noosa

can you believe its almost December?? absolutely crazy! after the past 4 weeks of travelling it will be nice to settle down for a bit in brisbane. for now, im enjoying a couple days of r&r in ritzy noosa. noosa has a laid back elegance to it, encouraged by the residents who are all mostly rich retirees. noosa has some great surf beaches, the long winding noosa river flowing through it, the most roundabouts of any town in australia (over 100!), and trendy Hastings Street which is a upscale Mediterranean style shopping block with great boutiques, cafes, and restaurants.

aussie spelling of the day:
tyre = tire (as in, the wheels on a car)

weird.

fraiser island

just got back from a pretty intense 3 days camping on fraiser island. fraiser is the world's largest sand island (weirdly enough, covered in reforests and fresh water lakes) and with no paved roads, everyone takes 4WD vehicles to drive on the beach and sand tracks through the inland. the hostels in rainbow beach (one of the two launching points for fraiser) sets up people into 2 groups of 11 people each to go into 2 4WD vehicles equipped with camping gear, food for 3 days, and not much else. we had a bit of tough luck on the first day with our vehicles but managed alright! saw some absolutely beautiful lakes on fraiser (the most stunning being lake mckenzie - wow) and had a blast bouncing around in the 4WD. only downside was that in my vehicle was a group of germans who (though fluent in english) spent the whole time speaking german to each other, and a group from holland who though also fluent in english spent the whole time speaking dutch to each other. really interesting dynamic there and gives some food for thought on international etiquette. i personally think its rude to do so but maybe im being culturally insensitive (shocking for an american, huh?) to expect people to speak english all the time. i can imagine people would miss speaking their native tongue, but it does give the people around them a really bad feeling of being excluded. thoughts?

updates

so here is the 3 towns and adventures over the last week:

1) stopped at a town called rockhampton (the beef capital of Australia, fyi) which is the launching point for the great keppel island. and no, i still have yet to find out what a keppel is or why they are so great. had an extremely relaxing 2 nights/3 days staying at Emu's, a really great hostel in the middle of no where that gave me the luxury of being picked up from the bus stop and driven to the hostel, and also a ride to and from the ferry station (to get me to the island), and a ride back to the bus station at the end of the 3 days (basically backpacker 5-stars) it was also mostly empty, which meant i got a whole dorm room to myself! and the beds were so ridiculously comfortable... none of this foam mattress stuff i had gotten used to. absolute heaven for catching up on rest! had a lovely time on the island as well, rented a kayak and kayaked around the island snorkeling in the beautiful water.

2) went with the oz experience bus on a mandatory overnight stop at the kroombit cattle station, a real imitation outback experience. we were greeted by cowboys shouting 'yee-haw,' given bandannas and cowboy hats, fed a 'bush' dinner, learned to crack a cattle whip, rode the mechanical bull, learned to lasso a goat and participated in a goat rodeo. fun had by all, especially the guy who insisted i could eat goat for dinner because "goats are vegetarians too"

3) made it to rainbow beach, launching point for famous fraiser island! Fraiser is the worlds largest sand island and home to one of the top 10 beaches in the world at lake mckenzie. we will be there for 3 days 2 nights, 4x4ing and camping - i cant wait! Frasier Island is where the film 'the beach' was filmed (i didnt see it, just what ive heard).
i will be incommunicado for the next few days so i will go ahead and wish everyone a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


(ps, meant to mention before that the whitsunday islands is where matthew mcconehey and kate hudson flimed 'fools gold'!)

limited access

hi everyone - i have limited phone and internet access at the moment, will write in as soon as i can!

saling adventures

made it to a library for a bit of free internet!

whitsundays were amazing... the launch point is airlie beach, which i stayed at for one day before and two days after my sailing trip. beautiful small beach town, no traffic lights, filled to the brim with backpackers on their way to and from sailing. you can tell which are about to head off and which just got back by the amount of tan (slash burn) on them! i was on a boat called the Pride of Airlie which was unique in that we all stayed on an island in dorms for the 2 nights, instead of on the boat. we were sailing for 3 days, the highlight of which was whitehaven beach - one of the top 10 beaches in the world, for good reason. did a bit of snorkeling as well which was nice (love the warm warm water here!) and hung out on the desk of the boat drowning ourselves in sunscreen (here called suncream) so to not get burnt from the very intense sun. overall had a lovely time, met some wonderful people and realized that my dream retirement (which i'm planning to begin around age 28) is sailing and living on a cute white and blue boat somewhere in the pacific ocean (i would say for certain the whitsunday islands but dont want to rule out the possibility for a somehow even more perfect place as everywhere i go seems to be even better than before)

now im in emu park, gateway to great keppel island for 2 nights to get a bit of r&r before heading south to the cattle station for a night (for a tourist 'outback experience') and then to fraiser island!!

sailing in the whitsunday islands

...just as amazing as it sounds. updates to come soon

magnetic island

yesterday i left cairns and arrived many hours later in magnetic island (or "Maggie" as the locals call it). i was not at all sad to leave cairns as the 6 days i was there it rained 5 of them. luckily the weather at maggie is perfect! i also went on my first 'Oz Experience' bus journey to get here! it is definitely nothing like the other bus services here (greyhound, premier, etc) and is excellent for backpackers travelling alone because the only people who ride with them are other backpackers and Oz Experience creates a very social atmosphere on the buses. the bus driver is also a pseudo tour guide and on the bus we play games and get to know each other. also we make random stops along the way to see cool things. this does mean it takes almost twice as long as greyhound to get anywhere, but it is the journey that matters anyhow, right? well, maybe not when the destination is places as exciting as sailing in the whitsunday islands... but still a great experience to have and a wonderful way to meet more people than i otherwise would.

maggie island is a very sleepy island without so much as a streetlight - great break for a couple of relaxing days before heading off to the whitsundays!

in a moment of missing family and friends back home.... congrats to jonah my pbj for 'more juice' and a great big hug to everyone there back in the USA. also hoping myla has a speedy recovery and thanks to peter for reading her and jerry my blog posts! lastly welcome back to nat and matt from your trip to isreal - so exciting to hear about it, glad you had such a great experience!

the great barrier reef: nemo and friends

"fish are friends, not food"
-Nemo

today i went diving at the great barrier reef! i had high expectations of the day and they were all surpassed... what an incredible experience! i had a total of 3 dives for the day - the first was the final dive needed for my open water diving certification. we had to review all the skills i had learned through the course. and i passed with flying colors!
the second dive we dove under the boat (when it was anchored) and fed some of the HUGE fish that were hanging out there. my new instructor Dirk also taught me new underwater tricks, like putting my head on the sand and spinning around and i taught him how to do an underwater backflip. very educational overall :)
the third dive was just a fun exploring dive in a different part of the reef. we played with nemo (clown fish) but my favorite part were the GIANT clams (almost the size of me) that would snap at your hand or fin if you brought it too near. my second favorite was the type of flowering coral that was common in the Little Mermaid, where when you touch the flowers they retreat into the coral (you have to see it to know what I'm talking about!). another love was the beautiful iridescent fish that seemed to change colors as they moved. less fun was the sea slugs that would shoot out what looked like silly string when we picked them up. the coral and reef life alone (even without the fish) was stunningly beautiful, so many shapes and colors it was overwhelming

overall an absolutely amazing day!!

brisbane/cairns!

i made it to Cairns and the infamous Great Barrier Reef! along the way i spent a day in brisbane, my new favorite australian city! i am very excited to be settling down there for a few months after my novemeber of traveling down the east coast. it was great to see chris (my friend from duke in "Uni" at the University of Queensland masters program) and the city in a whirlwind 24 hours. in brisbane i went to queens street (pedestrian promenade with lots of shops and cafes and gathering areas), had a picnic lunch in the city botanical gardens, took the CityCat ferry up and down the brisbane river, went to the city library (the coolest library ive ever been in), the south bank area (with a gorgeous board walk covered in swirling, flowering arches), the streets beach (a faux beach made on the brisbane river), and the queensland cultural center with the spectacular Gallery of Modern Art, and also the state library, museum, and art gallery. the people in brisbane were all wonderfully friendly and helpful and the city reminded me somewhat of chicago... except with much, Much better weather :)

for now im in Cairns and excited to take my final dive to complete my certification in the great barrier reef! cairns isnt too much in itself, but is a wonderful launching point for not only the reef but also cape tribulation and the daintree rainforest, both great day trips from cairns. im here for 5 days and on friday will be heading to Magnetic Island via Townsville!

dive school

its official - i can scuba dive! monday-today i was in a dive course to get my open water certification (which means you can legally go on dives up to 18 meters without an instructor)! monday and tuesday were classroom and pool days, learning about the equipment and skills. i didnt do so well in the pool, had a tough time with taking off my mask underwater, but i got it eventually! the instructor was really great and helped me one on one and after class to make sure i got it down. wednesday and today were ocean dive days - the real thing! it was sooo very cool, byron has a great dive site with a great reef and amazing marine life... turtles and beautiful fish and SHARKS (not the man eating kind). we only got 3 of our 4 required dives in because of the weather, so they are giving me a referral to their sister program in Cairns so i will get my last dive in at the Great Barrier Reef next week to become fully certified!