Hey everyone,
We've had an amazing time in Fiji. The people are so welcoming and nice. The islands are very relaxing and beautiful. It's like the caribbean without the huge amounts of people and pools and swim up bars (although that's pretty convenient). We did some scuba diving, snorkeling...Ed got hit by a dinghy, but he's fine, and lots of relaxing. We'll be home in negative one hour (we gain a day on the way back). We'll talk with everyone soon!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Airlie Beach
We took a twelve hour train ride from Cairns to Airlie Beach. On our first day here, we took a sailboat out to the famous White Haven Beach in the Whitsunday Islands. Although it was fun sailing, it was cloudy and White Haven Beach didn't look like anything special. In addition, we were only there for an hour and a half so we couldn't explore any of the cool parts of the island because sailing took so long. We did see a humpback whale on the way back which was pretty cool.
The following day we took another boat trip out to the Whitsundays. This time we got to scuba diving three times. The coral was bright and colorful, there were lots of fish, and we saw a shark! We also saw huge sea turtles and really big fish. On the boat ride out, we saw some dolphins. Our divemaster was really good this time and pointed out lots of things underwater.
We're off to Brisbane in a few hours and then on to Fiji in two days.
The following day we took another boat trip out to the Whitsundays. This time we got to scuba diving three times. The coral was bright and colorful, there were lots of fish, and we saw a shark! We also saw huge sea turtles and really big fish. On the boat ride out, we saw some dolphins. Our divemaster was really good this time and pointed out lots of things underwater.
We're off to Brisbane in a few hours and then on to Fiji in two days.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Cairns
We arrived in Cairns and pulled up to our bed and breakfast at night. We stayed in the Cairns Rainforest Bed and Breakfast in a nearby suburb. This bed and breakfast has one of the nicest settings we have seen. The house is gorgeous. The backyard has waterfalls forming deep swimming holes in the middle of the rainforest. They also have a pool for our use. The house has several decks with outdoor dining options. It was nice with the windows open, with a nice temperature, listening to the waterfall and animals of the rainforest while sleeping...it was like listening to one of those nature cds live. Our room was really nice too with beautiful wood floors, a big jacuzzi lined with stone.
The first day, we went scuba diving. The boat ride out left early and was very rocky because it was windy and little rainy out in addition to being in a small boat. It took 90 minutes to get to the outer reef and about a quarter or more of the 100 people got sick, although not us. We went on our first dive. We got in no problem, but the one lady with us lost her flipper right away. We waited for her while looking around under the water. During the dive, we saw a lot of fish, but not as many as we were expecting. The coral was huge...50 feet straight up where we were diving. The colors were vivid and lots of fish were in the anemones (like Nemo). We wondered what the guides spoke about before Nemo came out because they loved to talk about this fish! The dive was forty minutes and there was a decent current we swam into when we were finishing, which made us feel a little sea sick. We were definitely spoiled in Texas because our guide there was awesome. This guide was fine, but didn't point anything out to us, except for Nemo. We then ate lunch, watched the marine biologist feed the fish, and then geared up for our second dive. This time we got on a smaller boat that took us further out and we dove again. The lady couldn't descend this time, so we swam around for about 5-10 minutes in the general area under the water looking at everything. She had actually gotten left behind on a different tour the day before...which is a definite no no in scuba, but more understandable after we saw her dive. During the second dive, we saw a small lagoon ray, many bright colored fish, more coral, and a turtle. Unfortunately, it's hard to describe things, especially since we can't tell a goldfish from a baracuda. We headed back to the boat after this. The boat ride back to Cairns was a little less rocky and less people got sick. We had ice cream and Thai food for dinner, in that order. We then headed back to the B n B and went to sleep.
The second day we woke up at 5 to go white water rafting in Tully, which is two hours away. It was a misty, overcast day, but still warm. On the way up, we passed lots of banana fields and sugar cane farms. There were rain forest covered mountains with mist on both sides of the valley when we arrived. We split into different groups for the rafting. There were 8 boats of 6 people. Our guide was pretty experienced and seemed to be in charge of the others. We went through the grade 4 rapids first, without flipping...even when we tried to flip on purpose. Although really fun, the first half of the trip consisted of us waiting for the other boats to go through. We went through 10 rapids in 2 hours. Right before lunch, he took us through a cold waterfall where we were hammered with water. We then ate lunch (hamburgers, sausage, veggie sandwiches) and started the next half of the trip, which was much nicer as we didn't have to wait as much. We went through many smaller rapids and kept moving. It was a fun trip.
On the bus ride home, we got to watch videos of crashes and flips from previous trips, which was pretty fun. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and came back to the BnB and lounged around.
This morning, we are exploring Cairns. We're taking a twelve hour train trip tomorrow to Airlie Beach. The rental cars didn't work out so off to the train we go. We only have one week left in Australia.
The first day, we went scuba diving. The boat ride out left early and was very rocky because it was windy and little rainy out in addition to being in a small boat. It took 90 minutes to get to the outer reef and about a quarter or more of the 100 people got sick, although not us. We went on our first dive. We got in no problem, but the one lady with us lost her flipper right away. We waited for her while looking around under the water. During the dive, we saw a lot of fish, but not as many as we were expecting. The coral was huge...50 feet straight up where we were diving. The colors were vivid and lots of fish were in the anemones (like Nemo). We wondered what the guides spoke about before Nemo came out because they loved to talk about this fish! The dive was forty minutes and there was a decent current we swam into when we were finishing, which made us feel a little sea sick. We were definitely spoiled in Texas because our guide there was awesome. This guide was fine, but didn't point anything out to us, except for Nemo. We then ate lunch, watched the marine biologist feed the fish, and then geared up for our second dive. This time we got on a smaller boat that took us further out and we dove again. The lady couldn't descend this time, so we swam around for about 5-10 minutes in the general area under the water looking at everything. She had actually gotten left behind on a different tour the day before...which is a definite no no in scuba, but more understandable after we saw her dive. During the second dive, we saw a small lagoon ray, many bright colored fish, more coral, and a turtle. Unfortunately, it's hard to describe things, especially since we can't tell a goldfish from a baracuda. We headed back to the boat after this. The boat ride back to Cairns was a little less rocky and less people got sick. We had ice cream and Thai food for dinner, in that order. We then headed back to the B n B and went to sleep.
The second day we woke up at 5 to go white water rafting in Tully, which is two hours away. It was a misty, overcast day, but still warm. On the way up, we passed lots of banana fields and sugar cane farms. There were rain forest covered mountains with mist on both sides of the valley when we arrived. We split into different groups for the rafting. There were 8 boats of 6 people. Our guide was pretty experienced and seemed to be in charge of the others. We went through the grade 4 rapids first, without flipping...even when we tried to flip on purpose. Although really fun, the first half of the trip consisted of us waiting for the other boats to go through. We went through 10 rapids in 2 hours. Right before lunch, he took us through a cold waterfall where we were hammered with water. We then ate lunch (hamburgers, sausage, veggie sandwiches) and started the next half of the trip, which was much nicer as we didn't have to wait as much. We went through many smaller rapids and kept moving. It was a fun trip.
On the bus ride home, we got to watch videos of crashes and flips from previous trips, which was pretty fun. We grabbed some pizza for dinner and came back to the BnB and lounged around.
This morning, we are exploring Cairns. We're taking a twelve hour train trip tomorrow to Airlie Beach. The rental cars didn't work out so off to the train we go. We only have one week left in Australia.
Funniest Story Ever
When we were by the campfire, a Spanish guy from up near Barcelona told us a story. He and his friends were at a bachelor party for their first friend who was getting married. He got hammered and they put his leg in a real cast (I guess they knew a doctor or something). They convinced the groom his leg was broken, he assumed he forgot all that. He got married with the cast on. After that, he went on the honeymoon with the cast on as well. Then when he got back from the trip, they told him he didn't really break his leg. The guy also had friends that got put on a 4 hour train ride naked, handcuffed to the seat. Another friend knew a cop and they put a guy in jail for 2 days, interrogating him about a night he couldn't remember. He is getting married soon and understandably worried.
Uluru (Ayers Rock)
We flew from Melbourne to Alice Springs in the Outback and stayed in a hostel called Annie's Place. Despite some recent reports saying there were bed bugs, we didn't have a problem besides Jeanette not being able to sleep all night as she was scared she would be bitten...apparently you can see them and we checked the entire day. Alice Springs was interesting...a town in the middle of nowhere that had KFC, Subway, K-Mart, etc. We probably don't need to return there, but it was interesting to see. There were some homeless Aborigines, which was sad to see...the most homeless people we had seen in Australia.
We left bright and early the next morning on a three day, two night tour to Uluru. We went on the Mulgas tour, which was lots of fun. The first day was mostly driving the six hours it took to get there, but we did stop for a hike in King's Canyon. We also were able to watch the sunset over Uluru. During the drive, we stopped along the side of the road and picked up some poisonous melons. We then proceeded (in teams of 4 or 5) to throw the melons out the bus window while driving at posts or signs. Jeanette hit a small white post worth two points and Ed didn't hit anything. One of the two Irish girls on our team hit a sign worth one point. We then set up our mugs in the back of the bus and bowled the remaining melons while the bus was driving. It was lots of fun. After watching the sunset, we spotted a couple in the road who was flagging us down. All the people on the bus (19 including our tour guide, Halley) got off and helped push their camper van back to the road as it was stuck in the dirt pretty far off the road. With all the people we had, it was relatively easy to push out. The couple wasn't the brightest to drive their non-four wheel drive camper that far off the road in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived at our campsite, Halley realized three of our swags had been stolen while we watched the sunset. That was a real bummer since there were only a few other cars where we watched the sunset. Luckily for all of us on the tour, she had packed a few extra swags and we all got one. Unfortunately for Halley, there wasn't enough for her. Once we arrived at the campsite, we tore down dead trees and started a huge bonfire. Halley cooked dinner, which consisted of pasta with vegetarian bolognese (more like chili) for Jeanette and added camel to the sauce for the non vegetarians...Ed. He thought it tasted just like beef. We slept under the stars, which were brilliant in the sky. It was quite cold...like 25 degrees outside. We were fairly warm with the fire, sleeping bag, and swag, but the wind could get cold on your face.
We woke up early the next morning and hiked two different hikes totaling 16 kilometers for the day. We first hiked the Olgas, which were mountains near the rock that were created in a similar way. We then had lunch at the cultural center and began our walk around the base of Uluru...the world's largest monolith. No one climbed it because it was too windy, but Ed and I weren't going to climb it anyway due to respect of the Aboriginal people who request that you don't climb their sacred site. We also watched the sunset, which turned the rock a bright red. We had dinner consisting green curry chicken. Jeanette had rice and cheese. While we were there, buses of people were brought in. They had paid $800 to watch the sunset and have dinner. We paid $250 for three days including meals, campsites, admission, etc. After the sunset, we returned to our campsite, tore down some more dead trees, and started our fire. We toasted marshmallows, which were flavored. Most people went to bed around 8, but we stayed up until about 11 talking to people.
The next morning was a little warmer, possibly 40 degrees, and we watched the sunrise over Uluru again. It was extremely windy, so we stayed inside the bus for most of it. One thing we noticed was the desert had lots of trees and some grass. Although it doesn't rain there frequently, the trees have roots reaching far underground where there is a huge supply of water.
Halley dropped Ed and I off at a really nice hostel/resort (YHA, but with a fancy name) while everyone else continued on to Alice Springs for their flight. We were able to shower, eat, relax, and do laundry in the time that it took them to drive back. We caught a free shuttle to the airport and flew to Cairns.
We left bright and early the next morning on a three day, two night tour to Uluru. We went on the Mulgas tour, which was lots of fun. The first day was mostly driving the six hours it took to get there, but we did stop for a hike in King's Canyon. We also were able to watch the sunset over Uluru. During the drive, we stopped along the side of the road and picked up some poisonous melons. We then proceeded (in teams of 4 or 5) to throw the melons out the bus window while driving at posts or signs. Jeanette hit a small white post worth two points and Ed didn't hit anything. One of the two Irish girls on our team hit a sign worth one point. We then set up our mugs in the back of the bus and bowled the remaining melons while the bus was driving. It was lots of fun. After watching the sunset, we spotted a couple in the road who was flagging us down. All the people on the bus (19 including our tour guide, Halley) got off and helped push their camper van back to the road as it was stuck in the dirt pretty far off the road. With all the people we had, it was relatively easy to push out. The couple wasn't the brightest to drive their non-four wheel drive camper that far off the road in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived at our campsite, Halley realized three of our swags had been stolen while we watched the sunset. That was a real bummer since there were only a few other cars where we watched the sunset. Luckily for all of us on the tour, she had packed a few extra swags and we all got one. Unfortunately for Halley, there wasn't enough for her. Once we arrived at the campsite, we tore down dead trees and started a huge bonfire. Halley cooked dinner, which consisted of pasta with vegetarian bolognese (more like chili) for Jeanette and added camel to the sauce for the non vegetarians...Ed. He thought it tasted just like beef. We slept under the stars, which were brilliant in the sky. It was quite cold...like 25 degrees outside. We were fairly warm with the fire, sleeping bag, and swag, but the wind could get cold on your face.
We woke up early the next morning and hiked two different hikes totaling 16 kilometers for the day. We first hiked the Olgas, which were mountains near the rock that were created in a similar way. We then had lunch at the cultural center and began our walk around the base of Uluru...the world's largest monolith. No one climbed it because it was too windy, but Ed and I weren't going to climb it anyway due to respect of the Aboriginal people who request that you don't climb their sacred site. We also watched the sunset, which turned the rock a bright red. We had dinner consisting green curry chicken. Jeanette had rice and cheese. While we were there, buses of people were brought in. They had paid $800 to watch the sunset and have dinner. We paid $250 for three days including meals, campsites, admission, etc. After the sunset, we returned to our campsite, tore down some more dead trees, and started our fire. We toasted marshmallows, which were flavored. Most people went to bed around 8, but we stayed up until about 11 talking to people.
The next morning was a little warmer, possibly 40 degrees, and we watched the sunrise over Uluru again. It was extremely windy, so we stayed inside the bus for most of it. One thing we noticed was the desert had lots of trees and some grass. Although it doesn't rain there frequently, the trees have roots reaching far underground where there is a huge supply of water.
Halley dropped Ed and I off at a really nice hostel/resort (YHA, but with a fancy name) while everyone else continued on to Alice Springs for their flight. We were able to shower, eat, relax, and do laundry in the time that it took them to drive back. We caught a free shuttle to the airport and flew to Cairns.
Happy Birthday July Edition
Happy birthday to all of our firends that have July birthdays. Luckily, we are on the computer today which is Jason's birthday. Also happy birthday to Steve and Chrissy. Hope you all (y'all for Jason) had great birthdays!
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