To Dive, or not to Dive?

Hello everyone!

As usual, a lot has happened since my last entry. I have worked my way up the coast to Cairns, which is about as far up as you can go. I took a day trip further north to the Daintree national rainforest and to Cape Tribulation, and then came back to try to get a job.

Even before coming here (australia), I had set my sight on working on a dive boat. I based this goal on the fact that I didn't want to do a job here that I could do back home, and I wanted to find a job where I would be learning new things/skills.

Through a series of very fortunate events that made me question my skepticism regarding fate, I found myself talking to a director of a dive company about a Divemaster traineeship within 30 minutes of starting my job hunt. He explained that through their company you can work on the boat and in exchange they will take a part of your daily pay and put it towards all of your courses and materials to become a PADI Divemaster. In the end, you contribute about $5,000 from your pay towards your certification, as oppossed to the approximate $12,000 it would cost you to do it on your own dime.

For those of you who aren't familiar with scuba qualifications, PADI has a series of "tickets" or "cards" that you can achieve in the following order: Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Rescue Diver, Divemaster. I became Open Water certified in the Caribbean while working for Club Med, which turned me on to diving in the first place. Holding a Divemaster certification allows you to work on dive boats worldwide. While you cannot teach people how to dive, you can lead dives for certfied dovers, and have various other tasks and responsibilties on board the vessel. By doing the traineeship I will have access to my divemaster, plus 5 months of experience onboard a dive ship.

So, after speaking to Scotty at Down Under Dive, I was told to show up the next morning at 7 am for a 3 day unpaid trial period, which is standard for everyone who wants to work on the boat. Score- 30 min and I have a job set up. right? Well not exactly. I got to the boat, and there was another guy on trial working as well. Apparently they had up to 5 people on trial that week, and none of the crew knew how many spots were available. "2 at best" was what I was told, plus apparently some guy who had already finished his trail had slam dunked it. "So, what was I there for?" I thought. I decided to try my best anyway, just in case.

For 3 days I reported bright and early at 7 am, worked my butt off all day, put on my cheery face, and offered to go above and beyond so that they would like me and think I was a hard worker. My duty was to man the snorkel deck, and assist snorkelers in and out of the water. I was amazed at how many people have little or no snorkeling experience. Not to mention skills. Who knew. Any way, there were also a lot of other small but physically demanding tasks, like pull out fins and fit them to every passenger, hand out stinger suits to protect against jellysish, and then pack all that stuff up at the end of the day, wash out the tank room, and clean the boat upon return. ( I got stuck with toilets twice. Let me tell you people- if you ever get seasick, try to puke off the back of the boat and not into the sink, ok?) Moral of the story is, I worked really hard, because I REALLY wanted to prove that I was up for the job.

Turns out, they liked me and I got the job!

... but there are two major catches:

1) Not the end of the world, but they don't have room on the boat for me to start work till a week and a half from now. I am not good at sitting around doing nothing. in fact, i suck at it. But, I did convince them to give me some dive manuals tomorrow so i can start studying for the exams i will eventually have to take

2) More importantly: I technically get paid $140 a day. Woo! Not. I get taxed on the $140 @ 29%, leaving $99. From that, they take out $65 a day for PADI course and materials fees. What am I left with?! $34 a day. for 10.5 hours of work. Which sounds beyond shitty when you put it like that.

I have to move out of my apartment to make this work, into a sharehouse I found. They have a divers special for $75 a week, and I'm going to check that out tomorrow. Plus, its closer to town (taking the bus sucks ass- today, on sunday, when it only runs every 2 hours anyway, it drove right past me while I was waiting at the stop and it took me an hour to walk to town in 34 degree heat) I told my roommate I'm giving a weeks notice, but it was over the phone cause she has been house sitting at her parents house all week, and even though she said she understands, i think shes a bit peeved.

So, I will be living off $150 a week. If i pay $75 for rent and $40 for food and $15 for phone and internet, that leaves me with a grand total of $20 in my pocket. And who are we kidding, it will probably end up in my stomach in the form of more food or alcohol.

Basically, I can break even. Which, I guess when you think about it isn't half bad considering how expensive it is to do divemaster on your own dime ($12,000). And, I can apply to get my tax back when I leave. So maybe its not a crisis after all. It's just really really scary to commit to something as big as this.

Actually, I think the worst/scariest thing is coming up for stuff to do in the meantime. Now that I am money conscious, I don't want to buy anything, but it's hard to keep occupied without spending money. That, and I don't know many people here, and I am prone to lonely syndrome.

Ok, well now that I have laid it all out like that, it doesn't sound half bad. I have been a wreck these past few days since I found out I got the job. It's a nitty gritty job, with long hours and for crap pay, but it's doing something I really wanted to do on this trip, and in life, so I have been struggling big time with whether or not to do it. (especially since I haven't bought my return ticket yet, and its going to be hella expensive) But, I guess going into a little credit card debt never hurt anyone.

Hopefully I can come back to this when I get my next quarter life crisis/anxiety attack regarding this situation, aka tomorrow, and feel the same way.

So yeah, got the job I was wishing so badly for and worked so hard in my trial for, and my life has been one big ball of nervous, indecisive emotions ever since. And I haven't even started yet.

Tropical Queensland, in the Wet season

I am now on Magnetic Island, an island just off the coast of Townsville, in Tropical Queensland. Unfortunately, I made the brutal mistake of booking my trip during the Wet Season, and it is pouring rain, and apparently will be doing so for about a week. So I am stuck at this hostel, which if it was sunny, would be awesome, as it is right on the beach. As it is, I am stuck here for a good 2.5 days with nothing to do but update my blog.
I probably should have booked my travels in this part of the country for later in the year, when its not raining. I feel like I’m wasting my money, paying to go to all these places and just sitting inside each one watching the rain.

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Luckily for me, the rain on Magnetic cleared up the next day, and I was able to go hiking around the island with a brother and sister that I met that worked at the hostel. We did a 5 km walk around the island. As we walked, the landscape was continually changing from lush forest with flowing creeks, to dry, eucalyptus filled terrain, to red earthed clay paths. The end of our walk popped us out at some waterfalls that are well known and frequented by the locals. This was one of my best experiences of the trip!!! Especially due to the frequent rain, the waterfalls were flowing well and pooled into various swimming holes along its course. The main one had a rope swing, (again with the rope swings!) on which a pair of 4 year olds put my swinging abilities and upper body strength to shame. We hiked further up and found a spot where you can duck under the waterfall and sit in a small cave formed by the rock, completely hidden from view from the outside. After our long hike, we took advantage of the fast flowing waterfall to massage our backs and necks as the water fell upon us. It was awesome!!! Definitely a highlight of my trip.

The next stop proved to be another highlight as well. I took the Greyhound up the coast to Mission Beach, a small coastal town renowned for its river rafting, skydiving and proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. It is also home to the cassowary, a large bird with a bright blue head that resembles an emu. We saw two yesterday on our drive up to the Tully River for my first river rafting experience. As much as I have hated all the rain that has been going on, it did my trip a favor in that the water levels were pretty high and we were able to raft the entire river instead of getting out at the low water level stop off. After a brief introductory paddle lesson, we were off. I think some of us in the boat were a bit confused about our rights and lefts, cause we flipped the boat on the very first rapid we encountered!!! It was pretty exhilarating going through the rapids without a boat! Our river guide had a field day yelling expletives at us after that, but I think he was only half serious. Haha. Needless to say we got our act together after that. Which is a good thing, because the river is actually really dangerous to raft because of all the rocks- apparently 5 people have died rafting it, and just in the last months 2 river guides, on separate occasions, dislocated their knees after falling out in the rapids.
Regardless, the trip was absolutely fantastic- the river wraps through World Heritage National park, this lush dense green rainforest with waterfalls cascading down these massive vine covered cliffs. It was a misty day, with common bouts of rainfall, but it was so warm that it didn’t even matter. The water was warm, and we often got in for a “swim” in calm areas- where we just floated down the mild rapid in our vests. All in all, we were on the river 4 hours. There was a diligent camera crew on the banks, and my boat pooled together for a CD of pictures, so I’ll be putting those up on facebook soon enough.
The only downside to this bit of the trip was getting my razors, perfume and most of my makeup stolen out of my toiletry bag after I accidentally left it in the common bathroom for a few hours. Australia thus far has been really safe, and I often have left bags unattended, but I am going to be more diligent from now on!

Solo Travelling

It has been a while since my last update, so I’m just going to lump in all the big things- Amy moved north of Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast. I went house hunting with her, and we found an adorable townhouse in a town called Maroochydore, which is right on the beach and close to the University she will be attending in July. Brooke stayed in Brisbane for a week to wait for her friend to arrive, and I kept going on my own, not wanting to waste a weeks worth of money to wait for them.
Here’s what’s happened since.
I went to Fraser Island through a company that does “self guided” tours. Essentially what this means is that they set you up with a bunch of people also going to the island, outfit you with a 4WD truck (that seats 10), all camping supplies (tent, stove, dishes) and a map and a loose itinerary and send you on your way. I originally wanted to do a guided tour, but the guy at the travel agency convinced me that self guided was the way to go. I wish I hadn’t listened to him. It took the better part of the morning to get all the gear together and go shopping for food with 9 other people on your group, all trying to decide on what to eat for 2 days. Then we had to drive to the ferry- we got lost. The ferry was late, which meant that we got to the island later and had less time to spend before setting up camp. I was in a group with 2 guys and 6 other girls, and we voted to let the boys handle the driving. The roads were really bumpy and all of them are sand, as it’s a sand island. As we were trekking and bumping along, we realized we had no idea where we were going. Fortunately we made our way to the first lake on the itinerary, but only had time to view it from the lookout before setting off for camp. It’s a really big island, and the slow traversing made it really time consuming to get anywhere. We finally got to our “campsite.” It was just a stretch of dunes on the beach. Turns out we were roughing it big time. “do it yourself” Hole in the ground toilets, no fresh water, it was super hot, there were dead jellyfish lining the beach, and huge massive bitting horseflies. Did I mention that there are wild dingoes? We all cooked meat the first night, which attacted about 15 dingoes, who decided to ravage our camp and rip up any and every thing we didn’t put back in the truck. Including a plastic bag that held our used toilet paper that was tied to a tree. Nasty cleanup the next morning!!! It rained that night, and I spent the evening with a busting bladder and a huge fear of going outside and having a dingo bite my butt while squatting in the bushes to pee. But soon it became too much and I really had to pee. Lo and behold, out somes a snarling dingo, forcing me to leap, pants around my ankles back into the tent, still with a busting bladder. It was around this time that I began cursing the guy who convinced me to buy this tour.
The next few days actually turned around- we managed to find a freshwater lake that we all bathed in (the weather was swelteringly hot, and we were all covered in sweat, sand, and sunscreen) before heading north to Indian Head. The bay was gorgeous, and we went to these massive tide pools (think water deeper than I am tall) that we warm and filled with fish and super salty, making you really buoyant. That night we all cooked pasta, and saw only one dingo. It did rain in the middle of the night however. We had set up a tarp as a rain fly, but kept the windows and door open, since it was so hot. I woke up soaking wet, with one of my tentmates sitting in the middle of the tent. She told me “Its raining.” No kidding! She just sat there, so I was forced to jump into action, by myself, to go outside in the pouring rain and undo the ties holding all the flaps open. I spent the rest of the night soaking wet and covered in sand. Did I mention that on the guided tours you sleep in a hostel?
The last day, we went to Lake McKenzie, which is a MASSIVE freshwater lake with water so clear it looks like a swimming pool. You can open your eyes underwater and see up to 10 feet away, clear as day. It was AWESOME!!! Unfortunately the sun refused to come out, so we didn’t see it in all its glory, and it kept raining in spurts on us, but it was still one of the best things I’ve seen on this trip so far.
Overall, the Fraser trip was enjoyable, but if I ever go back I am 110% doing it guided- you learn more about the island from knowledgeable guides, stay dry at night, and have toilets to pee in. I did enjoy the social aspect of my trip though- there were 50 people total, so even though I went alone, I left with a bunch of friends. Most people are also headed up north, and I even bumped into a few of my friends in the next town- Airlie Beach.
To get from Hervey Bay, where Fraser is, to Airlie Beach by Greyhound you have to take an overnight bus. Mine left at 12:30 am and arrived at 2:30 pm the next day. It was brutal, but it comes with the territory, I guess. Airlie Beach I known as the “Gateway to the Whitsundays” and is where you have to go to catch tours to the islands. I went out on a catamaran called Wings II, which holds 25 people and is geared toward diving vacations. I went on 5 dives, including a night dive. I had a great time- it was so great to be out on the water, and to be able to stay in your bathing suit, even after the sun went down, it was that warm! The crew took tons of pictures, the food was great, everyone was really friendly, and I even got to drive the boat- twice!!! Coincidentally, I had applied to work for that company before I booked that trip, and the skipper introduced me to the owner of the company after we got back. In order to get to know me and get a feel of how I am on boats, he took me out on his trimaran for a race against 4 other boats. We didn’t finish the race, however, because a massive downpour rolled in, like something out of the movies, soaking us to the core, and forcing us to head home. I didn’t mind the rain though, cause it was warm, and the ocean itself felt like bath water, it was awesome.

Melbourne to Brisbane

Hey hey! How ya going? Let’s bring you all up to speed on the happenings: We had a bit of a snafu upon arrival in Melbourne, that I purposefully omitted last entry, but now that we’re not in Melbs anymore, and I can relate on it in hindsight, the chain of events is actually kind of amusing. We booked our trip in Melbourne for 8 nights, (which is a decently long time when you are traveling and have nowhere to stay) because we thought we had somewhere to stay. Another fellow Club Med Turks co worker recently moved to Melbourne, and told us that she had plenty of extra beds and couch space, and we were free to stay with her. Well, when we got there, it turns out there weren’t any extra beds, the place was a pigsty, and though they offered to let us stay in their beds, the sheets were covered with questionable stains…Oh, and also, there was a raging house party in the house as well. So the three of us, Brooke, amy and I conferred, and decided to sneak out into the middle of the night, and call Amy’s friend Stewie to bail us out. He generously let us crash at his house, after receiving our 2 am desperate phone call. After calling around, Amy managed to score us a place to stay at another of her Aus Club Med friend’s house, where we had nice beds and internet access- something I take for granted at home, but which is a HUGE luxury when you are backpacking.
A highlight of the Melbourne area was the Great Ocean Road, a long windy costal route that wraps around the southern tip of Australia’s coastline. We decided to take a tour, which ended up being a really good idea because the tour guide kept us on schedule so that we stayed at every attraction just as long as possible to fit everything in. We stopped along the way to view wild koalas sleeping in Eucalyptus trees, and to have lunch in Apollo Bay, a charming costal town. Finally we made it to the spectacular 12 Apostles, massive rock formations that rise out of the ocean. There are actually only 8 left out of the original 12 due to erosion and the forces of the waves on the rocks, but the view was still spectacular. We continued on to the London Bridge, another large rock formation, that used to form a natural bridge, but which collapsed in 1991, with people out on the edge, so it is no longer accessible to visitors. Overall, the tour was over 12 hours of driving, but it was well worth it. The Great Ocean Road is definitely a must see if you make it down to Melbourne!
The next day, Amy’s friend Stewie took us to his parent’s house in the country, about 1.5 hours out of Melbourne. His parents are avid gardeners, and had a beautiful arraignment of flowers, vegetables, and other flora. Stewie took us in his 4WD truck down a dirt road to a local lake, where we climbed a tree and swung in on a rope swing. It was my first rope swing experience in over 10 years- so much fun! Stewie used to do Circus at Club Med, so he swung in with back flips and layouts, I merely managed a back flop- but it was still fun!
We had to wake up at 3:30 am the next day to fly to Sydney, which was brutal. We picked up Amy’s car and drove to the Blue Mountians, about 1.5 hours north of Sydney. There, we saw the 3 sisters, which are 3 massive rock formations that stick out of what can only be described as Australia’s tree filled version of the Grand Canyon. Aboriginal legend has it that three sisters fell in love with men from another tribe, which was forbidden. The men went to war to fight for their loves, and fearing for their safety, the tribe’s witch doctor cast a spell on the sisters, turning them to stone to keep them safe from the strife. Unfortunately, the witch doctor was killed in the battle, leaving the sisters to remain forever entombed in their rocky forms. Despite the rainy weather, we embarked on a 6km walk under the falls that traversed along the cliffside. The path was really well maintained, and the views were spectacular!!!! The foliage was lush, we were rained down upon by waterfall mist, and witnessed wild black cockatoos soaring across the sky. Other than that, there wasn’t much to do in the Blue mountains, especially given the rain and we spent the rest of the day/night just chilling at the hostel.
The rest of the trip is a bit of a blur- we just drove a lot, in hopes of getting back to Brisbane as quickly as possible. We stopped again at Surfer’s paradise, and it was a lot less crowded than it was the first time we went, over summer holidays. I really enjoyed it with less people, and after going yet again a few days later with Amy and her cousin, I have come to change my opinion of surfer’s and actually quite like it. The shops have a lot of cute clothes and the gelato was delicious!

That's all for now, hope good things are in store!

Sydney (my fav!!!) and Melbourne

Sydney
Sydney is AWESOME!!!! We spent the first day there sightseeing in The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney, and home to the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. People say that the Sydney Opera House is the 2nd most recognizable building in the world, after the Taj Mahal. It lived up to the hype, especially when we went back and saw it all lit up at night. Brooke and I enjoyed a glass of wine at the Opera House Bar, located just below the Opera House, with a glistening backdrop of the city and the sparkling lights of the Harbor Bridge. On one particularly hot day, we trekked on the train out to Crounullah Beach, the last stop on one of the lines and hit up the beach there. We took a little walk and stumbled on something I have never seen before- a swimming pool in the ocean!!! Not one, but two!! The surf is really strong there, so the walls of the man made swimming pool provide a safe haven for small children, as well as a really fun and novel attraction for adults. We also took a day to trek out to Manly Beach, which is best accessed by a ferry out of Sydney. We took a car instead, and it took over an hour- Sydney is huge and it takes forever to get from one place to the next. But, we finally made it to the beach, and had a lovely day bobbing in the waves (I did get out at one point after seeing a jellyfish bobbing as well) and eating fish and chips on the beach.
Brooke and I decided that we liked Sydney so much that we were going to check out some apartments, and move back in a few weeks. Together, we took train trips of up to an hour around town to check out some seriously expensive hovels. The first place we went was an apartment in a high rise, which sounded decent enough. Wrong. The door was answered by a sniffling Asian guy, who led us around the teensy apartment in about 2 min flat. The room was small and messy, the kitchen was smaller than my armspan, and it looked as if the living room was partitioned off and someone was living there. And they were asking $600 a month from each of us to share a room. Next!!! Unfortunately the next place was even worse. It was in Redfern, which is located right by the University of Sydney, as well as a host of other universities, causing it to have become much of a student slum, where landlords take advantage of the multitude of foreign students by charging insanely high rent for jokes of apartments. The one that we viewed probably should have been condemned, but alas, there were people living in it. Very messy people. The living room looked like it had been ransacked, but we were told the guys who lived there had just been up late partying. We squeezed up one of the narrowest staircases I have ever been on and found ourselves in a room, if you can call it that. There were holes in the ceiling, clothes everywhere, and only one bed. We were told there would be 2, as there are 2 of us. “No problem,” we were told, “I can put another bed in here, now you have 2 rooms!” The landlord leads us through the room, out the what I am pretty sure used to be a balcony, but had been converted to a room by adding plywood floors and walls. Hell No. Additionally, the kitchen had about 60 years of black grime over everything, and the dirty toilet was practically in the backyard, it was so far from the rest of the house.
These viewings had chewed through our entire morning, and more than a day’s worth of patience, so we decided to treat ourselves by taking a trip to the zoo. The Taronga Zoo is pretty spectacular, in that it lies on a hill outside of the city. You have to take a ferry to get there, and then you get on a gondola, called the “Skylift,” which takes you airborne above the zoo to the entrance at the top of the hill, where you proceed by walking downhill as you take in the attractions with a gorgeous backdrop of the city skyline behind each exhibit. I’ve been to quite a few zoos in my life, but really enjoyed this one for the view, and the fact that they had many animals that were indigenous to Australia and therefore not as likely to be seen in zoos in other part of the world. I even saw a legless lizard! We decided we really like the ferries, so rather than taking more trains that day, we took another ferry around the city to Darling Harbor, a lively port full of bars, restaurants and even an IMAX Theater. Brooke and I checked out one last apartment, which was actually really nice, on the 52nd floor of a luxury high rise, but the landlord wanted $800 a month each to share a room, and he wanted an immediate move in. So we said no thanks, we’ve got more traveling to do!! We finished off the evening with a bit of a restaurant/ bar crawl around Darling Harbour, having a drink at one bar, dinner at another, followed by a drink at a third stop. The Harbor has a vibrant nightlife, and was excellent for an evening of people watching.
Melbourne
Our original plan was to drive all the way down to Melbourne from Brisbane, but after the first leg to Sydney, we realized it would be faster and cheaper if we just flew to Melbourne. We lucked out and found flights on Jetstar for $100 each round trip from Sydney to Melbs. We are currently half way through our 8 days here, and have already celebrated Australia Day at the Elsplanade Hotel in St. Kilda, Checked out the shopping to be had on Brunswick Street and Chapel St, viewed the sprawl of one of the world’s largest cities from the top of the Eureka Tower, and mastered the extensive tram and train network. We found some great bargains at shops all over towns- I got a killer new necklace for $3.50 at one store!! Tomorrow we are departing bright and early for a day trip down the Great Ocean Road, “one of the world’s most spectacular costal drives,” according to the Australia Lonely Planet. We will take in spectacular views of costal rock formations, walk on lush rainforest trails, and hopefully even see a wild koala or two.
As we are packing up and traveling somewhere new every day, it may be a while before my next update. Our internet opportunities have been few and far between. Thank for you patience!! But in case I don’t check back in for a bit, we are heading back to Sydney on Tuesday morning, and then immediately driving up to the Blue Mountains for some bushwalking and scenic view taking in-ning. Haha. Then, we’ll jet back down the coast for one last night in Sydney, where Amy and I are going to see Wicked, the Broadway Musical. After that, we’ll start our trek back up north, Brisbane bound. This is the point where we all go our separate ways- Brooke has a friend coming out from Toronto that she’ll travel with for a month, and Amy has decided to move to the Sunshine Coast, about 2 hours north of Brisbane. I haven’t quite finalized anything, but I have been researching places, and I think I may just brave the heat, humidity, and summer storms and go up north to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, as that area was largely why Australia appealed to me in the first place.
Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Start of Our Australian East Coast Road Trip

Jan 16th marked the beginning of our Amy, Gen and Brooke’s drive down the coast, with the goal of reaching Tasmania. We are now on the fourth night of our trip, and have concluded that is a MASSIVE distance, and are opting instead to drive just to Sydney, and then fly to Melbourne to meet up with another friend from Club Med. Unlike the states, or Canada, towns in Aus are severely isolated from each other. We would drive for hours through forests in between towns, and have realized that we will save time and money if we just fly the second leg of our trip.
The first day, we cruised on down to Byron Bay, stopping at various beaches along the way—we have consistently swam in two different beaches/cities every day thus far, and often pile back into the car in just our bathing suits, ready for the next swim break. Byron is a hopping hippie/backpacker town, full of cute little shops and cafes. We had lunch on the beach, as is becoming our custom, and then strolled all the shops. Rather than stay the night there, we continued onward- Amy’s mom’s cousin offered to put the 3 of us up for the night in his town, Evans Head. Looking a bit like Crocodile Dundee, and emanating some serious hippie vibes, it wasn’t long before Halden had approached us with a wild snake in hand and made us pose for some photos. No trip to Aus is complete without a snake encounter!
After an early morning beach visit in Evan’s Head, we drove further south stopping for swim and lunch in Broome Head, then we made our way to Coffs Harbour. Coff’s is home to the Big Banana, a tourist attraction marked by, you guessed it – a MASSIVE banana. We all ordered chocolate covered bananas as a mis afternoon snack. We stayed at a YHA hostel just down the road from the beach, which we were still lounging at by 6:15 pm. After a dinner of Indian food, we decided to hit the town. We spent the night tearing it up on the dance floor, in true Club Med style.
From Coffs, we made out way next to Southwest Rocks, which just happened to be hosting a massive lifeguarding competition, for kids from about 7-17. The whole beach was full of kids competing in rescue activities and relays. They had a relay race on the sand that made the 4x1 look like a walk in the park. After a quick swim ourselves, we were back in the car and on our way. We made a quick stop at Crescent Head before continuing on to Port Macquarie for the night. We took a long walk from Ozzie Pozzie, our hostel, to the boardwalk, where we marveled at the “painted rocks”- big rocks that the public is allowed to paint however they liked. There were uplifiting phrases, marriage proposals, and lots of dedicated memorial rocks. After a homemade dinner at the hostel, we caught a quick drink at the local irish pub, to some live music. The next morning, we woke up early in order to catch 8 am feeding time at the Koala hospital, and, or course to enjoy a quick swim!
Next stop: Anna Bay at Port Stephens, where we are currently staying for 2 nights at an eco-hostel, which serves as a wildlife Refuge. As we checked in, there was a baby owl on the desk, and baby magpies at our feet. I got some hilarious video of the magpies playing around with Amy and I. We spent the day at the beach, swimming, climbing rocks, and relaxing. We’ll stay here one more night- we’re planning to do dinner on the beach tomorrow night- before heading to Sydney.
That’s about it so far—it feels like I’ve been here forever, but it’s only day 10. It’s going to be a good year!!!

Moreton Island, the world's 3rd largest sand island

Hi guys! Last time I checked in, Amy and I were about to embark on an overnight trip with Goanna Adventures to Moreteon Island, the world’s third largest Island. The trip was fantastic, educational, active, and memborable:
We were picked up by the tour company at the train station, by our tour guide Logan, a tan athletic Aussie sporting a full head of blonde dreadlocks. We boarded our bright blue 4 wheel drive tour bus, which we drove right onto a ferry that took us to Moreton within the hour. 97% of the island is national park, and there are no paved roads- they are all sand, necessitating a 4wd capable vehicle. Even with our monster truck, we still got stuck in the sand at one point.
Our first stop was “The Dessert” for a little sandboarding. In the burning sun, we trekked up a massive sand hill with our boards. After a quick intro on safety, we were good to go. In the spirit of go big or go home, I chose to skip the lie down option, and did my first run standing up, as if I were snowboarding. Most people choose to lie down, which I tried as well- lying down on your stomach, careening down at high speeds is sure to guarantee a mouthful of sand! Once we were thoroughly spent, covered in sand, and sweating, we bumped our way back toward the beach., where we donned snorkels for a swim around a series of shipwrecks right off the beach. Our tour guide brought a bag of bread, which in turn brought hundreds of fish swarming all around us. It was incredible! We spent the night in tents at the tour company’s permanent camp. Logan, our guide, cooked us a great dinner, and even played a bit of guitar at night. The next day, he took us to a freshwater lake, not more than 100 feet off the beach. Because it is a sand island, rainwater deposits underground, and then filters back up, clear as can be, into the lake. It was beautiful! After breaking camp, we moved on to another larger lake, which was great as a respite from the heat, but not nearly as clear. Overall, a great trip, and I may book a tour with them later to Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, which also sports a rainforest.