G’Day from Cairns, the third and final stop on our best trip EVER. tour. Things have gone well since the last update… although I seriously doubt anything could top Tuesday’s glorious events. I suppose I owe you an update on how things have gone during the rest of the Brisbane trip, as well as our journeys thus far in beautiful North Queensland.
Brisbane was, by all accounts, the highlight of my trip. I think my last update emphasized that quite a bit. Aside from all the glory surrounding the Australia Zoo, we actually didn’t end up doing much of great significance. When we arrived on Monday, Janis, Rach and I headed down to the South Bank, which was a really cute little area about 15 minutes away from our hostel. It was the equivalent of a boardwalk by the river. We spent most of the day walking and lounging, embracing the actual break of our break. Janis and I caught the JetCat ferry that ran up and down the river next to Brisbane. It was a nice way to pass the afternoon, and a good prequel to today’s boating adventure. The highlight of my day was happening upon a grassy knoll-esq area, surrounded by palm trees, laying down and doing a bit of reading and writing. We made some pasta for dinner back at the hostel, and managed our usual Monday night television, catching Idol, Californication and The Office. Good deals.
Tuesday was, of course, the day to end all days. I doubt after last entry you want to hear anything more about my pilgrimage to the Australia Zoo, but let me reiterate one more time… it was absolutely amazing. The true realization of a dream. After the day’s adventure, we toasted Steve over $1o pitchers of Strongbow and a bit of pub quiz. A great way to cap off an even better day.
Wednesday marked our departure from Brisbane. We got up on the earlier side and czeched out of Brisbane Backpackers, catching the bus into the city. We had intentions of going to Surfer’s Paradise, but when we looked up bus and train timetables, it didn’t work out. So, we stuffed our bags in rental lockers and went about exploring the city, looking for something fun to do. What did we come up with? Why, the Brisbane Law Courts, of course! I know, we’re total nerds. Whatever. It was air conditioned, and it was the Supreme Court, and there were suits involved. Need I explain myself further? Well, okay. After talking with the security guard for a bit (we stood out in our tank tops and shorts), we went in search of an ongoing murder trial. A series of locked doors and empty rooms later, we happened upon an assault trial. Things started out slowly, but certainly picked up. We got to see the whole schpeal: judge, jury, evidence, testimonials, even the barristers in their Revolutionary War-era wigs and robes. Quite an event. For anyone looking for free entertainment on a hot day—I highly recommend trial law. Criminal law, if you can get it. Because everything’s more fun when there’s violence involved.
After our stay at the Brisbane Supreme Court, we walked down the street to a backpacker eatery and grabbed lunch. A bit more city exploration followed, and soon enough it was time to head back to the Transit Centre to take our train to the airport. The flight was uneventful; I watched an episode of X-Files to pass the time. Sadly, no interesting travel companions this time around. We caught a cab to Gilligan’s, our Cairns hostel for the first two nights. Gilligan’s is the Four Seasons of hostels. They had a pool (which I opted to take a nighttime swim in) comparable to Fritzopia—a feat in and of itself for a hostel. I spent most of Wednesday night reflecting on Tuesday’s events and being awoken by hostel roommates who have no sense of privacy. In the interest of maintaining the integrity of this blog, I won’t go any further with that.
Thursday was our first full day experiencing Cairns. We got up pretty early to talk to the Gilligan’s travel agent and book ourselves some fun adventures during our four day stay in tropical North Queensland. We opted to embark on Janis’s adventure—Kuranda and the Rainforestation Park. We hopped a $4 van that took us outside the city and up one of the mountains overlooking Cairns. The drive there was actually quite nice… probably because I strategically positioned myself by an open window. When we got to the top of the mountain, it was off to Rainforestation, home to the trifecta of Army Duck Boats, Aboriginal Learning, and Cuddly Koalas. Our first stop on the tour was riding the Army Duck through the rainforest. The scenery reminded me of Fern Gully, and our guide kept everything very interesting. Also, there’s something completely awesome about driving into a large body of water. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s there. After our drive/boat ride, we headed to the theater area, where we saw a series of Aboriginal dances, complete with a live digeridoo soundtrack. The dances were pretty cool to see, and some of them were actually quite funny. Post-show, our Aboriginal experience continued with a more hands-on sort of activity. We got to try our hands at boomerang throwing and digeridoo playing (I was much better at the former than the latter), and witnessed a spear throwing demo. Educational and fun. The wildlife park was our last stop at Rainforestation; nothing compared to the past 72 hours of animal encounters and reflections, but it was still pretty neat. I did, however, befriend a kangaroo who I dubbed “The Ambassador,” and saw a baby koala sleeping with its mum. Cuteness to the third power. At the end of our tour, we had the opportunity to get our pictures holding a koala and a baby crocodile. We all opted for the double package. Holding Walter the koala was completely amazing. He was so adorable. I wanted to steal him. Steve was absolutely right about one thing—if you have the opportunity to get close to animals, it makes you love them and want to save them even more. Holding the baby croc was fun as well… I almost gave him a kiss, but the guy taking the picture was looking at me kindof funny, so I didn’t. Expect to see those pictures on facebook as soon as I can locate a scanner.
And so ended our Rainforestation adventure. We shuttled back to the main area of Kuranda and wandered the markets for a bit before catching the van back. Whence back in Cairns, Rach and I embarked on a money/ice cream and cake/beach journey. I ended up falling asleep at our stop by a makeshift beach. It was quite redeeming. We headed back to Gilligan’s just as it was getting dark, and I had another swim before getting ready for dinner. We opted for a nicer sort of meal Thursday night, dressing up and meeting with Justin to eat at a higher end Indian restaurant. Our level of class rose another degree when we opted for drinks before dinner; I had a strawberry daiquiri, while the other three split a bottle of wine. Dinner was quite good, as was the conversation and the company. It’s nice to be classy sometimes. Didn’t do much after dinner… the adventure of break was starting to creep up on us, we were all asleep before 11.
Today has been another jam-packed day, again, in the best way possible. We were up by 6:3o this morning for an early check out; we had to be at the marina by 8:3o for our Great Barrier Reef scuba/snorkel adventure! Checking in and out of the hostels proved to be a bit more difficult than we originally thought. This mostly had to do with the fact that we grossly misjudged the distance between the two, and ended up walking about seven blocks (with our giant bags, mind you) to Calypso. After a quick check in and bag drop-off, we hailed a taxi and made our way to the waterfront. We only got mildly lost trying to find the info centre, but all was well once we hopped on the ReefQuest and began our day at sea. Ohh, do I love boats.
After a few introductory sessions, we were pretty pumped to find we’d be amongst the first group to scuba. The boat was pretty big, and we were among maybe 4o passengers, 14 of whom were doing their first scuba dive with us. After cruising a while out to sea, we got suited up in our gear and were dangling our feet into the Pacific in no time. I wasn’t sure how I’d handle the whole breathing underwater thing, but I after the initial “this is really weird,” I got used to it pretty quickly. We had three quick mini-lessons about ten feet below the surface, consisting of what to do if we get water in our masks, if we spit out our regulators, or if our regulators get stuck behind us. We faced a few minor setbacks at first—Janis had to abandon us because she wasn’t equalizing with the pressure… then Rachel’s tongue ring came undone (hilarious), and my right ear wouldn’t pop on the way down… but soon enough, Rach and I were exploring the Great Barrier Reef from about 5o feet under water. The scenes we swam through were downright breathtaking. It was exactly like something out of Finding Nemo, no lies. One of the first fish we saw was a four foot long reef shark. Then, our guide pointed out a clownfish living in his anemone home. We saw hundreds of different kinds of fish swimming amongst brilliantly colored coral. Colors I didn’t think existed in nature presented themselves in the form of foot-long rainbow fish. It was absolutely brilliant. Giant clams, angelfish… everything you could imagine would be living in tropical waters. Our scuba time expired after about half an hour under water, and as soon as we resurfaced, I shed my gear and hopped back in for a snorkeling expedition. I came across even more fish that I hadn’t seen while scuba-ing, including five enormous blue fish that were almost as big as me. After an extended stay in the water, chasing random fish and diving whenever I could, I popped up for air and realized I was pretty much halfway back to Cairns, so I snorkeled my way back to the boat. Perfect timing, too; lunch was ready just as I got back on board. I dined atop the rear deck with Janis (Rach wasn’t feeling too well) and we cruised to our next dive location. At this point, my right ear felt like it was going to explode. Damn pressure changes. This didn’t hinder me from entering the water again, though. After all, how many times in ones life does one have the opportunity to explore the world’s largest living organism?
Although tired from my earlier scuba and snorkel sessions, I explored away at the second stop. It offered what I can only describe as the real-life Drop Off from Nemo. All it was missing was a manta ray singing about the zones. More brilliantly colorful fish and coral sightings followed, but the highlight of that dive had to be my encounter with a sea turtle. I spotted him while I was on my back to the boat, about 25-30 feet below me. Naturally, I turned around and opted to follow him instead of keep on track to the boat. As I swam above him, he began to ascend, until he was within arm’s reach of me, swimming maybe a foot below me, and three or four feet away. It was incredible. He began to descend after maybe 2o or 3o seconds of swimming beside me, so I bid him adieu and headed back to the boat. Just before reboarding, I spotted what must’ve been his companion, about 40 feet below, munching on some coral-like vegetation. Needless to say, for those few minutes, I completely forgot about how much my ear ached. Our boat ride back was long but enjoyable. It was incredibly soothing to bask in the ozone-depleted Queensland sun while being cooled by the occasional sea spray. After landing, we made a quick stop at Woolworth’s to pick up much needed soap, and taxied back to Calypso. Showered, compared burns (I’m not bad for once! Score!), and ate dinner downstairs. Since then, I’ve been unwinding in my bottom bunk, admiring the Pocahontas bed sheets the front desk gave me, watching X-Files, and writing this. And now that I’ve fully recapped the past five days, I think it’s time I get some sleep. I’m going mountain biking tomorrow morning in the Cairns rainforest. I’m told there will be waterfalls and a swimming cove involved… count me in! Then, the Grand Final in the afternoon. Geelong vs. Adelaide… GO CATS! If Geelong wins, the city’s going to be much more fun when we get back. I’m pumped about it. This will likely be my last entry until my return to Waurn Ponds, so let me say that thus far, best trip EVER. has definitely lived up to its name. It’s been chock-a-block full of adventure, but also incredibly soothing at times. So, unless I find the time to update between now and Sunday night… cheers from Queensland!
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