26 March 2006

Aussie Pictures: Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation

This is the Daintree River that we cruised on. Don't be fooled by its calm appearance. Like most things in Australia, the prettiness hides all of the bad stuff. In this case, crocodiles (bad, but awesome) and mosquitoes (not so awesome).

This is the freshwater area where we stopped to swim and have afternoon tea.

As you can see, the river was quite deep where we were. The current was also quite swift. This wasn't the only vehicle we saw driving across the river, and we also saw a dog swim across it.

At lunch, we stopped near a sort of kangaroo rescue programme. Most of these kangaroos are too injured or have been around humans for too long to return to the wild.

Because they are so used to humans, the kangaroos are incredibly friendly and act kind of like my dogs, jumping on you for attention.

This is Cape Tribulation from the ground ...

... and from above on the hill. Pretty, right?

In actuality, we had to swear up and down not to go near even a drop of water. Everything on this beach can hurt or kill you, from the mating cassowaries (a rare Australian bird) ...

... to the crocodiles ...

... to the ever-present deadly jellyfish. Some of these jellyfish have enough poison to kill you in six seconds sixty times over or something like that. The box jellyfish is the most deadly animal in the world. That's right, not just the most deadly jellyfish or the most deadly animal in Australia, the most deadly animal in the entire world. Crazy place, Australia. Animals evolved with unnecessarily strong defense mechanisms!

Aussie Pictures: Hot Air Balloon

I am pretty sure that this is the biggest balloon in Australia, along with the one below.

This is the one that I went up in. What cute koalas!

When the first balloon flight took off, it was still semi-dark and really foggy, and so you could watch the balloons slowly disappear into the mist. Cool.

This is me about to go up in the balloon. The basket was a lot bigger and nicer than I anticipated. It was also quite difficult to climb into with a skirt on.

I am glad that there was some cloud cover because it created some cool patterns with the sunlight.

For most of the journey, we could see the other balloon. I believe we were about 1000 feet above the ground at our highest point.

I love this picture of the balloon, mountains, and clouds.

Yup, that's our shadow over the farmland! The balloon company has contracts with the local farmers so they can land in their pastures and fields. When we landed, the cows just kind of stared at us. Well, except for one curious calf who came over to investigate.

After landing, everyone was recruited to help fold up the balloon and pack it away.

Can you believe that the entire balloon fits in that one bag? It was crazy heavy.

Aussie Pictures: Great Barrier Reef

This is the five of us who made it on the snorkeling and diving boat in our stinger suits.

There was a professional photographer taking pictures of us in the water. They charged more than enough for the pictures, but I think they are so funny.

Another one of me snorkeling.

This is the lineup of our diving vests. We sat down on the bench, zipped into our vests, and then stood up with the air tanks on our backs.

My SCUBA diving picture!

The next pictures are all of the fish and coral on the reef. The fish were much more brilliantly coloured, and the coral also was much brighter, but it is very hard to capture that on film.

Aussie Holiday: Cairns

Cairns (pronounced ‘cans’) is on the northwest Queensland coast, the area recently battered by some cyclones. While Long Island and the Whitsundays are geographically in the tropics, Cairns actually feels like the tropics. It has the lush rainforests, hot and humid weather, and mosquitoes like there’s no tomorrow. It is commercialised while still being home to several World Heritage natural sites.

After dinner on our first night in Cairns, we headed into town to the night markets. Every night, after sundown or something like that, heaps of little hole-in-the-wall touristy shops open up to sell everything you can think of. There is a booth that sells pearl jewellery that you ‘pick from your own oyster,’ swimsuits and sarongs and all kinds of beachwear, and even a Chinese massage parlour. We shopped around, bought some drinks to suffer through the hot weather, and just wandered for awhile. We headed back to our resort after about an hour because we all had early mornings the next morning.

My big adventure that day was to go out on the Great Barrier Reef. Cairns is a popular jumping-off point to visit the outer reefs in the Great Barrier Reef. I was very excited because I had heard that I could go SCUBA diving without being a certified open-water diver. Jules had told our group that you could do an introductory dive, which means you have some short instruction before going underwater with the instructors. Seven of us signed up for the cruise, but Stacey and Leanne ended up not coming on the trip because the company told them they were not medically able to dive (even though Leanne has done it before). They had to go with another group on a different day. It was so cool! The weather wasn’t nice at all on the way out, and it even started raining a bit while we were in the water, but you don’t care because you are already wet in the water. I was in the third diving group, so I got to snorkel for awhile before getting suited up. I have been snorkelling in the Caribbean and in Fiji, but this was still amazing. The coral was so bright, and the fish were everywhere. One cool thing is that the fish aren’t afraid of you at all. There was one kind that was very interested in the snorkelers and would actually come up and peck at your stinger suit or your mask.

After snorkelling for a little while, the instructors called my group in to suit up and go over how to dive again. I had never worn a diving suit before, and it was a lot heavier then I anticipated. Of course, it doesn’t feel heavy under water, but it certainly does on land! We suited up and then jumped off of the back of the boat into the water. The company had two lines strung between the fins of the catamaran, one just under the water and one a metre down. After you were used to breathing through the tank over water, you went just under water and got used to it then. I thought it was easier to breathe under the water through the tank than above water. After you signalled to the dive instructor that you were OK, she adjusted your weights and let air out of your vest until you were one metre under water. You adjusted yourself to that while she went down the row to check everyone else. After everyone was ready and adjusted, you went down another metre and repeated the process. At this point, we left the boat and went swimming. At our deepest point, we were six metres under the water. I had a little trouble at the very bottom with my ears (I had trouble equalising them), but it was so cool anyways! When you are under the water, you, and the fish, think that you are just a part of that world, and they have no problem swimming all around you and the rest of the people in the group. Schools of fish would swim by and surround you. That’s an experience that you can’t get on the surface.

After this stop, we all got back on board and had lunch while we sailed to our next destination. At our first stop, the coral a ways under water, but it was almost at the surface at the second stop. That meant that a lot more light could reach the coral and the fish, so everything seemed brighter. I was glad that I had my stinger suit on because I saw a lot of jellyfish. We had seen one really big jellyfish while diving, but I saw heaps more when I was snorkelling, and they were the small clear kind that (I think) were a lot more dangerous. I also saw a really big shark chilling out on the bottom waiting for some food to come along. When I was back on the boat, someone told me the shark was about two metres long (I am really bad at judging distances, especially when associated with water). All in all, it was an exciting time on the water.

After this good day, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my second free day in Cairns. Our resort wasn’t on the water, and even if it was, we couldn’t swim because of all of the dangerous things lurking in the water. I was flipping through the book of recommended activities in Cairns, and I came across hot air ballooning. I was like, ‘Hm, I have never done this before. Let’s try that!’ That’s how, at 4am the next morning, I ended up in a shuttle van taking me to the balloon launching site. Apparently, in the hot weather climate of the tropics, you can only take up a hot air balloon between the hours of 6am and 8am because of temperature constraints, but I think it is nice to be up at sunrise. I was surprised at how quickly the sun rose once it started to peak over the mountain, but it didn’t take long at all. We got to the site early enough to see the balloons being blown up and everything. We split into four groups, two up at a time, and I was in the second group. This was the better group to be in because the sun had fully risen, so the light was better and the scenes more scenic. It was absolutely gorgeous. Because we were up at sunrise, it was breakfast time for the kangaroos, so we could seem them hopping around the fields below us. There was some cloud cover, but that just helped to keep the sun out of our eyes while creating beautiful pictures. Because you flow with the wind, you can’t feel it and everything is perfectly still. The flame to heat up the air in the balloon is really loud while it is on, but when it is off, everything is perfectly silent. It was a really cool experience. It’s traditional to celebrate with champagne after a successful balloon flight, so my company took us to a restaurant for champagne and buffet breakfast.

I got back to the resort at about 10am, but I had been up for over six hours at that point, so I was tired. I made some phone calls and then just caught the shuttle into town to do some errands. I hadn’t checked my email in a few days, and I also wanted to do a lot of souvenir shopping. This was our last stop, so I could load up on souvenirs without having to carry them all over Australia. For lots of people on the tour, it was their last night, so we had a special dinner and night out in Cairns.

The next day, most people’s last day, we headed out of Cairns on a quick morning trip to the village of Kuranda. This is just a little touristy village with some cheap markets and other attractions, like a butterfly sanctuary. I didn’t enjoy it that much, but it wasn’t a bad way to spend a morning. After lunch, the driver dropped most everyone else off at their new hostels (because their tours were over), and I took a much-needed nap. That night everyone on the tour was still in town because not too many flights leave from Cairns, so we all met up in town again for another ‘last night out.’

The next day, the last official day of my tour, was spent up in the Daintree Rainforest region. We took a coastal drive up the Cook Highway before boarding a 4WD vehicle to take us into the Daintree forest. We started with a river cruise (covered in mosquitoes because it was the first day without rain in weeks). Normally, there are lots of crocodiles in the river, but it is nesting season right now, so most of the crocs were hidden. We did manage to see a nesting mother, something that is apparently very rare to see, and a large dominant male. We ended with a big lunch at the mouth of the river. After this, we climbed up into the rainforest and stopped at a freshwater river for a quick swim and a tropical fruit snack. We also had a special kind of tea that the old outback explorers could make quickly and easily and with minimal equipment. On the way home, we made at stop at Cape Tribulation. We couldn’t go anywhere near the water because everything about the beach could kill us almost instantly, but it was gorgeous.

And that was the end of my trip! I spent that night at a big hostel called Gilligan’s. It was huge, clean, and lots of fun. I had to get up early the next morning for my flight back to Wellington. I had a great time in Australia, but it was also nice to be back in Wellington for my final week. I could definitely go back to Australia again.

Aussie Pictures: Long Island

After Fraser Island and the Capricorn Caves, we were very happy to be at our new resort.

The sunset was over the mountains, but because the tide went out so far, it still created some amazing scenes.

The resort we stayed at was really nice. It had lounge chairs all along the beach as well as by the pool.

The signature drink on Long Island: a Long Island Iced Tea!

This is our retired racing catamaran, the Camira. We sailed around several of the islands on this boat.

In the morning, the weather wasn't nice at all, but it cleared up by our first stop and was absolutely gorgeous in the afternoon.

This is Whitehaven Beach. It is widely considered to be the most pristine beach in the world, and on a nicer day I can see why it is also considered the prettiest.

This is the sunset on the second night.

Because the tide went so far out, the water left on the sand looked great in the sunlight.

Yeah, that's me.

This is a picture of all us girls. The two in the middle were the two we dropped off in Airlie Beach the next morning before continuing on to Cairns.

Aussie Holiday: Long Island

After leaving Fraser Island, we were headed for Long Island in the Whitsundays. This was a little too far to drive all in one day, so it was split into two days. We crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn and stayed in a small campground. The main attraction here was the Capricorn Caves. You could go on a two-hour caving adventure through them and up to the top of the mountain, or you could just do a one-hour walkthrough of the bigger caverns. I had recently done a more spectacular caving adventure in Waitomo, so I took the opportunity to organise my life and repack my backpack (we had only been allowed one small bag on Fraser Island, so I had to consolidate my clothes again). There wasn’t much else besides large insects at this stop, but we did see some more wild kangaroos, including one mother with a joey.

The next morning we finished our drive to Airlie Beach, the port to catch our ferry to Long Island. We had picked up two more passengers in Surfer’s Paradise, Zoe and Catherine, and we picked up one more in Airlie Beach, Leanne. This was the largest our group at any point, but it didn’t stay that way for long. About half of the group, eight people, left for a two-day two-night cruise around the Whitsundays. Instead of doing this cruise, I stayed at the Long Island Resort. We relaxed that night at the island bar (long islands on Long Island) before crashing out.

The next day, some of us had booked on to a day cruise around the islands. We met our ferry at 7.45am, and it took us to the dock where we met Camira, our 85ft bright purple retired racing catamaran. Everything was included on this cruise: morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, drinks, stinger suits, and snorkelling equipment. We visited Whitehaven Beach, often called the most beautiful and pristine beach in the world, and another snorkelling cove. We didn’t have very good weather in the early morning. It was overcast, and as we made our way around some of the islands, it began to pour. This ended up being OK because the crew put on Finding Nemo and brought us inside for talks about snorkelling and the coves we were going to visit. The weather had cleared up entirely by the time we got to Whitehaven Beach, and we had fine weather for the rest of the day. It was even nice enough that us girls laid out on the nets strung between the fins of the catamaran to enjoy the warm sunshine and stay cool with the air rushing below us.

We spent the next day relaxing on the island. We were originally planning on taking out the free kayaks out on the water, but by the time we checked on them, they had already been taken out for the day. We compromised and hung out by the pool instead, taking advantage of the swim-up bar and café. One interesting thing did happen poolside. I was the first one from my group out there because I couldn’t sleep, and once I was awake I didn’t want to waste sunlight. There were about seven girls, roughly university age, taking up the next chairs down, and they all sounded distinctly American to me. Once I heard them mention ‘spring break,’ I got really interested and started trying to figure out where they were from (especially because I thought it was quite early to have a spring break). Later on, when they were getting ready to go back for a nap, I saw a girl walk by me wearing a University of Georgia t-shirt! These girls were all UGA students over in New Zealand and Australia on a study abroad. (In case you’re a reader not from the USA, Georgia Tech – my home university – is a rival of UGA, and we’re both state universities in Georgia.) It was even cooler because the girl in the t-shirt was actually the roommate of Emily, a girl who was on the GT study abroad in Wellington (we travelled together to Rotorua). I travelled all the way around the world just to run into a group of girls from my same area.

This was the last night that the entire Connections group was together. Two of the girls who had been with us from the beginning were ending their tour (they were only doing an 11-day tour, Sydney to Long Island), so we took our group photo and had our celebrations that night. There were 16 of us plus our driver and hostess. We enjoyed the pool, hung out on the beach at sunset, and did karaoke one final time (we did that fairly often throughout the trip). The next morning we got up early to catch our ferry, dropped the girls off in Airlie Beach, and headed north again to Cairns.

25 March 2006

Aussie Pictures: Fraser Island [2]

This is a selection of my best pictures from the sunrise on Fraser Island. The light in the first picture is from a car driving down the beach, which was used as the highway on the island.