This is the life.

What a great weekend! So I got up at 5am on Saturday morning, left at 5:25 to catch the 5:45 ferry to the city. I had to walk for about 15 minutes through the city to get to the transit centre from where, I found out, many of the tours to Brisbane’s surrounding area depart. I sat and waited for about 20 minutes before I got into the 4WD vehicle, along with 8 others, to go to the ferry that takes people to Moreton Island. The others on the trip were an interesting mix—a French couple in their mid-30’s, a 24 year-old German girl working as a nanny for an Aussie family, a Swedish nurse in her 30’s, a Malaysian woman who has lived in Brissie for 4 years now, a Californian in his 30’s doing his 2^nd post-doc in neuroscience at UQ, an Aussie couple who were about my age, and an Aussie my age who had been offered the job of being a tour guide for this company and was testing out if he liked it. Then there was our tour guide who was your stereotypical aussie surfer type, 22 (+/- a year… I forget), and who knew basically everything about Moreton Island, from the full history to every species of plant-life.

Anyway, the diverse blend of people on the trip proved to be really fun and we all got along great. Once again, I went on a trip and was so sad to leave the people I had only known for a few days—a very common trend for me! Okay, so when we got off the ferry, a 2-hour ride, despite how close the island is to Brissie, during which we all got to socialize a bit, we hopped back into the truck and drove to the sand mountains—Moreton is the 3^rd biggest sand island in the world only to North Stradbroke and the biggest Fraser (where I’m going this weekend). We got these boards that we waxed the bottoms of and rode down the dunes. It was so steep so the speed was quite a thrill…walking up was not so much, haha. I found a less steep incline where I was able to stand on the board and go down which made me very excited! After that we were all sweaty and hot and we loaded back into the truck to got to the campsite for lunch. Our guide had to fix our lunch once we got there, so we each picked our tents and threw some of our stuff in them that we wouldn’t need for the rest of the day. Then we all went over to Blue lagoon which is a freshwater lagoon that was beautiful and only about a 2 minute walk from our tents. We came back to camp and had a lunch of sandwiches and salad which was good but, little did we know, basically the same as every meal to come for the rest of the trip!

After lunch we went to Moreton Lighthouse and our guide pointed out the turtles that looked like big round masses, all along the rocky shore. It takes about 4 strong men just to lift up these turtles by the way! So yea, pretty cool, and we saw a few dolphin too. We walked down through the forest and down these incredibly steep sand dunes to a little beach. We just relaxed and laid out on the sand and I out over some of the big rocks—all very beautiful. By the time it was almost 5:00, the breeze off the water was pretty cold, so we headed back up; thankfully, we went a different route on the way back that was about twice as long but not as steep. When we got back to camp our guide started dinner and we all decided against any showering (haha) because whatever we were camping. So we took some wine and went to the lagoon to watch the sunset. It wasn’t all that amazing of a sunset, but still very enjoyable. When we got back to camp we started up the fire and ate our dinner in the dark around the fire. We couldn’t even see what we were eating! We spent the next several hours around the fire just talking, drinking, and admiring the stars. Apparently I have never been so far away from the city, because I didn’t realize that stars were so bright and plentiful! It was magnificent.

In the morning we were all up by 7am just because of the sunlight I suppose. We had some breakfast and then got in the truck to head to North Point where we went to honeymoon bay and the champagne pools. At north point there is an endless stretch of white sand beach in one direction and then large rocks at the point where many people were fishing. If you walk around the point, there is an inlet with a really nice, small beach. There were really good waves in the inlet, so I ended up bodysurfing for the entire 3 hours we were there! I was with the Aussie who was training to be a guide, and he was so impressed with my bodysurfing skills that he wanted me to give him tips! Anyway, we left there and walked back to the trunk to go back to camp to have lunch. After lunch we got all of our stuff together and made sure camp was clean before heading to Tangalooma Beach. This beach is famous because 15 ships were sunk just out from shore to make it a good spot for boats to dock. We snorkeled the wrecks for a bit which entailed being surrounded by fish and not having more than 2 meters of visibility. All of the fish ramming into me kind of freaked me out a bit honestly! After we dried off our guide pointed out the incredibly steep sand dune just up the beach where, from the top, you could get an amazing view. None of the men were up for the challenge, but the girls decided to embark on the journey! Looking up at it, none of us thought it could be that bad, but wow, it was really tough. It was so steep that with each steep you only make a few inches of progress, and this thing was tall! It took us a while, but eventually we made it to the top where we took some pictures before running down. It reminded me of the dunes in the outer banks, but much, much steeper! We were all sweaty and exhausted so we laid on the beach for a bit but pretty soon we had to hop in the truck to catch the 3:30 ferry back to the mainland. On the ferry ride home I got an iced tea and laid out on the top level with some of the others. I ended up falling asleep for most of the ride! We drove back to the Brisbane Transit center without a hitch and I said most of my goodbyes there, but I went with Vicki and Ti, the Swedish woman and the Malaysian woman to their bus stop because it was on my way to the ferry. I said my goodbyes to them and then picked up subway—my first (and probably last) American fast food in Australia!—and got to the ferry at 6:53, not even knowing that there is a 6:53 ferry back to uni! Rarely do I have good luck with public transport here, but it was very much appreciated because I was exhausted and in need of a shower—and would’ve had to wait 30 minutes until the next one had I missed it! I came home to most of my hall still a bit drunk from Sunday afternoon festivities, haha. Anyway, today I did a massive amount of laundry—I honestly had not one piece of warm clothing left—and finished my paper for anthro.

I should also mention that I finally know when my finals are! The last day of classes is the 30^th, and then my finals are on the 11, 13,14, and 16. Soooo HUGE gap that I want to use to travel. It looks like I’ll be able to go to Cairns after all! Filipo and James (from my hall) planned their trip to Cairns several weeks ago and are leaving on May 29. I’m going to try and join with them and maybe I’ll be on my own for a bit but whatever. Then after finals I have a little less than a week that I’ll spend seeing everything I never did in Brisbane. I have time to think about all of this so I won’t rush it for now. Alright I should get some more work and organizing done…and wow this was a really long entry!