Hellllllllo Friends and Family! Giving you all a shout out from the lovely Cairns, Australia which is located in Queensland. Today is our last day here and we wanted to give everyone an update on what we have been doing while here!!
We are on our midsemester break which is 2 weeks long. The first week has been spent with our study abroad group, IES. There has been 39 of us travelling around together from Saturday to Friday.
We started off our trip veryyyy early in the morning. We met the 3 other girls that go to Macquarie with us who were going on the trip at the train station at 5:30 am. We caught a train to the airport and got on a plane to Cairns.
We got welcomed by lots and lots of rain. We got in around noon and had the afternoon to explore the city after getting settled into our hostel. Our hostel is MASSIVE!!!! It has over 550 rooms. While exploring the city we stumbled upon a mexican food restuarant which was a huge shock. We devoured our mexican food and spent the rest of the afternoon walking in and out of shops.
That night was our "aboriginal cultural dinner". We had no idea what to expect going into it. All of us got on a bus and had an hour ride into the forest. We barely made it across a flooded street to the dinner but luckily we made it. To sum up the dinner, it was basically one of the best dinners of our lives. It was in a candle lit tent with chandeliers. We had unlimited wine and tons of food. We ended up eating kangaroo bruschetta, salt and pepper crocodile, lobster, coral trout, black angus sirloin, and a chocolate mud cake. It was insanely good. Everyone was whipped after the dinner and passed out in bed as soon as we got back.
The next day the group was split up into 2 groups. The University of Sydney Kids would be doing the same thing as us just on other days. The UNSW and Macquarie kids were together. It was a rainy day again and we enjoyed it while carrying our huge amount of luggage (we had packed for our 2 weeks) to the boat. We got on the day boat that would take us to the great barrier reef to snorkel before getting 0n the boat that stays at the Great Barrier Reef nightly. The ride out to the great barrier reef was a rough hour and half for Becca who was throwing up at the back of the boat with a lot of the other kids from the group. Becky was luckier and managed to not get sea sick. The snorkeling was suprisingly good for the constant rain.
We got transfered to the night boat where we would be spending the next two nights and three days. The boat rocked less which everyone was thankful for. We shared a room and even had our own bathroom!! Fancyyyy! Everyone was again, worn out, and managed to only stay up for dessert before passing out at 8:30 pm. We were wide awake at 7:30 am for breakfast and a full day of snorkeling. Luckily, our full day on the boat was the most beautiful and the sun decided to join us for most of the day. The reef was inexplainably beautiful and it was unreal to see the colors of coral and fish. Becky pointed out a shark that morning while snorkeling and as cool as it was to see it, we decided to get back on the boat right after. Becky worked up her courage to do an intro scuba dive and struggled with a leaking mask the entire time. She was however, a ninja, and powered through. Becca kept with the snorkeling throughout the day. We got to see sharks all around the back of the boat at night before the scuba night dive. The light from the boat attracts the fish, which attracts the sharks and was totally cool to see. We were in awe of the clear sky and the overwhelming amount of stars that we aren't used to seeing. The next day was a half day of snorkeling before being transfered back on the other boat to return to land. We got to see another shark that morning while snorkeling and Becky decided to go for another scuba dive. This time she had a better mask and got to see a sting ray!
The boat ride back was luckily smoother and there was no throwing up for anyone. However, we did anticipate the dry land despite the fact that we felt like we were still rocking. We got moved back into our hostel and then enjoyed a free night. We asked a lady where she would recommend eating and she told us about an amazing authentic italian restuarant. It was a perfect dinner which was followed by dessert simply because the food was so good. We came back to the hostel and enjoyed a bottle of wine with some other girls in our group while having a fun night of playing bananagrams and listening to our favorite 90's songs.
The next day was pretty hilarious. We had to have our schedule changed due to a lot of rain in the rain forest (go figure). Our coordinator didn't want to get us stuck in the rain forest with no way to get out so she decided to plan a full day of activities for us for Wednesday and then go on a day trip to the rain forest on Thursday.
Our bus driver Ron, who is a true character took us around to some hot spots on Wednesday. We started off by going to Barron Falls, then he drove us to a human size termite mound (seriously), and then to a grave yard so we could see some authentic Italian graves, which looked like mini houses. It was seriously a neighborhood of dead people. We wanted to take a picture, but decided against it. We had a classy lunch at a diner/casino. Questionable fish and chips, people missing numerous teeth, and drunk people that the bus driver told us not to make eye contact with. We were then taken to a Mango Vineyard where we were going to a wine tasting. This event was equally classy with plastic lawn chairs lined up for us in front of a tractor in the middle of the warehouse. We enjoyed lots of wine and were then guilt tripped into getting a bottle of wine due to the lady using the phrase "this is how we survive". We drove back to the hostel and got ready for a delicious dinner at a restaurant across the street. We heard a rumor about karaoke night at a bar nearby and were instantly excited. We got a big group of girls to go and we all enjoyed singing on stage. Becky did a solo. Don't worry, video to come.
Running out of internet time, next blog post will include the rest of our Cairns visit and the start of our next adventure!! Hope all is well and miss you all!!
Up briiiiiight and early to set off on our 2 week adventure around Queensland!
Gorgeous decorations everywhere at our Aboriginal Cultural Dinner
Mmmmm our favorite course out of the 5 courses we enjoyed at our fancy dinner; stuffed lobster with salt and pepper crocodile. Aren't we adventurours?!
Out on the boat where we spent 3 days exploring the Great Barrier Reef!
The sundeck on the boat where we lived for 3 days. We didn't get too much sun, but we took advantage of the precious few times when the sun decided to grace us with its presence.
Look! It's the Great Barrier Reef!
Our bus driver, Ron, educating us about the wonders of termites. That huge structure behind him? It's a termite mound.
Barron Falls
Mango wine from the mango winery!
Bringing the house down with our rendition of the Backstreet Boys classic "I Want It That Way"
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