Mid-Semester Break!

12 days, 3 destinations. It was a bit ambitious trying to see so much of Australia in such a short period of time, but I would not change a thing. Simone and I left Wednesday the 31st and flew from Sydney to Hervey Bay. Our flight was delayed and we barely made our connecting flight in Brisbane but luckily they waited just long enough for us to sprint to the next gate and hop on the plane to Hervey Bay in Queensland, along the northeastern coast of Australia.

We got in late Wednesday night and barely had any time at all before we were back in a plane again Thursday morning for skydiving. What a way to start the trip, the most exhilarating experience of my life and as soon as I landed I couldn't wait to do it again! (Believe me, we actually considered it.) We decided to go all out and jump from 14,000 ft. - the highest elevation you can jump without oxygen tanks because the oxygen runs out around 12,000. I can honestly say I wasn't scared at all, just excited the whole time. Simone went first and I barely had time to think before I was jumping out of the plane right behind her. We splurged for the pictures and video so I'll try to upload soon, but I didn't have much to say, just a huge smile on my face the whole time. The view from the plane was amazing as we got a free flying tour over Fraser Island. It was about a 60 second free fall and an 8 minute parachute ride to land on the beach. Incredible!

We spent the rest of the day Thursday trying to come down from the adrenaline rush of skydiving and exploring the beach and shops along the Esplanade in Hervey Bay. We had a pre-departure meeting that evening for our Fraser Island tour and had a lot to prepare before we left out at 5:45 Friday morning.

Friday we packed up the 4x4 and left out first thing in the morning. We spent the next 3 days and 2 nights camping and exploring Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world on a self guided tour. Unfortunately our group was not the greatest, somehow we ended up with 6 other girls. Not the ideal group for camping but at least it made for some good laughs and we met plenty of other students and travelers at the campsite in the evenings. One girl who was traveling alone actually wanted to spend half a day driving across the island to buy bottled water because she refused to drink water from the campsite but luckily we were able to override her (which actually led her to tears at 26 years old, dramatic at the time but kind of funny looking back on it.) Despite calls for rain the weather was actually great for most of the trip and there were many beautiful sites to see on Fraser Island. Highlights included Lake McKenzie, Indian Head-the easternmost point of Australia, Eli Creek, and the Champagne Pools. Pictures soon to come hopefully because my descriptions could not do them justice. Being home to plenty of dangerous spiders and several of the world's deadliest snakes we were lucky the most dangerous animal we encountered were wild dingos at the campsite at night. We learned before we left that they generally won't attack unless you turn and run so we never walked alone at night and kept a flashlight close at all times. It was actually cool to see them and I never really felt I was in danger since we were well-prepared to handle dingo encounters.

We arrived back in Hervey Bay Sunday evening and were glad we factored in a day to just relax in Hervey Bay before we left for the Whitsundays. The weather was perfect so we spent most of the day Monday on the beach before taking an overnight bus to Airlie Beach. We arrived in Airlie Beach 14 hours later Tuesday morning and had just enough time to check in and wander around the shops a bit before leaving on our sailing trip. One of our housemates recommended the Samurai and we were so glad we chose to sail with them. The crew was fabulous, the scuba diving instructor was one of the funniest people I've ever met and really did a great job bringing everyone on board together. It was a young crowd, mostly students and travelers in their 20's so it was a fun group and interesting meeting people from all over the world. The Whitsundays are comprised of 74 islands along the Great Barrier Reef and home to Whitehaven Beach, which is supposed to have some of the whitest sand in the world. The views were stunning, I absolutely loved sailing, and the Reef was incredible. We had perfect weather and spent plenty of time snorkeling and scuba diving in some of the best spots along the Great Barrier Reef. My favorite part was getting to touch an anemone and watching the clown fish swim out. We bought an underwater camera but I don't know how well the pictures will turn out since we were so deep. 3 days and 2 nights later we arrived back in Airlie Beach and only had the evening before we had to jump on another overnight bus to Townsville.

We arrived in Townsville early Friday morning and caught a ferry to Magnetic Island. Friday we spent the day on Horseshoe Bay and it was nice to just relax after so much adventure earlier in the week. Saturday we went to the markets on Horseshoe Bay and hiked through a Eucalyptus forest to see some forts from World War II and many great lookouts along the way. We were lucky enough to see a wild koala just off the trail and were close enough to touch it! We didn't realize it at the time but after talking to some locals later that evening we realized just how rare an experience that was and we have plenty of pictures to document it. After we finished the Forts walk we hiked down to Arthur Bay for more snorkeling around the Reef and relaxing on the beach. Although we didn't have much time in Magnetic Island there wasn't too much else to do other than more hiking and beaches so we didn't feel like we were too rushed with only 2 1/2 days there.

Sunday afternoon we took the ferry to Townsville where we flew back to Sydney. After living the grunge life of a backpacker for 12 days it was nice to get settled back at home again. It's going to be a bit of a hectic week getting back into the swing of things with school again but totally worth it for all we got to see and do. I think we really made the most of our break and I'm so glad we chose to do everything that we did. Simone was a great travel companion and I'm already looking forward to planning our next trip together, maybe Melbourne or Byron Bay sometime in the next few weekends depending on how our schedules go. I'll try to get around to uploading pictures soon once I am able to finish up some assignments and get settled again. Sorry for such a long-winded account of the trip but I couldn't wait to share such a wonderful experience with everyone back home. Love to all!