The course finally begins! Everyone arrives reasonably on time and we get ready to have our first dinner together as a group. For the most part we enjoy free time as a group to explore and get to know one another. It also gives us an organized group to figure out how to party. The weekend starts…and so does the rain. This doesn’t stop us from getting to know Brisbane though, and we discover the casino. My first time ever gambling legally and I won $34 from a $2 play on the penny machines. While the guys lost some significant amounts of cash, I was very happy with the knowledge I’d won at least two lunches or a dinner while staying in Australia.
After getting adjusted to our new residence in Brisbane, it was time to leave. We left out on an excursion to Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast of northern Queensland. The city is very much like Ocean City, Maryland except there are real surfers and the beach would put any East Coast beach to shame. We had a surfing lesson that day so our group had to be divided into two groups. My group was the second group to get in the water, which I was grateful for because I was really hungry. We set off into the shopping area and checked out the interesting shops that Surfer’s Paradise had to offer. We then went to Nando’s, which is a chain restaurant in the States, but has a different menu and marketing in Australia. It was still really good and gave us all the nourishment to survive our lesson to come.
Whoever said surfing was easy, lied. One the water was unbelievably rough; two, there were jellyfish everywhere up and down the beach. Australians refer to regular jellyfish as ‘stingers’. They are small, blue and have long tentacles that can get as long as 5 meters. The first group had a few encounters with the stingers, but luckily my group had a pain free experience other than the bashing of the waves. I was able to halfway stand up which I took as an accomplishment for all the nose dives I suffered.
After surfing we went to a group dinner and show at the Australian Outback Spectacular. Its very much like Medieval Times but all about Australia and how the first English inhabitants conquered the outback and turned Australia to what it is today. I didn’t feel at all up to par when the show began but luckily once dinner came I started to feel better. It was a true experience and I learned that Americans aren’t the only people who love country music.
On Saturday, we all left to take a river cruise to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It’s one of the only places in Australia where you can legally touch and hold koalas since they are endangered. Besides koalas, there were many other native animals at the sanctuary. Everything was set up in open encasements so that you could really get close to the animals. I even purchased a $16 photo of me and my koala, Matt, which the proceeds of go to helping build more exhibits and research to save koalas. We also had our first encounters with kangaroos and emus. Luckily, neither are aggressively mean, but emus are definitely not the friendliest birds you’ll ever meet.
That night we tried to drive to Hervey Bay, but the floodwaters stopped us from traveling too far and we were camped out at a rest stop for a few hours until we decided to return to Brisbane for the night and try again the next day.
The next morning we left very early to try again and with luck we made it to the city of 1770 or Agnes Waters, after a day on the bus. We were scheduled for a beautiful day of scuba diving on Sunday, which I was really excited about. Unfortunately, because of a past history of asthma, they wouldn’t allow me or Michael to dive. I was super annoyed and upset but luckily a day of snorkeling on the reef made up for it. Hopefully I can post some of my underwater photos in the future.
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