Cabins in the Rainforest

One of the highlights of the trip so far had to have been our free Auckland weekend. It was great to be able to go out with each and just explore the city however we wanted to. Traveling everywhere in a big group has been great, but sometimes the days are really long and we're all exhausted at the end of the day. We got to see some of the quieter and shyer members break out of their shells and we all had a great time!

As I've said before I love meeting new people and this weekend was a great time for that to happen. I met eight new friends this weekend and they all took us out on the town and showed us their favorite places to eat and hang out. It was a great treat! We've got a lot of great memories from this weekend to add to this entire experience. Not only do I love meeting new people, but I finally got a picture with my friend Alexa, from half way around the world!

It was great to see her again and this time have her show me where she lives and some of the things she loves about the city.

From Auckland we had a long journey ahead of us to get to Yungaburra. We left our hostel for the airport at 4:30 in the morning and then got there nearly three hours before our flight so we slept, read, or ate the time away. Then we landed in Sydney and had a three hour layover there and when we finally landed in Cairns we had about an hour and a half van ride into the rainforest. We finally arrived at the Center for Rainforest Studies outside of Yungaburra around seven at night. It was a long day. But when we arrived here we all perked up because we were in a new place!

The first full day we were here was Tuesday and we started the morning off with a site walk to get us all used to where we would be sleeping and living for awhile. We walked a loop around the center and got to see a lot of cool rainforest. Yes, I am actually living in the rainforest. We all bunk in cabins in the woods (rainforest) and the "man cave" as we all have deemed it looks the most similar to the cabin in the recent movie. IT'S AWESOME!

Anyways we learned about all the deadly animals we could encounter here and by the end of the site walk I think almost everyone had had a leech either bite or almost bite them. The worst part about these leeches is they drop out of the trees and sometimes can end up on your eye ball. Eyeball leeches. What the hell?! Aside from that the leeches are fine. They try and bite my legs a lot, but because I have hairy legs they can't get to my skin. Very handy if you ask me. There are a few spiders and snakes that we could come into contact with here, but those haven't happened very often. And finally the stinging trees. If we touch a stinging tree we'll be in pain on the spot and will be reminded of this contact everyday for NINE MONTHS. Too long for one touch of a tree for me, even though I'm tempted to touch one just to see what it's like.

Wednesday we were split into four different groups to investigate four different towns around the area and how they felt about where the lived. It was a very cool exercise and I found it to be very interesting because we all got to meet more new people and learn about their lives in the town, how they felt about conservation, and what they did or didn't like about their towns. Just very cool! The town that I went to, Atherton, was great! We learned about an award winning bakery with fantastic apple turnovers and an added bonus of vanilla Coke!

And now today was a great day too! A very very very long one though. We had a lecture in the morning and then went to Malanda Falls to have field lectures. I learned a lot today and had fun doing it too! We got to see a lot of different animals in the wild like tree kangaroos, kookaburras, and even a possum (they're actually very cute here). See:

Both the tree kangaroos and possum were just lucky finds, but were just incredible to see. Today had to have been the highlight of the trip. I know I say that a lot, or at least it feels that way, but everyone here is becoming better and better friends and we all get along so well that when we have the opportunity for free time like we did today, we're almost never bored. Our free time today was spent at a crater lake where we got to swim for a couple hours. Nice and cool water was nice after being in the sun all day. Hole in the ozone really makes a difference, it feels like the sun is always burning my skin. Nice and toasty!

Into the Wild

After being in Sydney and Melbourne it was finally time to get out into the mountains and the outback. First up were the blue mountains outside of Sydney.

Before getting to the blue mountains was our first stop at a wildlife preservation. Here I got to see nearly every animal from Australia. Tasmanian devils, kookaburras, kangaroos, and many, many more. It was cool to see them even if it wasn't technically in the wild. I got to feed a bunch of wallabies too and even picked up a baby, which I'm not really sure if I was supposed to. Oh well, it was worth it.

Then came the long ride into the mountains and as luck would have it, it was cloudy, cold, and rainy when we went up. Our guide had us stop a few times to see if we could see anything to no avail. I did see a waterfall shrouded in the mist, so that was really cool! After realizing that we couldn't see anything out in the mountains we had the opportunity to see aboriginal dances and learn more about the culture and the didgeridoo.

One guy even started teaching me how to play the didg. After about 15 minutes I was getting a good sound to resonate. It's a lot harder to play than I originally thought, but once you hear the sound you're listening for it gets easier. It would take a lot of time to learn to circular breathe and keep playing, but maybe someday I'll practice and figure it out. The guy there told me it took him two months to learn and his brother, a musician, only two weeks.

The next stop on this two week trip with my parents was Uluru and Ayer's Rock. Finally some time in central Australia and the outback! Flying in we could see the massive rock in the distance and then at night we got to see it closer at sunset and eat a barbecue under the stars! I got to see the southern cross and the milky way again. Though this time, because of a full moon, the milky way was tougher to see. But that also meant we got to see a partial lunar eclipse! The earth was casting a shadow on the moon and it was incredible to see.

In the morning we went to look at the rock again, but this time at sunrise and on camels. It was a lot of fun and interesting to learn all the things a camel can do. One very impressive thing is their ability to retain food and water for four weeks. They can go without either for that amount of time. Just awesome. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to climb Ayer's Rock, but now I have a(nother) reason to come back to Australia.

Made it to Port Douglas today and now I'm off to the barrier reef! Hooray!

Leaving the Country

I love traveling outside of the United States. Being surrounded by a different culture and experiencing as many new things as I can. And so begins my trip down under. I'll be traveling to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Uluru, Auckland, Cairns, and Yungaburra.

I've been excited for this trip since I was accepted to study abroad in the rain forests of New Zealand and Australia. I'll be traveling all over Australia for two weeks with my parents and from there will meet up with my study abroad group where we'll be living in the rainforest for a month.

Today we're flying out of Milwaukee to Chicago, a very short flight, we didn't even reach cruising altitude before we had to descend again. From Chicago to LAX 3.5 hours and from LAX to Melbourne, a whopping 14.5-15 hours. I'll be keeping this as updated as much as I can, but due to possibly lacking the internet at times I might find that hard to do.

I'm starting in the south (Melbourne) where it will be the coldest I'll be experiencing (hopefully). I'll be going to see penguins in their natural habitat on one tour and going on many other tours and awesome experiences that I'll be taking pictures of and sharing here (if possible) and on Facebook.

I started this on the plane to LAX and am finishing it in the airport...on my phone. Waiting for three hours to board a ginormous airbus.

Leaving at 11:30 pm US time I'll be missing out almost entirely on May 27th which is pretty cool I think. It'll be like I'm time traveling (hello LOST) and then gaining that day back by experiencing a day, July 11th, basically twice. I'll be even more confused as to what day it is than I am normally during the summer. I'm excited for that and the only reason I can come up with is the fact that I'll feel like I'm in Back to the Future or something, but instead of traveling back multiple years, I'll be "traveling" one day. Oh well.

As I said before I'll have intermittent Internet access while down under, mostly when we take trips into the nearby town and I'm going to update this as much as possible. I may even be able to Skype for a short time. If you want to you should be able to search for me by name. Otherwise try minicoop1227. Until next time, from Australia, have a good Memorial Day weekend!

Taken from the plane to LAX