The plan was to sleep the morning after we got to Cairns (April 23rd). We didn't have anything planned, so there was nothing to wake up to. So no alarms, just sleep until we woke up. In the 8 bed dorm at Gilligan's Backpackers Hotel & Resort, this turned out to be pretty early. At 7:15am I woke up to a girl crawling into my top bunk bed, reaching for my backpack. In my sleepy haze I assumed this was Isabelle or Sydney trying to find toothpaste. But it wasn't. It was another girl in our dorm who was convinced that her iPad was in my backpack. I tried telling her that it wasn't in my bag, but she continued to take my bag down to the floor and started looking for her iPad. It was absurd, and I was so perplexed by what was going on. Finally, after a bit of back and forth (and some fowl words from the dorm mate), she decided that I didn't have anything of hers, and that her bag might be a better place to look. It seemed like her two friends and her were rushing off to something, so they were packing their stuff quickly. Between throwing stuff in their bags, the girl kept whistling the Do Re Me song from the Sound of Music (in a very creepy way, I must add). They ran out the door 15 minutes later. Oh, the joy of dorms.
After my unexpected wake up call, I couldn't go back to sleep. I just got dressed and ready for the day, and had coffee at a cozy café across the street. Isabelle joined me a little later, and we decided to take advantage of the semi-nice weather. We layed out by the pool for about 25 minutes before it started raining again. At least we got to be in the sun for a little while!
We regrouped with Sydney at lunch time. We had crisp bread, jam, and very yummy organic peanut butter. Yum! We decided to go to the Cairns Tropical Zoo in the afternoon. We read that we could hold a koala, a boa, and a baby crocodile (for an additional fee, of course), so we had to visit this place. After a 40-minute bus ride, we were very ready to see some tropical animals.
The highlight of our trip to the zoo was... Drumroll, please... Holding a koala! I think it would be fair to say that both Sydney and Isabelle are pretty obsessed with koalas, so we paid $18 to hold a koala named Cooper. You had to support the koala with one hand, and put your other hand out like a tree branch. Below is me getting all branchy.
Koalas have pretty sharp claws. Cooper's little claws were digging into my skin. Ouch!
The actual holding of Cooper only lasted for about 17 seconds, but the memories will last forever. Right, Isabelle and Sydney?
We also got a lovely photo printed. The girls have already decided that their photos are going above their beds, so they can admire them every night before they go to sleep.
Not all koalas can be cuddled for photos. The koala must have a gentle temperament, and undergo many years of training to enjoy being held by a stranger. We imagine Cooper looked something like the koala in the brochure when he first was done with his training. So bright eyed and bushy tailed, and ready to be cuddled!
Cooper doesn't look too excited about being cuddled anymore. In our photos, we look super excited to hold a koala. Cooper? Not so much. His facial expression screams "Why do they do this to me?" and "Get me out of here."
Unfortunately we got to the zoo too late in the afternoon to hold a snake and a baby croc. Isabelle and Sydney weren't too concerned about missing this opportunity. After all, they did just get to cuddle with their favorite animal. Despite not being able to hold a baby crocodile myself, I was able to pet one of them. The skin on their backs was rough and bumpy, while the skin on their stomachs was smooth.
The zoo had lots of crocodiles and alligators. I think this lopsided fellow named Gummy was my favorite. He was so cute! Contrary to my initial thought, Gummy's appearance was not the result of a ferocious crocodile fight. Rather his appearance is likely due to his egg being incubated at too high a temperature.
One of Isabelle's worst nightmares: being eaten by a croc!
In addition to koalas and crocodiles, we saw lots of other animals at the zoo (it wouldn't really be a zoo if all they had two types animals).
My wombat encounters have been very disappointing while in Australia; they have always been completely uninterested in me. They've been far more interested in stuffing their cute little faces with food.
This cassowary was as skeptical as all the other cassowaries I've seen. Did you know that there are only about 1200 wild cassowaries left in Australia? I didn't until I read the sign next to their cage (ha ha ha). They are a keystone species, eating fruits indigestible to other species, dispersing their seeds. Without the help of the cassowaries, a lot of trees and plants would die out. This could shift the balance in the rainforest, and ultimately result in the collapse of the entire eco-system. Pretty important birds!
Sydney and Isabelle found the perfect thing to wear on a cold winter day: Koala hat!
I was feeling a little more hoppity, so I felt the kangaroo hat was a better fit.
The hostel that we're staying at offers free dinner when you purchase any kind of drink (shouldn't it be the other way around?). We took advantage of this offer our first night, before going out to a bar called Woolshed later in the evening. Fun place!
We had yet another early start yesterday (April 24th). The Jungle Surfing tour we booked started at 7:00am. Jungle Surfing entails zip lining through rainforest canopies of the Workd Heritage Cape Tribulation and Daintree Rainforests. Isabelle, Sydney, Caitlin, Jill, and I were (somewhat) ready for a full-day tour. It turned out that we were doing a few other things besides just going down zip lines. We went to yet another wildlife park (Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas), and on a crocodile river cruise. The drive to the rainforest also took quite a while. We started at 7am, and weren't home until 7:30pm. It was a looong day.
We were able to feed the kangaroos at the Wildlife Habitat. I took the opportunity to snap a few selfies with this friendly 'roo.
It's not easy getting the kangaroo to pose, so I bribed him with a bag of food pellets. He seemed pretty satisfied.
My friend, Helene, made a good point on an Instagram post of mine (of me and the kangaroo). "This is the type of picture it sucks to be ugly in. It's not easy to get a kangaroo to pose." Oh, so true! I found this hilarious. You can only imagine how many pictures I had to take to get a decent shot.
Our guide for the day, Jeremy, was so cheerful and happy, despite so many things going wrong yesterday. First, his car broke down on the way to work, then the van we were in broke down, which caused further delays, and finally on our way home the second van was starting to have some trouble. Also, it was pouring almost the entire day. He really had a great attitude. I love happy people like that!
Jeremy was also extremely talkative (he talked non-stop for the first portion of our trip from 7am to 1pm). He was extremely knowledgeable, and I love when the guides provide lots of facts and stories. However, I think we could have benefitted from a little quiet time here and there. Sydney definitely wanted/needed some quiet time.
We finally made it to the Jungle Surfing at around 1pm. We got geared up in harnesses and helmets, and we were ready to zip line in the rainforest. We each got a new identity; I was King Kong. I was joined by Sheena Queen of the Jungle (Caitlin), Catwoman (Jill), Pocahontas (Isabelle), and Princess Leia (Sydney).
We flew through the rainforest, and stopped at five tree platforms with bird's eye views over the treetops. It was raining TONS, but it really just added to the experience. It was fun being in the rainforest when it was raining. By the time we reached the bottom, we were all drenched.
At each platform we were met by a guide who provided lots of fun facts about the rainforest. The Daintree Rainforest is the largest area of continuous tropical rainforest on the Australian continent, and is about 12000square km/4633square miles. It is approx 135 million years old.
You felt completely safe while zip lining. So safe that we even went without hands on one and upside down on another!
Our last activity for the day was a crocodile cruise. Crocodiles are fascinating creatures. The saltwater crocs (who can actually live their whole life in fresh water) are the largest living reptile species. They can grow up to six meters/20 feet! They are carnivors, and are a threat to humans. They wait around and learn the routine of their prey before they ambush and attack. Intestingly, they eat much, much less than what one would expect; they can survive on about 160 calories a day. Their metabolism is insanely slow, and they can go several months (!) without eating. Unfortunately, we didn't see any on our cruise... But we did learn a lot.
After 12 hours out and about, we were exhausted. We ended up getting something quick to eat before going to bed and passing out at 9:30pm.
Today is Anzac Day, which is a very special day for Australians and New Zealanders. This day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
On our first Anzac Day, Isabelle, Sydney, Caitlin and I went on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef with the company Reef Experience. Our tour started from the Marlin Wharf at 7:30am, and we were back at around 5pm. It included breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, coffee/tea, snorkeling, and an introductory dive. You also had the option of doing a second dive for $55. I would highly recommend this company; the tour was great and the guides were very friendly.
We went to two reefs about 60km/37miles from Cairns: Hastings Reef and Breaking Patches Reef. Before diving, a marine biologist had a 30 minute talk about the reef and what we would encounter out there. The four of us snorkeled for a while before Isabelle, Caitlin, and I did our introductory dive in Hastings Reef. This was my second time scuba diving (first time was in Manly with the gray nurse sharks), and I didn't really like the whole breathing-under-water-thing. However, this time was so much better. It was a lot easier than the first time, and went much better than I had expected. So well that we decided to do the second dive at Breaking Patches Reef, too.
In the intro dive, you had to show that you could equalize your ears, get water out of your mask, and take the regulator (the thing that provides oxygen) out of your mount under water. This took a little while, so we only had about 20 minutes to swim around Hastings Reef. The second dive was longer, probably around 45 minutes.
Our guide on the intro dive, Craig from Newcastle, was very entertaining and funny. We have come to realize that we get girly crushes all our instructors/guides. We liked the surf instructors, the cave guy in Waitomo, the rafting guy in Tongariro, the jungle surfer guy, to name a few. I think it has to do with them knowing exactly what we need to avoid getting hurt. You feel like your life is in their hands (which at times it kind of is). Our guide for the second dive, Ellen, was also very nice, but for some reason we didn't end up crushing over her.
Though the weather was pretty lousy, we still had good visibility under water.
We saw lots of different coral and sea life when snorkeling and scuba diving. Some of the coral was hard, while other flowed freely in the water. Hard corals act as building blocks for the Reef. They form when colonies of coral polyps produce limestone skeletons to support themselves. Soft corals are flexible because they lack a solid skeleton which means they are often mistaken for plants. We had to be very careful not to step on or damage the coral in any way.
There were also lots of fish and other creatures in the water. One of my favorite movies is the animated Pixar movie Finding Nemo. The clown fish, Nemo, is abducted from his home in the Great Barrier Reef by divers after he ventures out into the open sea. He is taken to a dentist's office in Sydney, and his father, Marlin, sets out to rescue him. In the movie we meet lots of typical reef creatures. When snorkeling/diving, you really feel like the dentist in the movie; you're just this huge thing observing everything.
I'm happy to say that Pixar depicted the reefs and its inhabitants very well. We found Nemo (bi-color clown fish) and his friend Crush (sea turtle), but we couldn't find his other friends Gill (moorish idol) or Dory (blue lines surgeon fish). Many of the fish had electric, vibrant colors that made them very easy to see. The sea turtle was amazing. It just swam around peacefully. We also got to hold a few sea cucumbers on our second dive.
There were so many interesting things to see. We were just swimming around in awe. It was surreal. The reefs were truly amazing.
There was a camera guy that swam around taking pictures. In the last scuba dive pictures and video (from Manly), we realized that all we did was wave whenever the camera was pointed at us. Well... This time we added a few more signs to our repertoire: the "OK" sign and the Shaka/Hang Loose sign. Whenever the camera was pointed at us, this is what we did. In every single picture. Our facial expressions were also very ridiculous.
I was definitely OK.
Actually, we were all okay.
I'm pretty sure I was doing the Shaka sign with my right hand.
Isabelle is OK (yet again).
Shaka and OK hand gesture combo.
Last picture from the second dive = last chance to do the OK sign. I opted for a thumbs up, which actually means "I want to go up" in scuba lingo. Oops.
After getting home and washing off all the saltwater, the girls and I went to PJ O'Brians for dinner. I had a burger (surprise!), and Sydney had the fish and chips (surprise!). It turned out to be another early night (in bed by 9pm). Tomorrow is our last full day in Cairns, and we plan to spend it by the pool. The Weather Gods are finally cooperating, and giving us some sunshine! Going to give the no-alarm-sleep-until-I-wake-up-thing another try. Crossing my fingers that I don't wake up with another dorm mate in my bed tomorrow morning!
Good night.
Love,
Suzy
