Hello readers, this is Julia reporting my last blog post ever! Last week I finished finals and then went to Melbourne to check it out, plus the Great Ocean Road area. I had lots of fun backpacking and staying in hostels, as usual, meeting many people and such. My time in Australia has taught me a lot about solo-travel and such. For instance, how much worse it feels when things go wrong and you are alone. I once again met some interesting new people and toured around. Discovering things alone makes it seem so much more fun, like everything you see was all you, your discoveries and accomplishments of making those moments happen (as opposed to a tour where they move your body around going ‘look at this thing, now this’ with no nessesary conception of where you are or how to get there, or how the locations exactly fit together.

So, I ended up with three finals, 2 psych and 1 philos. They wee all fairly easy, and it felt much better to do a test than an essay. I also moved out of my housing this week, returning my keys, cleaning up, and saying final goodbyes to housemates.

Now I sit here, in my final time in Australia, leaving tomorrow afternoon to New Zealand. After that, I get to go home and see my family, who I do indeed miss. It was fun here, and I made lots of new friends along the way from all over the world. I had a little get together to say goodbye, where I was presented with a stuffed animal plush Platypus toy. very cute.

Since everything is all done and my future trip month as a backpacker is unrelated to my life in Australia, I will not be posting a blog here about it. Thank you for reading my posts through my time, be it one or all, liked or hated (hopefully they weren’t that unbearable..)

Cheers!! -just one of my new Australian vocabulary vernacular that will be coming back with me to plague the confused people of America. As well as words like “uni” for university. I feel that things will probably easily fall back into place as I have to think less about the word choices I use… like returning to writing with the right hand after an extended interlude of left-handed only writing.

-Julia out

This past week was my last week of classes! I can’t believe they are all over now. All that’s left is my finals now. I leave Brisbane in a week and a half! After my time here, I go to Melbourne for a week, and then NZ backpacking.

This week has been the usual rain in Brisbane, but some housemates and I have fled to the nearby island of Stradbroke this weekend, to escape rain and essay induced stress. It was sunny, beachy, and full of hippies. It took me some time to thaw and let loose, but I finally felt perfectly relaxed by the end of it, refreshed in time to get studying for finals. There was a 3 day festival in town called “Island Vibe”, which played lots of worldly and island themed music (like Reggae, Hawaiian, Aboriginal, etc). It attracts many hippies, with the dreadlocks, the pot, the whole bit. I didn’t have tickets for the 3 days, but bought a day pass for half price and we all got in the last night free anyway. 2 of my friends were on volunteer duty, but were quite busy to enjoy the festival most of the time.

We arrived on Friday, lugging camping gear on buses, trains, and the ferry. We brought snacks with us, as well as buying more from the market. We slept in a tent at the beach for 3 nights. The whole thing was very cheap considering. Friday night, I watched a beautiful sunset while walking toward it on the beach, with the tide out (extra long sand time). I also went in the water and swam in the waves a bit. Late that night, I sat with two friends on the dark beach staring up at the very starry sky. Some shooting stars flung through overhead.

Saturday, I had an early morning (up at 7am) of beach lounging and exploring alone on rocks down the coastline. I found a place where the waves crashed upward, forming a fin looking formation of water. Beautiful! By 1pm I bought a day pass for the festival and I was walking the festival grounds with one other girl. We saw a beat boxer guy who was very good, sounded nothing like he looked (average white guy, sounded like a cool black guy). lolz. We had some satay thai food for lunch, walked around the little tents looking at modern hippie-ware (Lots of leather belts with many pouches and funky sort… fantasy novel themed stuff), and then listened to some more of the live music.

The next couple nights were spent lounging on the beach and exploring the island a bit. There was a blue lake with a forest hike I wanted to see, but without a car it was quite difficult to get there. The beach was beautiful, with warm water and good surf. Sunday night was also spent at the festival, dancing to music, then relaxing by a bon fire.

The semester has finally begun to wind down… I think I am ready for it to end as well. This is my last week of classes before a study break and then finals. I finished my last paper of the term, thank goodness that’s over! I just got back another assignment that said my writing was too casual and took marks off :(. That sucks, I really gave it my all. My home uni is not as big on scientific papers, hence my practice with them is not up to their standards… Maybe I should stick to writing causally then, like this blog :P.

Anyhow, I took a break from writing my last assignment on Saturday, and took a half-day trip to the coast for some scuba. I had not gone in about 2 months and it was time to keep myself fresh by getting back out there. It was an area north along the sunshine coast, notorious for sea sickness. It was a brilliant and calm day though, and I felt fine until I started to gear up. The thick layers of wetsuit feel like you are wrapped in Styrofoam, and then you have to struggle around putting the other tight objects on0 fins, mask, jacket. It is much easier to dive in warmer places not just because of the obvious “lack of cold”, but also because your wetsuit is just gives you so much more freedom of motion and so many less nauseatingly stuffy feelings. I was feeling woozy before getting my gear on, and the others were very nice to help me out in putting my gear on for me, to get me into the water ASAP to stop the sickness.

Anyway, the 2 dives themselves were lovely. The sun was out, and the area only about 10 meters deep, allowing the bright colors of the coral to be seen! I was finally amazed by colors and textures and diversity of coral- something I had not been on my other dives (probably deeper, with less sun). That includes the great barrier reef. I also saw some cool starfish, one with a thick hide that looked like it was encrusted with pearls. I saw a strange clam that had blue coral growing on it’s shell. Dunno what that was about. The most memorable coral was this tiny bright red one that formed little clusters of circles, about 1 cm diameter (or less) wide for each circle. There were a few colorful fish, an angelfish, some striped yellow/black ones, some bigger, some smaller. There was also a Wobbygong shark, biggest I had ever seen, sleeping on the sea floor. I would guess he was about 8 or 9 feet long.

On the way in from the second dive, my buddy and I were a little far from the boat, and the current was not helping us, either. I was wearing fins that didn’t quite fit, and had to have some help from another more sea-worthy diver. It was frustrating. I do remember there being a nice little brown sea bird that kept hanging out with us in the open sea though. I wish I could have flown to get around the current!

Going from one dive location to the other was actually quite fun. I love being on a speeding boat makes me feel the spirit of adventure and wonder. Upon return to the University grounds, I witnessed a beautiful sunset over the campus lake. All the purple flowered Jacaranda trees and some other pink flowering one were in full bloom, on a hill overlooking the water and large sky. It was also a nice warm day. I also ran into a friend of mine on his bike.

And that’s the end of that chapter- Now I have a couple weeks off, finals for 2 days, and travel travel travel!…eh. Followed by LA. Which is like travel, but back to a former life I lived. I suppose my blog posts will be ending after that point!

I spent the day with two of my friends (who I know from rock climbing club), going up hiking to some famous mountains (known as Glasshouse) via train. In the morning, two of us went to the west end Saturday markets, for my first time. This was a great experience! It wasn’t crowded because of the rain from days past, making it manageable. Fresh fruit, baked goods, cultural foods, clothes. It is a cheap and healthy way to go grocery shopping as well. I tried a pumpkin pastry puff, some Danish pancake balls with ice cream, an apple pie… yeah, nothing too healthy, right? Still, awesome. I also ran into some friends from UQ at the markets.We had awful luck with the bus/train system all day though. On the way over to my friend’s in the morning, to the market, from the market, and the rest of the day for that matter! Saturday public transport in Brisbane is problematic at best. Also, due to the rain and debris, the ferry system is down.

At the mountains, the next train to transfer to was at 3:45 (It was 2:15 when we arrived!). We decided to bike to the trail, which was 20k. After an hour of biking, I was tired, frustrated, and in paaaaiiin… however, my friends were both stronger than me and I was slowing them down! Fail. We ended up at a trail eventually, even making 2 new local Ausy friends along the way, who escorted us on our hike. The hike had lovely ferns, a steep pseudo-climb, and a nice cave to explore.

At the very top, there were some rocks to sit on, but it was very windy. Still, the sights from up there were breathtaking. Green farmland all around, with little jagged mountains popping up around the landscape. They looked like mini, green, pyramids of Giza. We saw a fine sunset up there, before hightailing it back down the mountain to beat the darkness and catch the 6:30pm train. We ended up at the train station in time, but standing on the wrong side with our bikes caused a swing and a miss :”(. We did run into 2 fellow UQ students who we vaguely recognized. Putting who-knows-who together, we ended up both knowing a bunch of other people in common. Now a group of 5, stranded until the 9pm train, we all sat in a country park and ate pre-backed snacks, with a random local Sheppard dog that joined us to join in the food and play a good game of fetch. Dogs are quite friendly up here! I also saw a dog following another couple for several blocks, up some stairs to the other platform, and into the train station. They didn’t know who’s dog it was, either.

Hi readers! I have just returned from the long mid-semester break. I did miss some classes coming back, but I will make it up, and nothing was due. I never skip class at other times, so my one absence has been put to good use I believe. For break, I flew out to Cambodia for about 11 days. I had to stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the way back, and went ahead and stayed for a full day to see the city.

The country was amazing and unique, full of new experiences. This is just another example of why the abroad program, particularly in northern Australia, is so good. We are located within reach of southeast Asia, and thanks to them providing me with this break time, I was able to actually utilize that closeness.

I saw ancient temples (Including Angkor Wat, a manmade wonder of the world), forests, waterfalls with ruins in them, as well as the amazing Cambodian people and how they live. Most have a pet cow, some dogs, chickens… Many have rice paddies, which look like vast bright green fields. Simply stunning to behold, often with palm trees dotting the landscape. Some farm lotus seeds, meaning there are vast flooded fields of lotus flowers. The country is very hot and wet! Many people actually live in villages on the water. But no, don’t picture a little house beside a lake or river… I mean ON the water. A house made of bamboo in the middle of a labyrinth of river with bush and trees sticking out, but no actual land in sight. There is even a floating basketball court.

All that I describe was located in the general vicinity of Siem Reap city (north-ish part of the country). That contained most of the highlights for me. I also visited the more southern Capital city, Phnom Pehn. It was just a big lame city, kind of dirty and quite boring. There were a lot of markets though, but nothing Siem Reap didn’t have. Later in the trip, I visited the coast, saw a national forest, a large complex waterfall formation, and went snorkeling out on tiny islands offshore. The later was the best, giving me some time to ponder my life. The day on the sea was overcast, perfect because it tamed the usual overwhelming humid heat. It was very tranquil, and the ocean water very warm. I thought about what I want and need from my life, what I might want to do with it, etc. Quite meaningful, and a highlight.

People do bombard you nonstop though, throughout the country. While I generally felt very safe walking around alone, even at night, I was also constantly being pushed to buy things, eat at places, take Tuk Tuk rides, and rarely just being left in peace. It wears you down as the days go by. By the end, I was very happy to leave and felt I could check it off my list.

I then spent 1 day exploring Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, which has a totally different feel to it than Cambodia. It is a giant and modern city. I did not feel safe, was constantly getting stares, and often lude remarks thrown at me on the streets. I took a tour of the city and met another tourist, and we paired up to see the city highlights. Much safer! Anyway, that pretty much sums up my trip in a page. You gotta really travel yourself to understand what the country was like though. I hope to visit Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, and Vietnam someday soon (countries that border/are most near to Cambodia)!

So this weekend, I went to Sydney! It was just a lone trip, easily and cheaply booked. I stayed with a very nice family who I met on a previous lone-Ausy trip (to Airlie beach). They live up in Woy Woy, 1 hour north of the city… Although it took much longer to get up there with the trains being down!!

(View of the Woy Woy area, north of Sydney)

I was in Sydney for 4 days, spending the first two in the Blue mountains, and the second two as day trips to the city. I did so much, and had an amazing time. On the train ride to the Blue mountains (about 4 hours long!) I met an Irish guy about my age, and we ended up hiking together all day! We saw some crazy sights! It was a perfect and lucky day to be out there.

We headed out to a trail, winding through places full of blackish rock, moss, waterfalls, ferns galore (even odd rainbow leafed ones), and stunning lookouts. It was a perfectly clear day, which is very lucky for the blue mountains. rock formations created canopies and half-caves all over, with water dripping from the top. We saw a waterfall that was sort of 3d, with the water dripping down all sides of a large, black, bulging shaped rock.

(What I called the 3d waterfall, but actually has some other name I assume…)

We came across a bench on a ledge, which was quite stunning. We made a pact to always sit on every bench in the forests here, and that they must be placed there to show off a good viewing angle (not exactly true). Eventually, after doubling back from a path that ended up at a road (and passing a digging Lyre bird), we found a trail going into the depths of the canyon, we the inn-guide had suggested. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the beauty of thousands of ferns all around us… as well as a huge moss covered rock. Soon to follow along our hour-ish hike were lots of rocky overhangs, tiny waterfalls, ferns, moss, etc.



(Gallery of some of the scenes from the hike! they do not capture even a fraction of the beauty experienced over there.)

There were some killer stairs coming back up and out of that though! It ended in a nice lookout, with a view of the famous rock formation called the “3 sisters”. My camera was out of juice by then though. It’s not a big deal though, since picts of it are all over the internet.

What was supposed to be a day trip turned into a 2 day stay up there. It was great! There was a cute little inn/hostel with a very knowledgeable lady working there. I spent the next day alone, doing more hiking all day, as my new friend had a tour booked already. It was a great day spent in a Canyon, with about 6 hours of walking!

On the 3rd and 4th days, I headed into the city, where I tried tons of new things, including being alone in a city as a tourist! It was amazing. I went to the markets at The Rocks (old part of town), saw a comedy show at the Opera house, took in the views of the harbor and bridge, visited old buildings and St. Mary’s cathedral, tried new foods, saw Chinatown and the Chinese Gardens, saw King’s cross, basically… I did it all! I would do it again in a heart beat! Travel alone, when safe, can be the greatest thing ever! I really found myself on the streets out there… The weather was nice as well, much warmer than when I had originally gone with my family. I did however skip all the things I did with them, such as museums, aquariums, skytower, beaches, etc. I figured I didn’t need to see it all over again.

That is all for now- And next week, Cambodia trip!!! Will be back in a couple weeks!!! Stay tuned!

So this past weekend was another trip with the international student club (called QUEST). I saw a few people from the Byron Bay trip, but mainly spent time with a friend from climbing club, plus some new people. Yay new friends! Also, a very nice housemate of mine lend me a camera to use, but all the best photos were on cameras taken by friends that day. I am still trying to track them all down!

I got to the departure point an hour early, along with others who read the email time instead of looking at the ticket time (along with the bus company themselves!). We went for coffee on campus in the meantime, making yet more friends.

At 9am, we left Brisbane, bussing up to some caves, glow worms, forests, waterfalls, and views. Some car went too fast down the winding cliffs, and ran into our bus (nobody was hurt though, just a bent mirror and some shock). First stop- hiking to a nice lookout with a funny name- “best of all lookout”. wtf right… the ego on that! It was a nice lookout though…

We also saw a cool giant blob tree there, but it wouldn’t photograph well… or fit in a single picture.

The glow worm caves on the next stop were interesting as well. A real cave had been covered artificially, to allow viewing in daytime. No photos inside though. However, we did get to hand-feed some colorful birds outside!

(one of the many red/purple tropical birds around us)

(example of nice tree from one of the many forest hikes)

On the hike at the glow worm area, there was a wall with tiny holes in it- turns out, we were at the native habitat of a trapdoor spider! I never knew they lived in Australia, but am not so surprised (they gotta live somewhere! and AUS is the home of dangerous spiders, after all!).

My favorite thing of the day was a giant waterfall which we visited. It was perfectly tropical, green, rocky, with a tiny lake… a perfect little paradise. The whole thing was set in a giant half-circle, and massive in size. We had to hike way down a while to get to it. Flawlessly beautiful. Our measly cameras could not capture it. However, I can at least give you something to look at.

(2 pics of me at the ridiculously amazing waterfall in real life that just disappoints on camera).

(the area right after the waterfall)

(a river we encountered after hiking back up, maybe the top of the waterfall? note that distant view!)

Our last stop was at about 5pm, just before dark. It was a natural bridge, where a waterfall fall through a hole into a cave- with some untouched, actual, wild glow-worms!! Too hard to get a pict of them, but…!

(me at the sign telling us about the wild glow-worms)

(excellent pic, of the natural bridge from the bottom)

(top view of the waterfall, going into the hole!)

After our day in the forests, me and a bunch of new friends tried to plan to see a movie. Our plans went from: making sushi at my house–> going to buy ingredients–> movie–> ordering fast-food before heading there… ehh. Because our plans were changing around so fast, we ended up using the time inefficiently, and not being able to catch the movie in time (realized once halfway there). Half the group bailed. I ended up with 3 others at a bar in an area called West End, where I had never been before (despite it being very close to my house!). Its a sort of West-Hollywood style, hippie type party area (note: not as wild as west Hollywood, for those who do know LA). We listened to some cool hippie music over a pitcher of beer, me once again drinking so little it was almost anti-social. Whatever, I’m just not cut out for drinking.

After Byron Bay, I lost my keys and go-card (for public transits). Replacing the card was only 5$, but the keys were supposed to be a different story. I ended up making a copy of my housemate’s spare, and it turned out to unlock my door, but not hers! It was amazing luck. I also got a bike from some friends who live here. I do love them!
The bike is a little big for me, so I have to jump on and kind of fall over to get off, however, the thing takes off like a rocket and is so superior to walking! I forgot what it was like! I did almost get run over/run some people over several times on my first ride to campus… despite the ride being only about 6 minutes long… I promise to improve though!

Anyway, This past weekend, instead of travel, the travel came to me. A friend of mine from my Fraser Island trip came to town to see me! We saw the sights of Brisbane, such as the Mt. Coot-tha botanical gardens, Lone-pine koala sanctuary, and Gold Coast.

We also went rock climbing thurs night:

(me up on the rocks! I got stuck and gave up about 5 feet from the top though, after a quick scamper up 30 feet!)

I had never been to the gold coast before, and I’m glad we finally got out there.
The Gold coast about a 2 hour trip from my house. The weather was a little unpleasant though, which didn’t result in a great surf day down there. Despite random rain and dark clouds all day, I had a good day. We walked around, found some shells on the beach, watched a few desperate surfers, visited Australia’s only Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum (larger and I think overall better than the one in Hollywood).

(Gold coast beach, with the skyscrapers that line it, for whatever reason, someone thought that would be a good idea to build along a surfing beach. [*cough* ruined the beauty *cough*])

I finally understand the purpose behind the museum as well, it is not to be taken as full of surprising oddities, because nowadays, with travel being so accessible to everyone, and people being overall less impressed by cross-cultural artifacts… I think it is to be taken as something more of a rich American man’s collection of authentic travel memorabilia from the 1930-1960s. It is only when they try to pull it off as “the bizarre! the amazing! you wont believe your eyes!” (that is their line) that my expectations are lifted and stepped on. The TV show does try to incorporate new types of things, long after the original point. It seems like there are 2 totally different sides to that whole thing.

At the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, you can hang out with kangaroos. I had lots of fun thinking up various poses and pictures to take with them. There are some great ones, it was sooo very hard deciding which ones to post. Here is are the top 5 though. It was just so easy to pose with them, the roos just sit around lazily.

(Many picts of me posing with various kangaroos!)
And just because that was a lot of roos, here is me with an Emu:

(We can’t forget the Emus…)

My friend and I also went to see Despicable me, “pre-showing” at 10am, rushing from home in hopes of spare seats (I have to printer to buy online)… Yes, I know it has been out in America for a long time, but this is Aus! Things take longer to get over here! I liked the movie as well. Back on my laptop, also watched an Ausy classic comedy called “The Castle” about a family of “boggies”, or Ausy hicks (very similar to southern-USA hicks). Great movie to see if any of you readers get the chance. I haven’t genuinely laughed at a movie so hard in a long time. The main plot is that the government is trying to forcibly buy up their neighborhood, located right next to an expanding airport, and how they try to fight back to keep their house.

Later, we attended a birthday part for the Unidive boat, and ate some good food with other dive club members. It was very windy though. By 4:30 we had made our way across town to see the Brisbane River Fire, which is a spectacular event, where there are fireworks shot from bridges, boats, and tall buildings. The whole city is ablaze with lights! We got a good viewing spot early and camped for 3 hours until it was time.

(Two pictures of the fireworks display over Brisbane city)

Monday came up fast, and it was soon time to say good-bye. His flight would take him back home, after 2 and a half months here in Aus. I escorted him to the airport train and then walked around alone in the dark city for a little while before heading back to do some homework I had due the next day.

So the weekend before this one, I went with Quest to Byron bay. Sorry this post is coming a little late, it was that or post without picts! And nobody wants that

Byron Bay is a small beach town, with a history of being the former hippie capital of AUS, located about 3 hours drive south of Brisbane. Different maps show it as father or closer in relation to Sydney, serving the simple purpose of confusing the hell outa me. It actually took us all day to finally get there, since we stopped at 2 main “things to do” first. One was a mountain for hiking (Mt Warning), where I saw my first wild Ausy snake. The lush nature of this rainforest was quite surprising and interesting. Lots of palm trees and large squiggly vines on trees, including some Fig trees (Fig trees are parasites, landing on and then strangling other trees from above with roots that engulf it over time). I hiked with some new friends, with our group growing ever larger.

(View of the forest of Mt. Warning)

(On our hike in Mt. Warning. Very oddly growing tree we came across.)

After hiking, we visited the hippie town of Nimben, which has weed for a theme. The whole thing was tiny and overpriced, with weed merchandise for sale. Everyone in the town pretty much looked like they were on something… the whole place was sort of shady. I did get to see several colorful Lorikeet birds feeding on seeds though. They are like a kind of small parrot, with bright green backs and multicolored bellies.

(Our second stop on the way to Byron bay, this is an average view of what the famous weed/hippie town of Nimben looks like.)

(Close-up of a couple of the Lorikeet birds snacking on seeds, placed by humans, on the streets of Nimben.)

That night at the hostel, I saw a brochure to visit Nimben on a tour for 25$! I feel bad for anyone who had pay for that. The hostel was all artsy and cool, with some fun pictures of what girls probably look like to someone on hallucinogenic drugs. I liked these colorful, almost spiritual looking ones of girls underwater, dancing/swimming with flowing jellyfish.

In the evening, we went out dancing and clubbing, which is not a usual activity for me. The whole thing was quite enjoyable, we must have danced for 3 hours, nonstop.

The next morning, at breakfast in the hostel, I ran into a friend from rock climbing club, and him and a few others had come down in a car instead of with the international club. So I spent the day on the beach with them, running around, getting sandy, being lazy. Eventually, I was convinced I should go into the water and swim- and was surprised at how warm it actually was. I laid down flat on the sand, letting the water rush over me, while I stared down the beach and up to the great green outstretching cape of Byron. It has an old lighthouse on it that can be seen from far off.

(View of Byron bay beach itself, with it’s famous lighthouse)

We also had a guitar, which enhanced the feeling that we were at the (former) hippie capital beach. Random story- there was one point when we were leaving the beach, someone had an apple core… they were throwing it at a tall signpost, like a basketball shot, and I bet that I could hit the sign as well… (to cancel out a bet I had lost about beating him in a sand race earlier). I threw it and hit the pole the sign was on, dead on shot! Then, a third guy tried it, and it sailed right over the sign, and into the brush, where a brush turkey came running out of nowhere and quickly grabbed the thing in its beak and ran off!!! It was really funny- how frantic and excited that bird was!

Sunday went by fast, and was pretty much just another half-day at the beach before going back to Brisbane. Oh yea and I saw an opossum at the hostel, in a tree!

So this is a continuation of the post about diving at stradbroke last weekend. I posted this a week later due to the website being down, I think due to that fire in the UQ tech lab last week. It shut down wireless internet for us on campus as well.

Back to Stradbroke stuff- On the second group of dives, we went out farther than on the first day’s. The purpose of such was to visit what is known as the “shark gutters”. This is a place where the seafloor has basically a ditch down a cliff (full of coral and fish), leading to a sandy crack between the undersea cliffs, about 25 meters deep (eh, sorry I don’t know what that is in feet!). This area is inhabited by 20+ gray nurse sharks, which are basically your average “sharky” looking shark, of about 2-3 meters long (6-15 feet, I guess). Here is a picture taken of one by a fellow diver.

(Gray nurse shark, seen in the shark gutters. photo by Chris Diana Djoy Anouk)

I don’t know how he got that shiny of a photo! They were very cool, but not illuminated quite that much. I swam next to some, as well as right on top of one, watching him as he slowly drifted by. Magic experience it was…

By the end of the first dive, I was very cold. I was still cold by the second one, which had to be cut a bit short due to that. I still got a full swim around and saw the sharks and even a large bull ray again. We swam to the beginning of an underwater fjord, and the whole area had a very neat feel to it. It finally felt like I was living one of those true scuba excursions you see on national geographic specials.

After the dives, I tried to hang low on the boat to avoid the wind, but also had to be careful to see the shoreline and avoid sea sickness. I was glad when that was over, but there was one great thing about the boat ride going back… We encountered some whales right near our boat! They even dove under the boat at some point. It would have been amazing to see them underwater! Though cold, I felt very at peace on the ride back. We sped toward the land, shining with the morning sun, past very blue waters that got more aquamarine as we approached the beach. I stopped to bask in the fact that this was a perfect life moment… Though it was good to get in a warm shower after this was done!

In the afternoon, we drove up in someone’s car to point lookout for more Icecream, which was obviously much faster than our walk the previous day. The Icecream was eaten on a grass and sun covered hillside, overlooking the ocean and a distant beach. After eating, we took a hike down to that distant beach. There were some sand-blows in the trees behind it, so I took a solo walk to explore my way down some narrow sloping paths. The floor was sand, among a short canopy of trees.

At one end, the track let out to a secluded beach, which connected to the one I had come from. The other people who I began the trek with made it to the beach minutes later. We all came back along the tracks, since I had established it as a shortcut. However, I first had to climb one more upward track (alone again), for the sake of seeing a sand-blow (I wanted to be reminded of the majestic ones of Fraser island). The climb was very painful on my legs (steep cliff+pure sand= super workout). I literally had to fall over in the sand a couple times to get rid of the burn. The top was disappointing for a sand-blow, but the view and breeze were worth it. The others had been waiting at the bottom and called me back. Down was far easier, with giant steps taking me back thousands of times quicker than up (with no workout involved either). The way down was actually quite fun. We still had to walk up many stairs to get back to the top of point lookout (where the car was).

Anyway, once the trip was over, and life was taken off “pause”, I realized that it is almost time for school to pick up its slack and start piling assignment due dates and tests on me. These upcoming couple weeks will have lots of work ahead. Including tonight! Also, sorry for the lack of pictures. My camera was dead that day :(. Nothing would probably have photographed well anyway (beaches are beaches, trees are trees).