Terminals in AUS

Hi friends!

Interesting things this week:

            -Sunscreen is God’s gift to Australians. Seriously.

-I watched a movie that had Denver threatened by a nuclear bomb. The ending was very unsatisfying. Actually, the whole movie was. They didn’t do their Colorado geography homework for the film.

           

           -A girl from Wisconsin and her family was at the reef the same day as us and she and her parents were basically doing the same trip that we’re doing, but in reverse order.

  

          -I’m picking up on Aussie slang, accents, and speech patterns much more so than I thought I was. Having Mom and Dad here has pointed that out for me.

           

         -Someone asked me, “So are you a Mounty or a Yank?” the other day when they were trying to guess my accent. I think this is a fun way to ask where someone’s from. It made me happy.

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time in airports and airplanes the last few days. It's been fun, though!

This week has been so wonderful and incredible and just great. I am beyond excited with what the last week has been. So, as I said last time, my parents are here! It is so great to be able to hang out with them and travel with them and experience so much of this awesome country with them. Ahh!

Mom and Dad arrived on Monday, where I met them at the airport in Gold Coast. And I really do prefer the Australian airport style to the American one, just sayin. We hung out for the day before they went to the hotel for the night (yay jetlag!). The next two days, I had school, so my parents, being adorable, went running on the beach together at sunrise and spent lots of time playing outside while I had class. I’m not gonna lie, class felt ETERNAL that week, I just wanted to be out of that room and hanging out with my folks. But I got all my work done and am now free to roam. And I did hang out with my parents in the evenings after class. Tuesday night we went to a super cute restaurant in downtown Southport and on Wednesday night we had dinner with Merle.

I stayed at the hotel with my folks on Wednesday night so we could leave early the next morning. Hotels here are kind of interesting. Back in the States, a fairly typical hotel room is 2 queen beds. Not here. That’s just not “standard fare” here. So the room they had was 1 queen and 1 twin. It was kind of funny.

Thursday, we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. If you arrive early in the morning (8AM) they do a lorikeet feeding. Oh my goodness, those birds are INSANE. They fly everywhere, land on your head, shoulders, arms—wherever they can get their little feet down—and chirp at deafening volumes. The staff hands out these pie tins and then fills them with this white milk and nectar mixture that the birds lap out of the pan. By the end of the feeding, the pans are dry. The lorikeets are like attack birds going after that food! It's a bit scary, but fun.

Dad also bought a good “Outback Australia” hat. I love my parents. J After that, we went to the Koala area where I FINALLY got to hold my Koala. His name was Happy Jay and I just wanted to koala-nap him and take him home. He was so sweet and cuddly. And very, very soft. Kind of a thick-soft fur so it almost feels course, but still soft. Make sense? But, alas, I had to return him. I can’t grow enough eucalyptus in my Rosen dorm room to feed him.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the Sanctuary and attending presentations about Aboriginal culture so my mom could relate that back to her kids at school. We spent a ton of time at the Kangaroo habitat feeding and petting the ‘roos. Kangaroos are really interesting animals. They’re fairly slow-moving and adorable and super sweet and soft. And I got to see a baby kangaroo! Well, kind of. A couple of the Mama Kangaroos had joeys in their pouches and you could see them wiggling around. One (pictured below) had his feet and tail hanging out of the pouch! I always kind of thought that just the heads would ever be poking out, but nope. All sorts of baby roo parts hang out of the pouch. They just wiggle around and try to get comfortable.  And they’re so cute!

Friday was the one day that I didn’t have school and we didn’t really have any plans, but Mom and Dad had been doing their homework and had rented a car to go out to Tambourine Mountain and go on the Skywalk. The Skywalk is this very “eco-tourism friendly” site in the rainforest that has a large catwalk through the canopy of the trees as well as a narrow path below. Now, those of you who know me well know that heights are not my best friend, so this adventure made me kind of nervous. But it was really awesome. We got to see a ton of beautiful old trees and take lots of photos. The rainforest is gorgeous.

We went back to Tambourine Mountain after that and went on a wine-tasting adventure. There are some delicious wines up there. One my parents bought was a dessert wine that had brandy, chocolate, and coffee flavors. It was amazing. We ended up going to three wineries that day and just had a fantastic time with it. Plus, we found a place that we could get lunch for less than $15 for all three of us…which is pretty much unheard of in Australia.

Early the next morning, we went to the airport and boarded a plane for Cairns. What a beautiful city! Cairns is a fairly low-lying city (I think the tallest building we saw was 6 stories) and is much less chaotic than Surfers Paradise. We spent the day wandering the city and getting ready for Sunday, when we were headed to the reef.

Sunday morning with our rented waterproof camera in hand, we boarded the “Big Cat” boat and set out for the reef. What an incredible experience. We went snorkeling for the first half of the day before lunch and a glass-bottom boat tour. Then we had two more hours to snorkel before we had to be back on the boat. We saw so many cool things! The giant clams are kind of terrifying to float over (they look like they could eat you!), but there were lots of beautiful rainbow fish and clown fish and coral and zebra fish. And a huge number of the “Dory” fish (I think they’re called yellowtails). And one green sea turtle! No sharks, though, luckily! Oh goodness, it was so fun. Extremely exhausting, though. We had a fantastic dinner that night (Who knew a place called Barnacle Billy’s would be so delicious!?) before heading to bed early.

And now, as I write this, we are on Qantas flight 1859 on our way to Uluru for a sunrise camel tour and a day of exploration before we fly to Sydney the following morning for 3 more days before Mom and Dad have to fly home.

Just as a side note, Australian airports seem so social. There are lots of tables and chairs and better places to talk with the people you’re travelling with. And, for as expensive as this country can be, flights can be so reasonable. I think I’m flying to Sydney for $100 round trip! Stoked for that!

I’ve also met some really great people recently that I’m looking forward to hanging out with and getting to know better/maybe travelling with. We’ll see. They’re fun and love being outside, so I think we’ll get along swimmingly. We’re talking about hanging out the week I get back from my adventure with Mom and Dad. Yay!

So, basically, Australia is great. Truly, it is. The people who live here know that they live in a great place and are nice, happy, friendly and welcoming and very helpful. They are more than happy to help anyone if you ask nicely. People are also so trusting of each other and open. There is a lot less cynicism towards others here and it shows in how people talk to each other and how they live their lives and what they do. And the weather is (usually) great. I like it here a lot. Not planning on moving here, but would love to be able to come back from time to time.

I hope everyone back home/around the world is doing well. I miss you all! I’d love to hear from anyone and hear what’s going on in your life. I know a lot of you have very exciting things coming up and I would be thrilled to hear about it! As always, Skype, email, Facebook, carrier pigeon, and actual mail are all excitedly welcomed and quickly replied to!

Love you all!

<3, Leah

PS--Internet here at Uluru is kind of awful. I will add photos soon. Promise!