Australia
February 15-July 1 2005
June 1:
Chisholm College Sports Gala Night at Flanagans! It was a big night for me and my friends. Luke somehow won MVP for baseball, Andrew was recognized for footy and baseball. Paul was recognized for baseball and tennis, won footy MVP and was 1st runner-up for the boy's sports champion. Luke, Paul, Caleb and Stu won spirit awards and Stu won volleyball MVP. Tower 11 represent!
I was one of the big stars of the night! I won MVP for both volleyball and softball. So that also made me semester 1 Chisholm College Girls Sports Champion! I got a good chuckle when I found out they misspelled my name on my trophy (that's right, I got a trophy!). I am now Bruce Scherer.
June 5:
I've spent all weekend working on my final paper for Latin America Through Film and Pop Culture. It's an interesting class. Considering the U.S. is so close to so many Latin American countries, I don't know that much about them. I finished my paper about an hour before my plane takes off. I'm headed on another vacation with two of my friends: Kara and Jess. Destination: the north-eastern state of Queensland.
June 6:
Our first stop was the city of Cairns. We're staying at a really cool hostel called Calypso. They play reggae music and serve good food. We had an early day today because we headed out on a sailboat to Green Island to snorkel. On the ride out, Kara and I were getting seasick so we headed to the front of the boat for some fresh air still wearing our street clothes and carrying our towels. That was a bad idea. We felt better but the waves coming over the front of the boat got everything soaking wet. Oops.
It was my first time seeing the Great Barrier Reef and it was gorgeous! The fish were awesome and the water was warm enough that I didn't need a wet suit. We went onto the island for a couple hours and caught some sun.
June 7:
Stop #2: Port Douglas. Its about an hour drive from Cairns to Port Douglas and there are beaches the whole way. It was a beautiful day when we arrived at our hostel, Port-O-Call, which was conveniently located a five-minute walking distance from Four Mile Beach.
After the beach, we headed into town and did a little shopping. Some of our friends who had come up over Easter break had recommended that we try this place called Wicked Ice Cream and have the Boysenberry Dream because it is "the best thing you'll ever put in your mouth." They were right.
June 8:
It was our day to go SCUBA diving, but there were rougher waves and a bigger boat. Kara and I were feeling really sick the majority of the way to the dive site, most likely, for me at least, because I hardly ate anything for breakfast. I could not wait to get off that boat! But I was fine once I got geared up and into the water.
Kara was having issues with her mask and was playing with the control for her vest (which you're not supposed to do) so she kept floating up and down uncontrollably. Jess had a minor anxiety attack, but she made it through.
Kara and I decided to go for a second dive and had a grand ol' time. We came up with enough time to snorkel for a half hour. It was fun swimming around pointing at stuff. There were these big clam-looking things that were the most beautiful blue on the inside.
June 9:
Today we drove out to Mossman Gorge and hiked through the rainforest. The area we hiked through was specifically called Daintree Rainforest and has some of the oldest rainforest in the world.
Afterward, we headed up the coast to Cape Tribulation. The drive was quite pretty but it took longer than expected so it was past 3 p.m. and cloudy by the time we hit the beach, but was the most beautiful beach thus far. It's where the rainforest meets the reef.
June 10:
Most of the morning was spent laying on a beach at The Lagoon in downtown Cairns (it's a pool and sandbar on the coastline). Neither Kara nor I got much in the way of a tan this trip, so we were determined to get some color.
After our morning in the sun, we wandered around the local market and got surfer's braids (rope braids that are wrapped around your ankle and melted together) before heading to the airport.
The first cab we tried to pick up said he couldn't take us to the airport, so he sent us to another taxi loop. We had to wait there for over 30 minutes. By this point we wouldn't make it to the airport in time for check-in since Jet Star (the domestic airline) closes check-in 30 minutes before boarding time. When we eventually caught a cab, we asked the driver what the first cab situation was all about. He said he should have been able to take us there but most likely just didn't want to because he was about to come off his shift. Kara and I had to pay $50 a piece to catch the next flight which, thankfully, was two hours later.
June 12:
We got our butts up nice and early this morning to head out on our road trip to the Grampions National Park. The group consisted of me, Andrew, Kara, Luke, Paul, Connor, and Connor's friend from home, Matt. A good crew.
Before we left, we didn't know if they would let us rent a car because none of us were 25 years old. It was a crapshoot, but it worked out. We spent most of the morning just getting to the Grampions since we got a lost trying to leave Melbourne. The remainder of the day was spent hiking up to the Pinnacle, which had a cool lookout.
We managed to get a room all to ourselves in the hostel, so we just hung out and listened to music most of the night. The boys took the rails off the bunks and played with them, which entertained the rest of us. Connor had to sleep on a matress on the floor because he's so tall (6'10'') that he wouldn't fit on the bunks. While we were all sitting around, a spider fell off his foot onto his bed so he kept making cracks about spiders coming through the crack under the door and attacking his face.
June 13:
This morning we all got up for the sunrise. It was a bit cloudy so we didn't get to see much of it but the colors were really pretty.
We didn't have much of a plan for the rest of the day, so we hiked whatever trails we could find. There were fewer people around compared to the first day, when we kept getting stuck behind slow-moving people.
June 14:
Since Becky, Andrew, and I are leaving tomorrow for the Gold Coast and a lot of our friends are leaving on the 18th, this would be our last night together. We decided to go to our favorite pizza place, La Porchetta, for food and $8 carafes of house wine. We had four pizzas between 8 people. It was so nice: good wine, good food, good friends. It was a bittersweet evening.
June 15:
I spent most of my day doing laundry and saying "This is the last time we're ever going to..." We made our last big floor breakfast. It was our biggest yet and I was chef extraordinairre.
I went to get coffee later with a couple people. We had a nice little chat and talked about Oktoberfest in La Crosse, which will be the next time the majority of us will be together again. Everyone planned to regroup at the on-campus bar later for a last beer together. I threw my stuff together and headed over. It was a sad moment but it wasn't all sinking in. I know I'll see them all again. La Crosse isn't far away from Oshkosh, but it's the setting I'm going to miss: Luke across the hall, hanging out in the kitchen, watching Family Guy episodes in Caleb's room. This is a really good group of friends that I have found here. It's sad watching this amazing period in my life come to a close.
Becky, Andrew, and I made our flight and arrived at our hostel at 11p.m. We chucked our stuff into our room and took a stroll down the beach at the town we were staying at called Surfer's Paradise.
June 16:
Today, we hit the beach. It was a lovely sunny morning and we decided to go surfing. It had been a while since any of us had surfed, so it was an interesting experience. Andrew did well, but Becky and I were struggling. I hurt my knee and starting bleeding everywhere. We laid out on the beach for a few hours reading and relaxing.
June 17:
Surfing and beach again. Gosh, I love vacation! We got up for sunrise this morning; it was so beautiful to see the sun reflecting off the water. We did more reading and hanging out on the beach. We cooked dinner for ourselves and had an all-around unproductive day. It was fantastic.
June 18:
We left Surfer's Paradise for Byron Bay. We walked around the town when we arrived, then, once again, we went to the beach. This time we went boogey boarding. That was really tiring! I was in the water for 15, maybe 20 minutes, and I was spent.
Andrew and I went back to the beach later at night. It was dark but not too cold, so we ran around in the surf kicking water at each other and laughing. My jeans got really wet so I walked back to the hostel looking like I just got off a horse.
June 20:
We were supposed to go sea kayaking this morning but the wind was coming in too hard for us to maneuver around the shore, so Andrew and I went for a hike up to the lighthouse. I was such a nice day out. On the way up, we stopped at a rocky peninsula and climbed around, listening to the waves and watching the local fishermen. We continued our journey, stopped at the eastern most point of mainland Australia, and proceeded up to the lighthouse.
The view from the top was great. The mountains in the distance were the most wonderful shades of blue. We saw dolphins breaking the water off in the distance and we were at peace with the world.
We walked along the beach, wading through the surf on our way back to town. We stopped at a cafe where we got chai and potato wedges--both of which were very good--and had a good conversation. It was a great day, one of those rare great days.
June 21:
We got up for sunrise at the eastern most part of the mainland, which was a 30 minute walk/hike from the hostel. There was a good amount of cloud cover, so there wasn't much reward for all that work but it was a peaceful moment. We walked along the beach again to return to the hostel and took a nap before going sea kayaking.
We were supposed to see dolphins and sea turtles but we ended up not seeing anything. But that was okay because the kayaking alone was great fun. They were double kayaks so Becky and I were in one together. We had a lot of fun trying to surf but kept tipping over.
We had to quickly cut out of the hostel in order to make our flight. So we all showered really quick, inhaled our leftover food, threw our stuff together, and headed out to the airport. I actually made this flight on time.
June 25:
Today we went to the Dandenongs National Park, which was a short train ride from the city. "We" included me, Andrew, Kara, Conner, Tara, Drew, Kim, and her boyfriend Sam. That hike was tough. Within the first ten minutes, we hiked the "1,000 steps staircase." They aren't kidding about that number either. We were dying, and when I say we, I mean everyone but Connor and Andrew, who flew up ahead of us. In fact, they were always 10-20 yards ahead of us.
We spent the majority of the time playing catch-up with those two while the rest of us dragged ourselves up the steep gravel roads. There wasn't much to look at, nothing compared to the Grampions, but we can laugh about it now.
June 27:
After taking my final exam for my poli. sci. class, Kara and I had a little date in the city. We spent the whole tram ride into the city talking politics and the guy on the seat with us was listening to our entire conversation. When he got up to leave, he said to us that we are very intelligent ladies and he enjoyed our discussion very much. Yeah us!
June 28:
We spent most of the day running around getting random stuff done and saying goodbye to lots of people. We went out that night as a Happy Birthday/going away party for Andrew since his departure and birthday were both happening the next day.
A couple of friends joined us for dinner and wine at a Thai restaurant. I had a whole snapper as my main course, head still attached with the eyeballs and everything. Next, we went to one of our favorite bars and split a pitcher of beer before heading to a dance club called Frostbite. Connor and a group of his friends were there, so we hung out with them too, dancing and playing pool.
June 29:
Andrew and I left Melbourne to fly to Sydney to meet up with his parents. He would be traveling around the country with them for a while, but I would be heading back to Melbourne after a couple of days to take off for Fiji with the rest of the Wisconsin folks .
We went to dinner with his parents and one of his friends from high school who was studying in Sydney. Afterward, we hung out at her apartment downtown, chilling out on the balcony before heading to a 24-hour restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks. We split an order of butterscotch and banana pancakes and devils delight chocolate pancakes with strawberries. They were some of the most fantastic things I've ever eaten.
