Semester Break: Fraser Island and Byron Bay!

For the week long lecture recess, my friend Thea and I went to Fraser Island and Byron Bay! Fraser Island is an island off the coast of Rainbow Beach, consisting of 98% sand and 2% rock. All of the hikes we went on were sand paths, as opposed to the mud/dirt ones I'm used to! So that added a little resistance to all of our hikes. The first day was crap, weather wise, but it was nice to see the island. Days two and three was  phenomenal. We saw so much natural beauty!

Byron Bay was really fun, but much slower than our Fraser Island trip. We went to the beach a lot and looked in all the cute shops. Nothing was a chain, so that gave the town a nice edge. Friday, I went SKYDIVING! It was unreal. Nothing like I've ever experienced before, words can't even describe it! Hope you all like the pictures.
XOXO
SZ

BEAUTIFUL day...

Day two...much better!

Fun group!

Indian Head lookout

So much sand! WITT!

Ship wreck

waterfall lookout

Matilda, our kanga' friend

 

Hanging with Stu

I DID IT

Beauty as far as the eye can see

This weekend was definitely a highlight of my semester Down Under. We spent Friday to Sunday on a Catamaran out on the Great Barrier Reef. We left Cairns to head to Port Douglas on Friday afternoon and set sail in the evening around six o'clock. The water was a little rough and we got splashed heaps of times. After getting to a calm area, we dropped anchor for the night. The spot we ended up for the night was right next to the island where Steve Irwin was pronounced dead, so that was interesting. Scary because we were VERY near the area where he was stung, but also special because he was such an iconic person. After playing some games, well all went to bed. It was so nice sleeping on the boat! We had some rain on and off all evening and into the night, but it was so wonderful to sleep with an ocean breeze! Nothing beats an ocean breeze!

Saturday we woke up and immediately put on our suits, sunscreen, and sat out on the nets. Great way to start the day! We spent all of Saturday going out further in the ocean to see more and more reef. We stopped to cook breakfast and continued to lay around in the sun and swim/snorkel. Before my Australia trip, I had never snorkeled before. There is seriously a whole other world below the surface of this massive body of water. You never see the same scene twice while you're underwater. For dinner that night, Ryan, the guy who owns the boat, cooked fish that he caught literally 30 mins. prior to dinner time. Talk about free range and fresh! We had a great dinner then laid out on the nets to watch the stars. It was so clear out that you could see millions of stars. I even saw my first shooting star...it was BEAUTIFUL. I was sure to make a big, special wish. We were all pretty tired after a long day of fun in the sun, so we went to bed early.

Sunday morning, we were all up and awake by eight. Again, we just put our suits and sunscreen on and started our day! The water was pretty rough all day, so swimming and snorkeling was pretty though. Strong currents and big waves lead to some hard conditions. Two girls got taken out pretty far and had to be brought back by the little dingy boat. They were fine, but it was kind of scary. I also had the chance to do an introductory scuba dive which was really cool. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I thought it was amazing. We got up close and personal with so many different kinds of fish, coral, etc. After we were all done with swimming, snorkeling, diving, etc., it was time to head back into shore. We were told it we had a six hour journey ahead of us to get back to Port Douglas, where the boat is docked. Didn't seem like too bad of a ride especially with the pretty sky...well, it got dark....and rainy...and EXTREMELY rough. I didn't time it, but it took us ages to get back. Really, really big waves and lots of wind going in all different directions made for an interesting ride. Many people felt sick, and understandably so. Once we finally made it back, we were all really relieved and drenched.

Such a great, great weekend.
Hope everyone is starting to enjoy SPRING weather!
XOXO
SZ

Lookout point en route to Port Douglas

Quite the view

Fresh air, the ocean, and the REEF!

:)

Dinner!

Prettiest sunset I've ever seen.

Swimming with Elyse!

You're Not You When You're Homesick

What a weekend it was! Friday morning, I left Cairns at 7 AM to head to Townsville to catch the ferry to Magnetic Island. I was really excited to get going and see this island! We got there and got settled and did some looking around. Where we stayed was very close to the beach, so that was nice. We then saw a bird feeding which I found kind of gross, but that is probably because I'm not the biggest fan of birds. Then we had a BBQ on the beach for dinner which was really fun. Because it was a holiday weekend, the beach/park was PACKED, so we had to wait for a while to grill, but it was okay. Then we sat on the beach and watched the stars for a while, which was really nice.

Saturday was a rough day for me. We started off by having this amazing breakfast and had some animals join us, and I FINALLY held a Koala Bear! He was only about a year old, so still pretty tiny and soft. It was such a cool experience. But back to way Saturday was rough. I didn't really know anyone on the trip this weekend, and for the first time, it hit me that I am 10,000 miles away from home. It's not possible to drive home for the weekend. I'm not going home anytime soon, and no one is going to be visiting me from home. No matter where you are, even in a place as cool as Australia, you can't help but miss your family! After that settled in, I just started crying. A wet, slobbery, not cute, SOB FEST. It was pathetic. I let that go on for about 30 seconds before talking myself out of it, then walked to the beach. And started sobbing as I walked to the beach. I would have called home, but having zero service and no wifi on this island got in the way of that. Then I started crying again, and decided it was necessary to pay for some wifi. So I sat in a SUPER BUSY public park PACKED WITH FAMILIES on a public holiday and called home SOBBING. I'm sure everyone was looking at me, but no one asked if I was okay....my leg could have broken and no one would have known...anyways, after I cried for a while to my mom, I walked around a little more and went back to take a nap. I slept for three hours. After my sob fest and marathon nap, the group climbed to The Forts, which is a lookout point at the island. It was refreshing and beautiful! The views were absolutely spectacular. We even saw a few wild Koala Bears which was super cooooool. That night, we went out to dinner and had ass hole waiters, but that's a whole different story. Got a free meal out of it.

Sunday, we spent the day at Alma Bay. We had lunch, played lots of cards, and went swimming. It was a really fun day. At night, we bought the BBQ at the hostel and met some people from AMERICA, England, Germany, and of course, some Aussies!

We left Magnetic Island today and got back to Cairns at around 5. Back to reality tomorrow...sort of. Another four day week!

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Weekend back home.
XOXO

SZ

PS: I got a grip and am no longer homesick. 

My new friend, Pebbles!

Horseshoe Bay

On the way up to The Forts

Getting higher! 

Alma Bay