Sunlight Dripping from my face

Play by Play Spring Break:

Spring break started out with a bang as my name was called over the loudspeaker in the airport because I was at the wrong gate. Charlotte and I sprinted across the airport onto a very packed plane laughing hysterically. We checked into our hostel in Cairns that afternoon and walked around the area. Cairns is CRAZY. Huge tourist spot, not many Americans when we were there but loads of travelers from Europe- Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, etc. The whole place was packed with young people, partying every night because half of the hostel is a club. Needless to say it was hard to sleep there.

The first night we got invited on a pub crawl around Cairns and ended up meeting two guys who we spent the next few days with. Of course they were the only two other Americans in the area (from Chicago), and they were just on holiday. Loads of fun this first night - I actually entered a dance competition that night and had to strut my stuff to country music for a minute while the crowd cheered for their favorite dancer. I got pretty into it and kicked off my heels at the start which got me a few hoots!

Day 2: Here is a picture of our boat and where they let us off to snorkel over to a tiny sandbar...
Woke up at 6 am, exhausted from the night before. Charlotte and I walked to the marina for our reef trip! Beautiful boat, really friendly crew. It took about 2 hours to get to the reef and then we suited up for our beginners scuba diving lesson! It was actually more difficult than I thought! The crew kind of threw everyone into the water and then we were told to hold onto the side of the boat for some practice exercises. My mask wasn't fitting that well and I was trying to adjust it while being told to practice breathing, while being smashed into the side of the boat as the waves crashed over my head, while being ushered down a small rope, it was crazy! I started to hyperventilate a little which is probably the worst thing you can do scuba diving since it's all about your breathing, but I got it under control and ended up being fine. Once I started getting deeper my ears hurt a lot trying to adjust but there was SO much to see down there that I was pretty distracted from the pain. Multi-colored coral everywhere, Nemo, it looked pretty much like how I thought the reef would look like- only bigger and more exquisite. We snorkeled in the afternoon, swimming through whole schools of fish because the crew kept throwing bread out. We also hopped off the boat for a little marine animal informational tour on a smaller boat with a glass bottom!

Day 3: Slept in a little this morning and had a great breakfast at a little cafe in Cairns. Then Charlotte and I headed over to meet up with our new friends to go swimming. We spontaneously decided that swimming in the hotel pool was not adventurous enough so we rented a car for the day and drove two hours to the famous Cape Tribulation beach. Our friends had gone on a rainforest trip the day before and told us it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen, truly a hidden jem in the rainforest. So we drove on the left side of the road, in a manual, on the most curvy, bumpy back roads to this beach. So for anyone who has seen the movie "The Beach," this beach we went to has the same allure. It's tucked into this massive forest, you have to cross a drawbridge to get there, and it's stunning. It was the type of drive where we didn't quite know where we were going but that was also the fun part. After about an hour and 50 minutes we started stopping pedestrians we saw along the way asking "is cape trib up here??" everyone kept telling us to just keep on going. Finally we arrived there around dusk, completely deserted from end to end. We set up a little bonfire, had champagne, went swimming, and explored. Truly the highlight of the break. Great experience, wow just reminiscing makes me want to be back there so bad.

 Scenery on the drive there....

Cape Tribulation during the day time...

Me and Charlotte! So happy!!

Day 4: Woke up at 5 am for white water rafting!!!! Took a two hour bus ride down the coast a little to Tully. Tully is famous for the big rapids in the area. We were thrown onto the river with a crazy New Zealand tour guide, two German girls, and two American girls. The rapids were not as intense as I would have liked but still exciting. We stopped halfway down the river for a BBQ, jumped off a giant rock, and passed under a nice waterfall. The girls in our boat weren't very good at paddling nor did the Germans speak any English so they kept paddling in the wrong direction...very amusing. An exhausting day in the sun but well worth it.

Day 5: This was our last day in Cairns and Charlotte and I were ready for one last adventure! We wanted to go for a hike in one of the national parks in the area but they were all pretty difficult to get to. We decided to hitchhike! Truly the student budget here --- it was a little nerve-racking holding your thumb out on the side of a busy highway but I did it (Sorry mom & dad!). Charlotte and I decided that if we didnt' get picked up within half an hour we would stop, so of course 5 minutes later a guy stops for us. Nice guy, told us he had given lots of hitchhikers rides in the last few weeks, we asked him to take us to the Skyrail. Skyrail trips are usually pretty expensive because of transportation there and all the tours included but since we just got there for free and wanted to self-guide our tours, it was a deal! We took a beautiful ride up through the mountains looking out over the whole city, to a tiny little rainforest town called Kuranda. Famous for the Kuranda markets, it's quite touristy. So we had packed some sandwiches and ate them as we walked through the town and then on a few bush walks in the area.

 Skyrail...

Hitch-hiking!! Sandwich in hand...

That night we took an overnight bus down the coast to the Whitsundays. A few days earlier, the travel company for the boat we were supposed to be on in the Whitsundays called and said that not enough people signed up for our boat since it was the off- season. The woman asked if we would like to be upgraded to a boat called New Horizons. This was the boat we originally wanted to go on but it was too expensive. Needless to say we were over ecstatic!! When we finally checked into the marina the boat company told us that New Horizons also got cancelled because not enough people signed up, so we got upgraded AGAIN! Our new boat, the Atlantic Clipper, had a hot spa, a water slide, a diving board, and is known as a "party boat", not a 'booze cruise,' just a loud boat. And oh boy were some of those people rowdy on our boat...About 50 people on board with 7 crew members. Lots of people from Ireland and other parts of Europe. A few too many creepy older European men as well...
We snorkeled a few times and saw a GIANT fish (will upload underwater photos soon), but the true highlight of this trip was Whitehaven Beach. This beach has been called the second most beautiful beach in the world after someplace in Thailand, but let me just say, I was speechless. 360 degree view of paradise. The sand is 98% silica so it shines your silver and exfoliates your skin. Charlotte and I rubbed tons of the sand all over us right before we left and IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!! Never have I ever felt so smooth in my entire life...unfortunately some woman was fined $3000 for trying to take some of the sand onto the plane so if anyone wants to experience it, you'll have to come to Australia. The boat was a lot of fun in the end- especially because the crew was so enthusiastic, not to mention gorgeous! One of the guys just got back from London because he was on the Australian men's water polo team! Drool....
But all in all it was a fantastic, fantastic break and I so desperately wish I was back there already.