Spring Break!

And I'm back from another fabulous vacation!! After one very long shower, five loads of laundry, a good night's sleep, and an extensive trip to the grocery store, I'm ready to write all about it.

It all started with our final on Saturday - it was pretty easy, and I feel like I did well. We flew into Cairns Saturday afternoon and got picked up by our hostel. We checked in, left our stuff, and walked the 12 minutes into downtown Cairns to check it out. It's a very tourist-centered city - a few big casinos, lots of souvenir shops, tons of hostels and adventure planning agencies, and lots of places to eat. One thing that surprised us greatly (perhaps due to our lack of research) was that Cairns is actually not a beach town, in that there is no beach. There is, however, "the Lagoon," a man-made giant public pool, essentially, along the coastline. It is beautiful, and it does have the ocean as a backdrop, but that was still a wake-up call to us silly tourists who were hoping to be able to walk to the beach from our hostel. Saturday night we walked around town for a bit, checking it out and trying to decide where to eat. We ended up deciding on a Mexican restaurant that had a nice outdoor balcony. After diner, we decided to go sit out by the lagoon, which was very nice. There were tons of bats flying around - we walked under this one tree that was absolutely full of them. In the morning, when we walked back the same way, you could see all the bats hanging on the branches - they kind of looked like cocoons. Later that night, Jac, Haley and I went to check out the Woolshed, which is Cairns' famous backpacker's bar. The place was packed! I have never had as many drinks spilled on me as I did that night. But it was pretty fun, too! The next day, we slept in and walked downtown, where we had breakfast and talked about what excursions we wanted to plan for the next two days. Unfortunately, Sunday's weather wasn't fabulous, so we decided not to make the hike out to the beach, which was a 45 minute bus ride away. Instead, we decided to check out the lagoon - we found a patch of "sand" where we laid out our towels and sunbathed, read, and went for a dip in the lagoon. The sun did end up coming out, at least for a bit, and it turned out to be a very nice day.

Monday, we went on a cruise out to Oyster and Upolu Reefs to snorkel and dive. It was a beautiful day, and the boat ride was very nice - although it was very rocky - almost to the point of nausea. Getting in the water at Oyster Reef felt great though, we got to snorkel a bit before our intro dive, and we saw lots of cool fish and coral. We then had our first dive - we got all of our gear on, which includes a weight belt, to help you sink, and the dive kit - a backpack type contraption that holds your air tank and has a flotation device that you inflate and deflate when you want to float or sink. Our instructor was really nice, and after proving that we could do a few simple skills - replacing our regulators (the breathing devices) if they fall out, clearing our mask if water creeps in through the seal, etc - we descended down into the ocean. We were all linking arms, so we didn't even have to control ourselves. We just got to enjoy being underwater and being so close to the reef. We only went about 6 to 8 meters on this dive (about 20 -30 feet), but we definitely saw some cool stuff. We saw clown fish (like nemo!) snuggling in the anemone, which was really cool. We even saw a stingray! Our instructor brought us down to the ocean floor, too, where we saw a giant clam, and even got to touch the squishy part on the inside. It was awesome. I was pretty scared, going into it, but I ended up loving scuba diving. We got back on the boat for a smorgasboard lunch, which was delicious, and then we rode over to our next snorkel site, Upolu Reef. This site was a bit further from the boat - we had to swim out a bit to get there, but it was also cool. As we were coming back in to the boat, we saw a giant batfish just swimming right by the back of the boat. It was so cool! It swam right underneath us - it wasn't shy at all! We then rode back into Cairns, went home for a shower, and then hit the town for Alli's birthday! We went to dinner at this great Mediterranean restaurant, got sundaes at Baskin Robbins, and then did some bar hopping to celebrate. We started at Fabric, a nightclub that was absolutely empty. We got free entrance and a free drink because they were so desperate for customers, so we just hung out there for a little bit, played a game of pool, and moved on to the next bar. We stopped in at RhinoBar for a bit, and then made our way back to the Woolshed, where the rest of the BU Sydney program people were. Mondays at the Woolshed they have a Mr and Mrs Backpacker competition, and BU ended up taking home both prizes. The guys competition was hilarious - three of the BU guys participated, and because there were so many BU girls in the crowd, they easily made it to the final round. As for the Mrs Backpacker competition, we made Alli go up and compete because it was her birthday, and she actually ended up winning! What a birthday present! She won a full day rafting trip - an expensive prize! - and since she was planning on staying in Cairns for the rest of the week while Haley, Jane, Jac and I continued on to the Whitsundays, she actually got to use it - and had a great time!

Tuesday, Jac and Haley got up early to go skydiving, while Jane and I slept in and went down to sunbathe at the lagoon - neither of us could handle skydiving. We met up for lunch and a half day of white water rafting on the Barron river. Haley and Jac LOVED skydiving - they said it was the most amazing thing. Maybe I'll be brave enough to try it, someday... Rafting was really fun, though! We actually ended up having a raft just to ourselves - the four of us and our guide, that is. As far as the rafting itself, it was a pretty tame river - only a few rapids, and none of them too big. But we still had a good time. My favorite part was actually when we got to get out of the raft and float down the river a little bit. It was a nice hot day, and the river felt great! If I were to be in Cairns again, I would raft the Tully River - which is usually an all day trip, and typically a bit more expensive. But it has more rapids, and bigger ones, too. That night, we were a part of the Ultimate Party, a big pub crawl that included entry to 5 bars, a double decker party bus that drove us from bar to bar, and drink specials at each of the bars. Oh, and dinner. It was something that I have never done before and probably will never do again, but it was a great experience! There was also a US Navy boat docked in Cairns for the week, and a lot of the US Navy and Marine guys were actually on our party bus, and in the bus that brought us to the river for rafting. The bus itself was great. We sat up on the top level, which was out in the open, and though it felt a bit douchy to be cruising through Cairns on a giant bus that was blaring music, it was pretty fun, too. Everyone was dancing in their seats... the best part was how close all the bars were to each other - the bus was definitely superfluous, we totally could have walked. But I guess that just made it more fun. We met lots of interesting people, and did a lot of dancing, which was a blast.

Wednesday was our last day in Cairns. We packed up, checked out of our hostel, and headed downtown to catch our bus to Airlie Beach, where our Whitsunday Cruise took off from. It was an 11 hour bus ride, which seemed like it was going to be miserable - but it wasn't so bad. We watched a few movies on the bus, which made the time fly by. We also stopped a couple of times for food - the first place we stopped had an internet cafe, so I got to briefly check my email, which was really nice. I also finished Dracula, which I was reading for school, and was able to continue reading Kavalier and Clay, which I started a few weeks ago. When we arrived in Airlie Beach, it was about 11 pm, so we had to check in at the bar next to our hostel since the reception desk was closed. It was also a long-ish walk from the bus to our hostel - it was probably only about 10 or 15 minutes, but with all our luggage, it felt longer. We checked in with the reluctant bar manager, who seemed peeved by having to deal with us, as if we were just lazy and didn't want to check in on time. We didn't have linens on our beds, because at this hostel, you had to rent them from the reception desk, and since it was closed, we didn't even get the option to rent them. So that was a bit of a bummer. But we were only staying there one night. Other than the lack of linens bit, and the fact that not all the lights worked, it was actually a nice room - quite big, and with a little kitchenette, too. Unfortunately, our morning in Airlie Beach wasn't much better than our night - we were misdirected to the marina, and spent about 15 minutes walking in the wrong direction before we realized we actually had to go back into town to check in at the boat company's office before getting on the boat. After checking in at the office, we learned that we were only allowed to bring one small soft bag each - and we all had a backpack and a duffel bag. So we had to condense our stuff for the next 3 days into one of our bags, and pay $5 to store the other at the office while we were on the boat. Then we were finally on our way to the boat - but the marina was another 15 to 20 minute walk away. We grabbed a quick breakfast from a coffee shop on the way and made it to the marina in time to check in and load onto Powerplay, our home for the next 2 days and nights. We met the crew - who were all really nice and awesome for the whole trip, and learned a bit about the boat and our schedule for the next two days - which was basically sailing from dive site to dive site and stopping to dive and snorkel. We were shown to our beds - Jane and I actually ended up getting a private "room" - by room I just mean that in addition to a bed, we had a small area at the foot of the bed in which we could stand and change, and a door, whereas the other beds just had a curtain at the foot. Our room was actually quite nice. I slept very well both nights we were on the boat. While the boat was in motion, there were lots of great places for us to sit and read or sunbathe - up on the bow of the boat, the water would splash on you as you lay out, which felt really good (but made it a bit difficult to read!) That first day, we sailed over to our first dive site, and Jane, Haley, Jac and I decided to dive again, since we loved it so much in Cairns. However, this time, we were on our own - instead of linking arms with our instructor, we just followed behind him. Though the reef was gorgeous, the water was super murky - when I asked our instructor why he said that it was probably due to the rain they had recently had. It made it pretty hard to see stuff under water, and also hard for us to keep track of our instructor and follow him. And since we were all so new to diving, we didn't really know how to control ourselves without holding on to our instructor, and scuba diving really limits your peripheral vision, so it was hard for us to see each other. We all got accidentally kicked by each other a couple of times, and overall, it just wasn't as great of an experience as we were expecting. After diving, our Hostee Cleo had a fabulous meal for us - barbeque chicken, pasta salad, potato bake, garlic bread, caesar salad, and I'm sure I've forgotten something... It was very impressive, especially considering the tiny kitchen on that boat! It was a pretty small boat -the craziest part was the tiny bathroom. It had a sink that doubled as a shower head! When you showed, you had to wet yourself down, turn off the water, soap up, and then rinse off - and that was it! There was only a limited amount of fresh water on the boat, so we had to really conserve. After dinner, they did a slideshow for us, starting with a map of the Whitsundays with which our skipper, Evya, showed us where we had been and where we were going. They also put up all the photos Cleo had been taking all day long, which was pretty fun. The dining area, or saloon, as they called it, was then turned into a couple of beds, and they put on this very interesting documentary about sharks and how people are illegally hunting them for their fins. After drugs, it's the second most lucrative illegal market. I had no idea.

The next morning, they got us up nice and early so that we could be the first people to get to Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven Beach is the most famous beach in the Whitsundays, and it's also the 3rd most photographed spot in Australia, behind the Sydney Opera House and Uluru (check, check, and check - I guess I'm a very accomplished tourist!). It is absolutely GORGEOUS. THe sand is white - certainly the whitest sand I've ever seen - and it is so unbelievably soft!! It feels like heaven walking through it, and it actually feels even better right at the water's edge - I could have stood there with my feet in the water looking at the beautiful shades of blue in the water forever. The sand is so fine that at low tide, it creates these amazing swirls in the water - it is even capable of polishing silver! We got to spend a couple of hours on the beach, where we laid out, read, and splashed around in the water. It was just lovely. We then walked up to a lookout for a great view and some photos, and on the way up, we ran into the four Irish girls from our Outback trip! They were also doing a Whitsunday cruise, but on a different boat - what a small world, that we actually ran into them! The view from the lookout was spectacular. The water itself is just gorgeous, and the beach is so amazing looking. We then headed back to the boat so we could keep going on to our next dive and snorkel site. Dylan, our instructor, told us that this site was much better than the last one, and that it could potentially be a good place to see turtles - and my goal for the trip was to see a sea turtle with scuba diving, and swim with it. So I decided to try it again, even though our last dive was less than ideal. Jane, Jac, and Haley decided to just snorkel at this site, so I ended up basically getting a private lesson with Dylan, which was really cool. I was able to just kind of follow him around, and I got to touch a whole bunch of different corals, which felt really cool, and we did all these awesome swim-throughs, which is where you go through a coral tunnel or an underwater canyon. That was amazing. We got to get so close to the coral and the fishies - it was just awesome. I was so glad I decided to dive again, because it was just awesome. And I started to get more and more comfortable with myself underwater, too. I also learned how to do the "James Bond" roll off the side of the tender boat, where you basically do a backwards roll into the water. I didn't see any turtles on that dive, but Dylan did bring their underwater camera down with us, so we got some cool pictures of me scuba diving, and also of the cool stuff we saw under water. After that awesome dive, we had lunch on the boat, and then headed off to our second dive site of the day, Mackerel Bay. Evya claimed that this was his favorite dive site ever, and Haley and Jac decided to give diving another shot. We had another AWESOME dive - this one was definitely the best yet. There was a reef wall that we swam along, and lots of cool canyons and swim-throughs. And then, a turtle swam out underneath us!!!! I can't even explain how excited I was when I saw it. We actually followed him for awhile, and I was mesmerized watching him swim - the majestic pull of his arms and the way he glided through the water. It was fantastic! He led us over these gorgeous reefs, too, with lots of colorful coral! It made the whole week for me. We returned to the boat for another fabulous dinner - steak and sausages from the barby, more pasta salad, veggie bake, bread with sundried tomato pesto, and more. And delicious chocolate cake for dessert, too! There was a beautiful sunset Friday night, too, and we all went out to the bow of the boat to see it and take pictures. We then got another slideshow, with photos from the beach - Cleo was really good at taking perspective shots, so she posed us in all sorts of funny photos. Those were really fun to look at. We also got to see the photos and videos that we took underwater, which were awesome.

Our last day on the boat (and of our trip) started early as well - they had us in the water, snorkeling, by 6:30 am! We couldn't dive this time, because were flying that afternoon (and you can't dive within 18-24 hours of flying, as it's bad for your ears), so we just snorkeled, but it was still really cool. We saw another turtle, which was awesome again! We followed him around for awhile too, and the best part was when he started to eat - he was so cute! He was just nibbling away at the coral - chomp chomp. We then rocketed back to Airlie Beach so that we got in to port on time - and it was a rough ride back! Very bumpy, and again it almost made me feel nauseous. Though we had an amazing time on the boat, it was nice to be on solid ground again (although I still, even now, a full day later, feel like I'm on a boat!). We ate lunch at a cute cafe in Airlie Beach, caught our airport shuttle, and headed back to Sydney. And that's my spring break! It was very relaxing, and it was very nice to spend a week up in the warm weather! Amazingly, I didn't get sunburned - at least, nothing that lasted more than the rest of the day - although my friends tell me that I got more freckles, if that's even possible. I loved scuba diving, and even if I never get to do it again, I will never forget the experiences I had at the great barrier reef. I do hope that I can make it back out there at some point in my life - we didn't have time to make it up to Port Douglass or Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest is. But with only so much time to travel, I guess we can't make it everywhere. I'm very grateful for all the great adventures I have been lucky enough to have, and though they were very expensive, they've all been totally worth it.

Tomorrow starts the real reason that I'm here - my student teaching! I'm incredibly nervous, but also excited. I have a LOT of work ahead of me, but I know that it's going to be very rewarding, and I'm going to learn a lot. I have to go make my lunch and get ready for bed - I need all the rest I can get before my first day! I'll post pictures from my trip tomorrow, when the internet might be more cooperative.