I spent 10 days traveling along the East Coast of Australia with the One Fish Two Fish Extreme Adventures crew and had an amazing time. Now comes the fun part where I get to go back and try and remember everything I did so I can blog about it! Here goes nothing!
The tour started at 830 AM on Friday the 6th so I decided to fly out to Brisbane the day before and stay in a hostel overnight. My friends from Macquarie were each doing their own thing for break and I knew of absolutely no one going on my trip so I was a bit nervous but really excited to kind of "grab the bull by the horns" and go out on adventure completely on my own, no safety nets, no security blankets. So anyway, the flight went well and I found my way around the airports easily. When I touched down in Brisbane I caught a cab to my hostel - which by the way cost $50. If the airport shuttle was open or the buses were running I would've taken one of those but seeing as my flight landed so late, a taxi was my only option.
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| outside the Brisbane hostel, was happy to say goodbye to that! |
The next morning I walked over to the bus station where we were going to be picked up by the Extreme Adventures bus. There I met a few girls from Macquarie and other people from Unis around Australia. Soon enough, the bus showed up we loaded up our bags and hopped on for a 10 day adventure not knowing how much of a great time we'd be having. Once we got on the road we met our tour guides Scotty (doesn't know) and Rhys (pronounced Reese or as I liked to call him Reese Cup!) and our bus driver Rob (aka Roberto) - they explained what we'd be doing over the next 10 days. They also introduced us to the infamous SIN TIN which was basically a can that people would have to put money in every time they had some crazy story to tell or did something ridiculous; and by the end of it our guides said they would use the money collected to buy drinks for everyone at our final night party.
They also introduced us to this guy...
^An inflatable Kangaroo that we would take with us everywhere and keep protected from other tour groups that had left a day or two before us (we would cross paths with the other tour groups and the goal was to steal the other groups Roo). I believe his official name was Reggie T but I honestly can't remember, anyway we passed him through the bus and signed him. And the journey began!
Our first stop was Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Now, I'm used to the Buffalo Zoo so really any zoo in Australia would definitely be better, but this was above and beyond what I expected. We check out some statues, crocs, and snakes..
And then we stopped here...
ROO HEAVEN, and I was in love! One of the top things on my list of things to do here was pet a Kangaroo and I did it! The exhibit was this large field filled with probably a hundred kangaroos or so and they were all just hanging out and you could just walk right up and pet them, like what? I've never even been that close to a rabbit or deer and they're in my backyard everyday. Pure crazyness and I loved it.
The next part was my favorite part of the zoo. I GOT TO CUDDLE WITH A KOALA BEAR!
Those are seriously the cutest animals ever. Holding it was like holding a little baby, gaah! I also paid for a professional photo but the printer wasn't working that day so I had to wait until I got back to Uni to finally see it. Once I find a scanner I'll definitely be uploading it!
After we visited the Koalas some of us grabbed lunch and headed over to The Croc Show! Our tour was only in the park for 2 1/2 hours so we only got to see part of the show but it was still awesome!
We left the zoo, boarded the bus and headed off to our next destination: Rainbow Beach. On our way there we did this Speed Dating game to actually meet everyone who was on the trip, We also made a pit stop at a bottle shop to pick up drinks for the trip, thus avoiding having to spend ridiculous amounts of money at the bars. It was pretty hilarious seeing our entire bus lined with goon (aka boxed wine aka the cheapest alcohol you can get in Australia.. trade 4 litres of goon for $14 for an $8 mixed drink at the bar and you tell me what tastes better haha!). ANYWHO, after driving for 3 hours we arrived at our first hostel where I roomed with a group of really cool people on my tour from New Hampshire. After we got settled we headed out to Carlo's Sand Blow, a huge sand dune on Rainbow Beach. There we took tons of pictures and watched the sunset over this amazing landscape that looked very similar to the scene from the Lion King - hence we were all watching the sunset singing The Circle of Life, still questioning whether what we were seeing before our eyes was actually real life or just a dream.
The next day was Easter Sunday and to be honest I completely forgot it was until someone mentioned it at breakfast. Celebrating holidays abroad is so weird! I was missing all the wonderful easter chocolate I get at home but forgot all about it when we boarded this beast to tour the Fraser Islands
The Fraser Islands are the only islands in the world made completely out of sand and full of dingos (even though we never really saw one). We all jumped in these monstrous vehicles (above) and drove through the forest. We were planning on hiking and stopping at a freshwater lake so everyone was really excited...then it started raining, BUT everything was still really cool. I honestly felt like I was in Jurassic Park traveling through the forest in the downpour, all that was missing was a T-Rex. Once we arrived at Lake McKenzie, a completely clear freshwater lake on the island, the sun came out :)
These pictures don't even do the lake justice! The water was so clear and so warm, it was like a mini paradise. I never wanted to get out of the water! However, with the promise of steak for lunch, I eventually found my way out!
^Yum! After lunch we headed back out onto our dinosaur hunting vehicles for a rocky ride through the forest and over the sea (on a ferry of course). Once we returned to our hostel we packed up and boarded our bus for the dreaded overnight bus ride to Caines.
After 12 hours, 4 bathroom breaks, and 1 hour of decent sleep we had arrived at Airlie Lagoon, Caines. Because the seats were impossible to sleep in, everyone was pretty exhausted.. that was until we started hitting waves on our EXTREME speedboat ride! The next stop on our tour was a 3 day stay on the Whitsunday Islands so in order to get there, we took an insanely crazy ride on a speedboat. It was my first time on a speedboat so I was really pumped. The driver had warned us that we could tip over a few times, so that scared me a bit but I still had a great time.
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| pulling up to our island resort... they didn't know what was coming! |
After we dropped off our bags we hiked around the island to a view point of another section of the Whitsundays - Whitehaven Beach. I'll let the photos do the talking here...
After taking about a million photos we got back on our boats and took a ride to the exact beach that was behind us. I still cannot describe how beautiful the beach was. The water was clear, the sand was as clean and as white as sugar, it was everything that I had seen in honeymoon commercials come true. Like jaw dropping gorgeous! Our tour spent the entire day beach bumming and just hanging out together.
After a day of relaxation we headed back to our resort, ate some dinner, and in true extreme fashion had a night out at the resort bar.
The next day on the island was completely devoted to whatever we wanted to do. After doing some more beach bumming my friend Kristen and I decided to take a ride on jet skis. It cost $90 for each session so Kristen and I decided to go together to cut the cost and just switch drivers through the middle of it. This was by far my favorite activity of the day. I had never ridden a jet ski before so doing it in the Whitsundays was awesome! I definitely plan to do it sometime when I am back in the states!
The rest of the day was spent hanging out and eventually exploring the opposite side of the island where we came across this insane peninsula made up of little rocks.
That night was our last night on the island so everyone was out having a good time. We spotted a wild wallaby on the beach WITH A JOEY IN IT! It was so cute! I also spent half my night chatting with people from London who were visiting the island.
The next morning we packed up to leave the island and spent the day sailboat racing, another thing I've never done before. It's actually more intense than most people would think. Our boat was literally at a 45 degree angle and half underwater. I felt like I was on the Titanic.. minus the panic. After a little sailing we stopped near the coast so we could snorkel a little. Our boat stopped about 20 meters off the shoreline so we were instructed to either take a boat over or swim to the shore. I thought "20 meters is nothing, I can swim that!" - I was wrong. After swimming about 10 meters I got so tired, apparently I'm not as great as a swimmer as I thought. I did make it to the shore eventually though, strapped on my snorkeling gear and saw tons of little fish, including DORY! She kept forgetting who I was though.. odd. (catch the humor?)
Once we had arrived on land again we headed back on the bus for a 6 hour ride up to the Tully River region. We spent the night in this creepy hostel and woke up early the next morning for White Water River Rafting! After gearing up and going over safety procedures we met our guide - Foxy. His real name was Cal but he was known as The Silver Fox, and I'm not gonna lie he resembled Richard Gere meets George Clooney... get the picture? It rained the entire trip but that made it even better! We were bashing through rocks and over waterfalls, our boat tipped over, we got to jump out of the boat and just float down the river at one point too. We even came across a cliff jump that I am proud to say I jumped off :) Overall it was one of my favorite days of the entire trip, and it wasn't just because of good ol Foxy. I would totally do it over and over again!
After rafting we took another short bus ride up to our final destination: Caines. We stayed at a hostel called Gilligan's that was right in the center of the city. Once we were settled we headed over to the Woolshed for dinner where I ordered the most delicious T-Bone steak. Yumm. We spent the night out exploring the town, trying to forget that the next day was D-Day ... aka Bungee Jump Day.
We weren't heading out to the bungee until late afternoon so me and a few friends spent the day buying souvenirs and checking out the town. We stopped at this one place where you could make your own bracelets and I made one with crocodile skin, beads, and a croc tooth! It came out looking awesome of course!
By the time lunch hit I started getting knots in my stomach. See I'm not the type of girl who looks for adrenaline rushes or anything like that so knowing that I would be hanging by a bungee cord in a matter of hours freaked me out. But I was determined to get up there and do it! At 3 we headed out to AJ Hackett's Bungee Jump/Bungee Swing in the middle of this rainforest. I was still nervous but I signed up to do both the swing and the bungee. I had 45 minutes to calm myself so to be blatantly honest.. I headed to the bar and pounded 3 vodka redbulls before I headed up. Sorry to any responsible adult shaking their head at me, I'm sure you would've done the same though!
To be honest the view from below didn't look so bad so I was feeling really confident. However, as I kept walking higher and higher up the stairs I kept getting a better view of the outer horizon and was getting even more scared. Once my name was called I jumped up on the seat, got strapped in, waddled over to the edge of the platform AAANNNDD backed off. I couldn't jump. I don't know what it was but even though I knew I was in safe hands, I couldn't handle the thought that I was basically jumping to my not so realistic death 150 feet below.
I headed down the steps disappointed that I couldn't do it. BUT I faced my fears and still went through with the Bungee Swing - a 3 person swing that takes you up 150 feet in the air and swings you from 0 to about 100 mph in 3 seconds. I was scared at first but I knew I had to do it.. and I LOVED it! I would totally do something like that again. Here's the video :)
Even that little swing made me hungry for more, I am now looking into hang gliding or para sailing or something like that! I wanna do more!
The next day was our trip to the Great Barrier Reef!! Today was the day I was finally going to get to see Nemo <3. Of course the boat ride was super rocky and I did feel a little sea sick at times, but after about an hour we had arrived at the reef :) I put on my anti-stinger suit, snorkel gear and dove into the water. Again, words can't describe my experience. Seeing all the sea life and fish was breathtaking. I couldn't believe I was really there.
As you can see the disposable waterproof camera I bought wasn't the greatest thing but I guess you really have to be there in person to experience the beauty. I am happy to report that Nemo is in one of those pictures! So amazing! A few of my friends were even lucky enough to see sharks and turtles too! We spent about 3 hours out on the water and headed back to the city for a pub crawl, which of course was a good time as well.
Our last day was spent visiting Trinity Beach, famous for being filled with crocodiles(!) and hiking in the rainforest to a beautiful waterfall and swimming in the river below. After we had finished our last activity the whole tour group headed over the Woolshed for a final goodbye party.
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| Scotty & Rhys! |
The next day my friends and I walked around town and grabbed lunch before heading out for our plane rides back to Sydney.
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| packing up! |
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| ONE FISH TWO FISH - TOUR 3 |
xoxoxo
