Winding down...

Our stay on Heron Island was short, but oh, so sweet. Upon arriving, we got our snorkel gear for the week and had a DELICIOUS meal prepared by our hired caterer before being informed that the authorities were evacuating the island. Cyclone Ului had changed its course and appeared to be heading for us. We tried to enjoy as much of the island as we could in our short time there. That night, we went out to the dock and watched for turtle and ray shadows in the water underneath us for awhile. Later, we took a long walk in search of baby turtles heading from land to sea (with no luck) and circumvented the island in about 30 minutes.

The next day was slightly windier, but it still felt like we were leaving paradise for no reason.. I pondered the complexities of the universe in solitude in my last moments on the island:



I think all of us feel privileged to have seen Heron Island, even if only for a day. Matters were not made better by our professors repeatedly referring to what we "would have done on the island" in class lectures at our hotel the following week.

With a newly free weekend, we decided to make the most of it and go somewhere, so we took a day trip to Moreton Island on Sunday, the closest island to Brisbane and the 3rd largest sand beach in the world! (Fraser Island is the largest and fairly close, but supposedly crowded) We took a couple-hour ferry ride to the island, where they set us up with snorkeling gear. We snorkeled around 10 shipwrecks right off the beach and saw a surprising amount of life. We even saw a turtle!

After that, they took us to a lake, a lighthouse with a great view on the other side of the island, and sandboarding on some sand dunes in the middle. It was misting all day, so the boarding was only slightly successful, but still fun. It was a fairly large island, seemingly devoid of people.. I wish we could've stayed for another day with sun, but alas, we had to return.

Wednesday, we took a field trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo a couple of hours north. It was an awesome zoo. We saw an adorable otter feeding; I saw about a million koalas; we pet and fed kangaroos and wallabies for an hour; I PET koalas; we saw a wildlife show where birds flew around the auditorium and they fed a scary crocodile; I HELD A KOALA AND IT WAS AMAZING. My life is complete.



Thursday night, 9 of us headed north for Cairns, where we embarked on a journey to the Great Barrier Reef! We did a liveaboard, in which we dove, ate, and slept on a boat for 3 days. We went to the East and West Timor Reefs a couple hours away. It was diving overload, but awesome. We were allowed to do 10 dives over the course of the weekend, including 2 night dives, and we could snorkel whenever. Due to this ridiculous cough and sinus action that I cannot seem to get rid of, I had a rough time the first day and couldn't do the night dive. It was much better the next day though, and I did the rest of the dives, including the night dive, which was kind of creepy. We did wake an adorable turtle from his slumber and followed him for awhile. Unfortunately, we didn't see any bioluminescence due to the weather, but it was still cool.



Oh, they offered an advanced diving course for $50 (usually $4-500), so Aerin and I did it. It was very relaxed (aka sketchy), so it only took a little bit of our time. :)

Cairns was a surprisingly neat city. They had a sweet massive public pool by the ocean/marshy coast, a ton of stores open late, and bars. Unfortunately, this little girl was too exhausted for anything besides food and bed.

Today we took our last field trip to Lamington National Park, a rainforest about 2 hours away. The tree cover was so dense, it would be pouring for a couple minutes and you would only know it by the sounds of the drops hitting the trees way above. It was a nice 17.4 km loop trail taking us by a nice view of the farmland valley below. There was also a cool "tree top walk," a small bridge suspended 15 meters above ground.



I was planning on going to the outback this weekend, but honestly, there is just nothing there. I'd rather take a 1-2 day trip to the Sunshine Coast or something. We shall see.

Just a week left, then I'm off to Europe. I can't believe the trip is almost over! What an adventure it has been...

And so begins our odyssey...

SO! This morning, we got news that Cyclone Ului was heading for Heron Island, much to everyone's disappointment. Dr. Garton looked pretty stressed and worked very hard to figure out our options. We had a meeting later in the day, in which he informed us that the forecasts are looking better and we're gonna go ahead with our original plan. Might face a little wind and rain, but hopefully the cyclone will miss us or dissipate slightly in the next few days... Thus, we are hopping on a bus at 1 am (yep), arriving in Gladstone around 8 to hop on a ferry at 9 am headed for Heron Island with 3 meter swells, WOOHOO!

It was quite a scare, but I'm super excited we're going, even if the weather isn't ideal. This is the first group that gets to go to Heron Island, and I think it'll be a great experience regardless. Plus, we get catered food all week.

Sidenote: I'm pretty sure I've coughed up a lung and a half by now. I thought it was the air in Sydney, but it's persisted through Brisbane. Perhaps the fresh island air on Heron Island will cure me.

Our hotel in Brisbane is awesome. They didn't have any three person rooms, so our triplet (me, Aerin, & Sheri) had to split. :( I made the sacrifice and volunteered to take the single room. ;) I now see why they didn't have any 3-bed rooms. Everyone gets their own queen-sized bed! My pad is pretty sweet, although not nearly as massive as the double rooms. At least I'm free to sing along to the Carpenters in peace... :D We have flat screen tvs, a nice desk, and internet in our rooms (YAY!). Oh, and a working AC unit, unlike the Travelodge in Sydney. The only bad thing is that we don't have microwaves, just an electronic kettle. I've been eating a lot of cup-o-noodles and sammiches. The breakfast is delightful though. Pancake machine, fresh fruit (watermelon, cantalope, honeydew, prunes), dried fruit (apples, apricots), and even a fruit squisher (?) to make fresh orange juice.

Saturday, we checked out the St. Patty's Day parade, complete with bagpipes! We also visited a couple festivals, then all took some naps for the night ahead... We got Jay a cake for his bday, then did an awesome pub crawl. Almost the entire group (~30 kids) was there, although a few dropped off after every pub. About 6 of us made it till the end with the birthday boy and decided to cap our night with a trip to the casino. I still have yet to play some blackjack; maybe when we get back from Heron Island.

Off to do some work before my long night/morning on the bus...