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