Woo! Spring break!!
We flew into Gold Coast yesterday. It’s gorgeous. On the way to our hostel we
passed Palm Beach and Miami. Right next to our place here is Vegas (restaurant
and bar) and today we walked past long beach during our wanderings about the
city. This was after our walk up the beach and mini golf at King Tut’s Putt
Putt, but before our visit to Coldrock Creamery. It looked awfully familiar,
but don’t recall ever going to a place called Coldrock. We then went to a
Woolworths to grab some chicken and pasta to make for dinner. After dinner we
went to
On Monday we went to
a wildlife park in Burleigh Heads, just south of Gold Coast. It was a bit of a
hike to get there, but it was a really cool site. We got there just in time for
the snake show. It was mostly just a guy talking about the snakes, and he had a
few to show us. We also saw a tree kangaroo talk and a platypus talk, as well
as many other animals.
Afterwards, we wandered around Burleigh Heads for a bit,
and had an excellent dinner at Wahoo. That night we went to bed pretty early to
get up for our early flight. We made it to the airport really early and got
through security. We then had to go through customs since our flight was also a
big transfer for an international flight to Japan. It was really bizarre, but
there were no complications. When we got to town, we checked into our hostel
and walked over to the lagoon where we met some people from Uni that were
leaving in a few hours. We sat with them for lunch then saw them off. After
that we just wandered around and did a little grocery shopping for the week to
keep costs down. We had free dinner at one of the restaurants in town since
we’re staying at the hostel.
Wednesday we got up
early again to do a rainforest adventure. We got in a big van and picked up
some other people, then drove north an hour or so to stop at a rainforest zoo.
Saw lots of kangaroos and wallabies and koalas. It was pretty cool. We then
drove a bit further and got out and wandered through the Daintree Rainforest a
little. About an hour further up the road, over some mountains, we had lunch at
a resort in a literal rainforest café and walked on the beach a little bit.
There were some good climbing trees. After lunch we headed back south. We
stopped for another quick walk through the rainforest, then at a scenic lookout
to look out over the ocean. We then stopped for an hour-long river cruise where
we saw a few crocodiles and a tree snake. We then drove back home and made
dinner and watched some movies before bed.
Thursday we had a day
off. We spent the day wandering around Cairns and hanging out at the Hostel. It
was pretty uneventful. That evening we met up with some friends from England
who live in Parklands
Friday we got up early again, this time
for White Water Rafting in the Tully River. It was a two-hour drive or so to
get to the top of the river. We got our life jackets on and got in the water.
After a brief briefing of the rules of the raft, we went on our way. We rafted
for a few hours, hitting a couple level 4 rapids. Towards the end of the
morning half, the guide put us in the front of the boat and we went over a
meter and a half tall waterfall. We all fell into the water and got stuck under
the raft for a few moments of panic. It was totally awesome! We then stopped
for a lunch of Aussie BBQ. We had a hot dog and burger on a bun with some
coleslaw and beetroot. Top it off with some sweet chili sauce for a super
savory sandwich of monstrous proportions. It was quite delicious.
The afternoon was full
of more gentle rapids, but was still fun. I didn’t put on enough sunscreen at
lunch so I got some wicked sunburn on my shoulder blades and the back of my
neck. That evening we made more pasta and sat around and relaxed. The Saturday
afterwards was another day off. We spent the day recovering from sunburns and
colds by reading and movies and hanging out in Cairns. It was pretty relaxing. 
We got up early again
on Sunday to go out on the reef for some snorkeling. We ran into Ryan in line
since he inadvertently signed up for the same trip. We spent the next hour
playing go fish on the way out to the reef. I got a wetsuit for the day so that
my sunburn wouldn’t get any worse. Once we got to the first dive spot we got to
jump in the water. It was plenty warm and within a few seconds of getting in I
saw a sea turtle. We spent a few hours swimming around there, enjoying the
scenery and the bright coral and fish. After a few hours of that, we got back
on the boat where we had another BBQ. This time they had some pasta salads and
shrimp as well. It was another delicious and extremely filling meal. We took
another hour boat ride to get to our second destination. We got back out and
had another couple hours in the water. This trek was one of the most
breathtaking things I’ve ever seen. That evening we rested up and went out for
a couple drinks and another free dinner, then early to bed since Monday was
skydiving day. 
We got up early again
to catch another bus to go out to Mission Beach for a skydive. It took a couple
hours to drive out there, and then about a half hour wait for our group to be
ready to go up. We got all our gear on and hopped in a van to take us to the
airport. We saw a cassowary crossing the road on the way. Cassowaries are the
most dangerous bird in the world. We got to the airport and spent another 20
minutes flying up to the 14,000 feet to get ready to jump. Once there the hatch
was opened and the guy I was flying tandem with threw us out of the plane. The
first sensation was deafening wind. Then I caught my breath and was able to
enjoy the rest of the minute long free fall towards the ocean. The parachute
was pulled after a minute of falling and we floated down for 4-5 minutes to
land on the beach. It was the most exhilarating few minutes in memory.
Afterwards, Sarah and
I went to a beachside café to get some lunch and hope our ears would pop so we
could hear each other talk. Had some interesting, failed conversations about
not being able to hear each other. It was funny. It took us an hour and a half
to get our food, but it was really excellent. Then it was time to head back to
Cairns to pack up and get ready for our early flight back to Sydney. We made it
back to the Uni without a hitch and had a little welcome home party. I spent
the next few days lazing around and recovering from all the excitement of
break.
The Saturday after
returning, we went to the Manly International Jazz Festival. Manly is a suburb
on the north side of the harbour that you need to take a ferry to get to. It
was quite a fun outing with lots of good music, good food, and good friends. We
stopped and got some dinner and I had the best calamari of my life, then we
stopped at a Coldrock for dessert.
Sunday was daylight savings
day, so we lost an hour but Monday was Labor Day so we had the day off. That
was bittersweet since I don’t have class on Monday anyway. What a waste of a
day off of school…
We ended up going
into the city on Monday evening to meet up with a German we met while rafting
who had made her way down to Sydney for dinner. Tuesday was back to class.
Nothing special happened. Wednesday we went to the city to walk around and
experience Art and About, an international art festival on the streets of
Sydney. It was a bunch of installation pieces throughout the city. It was
pretty cool. After that we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. I got the
eel. It was really delicious!
Thursday was paper
day. Spent most of the day in the library writing about the original War of the
Worlds broadcast. Friday we had a birthday party for a couple of the guys in
the parklands.
Saturday was a big
day in the city. We had tickets for the Giuseppi Verdi Opera, Macbeth. It was
an incredible experience. The words were in Italian, so it was hard to
understand them. Luckily there was a translation above the proscenium so you
can read along. Unluckily we were in one of the two rows where the balcony
blocked the translation, so I just had to work off the synopsis and enjoy the
other aspects, which I could see. Overall the show was phenomenal. The only
aspect I wasn’t blown away by was the costuming. Particularly those of the Lady
Macbeth. The costumes didn’t seem to fit together at all and most of Lady
Macbeth’s dresses looked weird or didn’t seem to fit right. It was a little
distracting, but the large set, awesome music, and lovely lighting made it an
excellent show.
After the Opera, we
walked to the Paragon Hotel for some BarCraft. This was really interesting. It
was a bar filled with a bunch of people watching a sport. Everyone’s been
there. The difference is this bar was full of nerds watching a live stream of
the Global Starcraft Team League finals. It was really interesting and pretty
intense.
After we made it back
to Parklands and had some dinner, some people convinced me to go back into the
city to hit up some pubs. We hit Hart’s Pub to get a paddle, which has 4
quarter-pints of beer. They were quite delicious and fairly inexpensive. Made
it home and to bed around 2:30, only to get up at 6:30 on Sunday.
Joey and I got up
early to help out a girl upstairs. She’s filming a short film and needed two
guys to rough up a little Korean girl for her Vietnam flashback story. We spent
the morning in the suburb of Cabramatta filming away. We had some Korean food
for lunch then wandered through the marketplace there before heading home. And
that was pretty much the end of the weekend.
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