasn't even worth it. (Plus, the woman using it before us shut the computer down before she got up and then rudely said to Kelly, "Good luck with the computer. It takes forever to boot up." So we went to another hostel to mooch off of their internet.

We then walked towards an area called Darling Harbour, walking through Hyde Park on our way. We also visited the Queen Victoria Building, which is a mulit-level upscale shopping mall.
To get to Darling Harbour, we walked across a bridge which gave very pretty views of the harbor. Darling Harbour reminded me a little bit of a larger version of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. We just strolled all around the area, where there were lots of shops, restaurants and some really unique fountains. After a very brief walk through "Paddy's Market," which basically just sold a bunch of junk and knockoffs, we headed to the Sydney Fish Market!

We had planned to walk through Glebe, which is supposed to be a very pretty, artsy neighborhood, so we took a roundabout way to the fish market. However, we were both getting very hungry and tired, which was compounded by the heat, so we cut our ramble short. The fish market was a REALLY cool experience. We each picked out a piece of fresh tuna from the huge selection of fresh seafood offered. Then, we brought our tuna over to another counter, where they prepared it for us by grilling it and serving it up with chips (fries) and a salad. We also bought wasabi soy sauce from another counter, which went perfectly with the tuna. It was an absolutely delicious lunch! After lunch, we figured out where to catch a bus out to Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is supposedly one of the most famous beaches in the world, and certainly in Australia, so we decided we had to check it out, even though it is a bit outside of the city. It was a very pretty beach and we just layed down and relaxed a bit. I was very glad that we decided to head out that way. It was so nice to just rest our feet! We decided to walk around the town for a bit and so we walked up the main street, checking out some possible places to have dinner. We decided on a Noodle Bar, where we picked our veggies, sauce, noodles, and meat, and then they cooked it all up for us in a wok! It was fresh and very nice.
After dinner, we walked along the beach. The sun was beginning to set at this time, and we got some really great photos. Then we caught the bus back to Circular Quay. We had quite an interesting bus ride. There was this man who was listening to his headphones and was rapping along with them the entire ride. He was dancing and singing and so many of the passengers (ourselves included) were just cracking up watching this guy! Then, when we got to his stop, he turned around and said to everyone, "Keep dancing with passion everyone! Have a great Easter!"

When we got back into the city, we took some night shots of the bridge and the Opera House. We walked to "The Rocks" where we were planning on treating ourselves to dessert. Our waiter from last night recommended this place called "Pancakes on the Rocks" as a great spot to get dessert pancakes, so we had been excited about it all day! Kelly had pancakes with apples, raisins, cinnamon sugar and ice cream, and I had chocolate pancakes with oranges, Grand Marnier, chocolate sauce and ice cream. Both were delicious!! Afterwards, we walked back to the bus stop to try again for the 311, hoping we would have better luck than the previous night. We still had to wait a while, but it eventually came! We were so excited that we made fools of ourselves by taking goofy pictures of ourselves in front of the bus. I'm sure we were the happiest people on bus 311 that night! We ended the day as we began: with a search for internet. This time we wound up in yet ANOTHER hostel before heading back to the Pink House -- our favorite place in the world :)