The Last 7 weeks....

Well hello there everyone. I’m sure at this stage you are all wondering if I am still alive. The answer is yes…of course I am. I realize that I haven’t written to all of you in almost a month and a half…okay a good month and a half. I apologize, but I have been very busy! Doing things every weekend…study during the week. It’s hard to find time to sit down and write…and then when I do…of course I get side-tracked by someone walking into my room. Okay…enough with excuses…let’s dive right in and fill you in on everything I’ve been up to for these last 7 weeks.

After lecture recess, I spent about the next week and a half working on assignments and just hanging here around Uni. My friend Josh from Purdue arrived on the 14^th of May for a week-long visit. It was really nice to have someone from home here to share in my experience. He was able to meet all of my friends, which was great. Now I can tell funny stories to someone who will really understand why they are so funny because he knows the person! Anyway…Josh and I are both in the dive club together at home, so it was nice to have him come here so we could go diving. Thursday morning, we headed to Ayr, which is about 45 minutes to an hour south of Townsville. Here, we went with Yongala Dive out to the Yongala wreck. I know that I have mentioned it before, but in case not…it is a ship that sank in the middle of a shipping lane on its way north. It got caught in a massive cyclone. All on board perished with the ship. The remains of all lives lost are still within the confines of the ship. It sank I believe sometime around 1903...in the early 1900’s anyway. Anyway, it is now a shelter area for heaps of marine life. Turtles, sea snakes, big pelagic fish (including sharks), giant Queensland grouper (get up to 9ft long!) all live and are residents of the Yongala. It has been said to be one of the top dive sites in the world. The ship sits on its side…the top of the boat is one side and then one half of the bottom is visible as well. The top of the wreck sits in about 17 m of water, which is about 60 feet of water. The bottom of the wreck is in about 28-30 meters depending on the tide. That means on any given day it is between 90 to 100 feet down.

Josh and I had two great dives on the Yongala. As I’m sure, since I haven’t supplied you with writing, you have all been looking at the photos. We saw lots of sea snakes…which we touched! It’s very crazy to think that this timid snake is one of the most venomous snakes in the world! Very cool. They are curious little guys…swimming up between your legs and in front of your face. They want to check you out as much as you them. We also saw a lot of sea turtles. We saw hawksbills, loggerheads, and green turtles. They were all so beautiful! Check out the photos. Diving the Yongala is so different from the reef. It’s very hard to explain. Basically, the Yongala is covered in corals, but mainly all soft corals. The current is too strong to support the hard corals with the necessary environment like they get on the reef. The density of fish on the Yongala is much greater too. The fish are unreal…if you look at the photos you will see what I mean by the vast numbers of fish living on the wreck. Anyway…it was a great experience being there and seeing all of the wildlife. We also saw a big school of barracuda…a good 50-100 strong. At the bow of the boat, we saw two big Queensland grouper. They were so big that they could have swallowed me whole with little effort! It was so amazing…I had a great time on these dives.

So that was Thursday, Friday afternoon, Josh, Dodds and I headed up to Cairns for the weekend. I know I have mentioned Doddsy…but in case you all have forgotten…she is probably my best friend here. She lives just across the hall from me. She is from Mackay, which is about 4 hours south of Townsville. Anyway…we stayed at her brother’s house. Michael took us to town that night, which was nice to get out and see Cairns. Oh…and just a side note…for those of you reading this…Cairns is pronounced “cans” not “carnes”. The next morning, Josh and I headed out on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef just off of Cairns. We had two great dives there and the photos are posted on my web album page as well. We dove the Whalebone reef and Three Sisters Reef. Both of which were very beautiful. We saw lots of cool things…including a lion fish…which was nice.

That night after diving all day, we hopped in the car and drove north to Cape Tribulation. It is about 2 hours north of Cairns, putting it 6 hours north of Townsville. Cape Tribulation is a beautiful place. It is home to the Daintree National Forest, which is the oldest rainforest in the world. There is no commercialization (or very little) up there. The rainforest literally ends only because the beach is right there. It is one of the only places on earth where the rainforest meets the reef. The two most biodiverse environments on the planet right next to each other. I realize for some of you that means nothing…but it is a HUGE deal! Way cool! Anyway…we spent the night up there and the next day exploring and hanging out on the beach. Unfortunately, we did not see any crocodiles. Crocodiles both fresh and saltwater are known to inhabit the area. Lucky for you guys, but unlucky for us…we did not see any! We did however see a massive monitor lizard. If you look at the photos…I managed to get a really good shot of him (or her). After spending most of the day in Cape Trib, we headed back to Cairns where we spent the night and headed home in the morning. It was nice, we took our time and stopped at several of the lookout points to check things out.

Much of the rest of Josh’s stay was fairly uneventful. I had assignments to do, so he did some exploring without me. He left on the Thursday. The next morning, myself and four other friends left Uni to head out for a weekend of sailing in the Witsundays. The Witsunday Islands are off of Airlie Beach, which is about 2 ½ - 3 hours south of Townsville. We hired a car and drove down. Tyler, Shawn, Brendon, Sheila and I had a great time. Tyler and Shawn are both from the University of Minnesota and live in my hallway. They are awesome guys. Sheila is from the northeast and attends University of New Hampshire. We had such a blast on the sailing trip. The first night however, wasn’t that great because it was rainy, so we all had to stay inside the cabins or at least wear raincoats up top. We ended up making a good time out of it. We made a stop at Whitehaven Beach the next morning. It was still raining; however, when we walked out onto the beach it stopped and the sun came out. It was perfect. As soon as we got back onto the boat a couple of hours later, it started raining again. So while the weather wasn’t the best, it turned out for the best at the times we needed it to. Our boat was great. The crew was very friendly and cheerful the whole time. The rest of the people on our boat were awesome as well. You know how there is usually always ‘the one’ the one who ruins it for everyone…well we didn’t have ‘the one’ so it was wonderful. Everyone was mellow and dealt with the bad weather for the best. Later that afternoon we went scuba diving. It was nice. There were 5 of us certified, me having the most dives…so I lead everyone. It was kind of cool…they sent us off while they were doing introductory dives with everyone else. Everyone complemented me on my leading skills…woo hoo…way to go me! Hah…anyway…it was nice. The dive was in the bay of one of the islands. There were some nice corals there and fish too, but of course nothing compared to the actual Great Barrier Reef (GBR).

The next day we sailed out to the reef. It was nice because the weather finally came through for us to sail. Our boat was an 82 foot retired racing sailboat…very cool. The name of the boat was “Spank Me.” Yes, yes…it was. We all got a kick out of it. Oh and while I’m thinking of it…I’m sure you all saw the photos of me holding hands with Tyler. It was quite funny because my parents asked me about this photo and I just didn’t understand what the big deal was. Tyler and I decided to make a joke out of the trip because the way the sleeping quarters worked…we ended up having to share a double bed. So the joke was that we were in a relationship for the weekend, meanwhile Tyler’s girlfriend is safely awaiting his return to Minnesota. Anyway…so the photos that you see are a joke that we decided to make about the relationship. Another funny thing I just thought of before we get to the reef adventure. There were rules on the boat…rules saying that nothing was allowed to go overboard. If anything went overboard, the perpetrator would have to eat a heaping teaspoon of vegemite. For those of you that don’t know, vegemite is an Australian thing. It’s a spread made from yeast…they tend to eat a little bit on toast in the mornings. The only way to describe it is as the most salty disgusting thing you have ever tasted. Well, anyway…Shawn…accidently sent a beer over the edge of the boat one night. All of us were on deck and he had to eat the biggest teaspoon of vegemite I have ever seen. The photo slide show of his experience has been posted in my album. It was by far one of the funniest things I have ever seen. What makes it so funny is that two nights before this Shawn was saying how he would never drink goon again because he had drank so much that he puked like 8 times. Well…let’s just say that after/during the vegemite teaspoon he was screaming for Sheila to pass him her bottle full of goon. He downed the whole thing in about 2 seconds in order to get the vegemite taste out of his mouth. Absolutely hilarious!

I forgot to tell you another thing! Hah. Before it got dark on this night, they let us out onto the beach we were just anchored off of. As soon as we got onto the beach this cute little critter ran down the rocky beach toward us. I was carrying a cup of tea with me. I believe he was most likely an opossum…but if not, he was a rock wallaby. I will have to do some research in order to find this out. But he was so cute! He drank my tea for me! One girl even held him…he was so friendly.

Anyway…so on to the reef…the weather finally held up for us to go out to the reef. It was nice to be able to sail…sailing is a very very fun thing to do. Although I will say…if you expect it to be nice and warm…think again. It is actually fairly chilly because you are moving so fast and the wind is blowing…a jacket is necessary…sometimes a raincoat depending on where you are sitting on the boat. Anyway, diving out on the reef near the Witsundays was nice. It’s so amazing that I have had the opportunity to dive at so many places along the GBR. This place was pretty cool because it was like a wall that went up and on the other side was open ocean. The current was so strong. There were several swim-throughs, one of which called the cathedral because it is so big. It was really neat. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any sharks! The next day was our last day and they let us out onto this small island to walk around and explore. Here Tyler and I picked up some shells…highly illegal…but shh….no one needs to know. The beach was really nice…we just walked around and took pictures. The boat then made it back to port in Airlie Beach where we had to say bye to everyone. Overall, the trip was really nice and I’m glad we got to see so many things.

Alright…so the next weekend was one of the most amazing/memorable experiences since I’ve been in Australia. I took another trip with the dive club on the great mighty Kalinda. We went out to Wheeler Reef and then to the Yongala the next day. My dive buddy was Tyler, not the Tyler from Uni Hall, but another Tyler. He and I met on the first trip out to the reef. He is a really nice guy. I was very lucky to have him as a dive buddy…we had a great weekend diving together. Sometimes it can be a worry about who your buddy is going to be, but we fit together well in our diving style. Anyway, we did four dives at Wheeler Reef. The first dive we did at one site called the mooring. Tyler and I went to what is known as shark alley. It is the deepest part of this area of the reef. Unfortunately, we did not see any sharks at this location. We did see lots of fish schooling and other cool things. We then moved to another site at Wheeler Reef called the Moon Pool. On our first dive, we explored one area of the reef…the right hand side. On this dive as soon as we got down and swam about 20 meters…60 feet, we encountered a Green Sea Turtle. He was so beautiful! If you look at my photos (which are in the Witsundays album), you will see the amazing shots I got of this guy. He let me get within like 2 feet of his face to take those photos. It was so amazing. Lots of other things were seen as well…as you can see from the photos. Oh yes…I forgot…toward the end of this dive we saw a white tip reef shark swim by. The next dive we dove on the left hand side of the reef (these left and right indicators are in terms of where the boat was situated). At this site we saw heaps of things….too many to list. The major thing we saw was on our way back to the boat, there’s the shelf area of the reef. Basically where the reef goes from like 14 meters down to like 30…it just slopes down. While we were here, I saw about a 5 or 6 foot grey reef shark swim past. Tyler and I were so pleased. Wheeler Reef never ceases to amaze me. I have done 8 dives there and each one has been incredible. The fourth and last dive we had at Wheeler Reef was a night dive. While it was not full of sharks as the last night dive at Wheeler was, we saw lots of cool things. Tyler and I spent our time going around a small area looking at all of the little things. What is cool about night dives is there are lots of little critters that come out only at night. For instance, we saw some big crabs, lots of little shrimp and other little crabs living in corals. We also saw a little scorpion fish (poisonous fish). It was really nice to see all of these little critters at night. When we surfaced, we had a little ways to swim back to the boat…while we were waiting on the line to get back on to the boat, there were a couple of grey reef sharks circling under the boat. It was really neat to see them while we were waiting. We ended up spending a little extra time in the water just snorkeling and watching the sharks feed below us.

That night we headed for the Yongala. The boat ride was a little rocky , and for some it was a bit too much. I however, managed to sleep through it all. Imagine that! I’m so lucky that I don’t get seasick. Anyway, the crew gave those of us who were certified the option of doing a dawn dive on the Yongala. There were others on the boat who were in the process of getting their advanced certifications; thus, they were not given this opportunity. We all agreed that a dawn dive would be a good idea. Basically this meant getting up about an hour earlier and in the water by 630 at the latest. We jumped in as the sun was coming up. The crew needed to know because they would have to get in the water before us in order to place the safety tanks in the water. Because the Yongala is so deep, oxygen tanks are placed at 10 m (30ft) for precautionary measures. Sam and Lui (two members of the dive club) were the dive masters to put the safety tanks in. I must give you a little more background on the Yongala. Because it is situated in such variable conditions, there are ropes that lead down to the wreck upon which you are supposed to use to descend and ascend. No one is allowed to come up off of these ropes unless it is an emergency. Safety stops must be performed before surfacing. Basically this consists of sitting at different depths for various amounts of time to ensure the release of nitrogen bubbles from your body. A 2 minute safety stop is done at 10 m (30ft) and a 3 minute stop at 5 m (15 ft). Anyway, Tyler and I jump into the water talking about how excited we are and how we really really want to see some sharks. Doing a dawn dive is really neat because it is the only time of day when the nighttime and daytime creatures are both active. The nocturnal creatures are on their way back into hiding or wherever it is they go during the day. The daytime critters are waking up and becoming active again. As Tyler and I desended down the rope, Lui and Sam were doing their safety stop on their way back to the boat. I looked at Sam, Sam looked at me. He signaled to me “we saw the sharks.” At that moment, pure excitement ran through my body. I looked at Tyler, told Sam okay and off we went. Tyler and I hit 28 m (93ft) and started to make our way around the wreck. On this dive, we started at the stern of the wreck (back of the boat) and made our way along the bottom side of the wreck. As we came around the bow (front of the boat), I kept searching for these elusive sharks which we had not yet seen. All of a sudden, I see this massive shadow above us…a shark. I jerk over and jab Tyler to get his attention since I cannot yell at him of course. He looks at me and I signal shark (yes there are hand symbols for various creatures like sharks and sea turtles under water). He looks up and we watch is swim into the abyss. The shark looked huge and had to have been a good 10 m (30 ft) above us. We then began to ascend a little toward the top edge of the wreck. We stopped at about 17/18 meters (60 feet). Here we continued our dive along the wreck. We made it about 2/3 of the way down the wreck when all of a sudden out of nowhere comes this massive shark. Pure shock jolts through my body. I don’t know whether to be amazed, awed, or scared. At that moment, watching this beautiful creature glide by, within 10 feet of me…is unreal. The beast I am staring at is a 10 foot female bull shark. She makes her way past Tyler and I and disappears. We make eye contact and give each other the thumbs up.

Tyler and I continue on down the wreck in pure awe at what we just witnessed. As we swim along, Tyler is on my right, a few feet below me….down the angle of the wreck. I am swimming along checking things out, thinking about what I just saw. All of a sudden a chill runs down my spine as I realize there is something next to me on the left. Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of something large. I look over, and no further than 4 feet from me is the female bull shark swimming right next to me at my pace. She and I had a moment…swimming a long staring each other in the eyes. I look over in pure shock to get Tyler’s attention. As I look over, I realize that right next to Tyler, on the far right…is another 10 foot female bull shark! It was the most unreal experience of my life. For about 7 minutes Tyler and I swam with these two gorgeous beasts. The bulls were schooling this massive school of giant black trevally. At one point, they herded them right on top of us. The sharks are swimming in and out of us like they didn’t care that we were there. They were doing their own thing. At one point, one of the females seemed to be heading straight for me. About 10 feet from me, she swerved to the side and swam back around. This entire time, I was in a state of pure awe and amazement. I realize that most of you are probably thinking I was scared shitless (excuse the language). But surprisingly…even to me…I did not panic. I was utterly calm the whole time. After this 5-10 minute period, it was time for Tyler and I to leave the sharks and head back to the boat. As we sat at the safety stop at 10 meters, Tyler looks at me and holds his hands one on each side of his head shaking it back and forth. I look at him and signal “I know!” We were telling each other how unbelievable that moment was and what shock we were in. As soon as we hit the surface, we were screaming. We couldn’t believe the experience we just had. The best part was, I had taken the most unbelievable photo imaginable. I’m sure at this stage, those of you who are reading this will have looked at it. The photo was not on zoom or cropped or anything. It is as I took it. Unbelievable. Luckily for everyone on board, the sharks were not deterred by divers on this particular day. Everyone who dove on board the Kalinda got to see the bulls that day.

I realize that many of you think this is crazy and not safe. I will tell you, you are wrong. I feel so lucky to have had that experience. It is not every day that someone jumps into the water (not even at the Yongala) and sees bull sharks that close. The chances of a dive like that are a good 1 in 300 at least. I will never be able to begin explaining to all of you the emotion that that particular day, that particular dive envoked in me. I am forever changed from that experience. As if Australia hadn’t already done so much for me, it made one of my biggest dreams a reality. The bull sharks were so beautiful. I makes me so sad that so many people think of them as dangerous beasts that are just out to eat people. They are so wrong. These animals are beautifully built…they have survived the centuries. They are an evolutionary marvel. Beautiful. Okay…I’m done now…I’m sure you all think I’m crazy!

The next dive was awesome, but the sharks had moved on. Tyler and I swam around the wreck and saw several sea turtles, a couple of sea snakes. At the bow of the boat was a massive school of what I think were snapper. It was so cool…I swam right into it and it was as if I were in a cloud. They did not move, but when I swam through them, they parted just enough to let me through. I tried to take some photos, but the photos cannot capture it properly. We also saw a fairly decent sized Queensland grouper in the mix. It was probably 6 feet long, with a mouth big enough to swallow me!

So there that is…this amazing experience. I will never forget it.

Whew…so much emotion and I’m not even close to being done telling you about things. That next week back at Uni was a busy one. I had heaps of papers and assignments due. Friday finally came, and I was off for another adventure. Dave and I headed up north to Cairns and Cape Trib. Yes, I loved it so much that I had to go back. Dave asked me if I wanted to go, and I couldn’t say no. Dave is from Connecticut and goes to UConn.

We took the train to Cairns. A seven hour trip. While the train takes longer, it is much cheaper. Only 30 dollars each way instead of 50 each way. Really, the train is more comfortable anyway. We had a great time chatting, eating, drinking, reading, etc etc. Finally, at 7 Friday night we made it to Cairns. We stayed at Gilligan’s Backpackers Resort, one of the famous hostels in Cairns. That night we just spent walking around Cairns. We walked down the boardwalk, grabbed some food and went to bed, for we had a big day the next day.

The next morning we woke up fairly early and headed to the Marina, where we were taking a boat to Green Island. Green Island is about 40 minutes (on the fast boat) off of Cairns. The island is very tiny, taking only about 30-45 minutes to walk all the way around. It is a sand island, with one resort on it. We spent the day there…from 930 to 430. It was nice being with Dave on this vacation because he is adventurous like me. He likes to go off the beaten track and explore things. We spent some time walking around the island looking at everything. When we first got there, we were walking around…we were about 1/3 of the way around the island, far away from any buildings…and it started pouring rain. We ran into the trees, where we waited for the rain to pass. Once the rain passed, we continued walking on. This pouring rain continued to occur another two or three times on our journey around the island. On each occasion we ducked under trees to keep us from getting wet. Finally, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We spent several hours snorkeling. While we were in the water, we saw 4 different sea turtles. At one point, Dave signaled turtle to me and there were three of them in a patch of coral. We swam with them for a while, until Dave decided to touch one and they all took off quickly. We continued snorkeling around looking at all sorts of different things. It was really nice. The snorkeling was not great. Obviously we were not on the reef, but the snorkeling was still really nice compared to most places.

We eventually got lunch, laid on the beach, snorkeled more, chatted…etc etc. The day quickly came to an end. We were back on the boat heading back to Cairns. That night we met up with some other people from Uni who were staying in Cairns that night at Gilligan’s. Dave and I went to dinner at a nice Italian Restaurant. It was so nice to have a good meal and get away from Uni Hall food! Dave and I headed back to Gilligan’s where we met up with everyone. We all had drinks and then went to bed. Dave and I were waking up early in the morning to pick up our rental car to head to Cape Trib. The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport where we picked up our rental car. We were extremely happy and surprised with how nice our car was. It was an almost brand new Holden Commodore V6. I realize we do not have Holden in the US, but basically it is a really nice sporty looking car. I will be posting a photo of it on my blog soon. Someone was telling me that the model will be sold in the US in the form of some sort of Pontiac. I was lucky enough to drive the two hours to Cape Trib. It is a very interesting thing this driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right. I am going to find it curious how I react when I first get home to the way we all drive. Once we arrived in Cape Trib, we began exploring. I showed Dave a couple of the places that we had been a few weeks before. It was nice to get to see these places again, because they will never cease to amaze me. After exploring for a while, we went and checked in. After checking in, we had a quick nap before heading back out to check out another beach. It was so cool. We came across the most enormous tree I have ever seen. The thing was huge and coming out of the ground at about a 40 degree angle. There were so many branches. We looked so small under this thing (see photos once posted). Most of the day was fairly rainy. It drizzled on and off all day, but we still managed to enjoy it. At about 630, we grabbed some dinner, and at 730 we were in bed. We had bought a flashlight with the intention of taking a nap, getting up at 1030 and going around to look for various critters. We were going to go spotlighting to see different frogs and lizards that come out at night. 1030 rolled around and we didn’t get up. We didn’t get up until 730 the next morning! We were so tired!

Once we were up at 730, we got moving and had some breakfast. The rest of the day we spent stopping at every beach along the way in Cape Trib. There are also several jungle boardwalks. We spent a lot of time exploring and walking through these. Our goal was to see a cassowary. Cassowaries are very ancient birds, related to Emus, which are extremely endangered. There are signs all over Cape Trib warning people of them. The chances of seeing one are not very good. It was so funny, because I told Dave about the birds and how the females can grow up to 6 feet 8 inches tall and can be very aggressive. You should have seen the two of us walking along the trails. It was quite a sight to see. I have plenty of video which Dave took to show you all. Finally, it was almost time to head back to Cairns and drop off the car. We stopped at one last boardwalk. While there, we were passing a tour group and the leader stopped us and pointed whispering “hey guys…cassowary.” We looked out into the jungle, and low and behold…there he was. It was a juvenile, but none the less a cassowary. It probably stood about my height…5 feet give or take a few inches. It was so neat to see this. We had been talking about it the whole trip and how much we wanted to see one. We got some photos and moved on, continuing down the trail. It is unreal the jungle. I cannot describe it to you. It is just amazing…the way the trees are, the way their roots form…it’s so cool.

After this boardwalk, we stopped at one last beach on the way home. We ended up walking down it a good ways until it met up with a river flowing out into the ocean. It must have been the Daintree river, because we saw a tour boat going down it. We spent some time exploring this beach, until I said to Dave, “wow…look at that rain cloud…” Dave yelled at me to hurry up, that we were about to get poured on. We started running down the beach back to the car. As we are running, the rain began. It was so funny because it was almost like those scenes in the movies. We were literally just in front of the downpour. Each step I took was just one step ahead of the rain. We made it back to the car and an avalanche of rain hit. We just started laughing.

We then began the journey back to Cairns. Most of the car ride was spent talking about nonsense, but we ended up getting into a deep conversation about this experience…this experience in Oz and mini-vacation. It was very interesting…some of which I will get into here momentarily. Anyway, we returned the car, went back to Gilligan’s for the last night of our trip. The next morning we got up, got on the train and headed back to Townsville.

At that point, it was back to reality and Uni. Exams were fast approaching. It was Tuesday, and my first exam was Saturday. I ended up having 4 exams, Saturday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I finished on the 21^st…just a few days ago. Overall, I think my exams went okay…I should do fairly well in my classes, unless a curveball comes my way. It feels good to be finished with exams, but now I have all of these other emotions to deal with.

I have to say…I do not know that I will ever be able to describe and explain to you all what this experience and place has meant to me. As I walked to my first exam on the 14^th, I wanted to write to you all. An overwhelming feeling came over me as I walked to my exam. It was about 730 in the morning, I was crossing the road from Uni Hall onto campus. Campus was dead silent and no one in sight. I am looking at the mountains to my right as I walk across the street. All of a sudden, the silence is broken by two cockatoos that begin their cawing. It just made me smile. It made me think… “Wow, this is Australia.” I cannot explain to you how this one event, this tiny little event in time summed up the whole of my journey. Not my whole journey, but I don’t know. It is one of those things, just like my photographs…you all can look at them and see how amazing they are, but you will never understand the emotions behind the photos. What those photos mean to me. I wish I could share that with all of you.

I told you I would come back to Dave and I’s conversation. You know, part of me is of course excited to come home and see all of you, but I’m not sure I’m ready to say goodbye to this experience and these people. How am I going to explain it all to you? Dave said it really nicely. How am I supposed to explain what it feels like to leave everyone and everything I’ve known for my entire life, leave my entire life behind and come to a place where I know no one and I know nothing about? How am I supposed to explain what is it like to establish a new life, have all of these new experiences, meet all of these new people, come to the point where this place almost feels like home? How am I supposed to do all of that and then just turn around and leave it all behind, say goodbye to everything I have just established these last six months and say goodbye to these people, some of which I know I will never see again and come home? How do I explain to all of you what that feels like? It isn’t possible. I cannot even begin to describe to you all the vast emotions that are inside of me. I have been sitting here all week thinking about how difficult it is going to be to say goodbye.

This place, the people I have met here…they have taught me so much. I am a completely different person now. I look at the world in an entirely different way. I perceive things differently. Australia is the most amazing place I have ever been in my entire life. I will never forget it or these last few months. I know that in time I will be back here. Australia has also taught me that while Indiana and Lafayette were great places to grow up, they are not where I want to spend the rest of my life. I don’t know that I even want to spend my life living in the US. I love it, but there are so many other amazing places in the world. Anyway…ugh…I could go on all day, or all night rather, but I don’t want to get too emotional yet. I am not ready to say goodbye…I still have 4 more days here. And 14 more in Australia. It is not time to say goodbye.

Hopefully this whole message makes sense. I wrote it in a hurry of emotion and thought. I hope to write again before I make the great journey home, but there are no promises. You might not hear from me again until I am home. I will arrive home on the 8^th of July. Before coming home I will spend 4 days in Brisbane, 2 in Canberra and 4 in Melbourne. I will be staying at various people’s houses…no more hostels/hotels for me yay! I hope that all of you are well, and I am excited to see you all and tell you everything in detail.

See you soon!

Love,

Krissy

Lecture Recess (Orpheus Island and Moorinya National Park)

Hello again,

I hope spring is treating everyone well at home! It's fall here and beginning to get cold at night...as in all the way down into the upper 60's!! Ridiculous right? hah! I went to the beach today....it was fabulous! Anyway, I have lots to tell you all about, so I had best get started. From the last time I wrote, not much happened in the week following. I spent a lot of time working on assignments because I left on the 24th for lecture recess.

Now on to the exciting things to tell you about! I spent the 24th-26th of April on Orpheus Island for my corals class. Orpheus Island is beautiful. The research station is situated in Pioneer Bay, which is on the west side of the island. It is absolutely gorgeous. Please check out the photos from this trip and my reef fish ecology trip. While here, my partner and I collected data on our chosen coral species, Merulina ampliata. Jess and I will be writing a paper about the life history of our coral. Basically describing the coral and its survival strategies, which are good and which are bad. The visibility at Orpheus isn't great, but there are heaps of corals and fish everywhere. We had such a great time snorkeling and collecting data. I was really glad that we decided to snorkel on this trip because the majority of corals were in less than 6 ft of water, so diving would have been very difficult.

I don't have too much to say about this trip, but in order to get to Orpheus we have to be ferried across (obviously) by the Challenger III, JCU's boat for passenger carry between Orpheus Island Research Station (OIRS) and the mainland. We had to be there extremely early due to the tides. When it is low tide, it is really low tide. You will see this in some of my photos. The tide gets so low that some corals are exposed during the lowest of tides.

Oh, I also forgot...it was really cool because Pioneer Bay is a nursery for baby black tip reef sharks. They were so adorable...about 1 1/2 feet to 2 feet. So cute! They were easy to spot as long as the tide was high in the mangroves looking for food. Sorry no pictures of them!

Anyway, so I returned to Uni for a day and a half before heading out to Moorrinya National Park for my Australian Vertebrate Fauna class. I have to say that this trip was absolutely amazing. The photos are unreal...just you wait! So it took us about 5 hours by bus to get to Moorrinya...which is in the middle of nowhere as you will see from one of the photos...
Being in the outback was great. While here, we were trapping birds, reptiles (all kinds), amphibians and mammals. On the first day, we went in the afternoon to check the pitfall traps and the I'm not sure what they are called, but the net traps. These traps allow animals to enter, but they can't get out...you'll see in a photo...it's the green mesh rectangle thing. We checked these mainly for reptiles. We would then set the elliot traps. These traps are silver rectangles in which you put a little bit of bait and put the door down so that mammals can crawl in and get trapped. The reptiles caught were all placed in ziploc bags with a little bit of grass. Apparently, they can be kept for up to a week or two in these bags without new air. However, they must be kept out of direct sunlight.

On our first trip out, we caught 7 different lizards, which according to our tutors was very unlikely! Yay for us! Once we got back to camp, we had some time off with the option of going on a water bird watch. There is a watering hole where a lot of birds go just before dusk in order to grab a quick drink and bath. On our way there, a massive monitor lizard fell from high out of a tree. All four vehicles pulled over in order to check him out and make sure he was alright. The thing was absolutely massive! His talons were at least an inch long...definitely could have ripped someone up! Anyway...so we all go some photos and headed down to the watering hole to watch some birds. It's really surreal to sit there and see all of these parrots and things come down to the water to drink. Everyone here is so spoiled and doesn't even think twice about a parrot flying around, but I just can't get used to it! It's still so cool every time I see them!

The next morning, and each morning thereafter, we would get up before sunrise and head out to the sites. We would check the elliot traps and pitfall traps for animals. We would do this in order to keep the animals from baking in the sun all day. If mammals were left in the elliot traps, they would most likely die from heat. We caught 5 desert mice and 1 stripe-faced dunnart in my group at our site. The stripe-faced dunnart is a marsupial that looks very similar to a rodent. He is very tiny, but super cute with a pointed nose...check out the photos.

Oh, I forgot to tell you...our first night there we went frogging after dinner. About 8 oclock we went down to the creek and caught as many frogs as we could. We only caught 3 species, but about 75 frogs in total. Two species we released; however, the three cane toads we caught were not released. They were disposed of humanely. I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard of them, but they are an invasive species here that has become a major problem. People are supposed to kill them when they are found. They are poisonous and take over habitats that are necessary for the natural wildlife.

So back to the next day, after getting back from elliot trapping, we went mist netting. A mist next is a big mesh-like net that's about 50 ft across with four tiers in it. Birds fly into the net and drop into whatever tier where they are untangled and measured, etc, etc. Don't worry...this is typically not harmful at all to the animals. They are all fine, measured and released soon after. On our mist netting adventure, only four birds were caught: two diamond doves and two honey eaters.

Each day consisted of setting elliot traps, checking the pitfall traps, and resetting the elliot traps. Other activities included bird censusing and reptile censusing. On these trips, people would actively search for reptiles and birds. The birds were not trapped, but the reptiles were caught if possible. I was not able to do the reptile census because I left early in order to make it on time to the reef fish ecology trip, but other groups on our trip did. The bird censusing was very cool. We saw so many species of birds. It's very weird to think that budgies are wild birds that live in Australia! You think of them as birds you can get for like 15-20 dollars at the pet shop. Anyway, so during free time, we were allowed to do as we pleased. We could take photos of the animals that we caught, go for a swim at the creek, etc, etc.

Another activity that each group did was keying. All reptiles brought in from each of the 6 sites were put on a board that said "new." Each group on one of the days would spend time in the shed "keying" i.e. identifying the species that we caught at each of the sites. Once the species were identified, they were placed back on their respective boards in the section labeled "to be released." The information was written down on the data sheet attached so we would know what species and how many were caught from each site.

We also spent time at one of the sites doing "Roo Poo" surveys. We were basically observing the Kangaroo poop (if any) at each of the sites, how many pieces, what species, and how new it was. At Moorinya there are 4 types of macropods (what they call kangaroos, wallabies, etc). At Moorrinya there are Red Kangaroos, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Wallaroos (no not a cross between a wallaby and a roo...just a medium sized beast), and spotted wallabies. On the trip, we only saw one...it was a wallaroo. They were all hiding from me! We saw lots of Roo Poo, but no roos! unbelievable! Hah!

Anyway, the other activity we did was spotlighting. One night we went out in the car with massive spotlights looking for Roos and such. The only thing we saw was a spotted nightjar (spelling something like this). It's a nocturnal bird...crazy huh? Once we finished driving, we arrived at the Dardenelles (one of the sites) where we actively searched for noctural reptiles such as geckos. It was great fun...we ended up finding the gorgeous lace monitor (see photos). It was heaps of fun!

This was pretty much the trip! We spent a lot of time looking at all of the different wildlife. It was so much fun. It was very hot during the day, but you didn't notice because it was so dry. I wore pants and long sleeves almost every day! At night it got really cold...all the way to 8 degrees, which is like 48/50 F!. I haven't felt that since before I left home! I will also say that the sunsets were gorgeous...absolutely unreal! And the stars...I have never seen so many in my life! There were SOOO many stars in the sky you couldn't even imagine! You could see the milky way there...there were so many! And the only constellation that is found in both hemispheres...Orion's belt...we saw there as well. yeah...I don't know if you all knew this, but the stars in the southern hemisphere are different than those in the northern hemisphere. Although we could see Orion's belt, it looked very different from the way it looks at home. It is at a different angle. But anyway...the stars...my god...awesome!

So that was Moorrinya...fabulous.

I was driven to Torren's Creek, where I caught a Greyhound back to Townsville in order to make it on the bus back to Orpheus Island. Torren's Creek consisted of two buildings on the side of the road...it was pretty ridiculous! hah! Anyway...I was very excited to go back to Orpheus for another 3 days. I think the reef fish trip was much more fun because we spent time at all areas of the bay. On our first snorkel, there was a manta ray in the bay! It was incredible! We looked up and saw his fins on top of the water...the visibility was really bad, so it was very hard to see. He was only 5 feet from me, and I couldn't even see him!

We did lots of different exercises there. One exercise we spent about 30 minutes in 5 minute periods looking at all of the different species in a 5 meter area. Each 5 minute period we were only supposed to write down the new species seen. Another exercise we counted the number of species and individuals of Butterfly fish along a 30 meter transect looking 2.5 meters on each side. We observed damselfish behavior and the hierarchy of different species. We observed feeding behavior and the way the cleaner wrasse cleans fish. One of my favorite exercises was the Clove Oil exercise.

For this exercise we went to the opposite end of the Bay where the 4 scuba divers put a mesh net over a 9 meter squared area. A tent top was put over that. The divers then sprayed a clove oil mixture under the net. This acts as anesthesia, and given too much kills the fish. The divers killed everything under the net to bring in for us to identify the species. Those of us snorkeling were using the clove oil to catch live specimens in order to bring back to Townsville to put in our display tank in the middle of the biology building. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't catch any. I was afraid of spraying too much and killing the fish, so I never sprayed enough in order to catch any!

Overall, this trip was a lot of fun because we got to see so many different habitats within the bay and so many fish! Sorry I didn't take too many photos...I didn't have my camera most of the time. I hope you enjoy the photos of the giant clams...that's one thing I forgot to tell you all! OIRS was started based on giant clam research. There are about 4000 giant clams left within the bay. When I say giant, I meant giant. Some are big enough for a 6 ft man to curl up inside! And in some areas they make up the whole sand bed...it's just solid clams everywhere you look! They are sooo cool! there are little clams everywhere as well...which you will see from the photos!

I hope that this has been a decent description of my lecture recess. The time I spent in these places has only made me fall more in love with Australia...if that is even possible. I definitely have to say that Oz is one of the most incredible places in the entire world. I am going to be incredibly sad to leave this place in which I have fallen in love...but no need to think of that right now! Still two more months! For those who are interested, I will be arriving in Indianapolis on July the 8th around 10 pm. Hope to see you all then!

Until the next time,

Krissy
xoxo

April 5th - April 17th

Hey everyone...

Alright, so I realize I haven't written in a while...I know. I have been a busy girl! School has been absolutely ridiculous lately! Who would have thought I would go on study abroad and actually have to do schoolwork?!?! What a ridiculous idea right? Hah...anyway...I've been spending a lot of time on assignments over the last two weeks. I have one more due next week...wish me luck!

I should probably go in order of the last two weeks and let you know what has been going on. On Sunday the 6th, I went to Magnetic Island. It's only a 20 minute ferry ride from a Townsville and definitely worth the trip. Brendon, Callie and I rented a car for the day to get around the island. So yay...I drove for the first time in almost two months! We went up to Horseshoe Bay, which is gorgeous. I am hoping to have photos put on my photo page tonight as well...we'll see. It is a time consuming process...we'll see what I get done. If they aren't up, keep checking over the next couple of days and I promise to post some photos! Anyway, we spent a few hours at Horseshoe Bay which was great because it was the first time I have found shells in OZ!!! I was so excited...there are some pretty cool ones here! I'm hoping to go spend another day over there and just spend the whole day looking for shells! hehe....anyway...after hanging out at Horseshoe Bay, we grabbed some lunch at one of the restaurants right there. It was so amazing to have some Mexican food! I haven't had any since leaving home, so I was craving it quite a bit!

After lunch we decided to do a trail walk on the forts trail. I believe I have mentioned to you all about the wild koala population on Magnetic Island. Supposedly, if you are meant to see a koala, the forts trail is the best place to do it. On this lovely Sunday afternoon, we must have been meant to see one because right on the trail in a tree just to the right was this beautiful little koala sleeping the day away. Koalas sleep almost 20 hours out of the day because their diet of eucalyptus leaves isn't very nutritious. I bet you all thought you were going to get a biology lesson out of this huh?! Anyway, I got loads of photos....it was so cool to see him sitting up there. We watching him for a while and at one point he woke up and moved a little bit. We continued on the Forts trail after a while of watching. At the end of the forts trail before heading back is an old military building. We walked up to the top of it and got a beautiful view of magnetic island. We then walked back down the trail and watched our koala friend for a bit longer!

Once we finished the forts walk, we returned the rental car and headed back to uni! The week was spent studying, relaxing, socializing, etc etc...

The following weekend was the Davis Cup. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but basically it is a tennis tournament in which all countries around the world compete for the title. This particular match-up was a tie break between Australia and Thailand in order to qualify for next year's tournament. I wasn't able to attend the first day of the tournament because I had a lab during the middle of it. Unfortunately, this was the day that Lleyton Hewitt played singles. For those of you who don't know, Hewitt is a famous Aussie player who used to be number one in the world several years back. I attended Saturday's match, which was a doubles match. Hewitt did play in this match, so at least I got to see him play even though it wasn't in singles (which is his specialty). He was meant to play on Sunday as well, but because Australia had already one the tie-break he chose to let another player play so that he didn't risk further injury. I got some good shots from this as well.

The Saturday night of this weekend, I attended a party at my friend Lui's apartment. He is a member of the dive club. His apartment is up on Castle Hill...which is the big red hill in the middle of Townsville. It was amazing being up there at night looking out over all of Townsville. Absolutely beautiful view. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos up here...too much socializing going on! The next day I may have been a bit hung over for the Davis Cup, but I still went and enjoyed myself! =D

That's pretty much all that's been going on over here. This whole week has consisted of study and assignments. Next weekend is the beginning of lecture recess, where I will be away for 3 field trips. Don't worry...I will have lots to tell you then. I can't wait to escape Uni work and get to do some actual field work. My first trip we'll be collecting data on the coral species we chose with our partners. Then I'll be in the outback trapping/observing wildlife. Then back to Orpheus Island where i'll be studying reef fish behavior! Too much fun! Anyway, I'm sorry I don't have too much to say! I will write again soon and get those photos posted.

These last few weeks have just been work time, not play time...too bad. Lots of fun things to come...no worries! Miss you all!

Love,

Krissy
xoxo

Wheeler Reef Trip/Week 5

Hey everyone!

I want to start off by saying that I apologize for the link to my photos. I realized the other day that the link was not correct...I have since corrected it, so you all can go directly to my photos page. With that being said, I have added photos from New Zealand as well as my Wheeler Reef Trip photos.

Last weekend I went out on a live aboard to the Great Barrier Reef...a reef by the name of Wheeler Reef. The ride to Wheeler Reef from Townsville is about 5 1/2 hours. Our trip out to the reef was overnight and absolutely horrible! hah! It was a good thing my roomate Claudia (from Germany and in 3 of my 4 classes) had sea sickness medication. I took one of those pills thinking it would be a good precaution. I've never had issues with sea sickness, but I thought I had better take one just in case. It turned out to be a good idea because we ended up hitting a storm, so the waves were massive, it was rainy and the boat was rocking from side to side in an awful fashion! And to top it all off, our room was on the top level of the boat so we felt it the most. So sleeping during the night was in about 2 hour spurts.

Once we arrived at the reef about 4 in the morning, all was well. We were very well protected from the waves by the reef. On our first day, we completed 4 dives at Wheeler, including one night dive...probably the best dive I've done yet! Anyway, let's start from the beginning. Claudia and I were dive buddies along with another girl Whitney who is also studying at JCU for the semester. She is from Oregon. The three of us completed 2 of the 4 dives together for the day. Whitney was a bit sea sick so she only joined Claudia and I for 2 dives.

We had a great day, strolling around looking at all of the corals and fish. It was absolutely unbelievable. The photos don't do it justice. There is just so much life all around! On our third dive, we saw a white tip reef shark...for about 2 minutes before he hurried off the other way. Our 4th dive consisted of a night dive...the coolest by far. Claudia and I decided to join two of the other JCU Dive Club guys (both of whom I believe are dive masters) for this dive. For some reason two girls did not feel too sure about diving in the ocean at night alone...I wonder why? hah! Anyway, we had a great dive.

I will tell you it is quite cool being in the water at night, when all you can see is what is in the little tunnel of light in front of you (via your dive light). Right away we saw another white tip reef shark swim by. We went on up toward a big bommie (what they call big mounds of coral surrounded by sand). While here, out of the gloom came this massive stingray...at least 5 feet across! The thing was huge and just gliding over the top of the coral below. We watched all of the fish sleeping in the corals and watched some of the bigger fish swimming about. One fish we saw (I believe a humphead wrasse) was as big as me...only fatter in all directions! It was huge! Anyway...we went up a little further and the coolest thing began...we were watching about 2-3 white tip reef sharks and I believe about 5 or 6 bronze whaler sharks feeding...or at least swimming around the coral searching for sleeping fish to eat! I know you are all thinking this is crazy, but it was amazing! The really cool part about it was that when the sharks were out of view of the dive light...at times you still knew where they were. I noticed that shark eyes are similar to cat eyes in that at night you can see the eyes of a shark before you see the actual shark...just like a cat when you shine light in its general direction. The sharks were somewhat attracted to the light and would swim within about 3 feet of you before swimming off the other way. I realize that this may seem scary and even stupid on our parts...but I assure you...we were completely fine! The sharks were only maybe 5 or 6 feet...nothing too big! They were amazing...we sat and watched them for a good 15 or 20 minutes. After that, we ran into a sea turtle surfacing for air...it was soo neat! We just had an all around great night dive.

All of the guys on board the boat have said that they love diving Wheeler Reef at night because it always makes for an exciting night dive! Once we were back on the boat and dried off, we were standing around watching all of the squid (about a foot long) hanging out around the boat...I am assuming they were attracted to the light...it was so neat. We also managed to see a sea snake glide up next to the side of the boat...perhaps he was attracted to the light as well!

On our second day, we swam around and saw more coral and things. On our first dive, about probably a good 50 feet away (including both height and length) we saw a shovelnose ray. If you don't know what it is...it is very cool...it has a similar body shape to a sawnose ray, only it doesn't have the long snout with teeth...it just has a triangular shaped head. On our last dive of the trip, we swam up more toward the reef flats...so most of the dive we were in about 12 to 20 feet of water. Here we saw another white tip reef shark. We spent about ten minutes or so with him...he let us get within a good 3 feet of him before swimming off to find a place just a bit away from us. He was resting on the bottom during this time. It was very neat...check out the photos in my album!

Overall, it was the most amazing experience...we had a great time in the two days of diving and living on the Kalinda. Our ride back to Townsville was much nicer than the ride out. We had beautiful weather for the way back, making a smooth ride home!

This week I have been doing a lot of study and research. I have about 4 papers due in the next 3 weeks...lots to do! But I wanted to get this information posted to you. I hope all is well for everyone...I promise to write more again soon, but I need to get busy studying!

Until next time,

Krissy
xoxo

Weeks 3/4 and Easter Break

Hello again!

Ahhh, where to begin?! I have so much to tell you all! Classes are going well, as I'm sure you all know! ;-) Anyway, I am enjoying them very much. My reef fish class is great. My Professor, Dave, is absolutely hilarious. He's from Scotland, so he has a great accent. Anyway, he makes my class very interesting. We have been discussing the fossil record/phylogeny of modern day "reef fish." Reef fish, by the way, according to Dave...they do not exist. There are fish that live on reefs, but not reef fish for the fish do not need the reef, but the reef needs the fish! Interesting concept eh? Anyway, the class should be very fun. My partner Mary and I will be dissecting a "reef" fish head in order to identify all of the muscles in the skull and how the head of a reef fish works. We will then be boiling all of the tissue off of the bones and reconstructing the skull! Sounds way cool right?! I know! I'm going to be taking pictures throughout the progression of this process, so don't worry...you will all get to see the journey! My favorite thing that Dave does is...alright so let me set the story up properly. We spend a lot of lectures discussing the "family trees" so to speak (phylogenetic trees to be scientific), and while doing this, Dave goes through and attempts to tell us the important families (i.e. translating from scientific names to general common names). My favorite line he used the other day..."and this group here, the aldkfjakldfja (too much for me to spell out), you might have seen these guys...they're the silver little jobbies you see out on the reefs at times." how funny is that? I literally wrote on my paper "the silver little jobbies." hahaha.

Alright, next topic...my corals class is going well too. For this class I have a partner as well. Her name is Jess. She and I picked out a species of coral on which we will be collecting data at Orpheus Island (the field trip in May). In lab yesterday we cut a piece of coral that had been stored in alcohol and put it in formic acid. We are decalcifying it in order to look at just the tissue of the coral. Another super cool thing huh? So unlike the fish head...we are eating the bone away in order to keep the fleshy party to observe.

My conservation class...there's not much to tell you there. we're just trudging along discussing different ways in which people collect data on marine wildlife. things like aerial surveys and catch-release methods...etc etc....interesting, but not worth writing about here.

My Aussie wildlife class is getting very interesting as well. Yesterday we spent the day talking about and why Australia has so many of them. Then we discussed different families from skinks to goanas (I'm sure I butchered the spelling!). We talked about how evolution has developed so much diversity....such as the legless lizards. We learned how to tell the difference between a legless lizard and a snake...it's quite cool actually. Anyway...then we started the subject of...snakes! yes!!! snakes!! Today's lecture (in about an hour), we will finish discussing snakes and those found here in Australia. Each lecture she shows us photos of different species and tells us where they are found within Australia and whether or not we will see them while on our field trip to Moorinya National Park. I'm very excited for that trip! I can't wait to see some dangerous snakes! hehehe....don't fret mom! or dad...I know you are secretly! xoxo

Anyway....now on to my Fraser Island trip. I have so much to write here, I hope I don't take up too much space or time! I've got class to attend! Anyway...I have posted photos on my photo page, which I have just added a link to at the top of my blog page. If you look on the top left corner you will see a link to Krissy's Photos. Click it and check them out. I have added some more to my Hawaii photos, and if there is time today I will add an album for New Zealand.

So Fraser...Brendon and I took a 15 hour bus ride from Townsville to Hervey Bay where we met up with everyone else going on the self drive tour to Fraser Island. There were 44 people in total going on the trip in 4 different vehicles...this meant 11 of us per group. At first I was a little leery of my group because they were all talking about how much alcohol to buy before the trip. All in all, everything turned out for the best, and I think we had the best group overall. Anyway, so Brendon and I were sent to do the shopping for 11 people for the weekend. Yes, that meant 2 Breakfasts, 2 Dinners, and 3 lunches for 11 people!! That's a lot of food! Anyway, we got back and packed up the 4 x 4, all piled in, and headed off to the ferry to get to Fraser Island. If you can imagine, my worry at this point continued for it was 930 in the morning and my group had already whipped out the goon bags! Our group consisted of 6 Americans, 2 Swedes, and 1 Brit, and 2 Scots. Two Americans were from LA and two were from DC. So anyway, we are driving down the road drinking out of the goon bag (all but the driver anyway)...I'm not sure if this is legal here or not, but it happened none the less.

So like I said, our trip was a self drive tour...meaning we were given the equipment and an itinerary and had to drive ourselves around the island to see everything. Our first stop was Lake Wabby. Make sure to look at the photos either before or after reading about it...you can't even begin to imagine how magical Fraser is without the photos. Anyway, Lake Wabby was this beautiful green color with trees all around it except on one side...there was a massive sand dune. I walked up the sand dune only to come across what appeared to me to look almost desert like. There was just sand almost as far as you could see...the wind blowing it around. The further I walked, the more I could see trees in the distance. At the top of one of the miniature hills in the desert, you could see the ocean and forest up ahead. In order to get to Lake Wabby, we had to walk 2.3 km (approx 1.5 miles) along a trail through the forest. Here I came across some of the biggest spiders I have ever seen (check out the orb spiders on my photos). We also saw quite a few lizards (goanas to be exact), but they were all too fast for me to get my camera out and snap a photo. I hope to get some photos from other people later in order to show you. So, around 215...four of my group members are completely trashed...they've managed to drink 2 entire goon bags...that's 8 litres or 2 gallons!

We all walk back to the car and grab some lunch while heading up to Eli Creek. Unfortunately I did not get very many photos here, for I was too busy participating in the beauty of Eli Creek. Three of us girls (the 2 from the UK...the swedes were too drunk) walked up the winding creek. the current was fairly strong and the water crystal clear. We walked up as far as we were allowed, turned around, laid down, and crawled on our hands/drifted the whole way back down to the beach where the creek ends. It was loads of fun.

From here we went on to see the shipwreck on the beach...The Maheno wreck. There are lots of photos for you to see...not much to say. It was very cool to see this massive thing just sitting in the middle of the beach. From here we went on to see the Pinnacles. A big hilly/mountainous formation made from different colors of sand...again check out the photos. very cool. Since I haven't mentioned it yet in this blog, this whole time we're going from stop to stop, we are driving on the only highway the island has to offer...the beach. Yes, the 75 mile beach is the highway on Fraser Island. Very cool...photos of this as well.

Our first night as Base Camp, yes we were camping...we cooked burgers on the grill...yum. We set up our tents...my tent managed to leak the first night during the 4 hour monsoonal rain shower we had. No worries...only the sleeping bag and my jacket got wet...all else stayed dry. On Our second day we drove to Indian Head. I can't even describe to you the magic of this place...the pictures don't do it justice either. This is where I mentioned in my last post that you stand looking over the ocean trying to see the marine life. Unfortunately for us, I think we came at the wrong time of day because there was no wildlife to be seen.

From here we walked down the cliff to the other side, where we had to walk to the Champagne Pools. We were not allowed to take the 4 x 4 any farther north than indian head. It was alright...only about a 30 minute walk. The Champagne Pools were great fun! Again...this is the last I will say it...be sure to look at the photos! =D They are called this because the waves crash over the rocks into the massive tide pools creating all sorts of tiny fizzy bubbles...just like the ones you would find in a newly opened bottle of champagne. there were some neat smaller tide pools here that had tons of fish in them.

After visiting the Champagne Pools for a while, we headed back across the beach, over Indian Head and back to the car. When we got tot he other side, there was a Dingo hanging around! Way cool! We got some really neat photos of them. If you check out the photos, don't feel bad for the dingo thinking he looks too skinny. That is their natural body shape. We stayed here and had some lunch with the dingo lurking overhead.

We then went on to Lake Allom to see the freshwater turtles. Apparently the population of turtles here is very high...as we found out when we got there. There were about 30 turtles in this little area...I got a great photo of three of them sticking their heads above water all together! hehe...so cute!

Then it was time to call it a day and head back to camp where we cooked pasta for dinner and played a little Thumper (drinking game). I managed to make it to be at 9 oclock both nights. I was feeling sorry for those staying up and drinking so late on the second night, for we had to get up at 430 am in order to be packed up and on the road at 6 am. While it is cool to say you've driven on the beach as a highway...the highway is closed certain times of day due to high tide. If we hadn't have left by 6 am, we would have had to wait until 11 am to leave.

So our first stop of the day was Lake Boomanjin, the "tea" lake. It's this beautiful deep red red/orange color. We hung out here for a little while and ate some breakfast. After finishing here we headed to Lake Birrabeen, one of the blue lakes. This lake is very similar to Lake Mackenzie (which I will tell you about in a minute), but it is much quieter. There weren't very many people there at all. The only people we saw here were others on the self drive tour. The sun wasn't shining very high for most of the day, so the photos aren't as good as they could have been. Oh well, you can't expect perfect weather all the time. It sprinkled a little, but there weren't any more monsoonal type rains! So anyway, we stayed here for a bit and then headed on to our next stop: Central Station.

Central Station is sort of the gateway to most of the trails through the rainforest on Fraser. Here is where the settlers had their lodge when they first came to Fraser. You will see the building in some of the photos. We walked along one of the paths which ran along side Wanggoolba Creek. This creek was absolutely gorgeous. Crystal Clear. The sand bed was white with various areas of green sand...very cool. The rainforest was beautiful as well. Up by the lodge, there were trees that had these massive plants growing on them. I heard they were called staghorns. Very cool looking plants...they almost look like half of a lettuce head stuck on a tree.

From here we went on to Lake Mackenzie, another crystal clear lake. This one was where we spent the majority of our last day...as did apparently half the people that were on Fraser Island for the weekend! hah! It was very busy. But we made a good time out of it. About this time the sun finally started to come out. It did sprinkle on us a couple of times while here. Three of us (Brendon, Andrew and I) decided it would be a good idea to swim across the lake. If you look in the photos....I've described where we swam to. I think that was the most I've ever swam in my entire life. Once we made it, we felt so accomplished of course. It was really neat, the area we swam to had a sand bar that extended out into the lake a fair ways. Lake Mackenzie is at its deepest point 8 m so about 24ft deep. No worries...there's nothing in there that's harmful...at least not that we knew about! hah! Then we walked back along the beach enjoying the scenery and rest from swimming all that way! On our way back we ran into this massive goana...at least 4 or 5 ft long. It was just hanging out walking along side of us. We didn't seem to bother him one bit! haha. Once we made it back to the beach area where everyone was, it started raining pretty hard. At this point we thought it would be a good idea to pack up and head back to the car in order to organize things for the trip home.

We did that, made it back to the hostel where Brendon and I hung out for about two hours (with a shower) before heading for the 15 hour bus ride back home to Townsville! Overall, it was an amazing trip. I still can't believe how much diversity of landscape there is on that one island.

I am not about to embark on another adventure for this weekend. I am finally going to be scuba diving in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). You would think after being here for a month and a half I already would have accomplished this, but no, I haven't. I leave in about 3 hours to head onto the Kalinda (a dive boat) where I will be spending the next two nights out on the GBR. I promise to write as soon as I get back from my trip and post some more photos!

I hope you all are doing well! Miss you!

Krissy

xoxo

Another Week of Uni

Hey hey everyone!

For those of you who just finished up Spring Break, I hope it was a good time! Just another week of classes here! I have unfortunately not motivated myself to start any work yet. I have no textbooks for any classes, so it makes it really hard. I don't have weekly assignments. My first assignment is due a week from Wednesday. It is very hard to motivate myself to start it now!

Anyway, no worries. I will start it this evening. Classes have been going well. I'm enjoying them very much. I actually missed my first class this week if you can believe that. I know what you are all thinking, but it was completely accidental. I attempted to attend the class...I only arrived at 3 instead of 2. I have the class at 2 on Thursday and 3 on Friday. I confused myself and went on Thursday at 3 thinking it was class time, but showed up as everyone was leaving. Oh well. The good thing is that the lectures are podcasted onto our class homepage. whew! Anyway, there's really not much to tell you about this week. It has been pretty uneventful. I will try to think of more and write it soon. I am uploading more photos onto the photo page so be sure to check those out. I'm posting my photos from Hawaii and New Zealand.

Wishing you all well!

Krissy

Classes have begun!!

Hello hello,

So here I am again....finally (as I'm sure you are whispering under your breath or thinking to yourself). I believe I left you all last time with a lovely picture of what my O-week here at Uni Hall was like. I hope you all enjoyed it. Don't worry...my life is not all party and fun and games while I'm here. The real work has begun! ...well sort of.

Last week was my first week of class. You know, I find it amazing that I am able to take some of the classes I am taking. Let me just run them by you quickly.

I am taking MB3160: Evolution and Ecology of Reef Fishes. Today was my first real day of lecture as my professor was talking with the Emporer of Japan about gobies. For those of you who are wondering, gobies are these great little fish that live on various reefs throughout the world. My professor seems like a great guy. The first lecture today was very interesting so that helps a lot. He made sure to tell us that the Emporer is a great guy! hah! Anyway, I think that the class will be very interesting. For those of you who think it sounds like a blow off class...think again. It will be challenging. He told us this today. We are going to be learning about variations in skull structures of different families of reef fish and their ecological significance. So when I come home, I should be able to name you each and every bone that makes up the skull of reef fish (with slight variations in each family). But yes, as I said before, my professor seems like a very interesting man. I found myself intrigued throughout the entire class. I think my favorite line he said today was, "If you think this is going to be a class about commercially important fish, fish that we eat, think again. I don't give a damn about commercially important fish. This class is about reef fish and reef fish only!" It was quite comical I must say. He said it much better than I can express to you. So anyway...we will be discussing these kinds of things in lecture. For this class we will also be taking a field trip over our lecture recess (I suppose the equivalent of a spring break back home...only it's not spring here...it will be the beginning of fall at that point in time). Our field trip will take us to a place by the name of Orpheus Island. It is a major research facility for JCU. We will spend 3 days and 2 nights on the island snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and observing reef fish in their natural environment. Of course all field trips are not fun and games...there will be a paper to write about the trip! So anyway...enough about this class...let's move on...I have three more to tell you about.

The next class is MB3210: Evolution and Life History of Reef Corals. Sounds great doesn't it? So in this class we will be learning all about different species of morphologies (somewhat like families) of corals. We will learn about their physiology...why they are here...how they work, grow, etc. Why certain corals grow in certain environments and others don't...etc, etc...you get the point. I thought it was so great...we spent an entire lecture discussing the 6 basic growth patterns/morphologies of corals. AN ENTIRE CLASS ABOUT CORAL!!! haha...So anyway...this class also has a 3 day 2 night trip to Orpheus Island. However, for those of us who can SCUBA dive, we will be diving instead of snorkeling on this particular field trip. Those who do not dive have the option to snorkel or just walk the reef flats. So the class caters to all individuals. Anyway...this class will also have a write up about the field trip and the observations we made. I believe we will be working in pairs and picking a particular kind of coral to observe. So this is Reef Corals.

Next on the list is EV3203: Conserving Marine Wildlife: Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles. Sounds great huh? This is the only class I have that does not have a field trip involved. For this class we will discuss the families mentions above so animals such as whales, dolphins, manatees, dugongs, sea turtles, sea birds of various sorts. If there is time, we might discuss sea snakes a bit. So anyway...I thought this was pretty cool too...more only "real" lecture so far in this class discussed the grazing habits of turtles, dugongs, and manatees! hah! Great fun isn't it? So yes...this class will be about these animals, their habits, and how we can go about finding the right conservation methods.

The 4th and final class I am taking is ZL3203: The Australian Vertebrate Fauna. This should be a very interesting class as well. I will be taking yet another field trip over lecture recess for this class. It is a 4 day 3 night trip to the Outback to a place called Moorinya National Park. I believe it's about a 5 hour drive from Townsville. The only way to get their is by big 4WD vehicles. While out there we will be trapping rodents, bats, birds, reptiles...Now I know what you all are thinking about the reptiles...yes Australia is home to the greatest population of deadly snakes. NOT to worry...for we have expert snake handlers that will be with us. They are the only ones allowed to touch the snakes we encounter. So anyway...while on this trip we will learn how to classify and handle the animals as well as collect data through surveying. I have a feeling that this will be a great field trip and class. It is a video lecture with the Cairns campus. So sometimes the lecturer is standing in our classroom and other times he standing infront of the Cairns campus speaking to us through video. This is because this class consists of so many different subjects. The experts for all of the different animals are spread out between the two campuses, so we have class together. Anyway, we are going to discuss how some animals came to live in Australia while others did not. We have to write an argumentative paper answering one of four questions he has given us. An example of this is: Why are there not elephants in Australia? We must answer this question in a persuasive manner. So anyway...this will be a great class. I can't wait for the field trip. One of the lecturers showed us some photos from the trip of various animals they had caught in traps. One of them was an Eastern Brown Snake. For those of you who don't know what this is...it is one of the most if not the most deadly snakes in the world. ooo...soooo cool!

Hah! So moving on...I think my classes are going to be really great this semester. I don't think I will be slacking off, but there will be a lot more free time here than at home. Here there are about 1 or 2 assignments for each class throughout the semester and then the final exam. In most of my classes the final is worth at least 50% of my final grade. Sounds scary right? It should be okay though. I think I will learn a lot and study hard while I'm here because these are all things in which I am interested.

So, try not to worry too much. I realize some of you were probably worried after seeing my photos and reading about what has been going on around here lately. Yes, I will do some partying, but I will be responsible and work hard too! =D

There are a couple of other things to tell you about before I go to dinner...yes it is 5:15 pm here on Monday and 3:14 am on Monday for you all. I am currently 14 hours ahead of you all! Anyway...

This morning I booked myself a ticket to the Davis Cup. It is a tennis tournament in which a tie break between Australia and Thailand is being played here in Townsville. I bought a three day pass to the event. It should be a great experience...when will I ever get another chance to say I went to the Davis Cup? I'm stoked!

More exciting news...as you all know Easter is fast approaching...only two weeks away! I have decided to take a trip to Fraser Island. This place is going to be amazing. I'll tell you a little bit about it and you all can look up some photos and be jealous! Fraser Island is off of Hervey Bay, just north of Brisbane (so quite a ways away from Townsville). I will be taking a bus down and back...about a 15 hour bus ride each way...ouch! Which is crazy when you look at the Australian map...that tells you how big Australia is! Anyway...Fraser Island is the biggest sand island not only in Australia, but in the world. My adventure begins at 6 am on Friday the 21st and ends at 6 pm on Sunday the 23rd, where I will catch the bus back to Townsville. While on Fraser Island we will be visiting three of the freshwater lakes that it is famous for. Lake Wabby, Lake Mackenzie, and Lake Birrabeen. Make sure to look up Lake Makenzie...it has the most crystal clear blue water I've seen in photos. It looks like the ocean on a south pacific island. So we will be visiting these three lakes, Eli Creek (check it out). It is a winding river/stream that you float down...clear water here as well. We will also go to Maheno Wreck. It is a big rusty skeleton of a ship sitting in the middle of the beach. Very cool! Check out photos. We will visit Champagne Pools. Here the waves crash over rock pools which are like natural spas. I think this should be pretty cool as well. I've saved the best for last (actually I don't really know since I've never been...but you'll understand when I tell you). We will visit Indian Head. Here you climb up a cliff/mountain and look down over the water/shoreline. The water is supposedly so clear here that you can see all the marine life including manta rays and wait for it...sharks...especially TIGER SHARKS!!! I guess the reason the freshwater lakes are so popular on Fraser Island is because it is highly advised against to go into the ocean due to the high population of Tiger Sharks that frequent the shores around Fraser Island. I hope to see some while I'm there! Anyway...these are some of the places we will visit while camping on Fraser Island.

I hope I have given you all a little bit to read for now. I need to go for it is almost dinner time. I hope all is well at home (wherever you may be). I miss you all, but I am having the time of my life here. It is so great!

Love,

Krissy

xoxo