I lied. Somehow, amidst all the homework, sleeping, and packing I should be doing, I found time between trips to write up a new blog. Plus, there’s just too much stuff to say about my spring break (called ‘project week’ here) to leave until after the outback trip. This blog entry is already pretty much a novel in itself; just imagine what it’d look like with another week’s worth of adventures in the outback tagged onto it :)
So…project week. Me, along with three other girls and one guy (kinda awkward, I know) decided to see as much of eastern Australia as we could within about a week. Overall, we spent about 10 hours on an airplane flying from the northeast tip (Cairns) all the way down to Hobart in Tasmania (the little island south of the mainland). Here’s a brief overview of where we were and for how long:
9/4 pm - 9/7 am Cairns – Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest
9/7 am - 9/9 pm Melbourne
9/9 pm - 9/12 am Hobart, Tasmania
Let’s begin with Cairns (located in Queensland, Australia).
-We stayed at a little old place known as Cairns’ number one party hostel (that definitely kept things interesting…). Somehow we made it out alive – thank God! Needless to say, it was a pretty sketchy place - one of those places where you’re a little leery to sleep on the mattress or use the sheets they provide because you’re afraid you might catch some disease or something…But it definitely made for some good stories. Annnd it was super cheap ($17 a night with breakfast, dinner, and unlimited tea/coffee throughout the day included). Besides being present for meal times, we stayed as far away from our hostel as we could for as long as we could. Oh, and it was called the Asylum…their little slogan was ‘backpackers from hell”…Yeah. lol. Had we known all of this beforehand, we probably would have found a different hostel. I must say though that the people at the hostel were very nice, even when they were drunk.
-Cairns was definitely a party/tourist town (pretty small place too – you could easily walk wherever you needed to go). Practically all of the storefronts were either advertising a pub or a travel/tour-booking place. Once you got away from the city and onto the coast, it was a pretty nice place despite the party music blaring in the background – the town definitely appeals more to the younger crowd. If I were ever to go back to the Great Barrier Reef, I’d check out Port Douglas rather than Cairns. I think it’s a bit more of a mellower place. Oh yeah, and Cairns is located in the northeastern part of Australia – It’s definitely a lot warmer up there - tropical rainforests, Great Barrier Reef, shorts and a t-shirt weather.
-Our first full day in Cairns (Sunday), we went up to the Daintree Rainforest. I’ve never actually been to a rainforest before, so this was pretty darn exciting for me. It was very tropical and very humid. We checked out a few of the major parks near Cairns: Lake Placid, the Barren Gorge, and the Crystal Cascades (lots of pretty neat little waterfalls there). One thing I was a bit disappointed with was the lack of wildlife. I saw a toad. And I saw birds. That’s about it. I found out that that’s pretty normal though – all the really cool things happen at night. Despite this disappointment, being in the rainforest was my favorite part of the Cairns trip.
-Our second full day in Cairns (Monday), we went out to the Great Barrier Reef to do some snorkeling :) We were going to “give a go” at diving, but because we had a 6 am flight the next morning we weren’t allowed to (I guess you have to wait at least 18 hours before flying after you dive – something about the nitrogen and air bubbles in your blood). The Reef was pretty much an all day event – we left at 8 am and returned about 5 pm. It took about 2 hours just to get out to the diving/snorkeling spot. Once there, we were able to have two snorkeling sessions in two different locations with a lunch break in between. I must say, the Great Barrier Reef was a bit of a letdown. I was expecting lots of vibrant colors and weird looking creatures, but I mostly just saw the same things over and over again. Lots of corral and lots of the typical fish you’d think of when you think salt water reef. I saw Nemo and Marlin, Dory, and most of the fish from the little fish tank in Finding Nemo :) No sea turtles though. No sharks, octopus, sea urchins, or star fish either. I did get to hold a sea cucumber….it was kinda hard yet soft and pinkish/purple in color. Perhaps the Reef wasn’t as vibrant because it was an overcast day… The sights we were snorkeling at may have been more low-key as well (we went through a smaller snorkeling company – it was cheaper than the main tours). There were quite a bit of fish though – lots of activity happening down there if you take the time to really look. It was easy to miss though if you weren’t intentional about it. The harder you looked, the more colors you could see as well. Still wasn’t what I expected, and honestly, I don’t know if I’d ever return. All in all, it was an enjoyable day. Now I can say I’ve officially been to the Great Barrier Reef (and I didn’t swallow too much salt water either. That’s always a plus).
Next Stop Melbourne (located in Victoria, Australia).
-Our time in Melbourne began around noon on Tuesday. We were all pretty exhausted from all of the go, go, go of Cairns - it was nice to be able to relax a bit. Having said that, we took the afternoon fairly slow – wandering around the city checking out shops, the graffiti walks (alleys full of graffiti), and parks. We had a few other friends who were in Melbourne during the same time we were, and we ended up running into them randomly on a street corner. It was nice to spend some time with a few other friends mid-way through the trip. Something pretty exciting happened Tuesday evening…there was a pier in a nearby suburb where a colony of Rakali Penguins lives. I never really expected to see penguins in Australia, but I did! We were able to get within about a foot or two of them too! They were so cute – imagine mini penguins trying to climb a rocky peir :) Just wait, it gets better…apparently this pier is their breeding grounds. Yep, we were witness to some penguin sex. It was almost like Planet Earth…
-On Wednesday, I went on an all day tour of the Great Ocean Road (G.O.R.) with one of the other girls on our trip. I’ve heard that the G.O.R. is a lot like Highway 1 in California – a very scenic drive through beaches, cliffs, and forests. The cliffs and rock formations we saw were pretty incredible (The Twelve Apostles, Bells Beach, Aireys Inlet, Apollo Bay, Maits Rest, London Bridge…). This tour gave me a chance to see more of the countryside in Victoria too. I must say it was quite beautiful and very peaceful. The countryside looked a bit like Ireland (there were a bunch of Irish folk on the tour with us. They agreed that it looked like Ireland too). There were lots of rolling green hills speckled with trees and sheep. I also saw quite a few cows and small farms along the way. What a lovely day :)
-Unlike Cairns, the hostel in Melbourne was a HUGE step up. It boasts that it’s the safest backpackers hostel in Melbourne, which I can totally believe after staying there. Their security system was very well done. It’s name wasn’t as sketchy as our previous hostel either – Urban Central Backpackers.
-Despite my dislike for big cities, I grew quite fond of Melbourne. In fact, I think I’d much rather be studying in Melbourne than Sydney. The city has an older, more vintage/historical and authentic feel to it. Sydney is a big tourist trap. The culture is also very artsy and diverse– lots of art galleries, exhibits, and shows going on. The food was pretty excellent as well – out of all the stops we made, we only really ate out in Melbourne because it’s known for its food (and shopping, but I didn’t do too much of that).
And Finally Hobart (located in Tasmania, Australia).
-I absolutely loved Hobart. Out of all the places I’ve been so far in Australia, Hobart is definitely the place I’d go back to first. It’s a smaller port city, nestled between some mountains and the ocean. It’s home to a much more simple breed of folk – lots of manual labor, fishing shipyards, and extremely friendly people. I just can’t say enough good things about this place – it was magnificent. Oh, and the hostel was amazing as well (Transit Backpackers). Definitely not as modern as the one we stayed at in Melbourne, but it was one of those places where the people you live with and interact with in the hostel become your family. This was the only hostel where I met quite a few of the residents – their nationalities ranged from German to Chinese. It was so cool to talk with them. I was sincerely sad to leave this place - I thought about jumping out of the airport shuttle to stay for a while longer, but I don’t think Wesley Institute would have been too pleased with that…
-Because Hobart is a slower-paced place, our time there was much more relaxing and refreshing. It was more of a ‘do what you what whenever you want’ type of stop for us. Friday Morning, Bianca (my roomie) and I took a bus to the Cadbury Factory (this factory supplies Australia and New Zealand with most of its chocolate – Australia consumes almost 6 kilos or chocolate per person per year. That’s more than the U.S.). This wasn’t something I was too excited about (Bianca definitely was!), but it ended up being really fun. It only costs us $7.50 to get the little tour/demonstration thing, and they gave us a HUGE dairy milk chocolate bar and handfuls of other chocolate samples (we pretty much got our tour money back in chocolate). We were also able to buy some discount chocolate before leaving. It was a great stop, definitely something different from what we’d been doing. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the city – walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens, taking a stroll down the wharf, relaxing as we watched the sunset at the local dog beach :), and taking funny photos with friends.
-Saturday was my favorite day in Hobart. Two of the girls and I climbed Mount Wellington (elevation was about 4,000 ft). It wasn’t a super difficult hike – only took 2 hours of a pretty fast-paced climb to reach the top. However, it was enough to satisfy my itch for a little backpacking (for now, at least). There were some snow banks close to the top, and I may or may not have thrown a few snowballs at my friends :) Once we reached the top, one of the girls didn’t really want to make the hike down (the weather was changing fast – starting to rain/sleet at the top), so she asked an older couple who had driven up the mountain if they would take us down. They happily obliged - we got to spend about 20 minutes having a pleasant little conversation with them about Australia. Before we left the mountain, we took a few photos at the top. There was a beautiful double rainbow that had appeared just below us. This is a bit of a side note, but for some reason I seem to have a thing with seeing rainbows this summer. While in Mozambique, I saw the most vibrant triple rainbow I’ve ever laid eyes on. During our flight to Melbourne, I saw a rainbow from the airplane (now THAT was cool). And now I saw a double rainbow from the top of a mountain :) Anyway, since we got back to Hobart earlier than expected, we had a little time to go through the Saturday Salamanca Markets. I loved this as well. Markets are so much fun, especially this one – lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, plants, hand-made gloves, scarves, hats, things made of Tasmanian wood (wood is a big thing in Tas). There were also a few antique/flea market stalls along the way. These were my favorite. I ended up getting a couple old tin boxes – one for “kiwi” boot polish and another for Cadbury Cocoa. This town seemed to be just my style – quiet, quaint, friendly folk, and lots of antique and camping stores :)
That pretty much concludes my week in a nutshell. If you were to ask me what my highlight from the trip was, I’d have to say I don’t really have one. Each place had its own unique wonderfulness to it – my experiences in each location were all so different it’s hard to compare them. I wouldn’t change a thing about this trip though.
Now I’m off to the Outback for a week…
P.S. Last Sunday (Sept. 4th) was Father’s Day in Australia. Soooo Happy (belated) Second Father’s Day Dad!! :)
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