Easter Break, Part 3: Airlie Beach and The Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach lagoon

After driving through heaps and heaps of barren land, much of which was destroyed from the cyclones earlier this year, we finally made it to Airlie Beach which is located south of Cairns and is where boats take off to sail around the famous Whitsunday Islands. We stayed two nights in Airlie and it was super fun and relaxing. We ate great food, partied at our hostel and a club called Mama Africas (random) and laid out at the Airlie Beach lagoon to catch some rays before getting on our sailboat for 3 days and 3 nights.

margaritas in Airlie :)

  Now, we’re all for doing things cheaply seeing as we are students. So originally we had booked a very modest, student friendly 3 day and 2 night sailboat to go around the islands. Well our last day in Melbourne before our trip we found out our boat had to go in for repairs and they were upgrading us to an extra night and a new boat. We got to this boat and our jaws dropped. We’re talking a 3 mast beautiful dark wood sail boat – the Whitsunday Magic, the best boat the company offers! We found out we were on a trip that cost three times the price of what we originally paid yet we weren’t paying any of that! It was a boat with 25 passengers and I think at least 15 of them were backpackers who had been upgraded too. Best upgrade of a lifetime!!!!!!!!!

On the Whitsunday magic!

 

The Whitsunday Magic came with an extremely friendly crew of 7 who we came pretty close with towards the end of our stay. We stayed in very comfortable double rooms and were fed like kings. Every day we had breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and wine, dinner… Every night was a different gourmet meal, night one was roast chicken with spinach risotto and a chocolate and kahlua cream pie for dessert. YUMMY. That night we star gazed and watched a mother and baby dolphin play around the boat. We went to sleep so content and feeling soooo grateful that our original boat had to go in for repairs because we got hooked up to the max.

            We woke up to gorgeous turquoise water and a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs before we were taken to our first beach to snorkel and scuba dive. The only downside of the Whitsundays is one of the deadliest jellyfish live in the water, and it’s only the size of a fingernail so you can’t even see it. Because of this, everyone wears these thin but full body wetsuits when they swim. We asked if we could just risk it and the crew adamantly told us NO – if you get stung and you’re not wearing a suit, your insurance won’t cover your helicopter ride which, from the Whitsundays, costs $65,000…..damn. So we wore the suits anytime we went swimming! The scuba dive and snorkel was amazing – soooooooo many fish swimming all around you and that time we dove for much longer so we saw all sorts of fish.

Ready for the jellyfish!

  We spent the rest of the day lounging, drinking beer and sun tanning on the top deck of the boat and admiring the beautiful scenery. Lush, green hills surrounded by turquoise water and on this amazing boat! We couldn’t get over it. We sailed into a cove for sunset and had a delicious dinner of Steak with a mushroom mustard glaze, mashed potatoes, and roast vegetables with white chocolate panacotta for dessert. Yum again. The stars were amazing that night – I saw about 4 shooting stars. We laid out on the top deck star gazing and talking to a bunch of new friends we had made on the boat. We met a young couple from Austria who were traveling the world for a year, and two Danish friends who had been traveling since February. We got tips about traveling through Asia from them which was so helpful. Everyone we met on the boat was so nice and friendly and by the end it was sad saying bye to everyone!

the boat <3

  We had our next day on the boat waking up to delicious eggs benedicte before walking to a beautiful lookout where we saw the “heart” of the Whitsunday Islands and looked out to Whitehaven Beach where we traveled later in the day. The view was gorgeous – swirls of white sand mixed with the turquoise water. Unbelievable. My picures don’t do it justice at all. I had possibly the best burger of my life for lunch before we went and laid out on Whitehaven Beach – the #2 best beach in the world! The sand feels like brown sugar. After that we put the sails up on the boat and took a relaxing sail past Pentacost Island (some say it looks like a gorilla and/or Homer Simpson) and Hamilton Island – Julia Roberts has a house there! The resort there costs thousands of dollars a night to stay at but is apparently one of the best in the world. We watched our last sunset of the trip eating fresh scones and drinking white wine. So perfect. We all started to get really down about finishing the best trip ever. That night we had amazing Moroccan lamb and brownie sundaes for dinner and dessert and stayed up late playing “Would You Rather” and telling stories with all of our new friends we made on the boat.

The Whitsundays

Our whole boat

Whitehaven Beach

  We woke up and packed our backpacks one last time (pretty sure everything I brought was so dirty and smelly at that point) before we had to have a quick breakfast of Nutella crepes and be transported to Daydream Island where we caught our ferry to the Hamilton Island airport. Of course it was a very hot and extremely blue sky and sunny day – leaving that sailboat was so difficult! We flew back to Melbourne where it was much colder and the first thing we found out off the plane was of Osama’s death. Back to reality for sure! What an amazing amazing trip – It really made me realize how much I love traveling and never want this experience to end…

Leaving the boat :(

Easter Break, Part 2: Cairns

   We took a very enjoyable Qantas flight to Cairns – they just really know how to do air travel, let me tell you. Great food, great service, free flowing alcohol, and movies all the way. We landed in Cairns and it was HOT. We were so in love. Since it was Easter we wore bunny ears on the plane. I’m sure everyone was thinking “stupid Americans” but whatever, I had plenty of fun saying, “HOPPY Easter” to anyone that stared. Of course the baggage service in Sydney broke down and none of our bags made it there. So with the clothes on our back and money in our pockets we checked into our hostel, which was super tropical and chilled out. Love it. We went into the center of town and checked out some stores and ate delicious veggie burgers at a café. We laid out at the Cairns Lagoon. In much of Queensland, so many dangerous things live in the water so people pretty much don’t swim in the ocean. It’s kind of disappointing, but they build these beautiful and very natural looking lagoons everywhere for people to swim in instead. You still get to look out at the ocean at least.

  We didn’t have much time to enjoy our fake ocean though because we had a 4pm appointment to SKYDIVE. I was nervous all day and didn’t even want to read the papers they made us sign, basically signing our life away. After a brief training video and giving us old sneakers to wear (we had no luggage and of course were in flip flops…great) we were in the bus off to the tarmac. My skydive instructor, Doug, was extremely friendly and as soon as I met the guy I would be trusting my life with I felt much, much better. Us four girls along with 2 guys piled into this little hanger with all of our instructors and off we went. I was talking so much and asking my instructor a million questions…definitely some nervous rambling going on. He assured me that yes, my harness was tight enough and no, I wasn’t going to die. We got out of the clouds and I thought we must be close to our dropping height, 14,000 feet. Nope, we were only halfway. Panic sets in. A red light was on in the front of the plane, when it turned orange we double checked our harnesses and put on our goggles and then it turned green and off we went! Eileen was first up and she dropped out of that plane like a little fly. Then a very nervous Meg flew out followed by Hilary and all of a sudden I was dangling over the edge of the plane, Doug told me to cross my arms and we dropped forward! We did a flip out of the plane and then we were free falling for a minute. All I can say is it felt like I was flying and it was awesome. Absolutely amazing! The best rush I’ve ever felt! After a minute our parachute was pulled, but something wasn’t quite right. Doug got very quiet and all of a sudden our parachute was released, we were falling again, and the reserve parachute was pulled. I guess our first one wasn’t catching quite right – Thank god for the reserve!! We made a safe landing after a beautiful and serene parachute ride and the adrenaline rushed through me all night. What a great experience. Did I mention it was at sunset? Incredible.

Skydiving at sunset

Our hostel

Downtown Cairns

Cairns lagoon

   That night we went to Gilligans hostel which is pretty much party central and had a great time celebrating Easter our way! We saw a bunch of people from Melbourne who were traveling up there too and even partied with our new friend Mackenzie who we met skydiving. The whole night we were all on such a natural high from the skydiving it was sooo much fun. Early the next morning was struggle city, however, when we had to wake up and take a 2 hour bus to the Daintree rainforest for our day tour. We weren’t looking too hot and not feeling our best so the whole day was kind of a hassle with all the driving (we were told it would include hiking but we were with all these old lazy people so that was a downer). But we did see the beautiful Daintree rainforest which is one of the oldest in the world. Saw some pretty huge spiders, mangrove trees, some crocodiles on a river cruise and had a delicious bbq for lunch. We had a chill night eating downtown in Cairns because we wanted to be fresh and ready for scuba diving the next day.

dancing at Gilligan's

The rainforest

Cape Tribulation - only place where land meets the reef!

    Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef is something I’ve always dreamed of doing and the day was finally here! We took a very bumpy boat for an hour out to the reef (I got sea sick…go figure.) and stopped at two different spots for scuba diving and snorkeling. I’ve never dived before so at first it was a little overwhelming because you really have to think about breathing and equalizing your ears and what not but after a few minutes it all became second nature and I got to enjoy the reef. We saw so many beautiful parrot fish and coral and anemones. It was amazing! The most vibrant colors and fish you would only think to see watching and episode of Planet Earth or something. We touched giant clams and zig zagged our way around the reef. Snorkeling was awesome too because the fish didn’t get scared and swim away so we saw a lot through that as well – and the water was the best temperature! The second dive we did we saw a huge eel and my friend Meg saw a reef shark! Amazing.

      That night was our last night in Cairns so we went to Gilligans and partied all night, I don’t think Meg and I got home until 4 am. That was not so fun when we had to take a 10 hour bus to Airlie Beach the next day. I think I was in the bathroom for ¾ of the ride. Oof.

Easter Break, Part 1: Sydney

backpacker 4 life

  After a few grueling weeks of having to produce the most work I’ve done in months (which equates to one paper…pathetic) I started on a journey that ended up being some of the best ten days of my life. Three other girls from BC and I traveled up the east coast of Australia. First stop? SYDNEY! No, not the capital of Australia like some people have sorely mistaken it for (that would be Canberra..although I hear it can be pretty dull) but it is definitely an impressive city. Our 5pm flight got us into Sydney after dark so no birds eye views of the harbor, sadly, but we did step into our hostel which was pretty impressive. It’s set in this old building and is the most popular (and party friendly) hostel in Sydney. After dropping our backpacks and a quick change of clothes we headed to SideBar located right underneath our hostel where we had some free drink vouchers. It was a good time but Eileen and I were exhausted so we rested up for the next day of touring. We stayed in a mixed dorm of 8 and met some lovely girls from England, guys from Canada, and a very drunk Norwegian who woke us up at 3 in the morning because he was too obliterated to find his bunk and fell very loudly on to the floor.

Meg in front of our hostel

  The next morning Eileen and I met up with Meg (Hilary was staying with her parents who were visiting) and the three of us started the day right with a big brekkie of delicious fried eggs, mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes, and toast and of course lots and lots of coffee (My addiction’s going strong..the expresso is just too good here!) We spent the day exploring the city, walking through Hyde Park and the Sandringham Gardens which were so beautiful. We stopped in to see St. Mary’s Cathedral which was abuzz the day before Easter and like I’ve done in so many European churches I felt obliged to light a candle for someone special. The sun was shining and the temperature was perfect – I think we all felt a complete sense of serenity as we headed towards the Royal Botanical Gardens. They were amazing! Such well kept and beautiful gardens – we walked around a wishing tree and made a wish (fingers crossed!) and just admired everything, always looking up to be reminded of the beautiful city skyline surrounding us. We also saw thousands of bats sleeping in the trees. At sunset they all wake up and there’s a migration of them throughout the whole city every day. Amazing!

Bubble man at Hyde Park!

Bats in the botanical gardens

 

We then walked and saw the famous Opera House and Harbor Bridge – what a beautiful site but what an expensive part of town. Lunch for $25 a plate? No thanks. To get some cheaper coffee we took a ferry to Manly Beach which was beautiful but very similar to a lot of other Australian beaches I’ve seen. The ferry ride back we witnessed the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. Of course my camera was dying but it was an awe inspiring blend and swirls of pinks, purples, and orange and we had the best view of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House as we pulled back into city. That night we went to a friend’s house where his mom cooked a delicious dinner of roast lamb and we spent the night swimming in his indoor pool and just enjoying good company.

Manly Beach

Best sunset of life

  Our last day in Sydney and we were stricken with rain – Nooooo! Huddling under one umbrella, Eileen and I attempted to explore Darling Harbor but eventually gave up and Meg met us to go see a show at the Opera House. We saw Much Ado About Nothing (front row seats!) and it was a great show. For dinner we went to Pancakes on the Rocks, which is located in – you guessed it – the Rocks. It’s where the first convicts arrived in Australia so the whole area has a lot of history and very quaint architecture. We ate some delicious pancakes then went out to Home Bar, one of Sydney’s biggest clubs. It was a great time but so expensive…this city is sooo expensive. $25 cover and $13 for my mixed drink...ridiculous. I did have the chance to meet up with my friend Jay who I knew in Belgium – it’s been about 7 years since I’ve seen him and he happened to be in Sydney with family so it was so great to get together. It’s such a small world, after all. Sydney was awesome, definitely a city full of life and so much to do, but I’m definitely glad I came to Melbourne for the semester. It feels more centrally located and I like the fact that there aren’t as many tourists. We ended our last moments in Sydney with some late night kebabs (delicious) and got about 2 hours of sleep before our early morning flight to Cairns.

Me, Eileen, Jay, and Meg at Homebar (it was Easter eve, obviously)

Recent Happenings

I know it's been forever since my last update - the time moves so fast here and I tend to forget about a lot of things. But I feel it's really important to 1. keep everyone up to date with what's happening and 2. put it all down here so I won't forget! My last few weeks have mostly consisted of exploring the city, hanging out with new friends, and I've actually turned in some assignments. That first paper I had to write was a struggle, let me tell you. Most Australian students take a gap year and I don't know how they do it. Just a few months away from the books and I feel like my brain had diminished. The writer's block was bad and I even had to look up how to cite articles correctly...pathetic. Anyway, I'm in the midst of midterms and it's not very pretty.
To procrastinate doing any work I've explored a few of Melbourne's museums - most notably the National Gallery of Victoria and the Melbourne Museum...both were very impressive (and free!). I also have been on a few field trips for my Sport and Education class. We went to a netball game (kind of like women's basketball but dribbling isn't allowed) and last week we got on the Ocean Road to Anglesea where we got to go surfing and visit the surf museum in Torquey. I rode about 10 waves so I was so happy - watch out Westport, MA I'm bringing you some surf culture.
Most of all I've just enjoyed the feeling that I am truly living in Melbourne now. My time here is about halfway over which is so weird to think about - time has moved fast but at the same time so much has happened. Melbourne's named one of the most livable cities in the world and it's definitely true. I already feel so comfortable getting around and it's really starting to feel like home. I wish I had more time to explore this amazing country - I've already determined I NEED to come back.
Future travels that I am very excited about include a 6 week backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. Plans are still tentative and broad but hopefully a friend and I will be exploring Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and ending in Hong Kong before flying back to America sometime in late July/Early August. Should definitely be the adventure of a lifetime - I can't wait. It doesn't look like I'll make it to New Zealand (it's winter and going to be very cold there by the time I could go in June) but I've already decided I'm just going to have to come back.
I get to leave for my epic Easter break trip in 4 days!! Three girls from BC and I will be traveling up the east coast of Australia. We'll start with 4 days in Sydney, then fly to Cairns for some scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, rainforest tours, and SKYDIVING! ahhhh yes I will finally be jumping out of a plane (at 14,000 feet) and I couldn't be more excited. From there we'll take a bus down south again to Airlie Beach and then hop on a 3 day and 2 night sail, scuba dive and snorkel around the Whitsunday Islands. I expect to return bronzed, relaxed, and broke!

Melbourne :)

Meanwhile in Australia...

 It's been almost 2 months since I arrived in this glorious country and I definitely feel like I am truly "living" here now. I've met some amazing people, already done a ton of traveling, and things are going smoothly. Last week I must admit I experienced quite a bit of nostalgia and longing for Boston on St. Patricks Day! There's nothing like beantown on St. Pattys..the atmosphere, the charles river going green, the spirit of the Irish! But, to my dad's advice, I still went out and drank some green beer to celebrate here. Thankfully an Irish bar named Puggs was the place to be and we decided to skip class and drank for probably about 10 hours straight...let's just say the next morning wasn't pretty. That's a picture of us at Pugg's early on in the day..the other pictures will remain hidden! They had some Irish bands playing so we sang music, socialized, and of course did some Irish dancing! Even though I definitely would have preferred St. Patty's in Boston, I was pleasantly surprised at how well they managed to celebrate here in Melbourne.

I also experienced my first Booze Cruise last week! A bunch of friends and I bought tickets for a cruise put on by MUSEX (same club we went surfing with) and cruised the Yarra River all night while dancing and drinking. It was an "Anything But Clothes" party so we had to get creative! I made a top out of duct tape and fashioned an Australian flag into a skirt. Basically I should probably go into fashion design.

 Then this past weekend I made one of the most spontaneous yet best decisions of my life. I was hanging out on Thursday afternoon before heading off to African Drum and Dance (best class ever, by the way) and I got a call from my friend Meg, a BC student who's also abroad here with me. She was supposed to go on a surf trip with her friend for the weekend but he was sick and couldn't go and would I like to go with her? Would I?? Sure, why not! The next day we took a train back on the great ocean road to Lorne, a small but popular surf town. Meg said it reminded her of Laguna Beach, California. Apparently Australia's like California with an accent...I've never been but if this is what CA is like then buy me a ticket because I want to live in this atmosphere forever. We arrived in Lorne and met up with the rest of everyone camping. It was organized by the University of Melbourne surf club so we basically had a big area of camp to set up our tents in. However, minor setback, we couldn't find a tent. Instead we got to cozy up together in a "Swag"..a swag is kind of like a covered sleeping back with a little pop up top over your faces. However, Meg and I have never even heard of one of these contraptions before so we kind of unraveled it and stared at each other for a while. Eventually we sort of figured it out and just decided we would have to have a few drinks and we would sleep great in it!

 Our swag was super impressive next to the huge tents other people brought. It actually was pretty comfortable to sleep in though and definitely a conversation starter to the strangers sleeping around us! That night we socialized and drank around camp before heading out to the local pub and dancing the night away. Lorne has a trampoline park which consists of about 10 trampolines built into the ground. Usually it's about $5 for 10 minutes of jumping. Screw that! At about 2 am a bunch of us (we're talking about 50 people..) decided that we NEEDED to go on those trampolines. So we all climbed the chain link fence and spent about an hour jumping, laughing, and singing songs together. Yes, cops drove by. Did they care? No, they didn't even bat an eye. No one cares about anything in Australia, I LOVE IT.

 The next morning we were woken up way too early. This "beautiful" bird was the culprit. Yeah it's a cockatoo. Yeah it's a pretty cool looking bird. You would think it would be lovely to have thousands of them living in the trees surrounding your campsite. Yeah, quite the opposite actually. These pretty creatures make the most horrendous sound I have ever heard. It's kind of like a crow on steroids, and it almost sounds prehistoric. If dinosaurs weren't extinct I would think it was a velociraptor or something outside my tent. So sleeping through that noise was not the greatest!

 This is the coast of Lorne, we spent the day mostly surfing, drinking cappuccinos, and eating some of the best food I've ever had. After our lovely cockatoo wake up call Meg and I went to Moons Espresso Bar and got the Big Brekky - poached eggs on thick toast with avocado, some of the juiciest and most delicious cherry tomatoes, fresh spinach, big plump beautiful mushrooms, and fresh slices of avocado. I was in complete heaven. We surfed all day and I got up a couple of times! I love that I'm definitely improving the more I do it and I don't want to stop! Hopefully the beaches in Westport are ready for me to come back because I am getting out there and bringing back some of this Aussie surf culture with me, it's too good to pass up. Not only is it such a great workout but it's the most relaxing exercise I've ever done! After a refreshing shower, the club had a big barbie and we ate and drank our hearts out. After another few hours dancing at the pub, about 30 of us decided that we only live once and we went on a lovely naked swim in the ocean! Mass skinny dip? Check that one off the bucket list.

 The next morning Meg and I found a really cute cafe at the end of this walking bridge and had a delicious breakfast of eggs and toast again. We spent the day surfing and walking around Lorne drinking coffee and going in the cute shops.

I had to snap a pic of the trampolines we snuck onto. How priceless! After a day in Lorne we hopped a ride back to Melbourne with some friends we made on the trip. Of course we had to surf at sunset on the way back. I came back to the city feeling 100% refreshed and on an eternal high. This feels like a nonstop vacation to me, and the crazy thing is that this is real life for most people that live here. They just work during the week and go in full relaxed mode all weekend. What a life!

Driving the Great Ocean Road

 

I know it's been a while since I've updated - I feel like there's so much to catch up on! First of all, that is a map of the Great Ocean Road which a few friends and I had the pleasure of driving a few weekends ago. 151 miles of beautiful scenery, the road was built as a war memorial for World War I. Between Torquay and Warrnambool tourists flood the road to see the natural wonders that lie just off the coast. Since it's not summer here, although the weather is still beautiful, it was not very crowded the weekend we went which was lovely because it only increased the sense of peace and relaxation that we vibed with for a few days. 

 The first day it wasn't the best weather but that was fine because it was when we did most of our driving. This is a beach just outside of Apollo Bay which we stopped at and walked around. There's something about just the sights and sound of the beach..I don't think anything gets much more relaxing than that.

 Along the way we saw so many of these camper vans people rent. They're all painted differently and have quotes on the back. This was especially my favorite! That night we drove to the 12 Apostles, probably the most famous attraction on the Great Ocean Road. Even though it was cloudy it was still beautiful! Our hostel was in Port Campbell just 15 minutes down the road. It was super clean and we roomed with a few nice people from the Netherlands.

 The next morning we ate a delicious (but pricey) breakfast at a cafe in town in Port Campbell then headed off to Port Fairy to a wildlife sanctuary. Along the way we saw more beautiful coastline! Below is the Bay of Martyrs.

 We never fail to stop and take some classic jumping pictures...in front of cows of course.

 No trip would be complete without a stop to Cheese World!!!!! This is the award winning best cheddar in Australia! Who knew? It tasted like it too!

 We stopped at Tower Hill Wildlife reserve, a big park built on the edge of an inactive volcano. We took some walks around but saw most of our wildlife in the parking lot! Those emus were just chilling by the picnic area.

 The best part was seeing koalas in the wild! Once again, most of them were asleep or just hanging out. What a chill life.

 On the drive back we stopped at more beaches and admired the beautiful coastline. Because of constant erosion from the waves the scenery is always changing. It's weird to think that it's not always going to be there.

 Our favorite spot we stopped at was called the grotto! Seen here, it just looks like a bridge going towards the water. On closer look..

 It's a beautiful pool overlooking the water! Of course we hopped the fence and went in. It was cold and the rocks were so slippery but we made it across and admired the turquoise water. My camera does not do it justice at all - it was a hidden paradise!

 We also stopped at other famous spots on the road. This is the london bridge - so beautiful. And it's falling down! How ironic.

 That night we made it in time to see the sunset at the 12 apostles. We stayed for a few hours and just admired the beautiful turquoise water and this natural wonder...probably the best sunset I've ever seen.

 On our last day we stopped at more spots such as Loch Ard Gorge pictured here..

It was an excellent weekend overall! We successfully drove on the left side of the road, saw some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, and came back to Melbourne relaxed and refreshed! Another successful weekend away.