Last day in Port Douglas

As we prepare to head back to Sydney I reflect on all of the amazing things Port Douglas had to offer.  In the past three days we have accomplished so many activities.  On the first full day here we snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef; also part of the natural wonders of the world and world heritage site.  The second day we visited the Tjapukai Aboriginal Culture center, threw spears and boomerangs, and attempted to play a didgeridoo.  We also visited Hartley's Crocodile Farm and petted a wallaby and a koala, saw a cassowaries.  And on our final day here we rented a car and drove on the wrong side of the road to the rain forest area.  We swam in the river, much stronger than it looked, and played the tourists card while downtown Port Douglas and spent the day walking through shops.  In the evening Taylor, Jimmy and I walked down to four mile beach.  Talk about beautiful!  The ocean actually felt like a bathtub on the surface (probably because the tide was coming in).  Australia is the most beautiful place I can imagine and I will be sad to leave next week.  Our next plane ride is tomorrow morning at 5 am, so we're leaving the hostel at 3am.  Only 4 more flights to get our luggage through.  Lesson learned: pack light!

Croc and koala feeding

Yesterday I got to touch a koala bear!  They are very smelly creatures but so adorable you tend to forgive the smell.  I guess I haven't really ever been too close to one before because I couldn't stop staring.  Their ears are giant for their bodies and full of tufts of hair.  We saw them at Hartley's Crocodile farm, however at 4:30 feeding time they stole the show.  They are also funny to watch as they sleep in odd positions around branches to keep from falling out.  One koala even had a baby in her pouch.  The pouch is too small to see though so we just had to believe her caretaker.

Of course at Hartley's we were able to see the main attraction, feeding time for the crocs.  We got to take a boat tour out in the lagoon.  Some of their methods for treating the animals were not as careful as US regulation and some of our group felt uneasy with being at Hartleys.  The method for feeding the crocs was to attach chicken to a long pole and dangle it in front of them.  For the most part the effect was for the tourists to capture the perfect moment when the croc jumped up.  Otherwise we wouldn't be able see them clearly as we were able too.

Hartley's was one of the better attractions in Port Douglas because we were able to see all of the animals we had missed during our stay in Australia.  Today is a free day to explore Port Douglas before our 5am flight back to Sydney.  The time here has gone by so fast, and yet has gone by slow enough to enjoy the overload of activities we have done every day.  I love Australia!

Hide n Seek on the Reef

Today I swam in one of the great wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef!  It was better than all the hype.  I’ve only gone snorkeling once before and it was in Mexico where the fish were limited in a variety and ranged in colors from grey to grey.  Today the fish were the most vibrant and amazing colors and patterns.  One of my favorite fish matched the coral he was hiding in perfectly.  He was playing hide and seek in the open and beating all the other fish.  Another great experience was a fish that was just large.  At first all I could tell was that he was big and moved pretty slow due to his size.  Once I followed him for a bit I could tell he was well over four feet in length. 

The crew was very nice as well.  We toured through the company Quicksilver.  On our third stop of the day we received a tour of the area from one of the Quicksilver crew members, Tammy.  Tammy was able to dive fairly deep into the water with just her snorkel mask on.  She showed us a poky (but not harmful) see slug.  One of the more plain ones was a cream colors circle shaped piece of coral.  This coral emitted a sticky residue that Tammy explained was their version of sunscreen, like 100spf.  We also got to touch and animal that looked like the black spider of the sea with had orange suckers that attached to your fingers.

At the end of the day we learned about some of the more sustainable practices of Quicksilver (our tour boat company).  They explained that by dropping an anchor into the coral it can kill over 1,000 years of growth.  They also said one of the reasons we snorkeled on the outside of the reef was because the water was more clear.  This was due to the fact that the continental shelf is constantly pushing water up acting as a flush through the water.  This is in contrast to the middle of the reef that receives most of the run off from the land.  However bonus point, whatever waste is put into the water by the farmer comes back to the farmer in his products so the vicious cycle helps to keep everyone on track, in a manner of speaking.

Overall, one of the best days of my life!

Wednesday, January 4th

On Wednesday evening we took a couple of hours to visit the Sydney Aquarium. They had some very unusual displays.











Here is Katie going nose to nose with a long necked turtle.











My best aquarium photo was of this spotted manta ray, which we were told by aquarium staff are found up on the Great Barrier Reef. Maybe we will see one there!







Here is Corrin enjoying Sydney.

Wine Country

Although most of us slept and read books on the way here our 2 1/2 hour drive from Sydney to Hunter Valley proved to be very beautiful.  There are over 150 vineyards in Hunter Valley and some families are 5+ generations.  Today we visited 3 wineries, one brewery, and one smelly cheese shop.  It was interesting to see the differences between the first two wineries.  One was a very sustainable and organic while the other used toxic chemicals in their weed/pest control.  The organic winery was able to reuse everything from their water to their soil.  They even used worms to create what they called "worm tea" which was fed back into their fertilizer.  Overall, the day was very informative about wine making.  I learned that a screw top is better than a cork, a common misconception.  Almost all wines are now made with the screw tops, so don't let that fool you into thinking its lower quality.  The cork makes you have to put more perservatives in the wine, and makes you put less into the bottle.  The organic winery even had their packaging building built with straw walls!

Free day in Manly

Free day: On our last day in Sydney a few of us headed over to Manly Beach again by ferry.  The weather man predicted rain and thunder showers, who believes the weather man anyways?  This was our second time to Manly and because it was a Sunday the crowds were incredibly larger than before.  The flags for the approved swimming areas had also been moved because the rip current under the waves was so large.  We experienced the power of the waves when Callie lost a lens to her sunglasses and Katie got a sand burn from falling in the waves.  Lesson learned: don't stand in front of anyone when a wave hits or you will be hit by both the wave and the person.

This evening, the weather man's prediction came true.  I thought the rain here was a joke before because the worst that happened was a light mist barely there.  Today however the rain poured without warning.  It was like watching how a movie was made when the rain suddenly appears and then several minutes later stops altogether.  Unlike home, the rain clouds move and are done.  After the rain the thunder and lightening hit hard.  Taylor and I were out on the porch when the first big thunder rolled in and we both jumped in our chairs.  Next came the lightening.  Instead of seeing a tiny bolt several miles away the lightening lit up the sky right over our heads.  We could see several bats flying around while the sky turned into a fireworks shows with bursts of light.

Tomorrow we leave for Hunter Valley!

The Rocks

Yesterday we got to tour "The Rocks," or the original part of Sydney.  When all of the convicts arrived 250 years ago the convicts were sent to live in the rocks (sandstone and actual rock that had to be carved out) and the upper crusts were sent to live on the other more flat side.  My favorite part of this tour was seeing the original rooms still in existence.  We were able to see a fireplace still in the side of a cliff and stairs in the middle of a rock wall.  There was even a site preserved to depict what the houses looked like.  Image foss hall dorm rooms one on top of the other.  That was your entire house for roughly 12 children and two parents.  Now add in the fact that there was no bathrooms and 20 families of that size shared a hole in the ground so that when it rained all the waste would flow down the rocks into your neighbors yards and under their floorboards.  While this tour had some unpleasant pictures in it overall it was very interesting to learn about the living conditions of the convicts, and all of their stories for why they ended up in Australia in the first place.  I wasn't aware the 7 year old could be convicted and sent to Australia as well, but 7 was considered the age of reasoning.  Not sure people would actually believe that today...

Differences in Sydney

Sydney is similar to most large cities in the U.S.  Some of the main differences include the food choices here are mostly Thai.  On Kings Street just up from the Women’s College, we passed at least 5 restaurants featuring Thai within a six block walk.  Everything is a more expensive here too, especially food and drinks, however sales tax is included in the price so you always know what your bill will be.  People don’t really tax here either which is another surprising difference.  For dinner the first night I tried an octopus salad, quite unusual but pretty good tasting.

 

On our second day here we went to the Sydney Aquarium.  The coolest part was walking into a tunnel for the shark tank and watching them swim over the top.  Another favorite was the platypus.  It was much smaller than I’d expected and rather playful.  Another funny thing about Sydney are the expensive shops.  On the way home we passed a Gucci store.  In the display windows were “art creations” of purses made to look like every kind of animal from an owl, to a snake, a kangaroo, and a koala bear. And to wrap up my evening I found a cockroach on my towel.  Having never seen one before, I think they are really weird and very flat looking, and very large.  And their long antennas are rather creepy.  Sydney might be a bit different after all.

The highlight of our trip was meeting the goats, this one in particular loved Danielle!

Janet petting a goat

Getting friendly with a goat



Danielle and the goats!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw



Sydney, Australia Opera House

In less than two months and a really long flight later, I will be looking at Sydney's Opera House.  The holidays can't come soon enough! :)