An Amazing Week

Tuesday, I woke up one morning I didn't have class and decided I wanted to go to Byron Bay since I hadn't been yet, but ended up barely missing the bus and literally watched it go past but couldn't get there in time.  Instead, I went up to the point or "head" of Lennox (hence the name of the town) that you can see from the beach.  It was a hell of a bike ride up it but it was gorgeous up there.  Literally movie quality views that were absolutely one of the prettiest things I've seen so far.  At the top there you could see all the way down to Ballina on the right side and the lighthouse at Byron Bay on the left.  There was evidently someone who jumped from this point at some point and so there was a large array of flowers that were really awesome next to a sign that said "Life is too beautiful" next to them.  Then went back to the north side of the head where you could see some people surfing.  That is definitely the image I will never forget of this area.

A handful of people have really taken to snorkeling around here and it really is a lot of fun.  It's so awesome to go to some of the areas of the beach and start looking around and see what is right below us and around us all the time.  In one day I saw about ten or so little stingrays and tons of fish.  I think we're going to try and spearfish and grill it for a cookout sometime too.  That'll be pretty cool.  We also saw some cool sea stars, but the coolest hands down would have been the Nudibranch we found near the shore.  I had literally never seen anything like it.  It was the most vivid and most alien looking thing I could imagine.  It looked like something in a movie.  The google image shows it better, but look them up and they are amazing.  Finally, when walking back to our path to the camp I kept hearing pops every once in a while under my feet and looked down at tons of small jelly fish scattered all over the shore.  If I hadn't been wearing those Vibrams Five Finger shoes it would have been a painful walk home.

Wednesday, for my Marine Biology class we went out into the mangroves around here.  They were pretty sweet, but hands down the coolest part of the whole day were the Soldier Crabs.  We walked up and it was just like walking onto the Planet Earth Discovery Series.  There were crabs EVERYWHERE!  There were so many that it looked like the entire beach was moving.  Just thousands of them moving all together and you could hear them scuffling back and forth and being herded by the other everyone in our group different ways. It was one of the more impressive land animals I've seen while I've been to Australia just because the way they all stayed and thought together.

Friday we all went to the Rainforest.  It was about an hour and a half inland in Daraby (I think I spelled that right) and it was a Temperate Rainforest which was pretty cool.  It took us an hour to get out there and saw some awesome scenery there and back (lots of Macadamia fields).  When we got there, there were what looked like Monitor Lizards hanging out (2 of them) but had like a 2 foot body and an even longer tail.  They were really pretty cool with everyone being around and even came up to some of us to check us out.  They just kinda wondered around and hung around for some food scraps probably.  We then ate an amazing meal they grilled up on the barbie of marlin (which didn't taste like a fish at all), prawn (which was like a giant shrimp), and kangaroo meat (which kinda just tasted like beef but a little sweeter).  All of it was really good.  Then, we went out to take a look around and saw some sweet ponds with lily pads everywhere and these awesome trees that looked like they had a giant beehive toward the top of them.  It turned out that that's where the ants have climbed all the way to the top of the trees and started nesting (weird).  Then, we listened to an Aboriginal woman tell us stories about the area and how it used to be and about her people and got to see some cool stuff like a giant boomerang and some other cool stuff.  Then we went back to the bus for the ride home, saw some more cool scenery, and passed out looking out the window.  Shortly after I was woken up as we stopped on the side of the road.  Turned out that there were these massive fruit bats that were hanging out in the trees above our heads.  We took pictures for a while and then came back to the cabins where we had a Mexican night with everyone here.  It really was a cool trip to see everything and experience some of the things that they have in this area that's outside of the beachfront.  Almost everywhere you turn here there is something really awesome to see.

Now, scuba was HANDS DOWN the best thing I have done since I have been here.  I attached a few pictures, but to get a real view of what it was like you really should go to www.julianrocks.net/index.php to get an idea of what we saw down there.  We had to do our pool training on Saturday which was pretty cool and good practice and a good place to get idea of the skills we needed to know, but nothing I have ever done in my life could compare or prepare me for what I saw down there.  Sunday, we had two dives out at Julian Rocks that were absolutely gorgeous.  Now, and I'll admit I got a little sea sick when we were just sitting on the surface, but on the second one I took some anti-nausea medicine and that helped some.  But when we went down about 45 feet and saw the coolest stuff.  It was literally just like I was looking through a National Geographic video.  At one point on the first dive I laid on the bottom 2 foot from a ten foot Leopard Shark.  On both dives we saw a black stingray that was roughly 7 foot across (what looked to be the size of a car).  The second dive was definitely the coolest one.  We saw a Loggerhead Turtle that was about 6 foot tall and 3 1/2 foot wide, he was absolutely giant, AND I PETTED THE BACK OF HIS SHELL!!!  We saw a Moray Eel, Wobegon, Puffer-fish, Groupers, Clown Fish, Regal Tang,  and TONS of other fish.  It was just like Finding Nemo down there haha.  That was an experience that everyone should try at least once in their life.  It was absolutely amazing.

Catch-up

So it's day 7 now and we're sitting here eating lunch watching the Superbowl (first tv we've watched so far).  We don't get any of the commercials though so we're looking them up online and watching them.  So, I'll give some highlights over the past few days.  I have gone to the beach and body surfed literally every single day here so far and I have never been in this big of waves as I have here.  I had scuba lessons ALL DAY yesterday and hopefully by the time this Sunday rolls around I will have finished my lessons and be fully open water certified.  Hung out with Marshall (guy from the bar the other night) and his entire band and found out he is playing in the Byron Bluesfest (Australia's version of Bonnaroo http://www.bluesfest.com.au/pages/?ParentPageID=11&PageID=142) and I would TOTALLY want to go.  Harlen's 21st birthday was last night and it was a blast.  We had at least 25 of us out on the beach all night partying, playing music, and having fun all night long.  We saw our first snake the other night.

We're almost positive it was a python and it was about 7 foot long but since it was on the porch on one of the cabins we decided to move it.  We couldn't get it to go anywhere from a distance so I moved it by hand (I promise we did it safely mom lol) away from the rest of the camp.  Sorry it's been a couple of days since I posted anything, just been busy with everything that's been going on.  I'll try and post again here in a few more days and hopefully have some more pictures to post up here too.

Day Three

I woke up and had breakfast with my roommate Rock (Seth) and hung our new Australian flag out front of our place and ran out to the beach for some morning body-surfing.

When we came back we had a guy there for a nature hike that literally knew EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING and showed us a ton of really cool things literally in our camp . . . by the way we have wallabies around our cabin that are like 4 foot tall.  That was a long time but really awesome to see so much wildlife and learn so much about the area.  We came back and hung out and played some guitar with my two roommates Zach and Thomas and Zach played harmonica for a few hours and hung out till our meeting.  Then we had to go to a scuba/surf meeting where we found out how to get signed up and certified and everything we need to so we can go to the Great Barrier Reef for Spring Break!  Afterward we had a AMAZING feast we grilled on the barbie between our roommates (4 chicken breasts, 6 legs, 2 wings, 4 pieces of tilapia, 3 cups of rice, mashed potatoes, 3 tomatoes, 2 potabelloes mushrooms, 2 onions, corn, and beer).  Then the whole group got ready and started to head out to the bar.  On the way we think we saw a wallaby and a HUGE cane toad (tried to get him but failed) which was cool.  So we got to the bar and it was open mic night . . . though I am usually REALLY apprehensive to sing in front of people Zach and I ended up getting up there and did Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show.  It wasn't the BEST but it was a lot of fun.  We listened to the local guy Marshall play guitar (who was absolutely unreal and is playing again tomorrow night and at one of the biggest festivals in Australia) and be the majority of the entertainment and Zach and I decided to get back up there and do Wonderwall by Oasis.  It went absolutely amazing!  Marshall and his lead guitar player and harmonica player played with us and as a big group we did REALLY good.  It was definitely one of my favorite moments so far and it felt awesome to actually get up there and play for people.  We ended the night with a group walk on the beach back to our place and called it a night. . . . Wow!

Day 2

I woke up this morning forgetting where I was . . . best way to wake up because when you are somewhere this beautiful because when you remember it is one of the best feelings you will ever have.  We had a meeting this morning to go over some rules, but while our GA was explaining this she was cooking our cabin a breakfast of grilled sausage leftover from the barbecue in a grilled cheese sandwich (so good).  She cooked for us because our fridge went out and spoiled our stuff so she thought she'd be nice to our guys.  Thanks Amy.  Then we headed out to the local surf club for some water safety training (rip tides and whatnot).  Then we went out to the grocery store, liquor store, and mall for multiple hours for stuff we needed (by the way they have Target and Aldi here).  Since it's raining outside right now, we are just back at the cabins hanging out bluesing (blogging and boozing) until the bars tonight.  Life cannot get any better right now.

Arrival!!!

So, we left Sunday, January 29th and flew FOREVER.  I flew out of Indy to Chicago where we had to haul ass to our next flight to San Francisco.  When we got there we had a 3 hour layover where we grabbed dinner and a beer and enjoyed our last little bit in the US.  We caught a red-eye from there to Auckland NZ . . . It was a 12 hour flight, but the BEST flight I've ever been on.  First, there was TONS of space compared to every other flight.  Next, you have to look up the New Zealand Air safety video (Richard Simmons is even in it . . . hilarious)  Also, we had personal screens where we had movies, TV, games, music or whatever we wanted. Finally . . . FREE DRINKS!!!  So, then we had a 4 hour layover in NZ which we watched the sun come up over the mountains and ocean.  It is beautiful there and I cannot wait to go back at the end of my trip!

So on Tuesday, January 31st, after a 3 and a half hour flight we finally arrived in Australia.  After customs and baggage claim we FINALLY were outside for the first time in 3 days (it was HOT, nice change from Muncie lol).  It took a total of 44 hours of flying to get here but I could tell just from the outer area of the airport it was already going to be an amazing trip.  We then jumped on our bus and headed 2 and a half hours down from Brisbane to Lennox Head NSW where we are staying.

This place is AWESOME!!!  As soon as the bus came to a stop, my roommate Zach and I found our cabin (newest here lol) and just literally dropped our things, found the path to the beach and RAN there.  We came out on what was literally the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in person.  It was just like you would see in a movie: gorgeous white beach, great waves crashing all around, completely empty except for Zach and I (until the rest of our group began to show too), a lookout point (the "head" of Lennox), everything you could ever imagine.  Though it was a LONG flight, that moment alone made everything worth it.

We played around on the beach for multiple hours until we had to go to a barbecue with the group and meet our professors.  Got a little burnt on my face, but nothing too bad.  The barbecue was located on Lake Ainsworth on the other side of the camp, which was cool to look out and see all the sailors and kayakers over the lake as we ate our steak dinners :-).

All the profs seemed pretty cool and think that it's really going to be an awesome semester.  After that, we went back to the cabins and got cleaned up and relaxed for a few hours.  We found a HUGE spider behind our cabin.  The wildlife here is unreal.  I've only been here two days and I have already seen SO many cool things!

Then we walked the 1.5 miles to the only local bar in town.  It was a blast because by this point we were all really relaxing and loosening up around each other.  Finally, we all (as a GIANT group) walked back from the bars along the beach, cracking jokes, catching crabs, looking at the stars, and having fun till we got back to our cabins and passed out for the night.  THIS PLACE IS FREAKING AMAZING!!!