Spring Break Saga: Chapter 5 The End

The next morning, bright and early we headed off to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling and scuba diving! I was really excited about this part, I almost forgot that we were doing this! We walked to the harbor and got on our boat. It was a huge boat and really nice. We all crammed onto the deck to get some sun. Then something rare happened. I got sea sick, it may have been a combination of being hungover and sea sickness but it was bad! I was so miserable, I tried sleeping up on the top deck, inside in the cabin and out on the bow. The bow was the best, but there was no where to hide from the sun. I never get sea sick, I love being on boats! I was kind of embarrassed about it. Then we got there and I was told that because of my sinus problems that it was recommended I don't scuba dive, which I think is a load of crap but they have to cover their butts. That's okay though I still got to snorkel and it was truly amazing! We were only at a small part of the reef but still, it was amazingly vibrant coral and some of the most beautifully colored fishes I have ever seen. It was just how I imagined it and think it could be one of my favorite places I have ever been. I wanted to see more, I wanted to see the whole reef! This is something I will remember for my entire life!

That night we did a Pub Crawl on a double decker party bus! This was heaps of fun but kind of silly because Cairns is a small beachy town and all the bars were seriously one or two blocks away! But we drove around pumping music and having a good time. I think we did a total of 5 bars and there were some awesome drink special, 2 for 1s and half priced drinks. We were getting drinks for $2.50 AUD. Also at each bar there were silly competitions that were good fun to watch, I didn't participate in any but a lot of my friends did, they also won a few of them!

The next day we got to sleep in, till 10! whoo hoo! and then we climbed back on the party bus (we rode this bus everywhere, even on the high ways, and naturally we made a scene everywhere we went) We drove over to a small town and arrived at Trinity beach. So beautiful! There were some amazing condos that lined the beach and one day I hope to have one of them! The beach was so quiet and relaxing. It was an incredibly hot day so we all layed in the shade and took naps, relaxed and ate coconuts we knocked out of the trees. Courtney and I walked into the town and had an amazing lunch at a little outdoor cafe. We got the Fisherman's Basket, that came with calamari and calamari rings, a large piece of fried fish, shrimp (prawns) and some other unidentified fried item of fish that neither of us recognize and were too scared to try. It was nice to have some fresh seafood,yumm!

Then came what we are all dreading, our last night! We had a pregaming party in Mouses room where Matty made "the elbow" because "its stronger than a punch" and in it went 6 boxes of goon both red and white, 3 bottles of vodka, 3 bottles of champagne, 3 bottles of Malibu and some orange juice. He wasn't kidding when he said it was strong than a punch! We polish off the elbow and hung out and recapped on highlights of the trip, took heaps of pictures, and got one of the girls to sing for us all. She was amazing, it gave me chills! She even has songs on Itunes. Then we went one last time to the WoolShed, where awards were given out to some of us. I got one and I turned incredibly red! We had a great last night and were all sad when it came to an end.

The next morning everyone dispersed and it was difficult to say goodbye because everyone was leaving at different times. We however booked our flight for the afternoon, so we had nothing to do all day. But it was nice we went out to brunch with our new group of friends and then we said our goodbyes. This was sad because by the end of this trip we felt like we had know them all our lives, but on the bright side were going to visit them in Melbourne in a few short weeks!

We get to the airport early and are ready to go! Then we run into a problem, Andrea finds out that she is not booked on the flight, she by accident booked it for a week from the day we were leaving! This was a disaster!Unfortunately she had to stay another night and fly back the next day. Nothing like a bit of drama to end our trip!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 4 Lengendary

Finally in Cairns, our last stop on the trip, but also the most exciting. We stayed in Cairns for 3 days and 3 nights at our sweet hostel Gilligan's. This place was the ultimate backpacking hostel I have ever seen. There was a club in the front and a bar in the back that was outside on a deck that looked over the pool. Also on each floor there was a kitchen and tables, a lounge, and a computer area. There were heaps of different people there, I would listen in on other peoples Skype sessions that were in all sorts of different types of languages while I checked my Facebook. Best of all, it was clean! There were clean towels and we were all pumped to shower and straighten our hair.

First night there we went to the WoolShed, our favorite hangout for the next three nights, and had a nice meal. Then we got to the partying. The WoolShed is a big bar and the drinks were pretty cheap, our group all sort of stayed together in one area and just had a good time. It turned out to be a late night but a fun one.

Next morning I woke up in a panic, I remembered what was in store for the day and then the fear set in. Today I'm going skydiving! A group of us signed up for the 12 o'clock time slot. Around 11:45 we wander downstairs to get some brekky before we go. Matty our tour guide told us not to eat, in fear of us throwing up (which was comforting to me, not!) but we did anyway. We get to the skydiving place and start filling out paper work. While we were doing this we got to watch Mouse's video from this morning, he went when he was still drunk and the skydiver messed with him and jumped out of the plane backwards and caught Mouse off guard. Again this didn't put me as ease. We continued to sign our lives away and then paid for it all, the skydiving, video and pictures, thanks mom and dad! lol I got fitted with some sweet pants and then got strapped into my harness...which I though was mighty loose! My skydiver was GJ, he was a bit older and short but a really nice guy, my fear must have been really apparent because he kept reassuring me that it would be okay. He would tell me "happy days" and he also tried to reassure me by telling me that this was his 4 jump today and that he has done it over 500 times. This made me feel a bit better but I still thought I was going to pee my pants! The car ride over was fun I almost forgot about what I was about to do, we listened to Allstar by Smash Mouth and we all sang along. We arrive at the airport find our dinky little plane. We pack ourselves in and then he starts clipping me to him. Then we take off and start climbing higher and higher. I said to him, "you know planes make me nervous" and he replies "no worries, if anything happens, we just jump out!" yikes!! The sights were beautiful though, we could see all of Cairns and the sugar cane fields. There were beautiful mountains that came right up to the waters edge. The water was blue and beautiful, I couldn't stop looking out the window. Since me and GJ were the smaller than the rest we were put at the back of the plane, and all the while the are shouting out codes to each other about the wind conditions and that it was all clear to jump. The door is pulled open and I was given some quick instructions on what to do and then all of a sudden people are jumping out of the plane. It was crazy to see, a group would be sucked out of the plane and it made a wooshing noise and the plane was getting lighter. Then its my turn, I'm the second to last to jump and now I was in a state of panic! I was breathing really deeply and kept trying to reassure myself. We scoot to the edge and he tells me to put my feet out of the plane, I try to tell him no way, but before I can he jumps out of the plane, and I go with him!!!!!! I scream my head off and then realize how amazing it is! You don't feel like your falling, but just suspended in the air. I'm trying to taken in the sights while I free fall, we free fall for 60 seconds which is the longest. Then I started to get nervous about when he pulls the chute, but he does and it all goes smoothly. I feel so accomplished of what I just did, but its still not over! He let me hold on to the chute and control it. We did 360 spins in the air and took in the sights, it was so peaceful. Then of course I started to get nervous about the landing, which again went smoothly. Then I was done and felt like I was on top of the world! So proud of my self and I wanted to do it again! I have video of it all and it is the funniest thing ever! The entire time I look like I just saw a ghost I am sooooo scared! After all that adrenaline I was spent, we walked around Cairns a bit but then went back to the place and took a nap. There was more extreme action ahead of us that night.

That night we went night bungee jumping. I didn't bungee jump, which I kinda regret now, but I felt I pushed myself enough for one day! The bungee was cool though it was over a lake and some people got dipped into the water! I still had a good time, a lot of us wussed out and so we drank tequila and laughed at all the terrified faces that were being shown on the screen before they jumped!

I wanted to get the whole three days in here, but it was way too long. I know no one would read it all, I know I wouldn't! So there will be one more chapter, Ill post it tomorrow! Sorry!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 3 Sweet

After we picked Alix up from the hospital we drove a few hours to our hostel for the night. We got in at 1am and we all disperse into our rooms, no partying or socializing for us tonight everyone was exhausted. The majority of the group stayed in this one hostel and since we were sitting at the back of the bus and got the room list last, we had to stay in the hostel across the street. We lucked out! This place wasn't the nicest, but it has clean towels and soap! (this was amazing because the last three days we have been using our wet beach towels as our shower towels as well...gross!) Apparently the place that everyone else stayed at was nasty! lucky us.

The next morning at 5am we were up to go white water rafting, something I was most scared of doing! We were going to try and get out of it, but that wasn't an option. We were nervous because I have a family friend who almost drowned doing this in Australia! So we listened closely to the safety instructions, double checked our life vests and pretended to look excited. We all got helmets, life jackets, a paddle, and a pair of Crocs! Our raft guide was nicked named the Ginger Ninja but his real name was Joe,He was tall and skinny and very soft spoken, he had long red hair in a ponytail and a long red beard that was braided.

We did a flood run because the Tully River was flooded recently. A flood run is when you do the bottom part of the rapids first and then go to the top and do the top half second (sometimes if its too bad you do the bottom half twice) Tully River is in the middle of the rain forest and is on the World Heritage List, it really was a beautiful place(to bad I didn't get to take in too much of the scenery, I was too busy clingy to the boat with all my might) We learned some basic instructions like"to the left" "to the right" these meant for us all to slide over to the left or the right side of the raft (this is difficult for me since I'm not so sharp on my left and rights, embarrassing, I know) We also learned "Get Down" and "Hold On" Get down was the call for us to pull in our paddles and get in the raft and hold on was meant for us just to hold on to the sides of the raft but still be ready to paddle. Our raft was nick names Team Get Down. This is because no matter what call he gave us when it came to any mildly big rapid we all jumped into the raft! I found it funny that we would paddle a bit and then Joe would tell us to relax as in stop paddling, this was funny choice of words because we would never relax, we were terrified!

Oh yeah did I mention that this was a grade 4 rapids out of a scale of 6! Each rapid we named something different, like Shark Fin, Spiral, and Hells Gate. My friend Jen fell out of the raft twice and one time was particular scary. We just went off a ledge aka a mini waterfall and Jen falls out. We are stuck at the bottom of this rapid and the water is forcing her under and dumping into the raft, were trying to pull her out but the force of the water on her is making it too difficult! We are all freakin! But we managed to get her into the raft and she was fine, a bit embarrassed because as we were pulling her up she lost her shorts shoes and paddle. She was funny about it she didn't want to be saved out of the water because her bathing suit bottoms were falling down, she rather drown than moon her fellow rafters. But everything from then on was smooth rafting (that's an oxymoron)

A couple times in the day we got out of the raft and floated down the river and the also got to do a bit of cliff jumping (they were really just tall rocks) but they were pretty high and kinda scary! I got up to the top of one and decided it was too high for me to jump and was trying to back out, and the instructor up there (a crazy Canadian) pushed me off...glad I did it tho! Oh yeah! also we were asking Joe about the river and if there was anything in there that would eat us, and he told us no. Then at the end of the day he told us that there actually Salt Water Crocs in the first part of the rapid we did, we also went swimming there! SCARY!

We went back to their headquarters had a beer and some food and got a good laugh at the pictures that were being snapped of us at different points down the river. We got back on the bus to head for Cairns, our final stop. We all passed out immediately on the bus, we were bumped bruised and tired. Glad I did it though.

So I apologize for the lack of pictures, none of us were stupid enough to bring our camera, Andrea however brought a waterproof disposable camera but it hasn't been developed yet. I will post them as soon as I get them!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 2 Bizirk

After our epic drive to the Whitsunday Islands we wake up to a wonderful gourmet breakfast...Mackers (McDonald's) yum. Its a beautiful day and the scenery is breathtaking. We store our big bags and pack 3 days worth of clothes and wine. We thought it would be nice to take a shower at the place we were storing out bags at the Koala Adventures...but when we arrived at the bathrooms and showers we were overcome with a stench and found some hefty frogs chillin out in the showers...needless to say, there was no showering for us, in fact it was so gross that we changed out side under the cover of each others towels and the next chance I got, I washed my flip flops of in fear of a disease!

After that debacle, we headed down to the dock where three yellow jet boats were waiting for us. We were given stinger suits and packed our stuff tightly away and then we took off. Our boat boys were Ben and Ben, easy to remember and they were nuts. As soon as we were of the marina we off doing 360's and catching air off the other boats wakes. We would catch up with the other boats and try and splash them, and they would do the same to us. After racing we stopped to go snorkeling! We had to wear these sexy stinger suits because its stinger season. They were basically long sleeves and pants wetsuit. It was pretty cool, we saw some cool fish and coral. We all looked pretty funny in the water because the gave us noodles to help keep us afloat and there were tons of us clumped together with our noodles sticking up in the air.

We jumped back on the boat for so more racing and splashing, we went to White Haven Beach and it was soo beautiful. But of course it starts down pouring when we get there. Unlike Fraizer Island we decided to make the best of it. We all grabbed our bags of goons and jumped out of the boat. The beach was beautiful with white sand for miles and beautiful clear blue water. We goofed around in the water for a few hours, drained our goons and froze our butts off! We were getting pelted with rain and every ones lips were turning blue and our teeth were chattering. Then Matty and Mouse would throw some fish food at us and these HUGE fish would emerge all around us to get a feed. They were cracking up laughing listening to our shrieks of horror when the big fish were splashing all around us! This day was one of my more favorite days of the trip!

We then arrived at our resort that we would call home for the next three days. South Molle Island and it was beautiful, we had it all to our selves. We found our little cabins and dropped our stuff to explore. There was a pool, bar, cafe, dinning hall, and gift shop. There was also a golf course too. The second day we were there it rained all day, so we sat under the cabana and drank pitchers of beer, played cards and just talked about everything and anything. Occasionally someone would get tossed into the pool, and Matty put one of our bathing suit cover up dresses on. Fun day of just relaxing in the rain.

Our last day was a beautiful one and thank goodness because we spent the day sailing around the Whithsundays and it would have been miserable if we had more bad weather. Luckily the sun was out and it as HOT! we camped out all over the boat and got some sun. Again we stopped to snorkel at another beautiful spot. We did a bit of snorkeling and then swam to the beach. Me and Ari went exploring and climbed this huge rock that had an amazing view. It was such a relaxing day and so fun to just lay out on the luxury sailboat and listen to good tunes.

Unfortunately a wonderful day ended on a sour note. When we got back to the main land to get our luggage we had stored for the last few days, some people found that their stuff had been gone through. Then heaps of people realized their ipods were missing, and some girls laptop was taken too! While everyone was filing police reports our friend Alix tripped on a curb and gashed open her knee...It was soo gruesome, most of the boys were freaked out about it. It was almost down to the bone and there was blood everywhere! I of course had to stay away in fear of passing out! She was such a trooper tho she didn't even cry until she realized that she would be holding up the group! She had to be taken away in an ambulance and got 7 stitches in here knee. But she rejoined the group later that night with a smile on her face.

Next chapter WHITE WATER RAFTING!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 1

I have just had the most amazing 9 days and 9 nights possible. Spring Break 2009 could not have been better. Courtney, Brit, Sasha, Andrea and I booked a trip through Extreme Adventures called One Fish Two Fish. We debated a while whether we should do it or not because we wanted to try and do our own thing, but we decided it was the most cost effective trip. We would see the most places and do the most, man this was the best decision ever!

It was so action packed I don't know where to start and how to even do justice to the experience. Im going to try but I'm splitting it up into chapters so I don't write 10 pages in this post! And I have some amazing pictures as well.Sunday morning at 4am we set off to the airport. We each brought a LARGE suitcase packed full. I was so tired on the flight I fell asleep immediately after sitting down, I didn't even get to put my seat back. We arrived in Brisbane and we were cutting it close to our meet up time with the trip. We are greeted by a guy running around the terminal with a blown up Kangaroo asking "are you one fish two?!?!" we then ran to the bus and we were the last ones (we were an hour late...woops) Since we were late we had sit scattered around the bus, but this way we got to meet some of the other people on the trip.

Our first stop was to the Australia Zoo (aka Steve Irwins Zoo) I was really excited about this part because me being the nerd that I am love zoos and love watching the crocodile hunter! I got to feed an Elephant a banana and he slobbered all over my hand..still pretty cool. We saw all the crocs and gators! We then went to the crocoseum and watched Terri Bindi and Bob feed crocs, they also brought out a HUGE anaconda and all types of birds.

We then hopped on the bus and took a long bus ride to Harvey Bay to stay at our first hostel. We had a booze cruise in the harbor and we all got a chance to meet each other and relax a bit. And we got to know our tour guides a bit better. Matty and Mouse are two of the craziest guys I have ever meet. In Aussie terms "off their head" both funny and outgoing and always down to do somethings crazy and they did do many crazy things on this trip! They are actually a bit of celebrities, the are rescuers are Bondi Beach and are on the show Bondi Rescue, Matty showed us an episode that features him and his incredible number of saves this summer ( a big zero!) Good news is that they live right near us and we will be seeing them again soon that's for sure.

Next day we headed off the Frazier Island. Unfortunately it was raining and a yucky day and we were all tired from the festivities of last night. We took an hour ferry over to the island which we all fell asleep on. We then got on a bus that was suped up on some crazy off wheeling tires and took off into the rain forest. We were bouncing around on the bus made me think of ace ventura. Funny thing was that every time I got on that bus I couldn't help but fall asleep, it was soo soothing. We went to two lakes that were made of only rainwater and it was beautiful. Every time we got out of the bus it started to rain tho and so we sat on the beach miserable in the rain. I packed a rain jacket, and of course I left it home this day (after that day I brought my rain jacket with me every where we went...even on the hottest days) Some interesting facts about Frazier, it has 7 of the 9 most deadliest snakes (including the deadliest), the island has tons of dingos and there are heaps of attacks, also the beach is the most dangerous place of all...its a shark breading area and if you are in knee deep water you are at risk of being attacked by a shark. Also the beach is a registered highway so there is no sunbathing there but that's okay because it rains 250 days in a year here. What a lovely place :)

At the end of a lovely day on Frazier we got back on the bus for an epic drive. Instead of staying at a hostel and loosing a day to travel we drove 12hours through the night to our next destination. We stopped every four hours and stretched our legs and got snacks. Naturally sleepin on the bus was uncomfortable...so I slept on the floor, wasn't too comfortable but atleast I got to stretch out and get some sleep. We also watched Role Models and that gave us some good laughs...this bus ride reminded me of the days of teenscape and all the bus rides we took, I miss those days :)

Next chapter- Whitsunday Islands and South Mole----check back soon :)

Fire Fun

Sorry for the lack of posting, but to be honest we haven't been doing to much lately. We all have had alot of homework so we haven't been able to travel and nights out are just nights out.

I felt this was something worth posting though. Today was a rainy yucky day (which is quite unusual) so we all slept in and stayed in our pjs and watched Sex and the City. Around 2 a very odd noise came from our ceiling. Now its wasnt our fire detector, it was coming from what looked like an intercom. We call down to the front desk to see what was going on and no one answered, we were starting to get worried. Then the loud speaker starts speaking to us telling us to evacutate the building. We scrambled to grab our phones, keys, and sweatshirts and ran down the stairs. The whole building was standing out side on the curb and funny things was that we werent the only ones who slept in. Mind you most of our building is college kids that came in our program, so everyone was out side in thier pjs. Rumors were that there was a fire on the 4th floor, which was freaking us out becuase were on the 3rd! But it turns out that it was nothing, just a faulty alarm. But it was a big to do in the Tiffany buildings

But this is a good lead into another run into with the fire department. A few weeks ago me and Courtney went on a exploring adventure. We hopped on the train and took it to Kings Cross. We walked around there a bit and ate at a horrible burger place. We then walked by one of the cutest firehouses ever. (I know those firefighters would cringe if they knew I called thier fire house 'cute' but it was) Courtney said I should walk over there and ask for a picture witht he firefighters, and I told her no way they would do it and I was too embarresed. But she persisted and finally convinced me. So gald we did, the firefighters were so nice, they let us into the fire house and let us into all the truck bays and even let us in the trucks. I felt like a little kid again, it was so cool! It was cool to see the diffrences between thier trucks and ours. The fire house used to be an old convent and had beautiful courtyards and open patios. Makes me miss mine!