After spending 24 hours on 4 different airplanes, we finally made it to Cairns Australia (which is pronounced "Cans.") The climate shock that both of our pale bodies experienced would rival the shock that Moses might have got if he had travelled into the future and walked down the streets of Las Vegas. We travelled with 150 students from all over the U.S. and nobody knew where we were staying or what our first week of orientation would look like. The place that we all stayed at is known as a "backpacker," otherwise known as a hostel. The owner of this particular hostel must have spent about 5% of their money on the rooms, showers, and toilets, and 95% on the bar and pool. Each room had 3 bunk-beds, so we both roomed with 5 strangers.
Day 1 Our first full day in Cairns was the most memorable. We boarded a giant yacht and sailed a few hours northeast to the Great Barrier Reef. Just seeing the color of the clear, tropical blue water alone was worth the money. We were pleasantly surprised when we were given the option to scuba dive for an extra charge and decided to give it a try. Watching Molly try to "equalize" her ear pressure 2 feet from the surface was a sight that would make any scuba diver drown (due to laughing out loud underwater.) But minutes later, Molly and I found ourselves swimming at the sea floor amongst the coral and fish straight from "Finding Nemo." It was the most surreal thing I've ever experienced. I will never forget it. About 70 feet from the surface, our guide led us to a huge clam the size of a large man curled up in the fetal position. The guide told us to put our hands into it's "mouth," which caused it to clamp onto them. CJ now is missing his left arm, but he's right-handed so it's okay. No, we all made it to the surface in one piece, even though I was convinced my head would explode from pressure on my ears, which is apparently hilarious to some...
Day 2 & 3 The next day in Cairns CJ and I were the "captains" of a white water raft floating down the Barron River. Since it's the end of their dry season, the water was low and the current pretty slow, so our job wasn't too difficult. The scenery was amazing though, with mountainous rain forests towering over us on either side.
The 3rd day was our group's community service day, where we traveled up the mountain to a conservatory in the rainforest that focuses on saving the Cassowary, a big weird bird that can kill people with its toe and chops its way through the rain forest with its mo-hawk --a favorite pet of Australians, I'm sure. We didn't do a whole lot of "service" while we were there but we did learn about the process that koala poop goes through to become fertilizer for the trees that Cassowaries like... enthralling stuff.
Day 4 Day four fulfilled all of my childhood dreams that had to do with any sort of interaction with native Australian animals. We took a beautiful bus ride to a place that could only be described as a "petting zoo" slash "boomerang-throwing school" on steroids. Basically any normal 10 year-old's dream field trip. It's called the RainforeStation. While licking the best mango-dragonfruit ice cream we had ever tasted, we road a large amphibious WorldWarII army duck through the dense rainforest, giving us a chance to see some amazing plants and animals in their natural habitat.
Apparently Australians are extremely relaxed about tourists hanging out with their country's most-valued animals. We got to walk among kangaroos and wallabies and interact with them in any way we wanted. A highlight of my day was watching Molly bounce after a wallaby when it had had enough of her. Another highlight was when an animal expert put a very large python snake named "bullet-proof" on Molly's little shoulders. As you can imagine, her face was priceless (don't worry I took great pictures.) Following our activities with the bounce bunch, each of us got to hold a Koala bear and get a picture taken with it. (It wasn't as exciting as it might sound, but the pictures are sweet.)
The moment that I had been waiting for my whole life had finally come. I finally got to throw a real boomerang with a real Aboriginal guy. Molly probably had the best female throw... buuuuut...I PROBABLY had the best throw overall...
Day 4 was soft to the touch, pleasing to the eyes, and a full of once in a lifetime experiences. So far, Australia has been amazing!
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