Thursday, April 15, 2010
Trip to Cairns
Last weekend I travelled back up the Coast north to Cairns to go home with a friend of mine from college, Tom. Took the smallest plane I think I have ever been on! It only fit 35 people, and we were ‘those guys’ that the plane is like leaving the runway and we are running on the tarmac trying to wave it down to stop so we could get on… but we made it on the flight, that’s probably the moral of the story. We took off in the shoebox and got brekkie and literally twenty minutes later landed in beautiful tropical North Queensland. There is just something absolutely magical about Cairns, that as soon as you land there you just immediately feel right at home… that’s how I know that is where I was meant to be. ☺
His father picked us up in his Ute (truck) and drove us back to his house, which was like a dream! He lives on top of a small hill in a beautiful tropical rainforest like neighbourhood and you get out of the truck and look all around and all you see is mountains and the city, drop dead gorgeous! I just looked at him and said don’t EVER take this for granted because you could have grown up in the lovely state of Connecticut where the only tropical thing that happens is if you and your sister buy a pool from Wal-Mart one day and set it up in your backyard and have a blow up palm tree set up next to the pool… his house was very modern and windows everywhere with beautiful views out every single one! I probably looked as if I had never seen four walls and a roof before as I got the grand tour, mouth hanging open possibly drooling. We then had crazy fruits like pummelo and some spiky red fruit that was very delicious. For the rest of the day we took out their boat on the reef with his brother and sister and snorkelled around coral islands with crystal clear blue water and not a cloud in the sky! It was the perfect day. We boated around to the reef crest, or as Nemo would know, the DROP OFF, where we hopped into the ocean and I think my heart stopped for a good 30 seconds, after I struggled from almost drowning in the state of Awe I was able to open my eyes without collapsing and just did a 360 and tried to take in the amount of life that was all around me, I had never seen the amount of coral and fish species that was all around before in my life it was like I died and went to some magical coral ocean heaven. The water was so clear and the colours on the reef were out of control I was so keen to jet around for hours! We swam all around the reef and saw a family of clown fish, tons of parrot fish, sea cucumbers, coral trout, and even a nice 4 foot long white tip reef shark decided to join the party and swim by! That checked off one of my Australia buck list bullets. Swim with wild shark CHECK! Then as if the day could get any better I was just swimming along and under this bommie (large coral head) I spot an at least 5 foot grey nurse shark! I almost drowned again trying to find the surface to yell over to Tom and his little brother to come see, we hung out by it for a good 20 minutes getting closer and closer to it, then out of nowhere it left its little cave and swam right AT ME!!!!! It got literally 3 feet from my face than swam away! I almost had a heart attack it was the most amazing thing that I think has happened to me since I have been in Aussie! When we finally got back on the boat I was like all right I can die right now my life has been fulfilled. We then drove back to port as the sun was setting and I just sat on the bow of the boat as the water was splashing at my feet, thinking and smiling IM IN AUSTRALIA! It was the best feeling in the world! We docked the boat and headed back to his house all salty and sleepy and overwhelmingly happy. However, after showering that nice sometimes you realize you probably should have put on a little extra sunscreen on your back when floating around in the water for hours… at least I did not peel!
The next day we drove to the Cairns botanical gardens fro breakfast where I had my first Australian waffle lets just say they got it down! It was caramel banana amazingness! We they walked all through the botanical gardens and I felt like I was in some tropical dream and I was just waiting to wake up and realize I was back in my bed in Connecticut. It was perfect, pretty much the only way to describe it. We then got ready for another boating adventure with some fishing. Drove to this beautiful beach and took a quick dip before his family swung over and picked us up in their boat from the beach, yeah I felt like a local! We jetted along the coastline peering at the mountains and scout hat and Double Island before reaching our ‘secrete’ fishing spot with the ten other people who share the same ‘secrete’ spot. However our fishing skills were very slack and we turned out to be more interested in my possible future office of the GBR and the delicious chips that made it on board our vessel. we trawled around for a little while longer until heading to Double Island for a little swim on the leeward side and the fished arounf the point before heading back into port and passing a nice 6 foot salty (salt water crocadile). that night we headed into town after having a homemade dinner of tacos! and met up with a few of Tom's friends for drinks and a walk around town. it was the PERFECT weekend!
this past week in school has been very busy and jam packed with lab reports and mid semester assesments and essays on coral growth rates and conserving marine wildlife, making this coming vacation week so exciting!!!! We leave on our jet plane adventure tomorrow morning at 12pm and jet set off to Brisbane for some awesome days in the sun and surf! many many stories and photos to come!
cheers
His father picked us up in his Ute (truck) and drove us back to his house, which was like a dream! He lives on top of a small hill in a beautiful tropical rainforest like neighbourhood and you get out of the truck and look all around and all you see is mountains and the city, drop dead gorgeous! I just looked at him and said don’t EVER take this for granted because you could have grown up in the lovely state of Connecticut where the only tropical thing that happens is if you and your sister buy a pool from Wal-Mart one day and set it up in your backyard and have a blow up palm tree set up next to the pool… his house was very modern and windows everywhere with beautiful views out every single one! I probably looked as if I had never seen four walls and a roof before as I got the grand tour, mouth hanging open possibly drooling. We then had crazy fruits like pummelo and some spiky red fruit that was very delicious. For the rest of the day we took out their boat on the reef with his brother and sister and snorkelled around coral islands with crystal clear blue water and not a cloud in the sky! It was the perfect day. We boated around to the reef crest, or as Nemo would know, the DROP OFF, where we hopped into the ocean and I think my heart stopped for a good 30 seconds, after I struggled from almost drowning in the state of Awe I was able to open my eyes without collapsing and just did a 360 and tried to take in the amount of life that was all around me, I had never seen the amount of coral and fish species that was all around before in my life it was like I died and went to some magical coral ocean heaven. The water was so clear and the colours on the reef were out of control I was so keen to jet around for hours! We swam all around the reef and saw a family of clown fish, tons of parrot fish, sea cucumbers, coral trout, and even a nice 4 foot long white tip reef shark decided to join the party and swim by! That checked off one of my Australia buck list bullets. Swim with wild shark CHECK! Then as if the day could get any better I was just swimming along and under this bommie (large coral head) I spot an at least 5 foot grey nurse shark! I almost drowned again trying to find the surface to yell over to Tom and his little brother to come see, we hung out by it for a good 20 minutes getting closer and closer to it, then out of nowhere it left its little cave and swam right AT ME!!!!! It got literally 3 feet from my face than swam away! I almost had a heart attack it was the most amazing thing that I think has happened to me since I have been in Aussie! When we finally got back on the boat I was like all right I can die right now my life has been fulfilled. We then drove back to port as the sun was setting and I just sat on the bow of the boat as the water was splashing at my feet, thinking and smiling IM IN AUSTRALIA! It was the best feeling in the world! We docked the boat and headed back to his house all salty and sleepy and overwhelmingly happy. However, after showering that nice sometimes you realize you probably should have put on a little extra sunscreen on your back when floating around in the water for hours… at least I did not peel!
The next day we drove to the Cairns botanical gardens fro breakfast where I had my first Australian waffle lets just say they got it down! It was caramel banana amazingness! We they walked all through the botanical gardens and I felt like I was in some tropical dream and I was just waiting to wake up and realize I was back in my bed in Connecticut. It was perfect, pretty much the only way to describe it. We then got ready for another boating adventure with some fishing. Drove to this beautiful beach and took a quick dip before his family swung over and picked us up in their boat from the beach, yeah I felt like a local! We jetted along the coastline peering at the mountains and scout hat and Double Island before reaching our ‘secrete’ fishing spot with the ten other people who share the same ‘secrete’ spot. However our fishing skills were very slack and we turned out to be more interested in my possible future office of the GBR and the delicious chips that made it on board our vessel. we trawled around for a little while longer until heading to Double Island for a little swim on the leeward side and the fished arounf the point before heading back into port and passing a nice 6 foot salty (salt water crocadile). that night we headed into town after having a homemade dinner of tacos! and met up with a few of Tom's friends for drinks and a walk around town. it was the PERFECT weekend!
this past week in school has been very busy and jam packed with lab reports and mid semester assesments and essays on coral growth rates and conserving marine wildlife, making this coming vacation week so exciting!!!! We leave on our jet plane adventure tomorrow morning at 12pm and jet set off to Brisbane for some awesome days in the sun and surf! many many stories and photos to come!
cheers
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Orpheus Island Round 2
Well round two of Orpheus Island with my Life History and Evolution of Coral Reefs classes was about the same as last weeks trip however, way more water time which was so exciting! We snorkeled as soon as we docked the boat on the island! For over an hour I floated around in the water identifying corals and looking and beautiful fish! We then had an amazing cooked lunch (way better food this time around, but don't tell Scott: P) then back into all our gear and headed out to the point to snorkel around and take samples of our personal coral, which was in the genus Fungidae, our species was fungia, they are these little round discs that are scattered like buttons on the reef crest at around 2 meters down and are single free living polyps that are solitary and can actually move around using their tentacles, pretty much they are bad ass!
We snorkeled around observing our fungias competitive interactions.... which there were none cause they prefer the solitary life style contemplating life alone on the ocean floor :) so my time was spent mostly cruising around in the water trying to find cool stuff to take pictures of! I saw a moray eel, I think he wanted to take a nice bit out of me and I may have gotten a little too close but that is OK, I saw a live puca shell (not sure what the mollusk is called however), and I saw a nudibranch (little blue dude they are like the caterpillars of the ocean :) also saw a TON of HUGE parrot fish! beautiful colors of everything corals and fish! I never wanted to get out of the water. The next day we snorkeled twice as well, so I can proudly say I could enter a contest on the fastest someone can get in a wet suit now, I have never had to put on and take off my wet suit so many times before in my life! Over the entire trip was a blast! The people in my class and my teacher Betty were amazing to talk to and hang out and play card games with. One French student even did some card tricks for us that were super neat! The best surprise of the trip was Sunday after the first snorkel of the day we all came back to take a nap and found that the EASTER BUNNNY had come and put little chocolate eggs under our pillows! So exciting!
This week has been filled with doing homework and writing up lab reports taking tests and writing essays, and now the beautiful weather is starting to show up… boo! However this past Tuesday me and a few of my friends decided to go out and get gelato ice cream in town and got interviewed and our picture taken for the Townsville Bulletin and had a huge picture in the paper the next day! How cool is that! Highlight of the week! This weekend I’m heading to Cairns with my friend Tom to sight see with a true Aussie and get some inside tips ☺ pictures to come!
Cheers! Hope everyone had a great Easter
We snorkeled around observing our fungias competitive interactions.... which there were none cause they prefer the solitary life style contemplating life alone on the ocean floor :) so my time was spent mostly cruising around in the water trying to find cool stuff to take pictures of! I saw a moray eel, I think he wanted to take a nice bit out of me and I may have gotten a little too close but that is OK, I saw a live puca shell (not sure what the mollusk is called however), and I saw a nudibranch (little blue dude they are like the caterpillars of the ocean :) also saw a TON of HUGE parrot fish! beautiful colors of everything corals and fish! I never wanted to get out of the water. The next day we snorkeled twice as well, so I can proudly say I could enter a contest on the fastest someone can get in a wet suit now, I have never had to put on and take off my wet suit so many times before in my life! Over the entire trip was a blast! The people in my class and my teacher Betty were amazing to talk to and hang out and play card games with. One French student even did some card tricks for us that were super neat! The best surprise of the trip was Sunday after the first snorkel of the day we all came back to take a nap and found that the EASTER BUNNNY had come and put little chocolate eggs under our pillows! So exciting!
This week has been filled with doing homework and writing up lab reports taking tests and writing essays, and now the beautiful weather is starting to show up… boo! However this past Tuesday me and a few of my friends decided to go out and get gelato ice cream in town and got interviewed and our picture taken for the Townsville Bulletin and had a huge picture in the paper the next day! How cool is that! Highlight of the week! This weekend I’m heading to Cairns with my friend Tom to sight see with a true Aussie and get some inside tips ☺ pictures to come!
Cheers! Hope everyone had a great Easter
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