Marvelous Month of May

After lecture recess it was time to buckle down and actually get some work done. First up an essay for my natural resource management class about the issues of shark fisheries in the Great Barrier Reef. What I learned: it is basically impossible to have a sustainable shark fishery because of the fact that they are apex predators and k-strategists. Also they are highly at risk from being caught in gillnets from other fishing endeavors. Next up luckily a break because it was the labour day holiday for Australia and so we had a 3-day weekend. A friend that I had met at the beginning of the semester, Jason, who had moved to Brisbane came back up to Townsville to visit for the weekend. Saturday we went to the Cowboys game; the Cowboys are the local rubgy league team. Sunday we went to Groovin’ the Moo a music festival—my favorite was Vampire Weekend. The weekend was topped off with spending the day at Crystal Creek on Monday with dairy-free ice cream at the Frosty Mango. And now every time I try to study I end up procrastinating by looking up activities for Kim and I to do in Sydney and Melbourne ☺

Lecture Recess- Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere Mom and Dad!!!

Lecture recess is essentially the same thing as spring break, accept for the fact it couldn't be called spring break because it is actually the fall here!

So on April 16th I left Townsville and landed in Christchurch, New Zealand! the largest city on the south island. My two friends, Jessica and Jessica, stayed in my hotel room with me on Friday night, and let me tell you after traveling as a backpacker the whole time I've been here, this place was nice!!! I mean starting out with our own bathroom, double beds, a patio, it was nice :) Saturday morning the three of us caught a bus into the city and had fun exploring. There was a small market going on right in front of the Cathedral where we were able to look around and meet some Kiwi's (aka new zealanders) then we had brunch at this amazing little cafe on the plaza called Yellow Rocket that had delicious breakfast sandwiches. However, the best decision of the day was definitely going into the cathedral where we met a man Don Donaldson (I'm pretty sure that's right), this 70-yr-old new zealand dude who showed us all around the Cathedral (he was a tour guide) then he volunteered to drive us around Christchurch when his shift ended! So there the 3 of us were in the mercedes of a New Zealander who drove us to these gardens called Mona Vale and bought us morning "tea" then took us to the University of Christchurch to see the Rugby Club and campus- AWESOME! Then he dropped us off at the arts market, another great venue to spend money. At about 3pm I walked back to the plaza and arrived at the hotel I was supposed to meet mom and dad at right as they were getting there- perfect timing. And so we explored Christchurch together the rest of the night.

Sunday was a day for adventures. Morning= more Christchurch. Then we drove to Pegasus Bay vineyard for a gourmet lunch and wine tasting- seriously so good. We had fig salad that I wish I could eat all the time. We then headed up to Kaikora where we were able to see a seal colony, yes a real live wild seal colony. It blew my mind. I feel like that is one animal that you forget seriously exist in the wild, but there they were right in front of us swimming in the water and lounging on the rocks.

Monday we drove down to Oamaru via Timaru. In Timaru we had lunch at the cutest little cafe and again delicious bagel sandwiches. Once in Oamaru we found this little cottage on a side street to stay in for the night and headed out for our adventures. First we went to these cliffs where you could see the yellow eyed penguin colony. We were up at the top of the cliffs and you could look down and watch as the penguins came in for the night. They seriously did look like they were surfing; they would bob around in the water and then when it suited them they would hop out onto the sand. Then the would climb the cliffs and find a place to sleep in the bush for the night. Prior to that I had no idea that penguins came onto the terrestrial environment. It was really cool we met this couple from Scotland and there was also a guide there who was helping to point out the penguins and tell us about them. He is part of a conservation group dedicated to protecting the penguins and their habitat. Next we went back down to the harbour to see the blue penguin colony come in for the night. These guys are the world's smallest penguin. The first ones that came up waited on the rocks until the others came home then as a group they all walked up the little ramp and into the woods for the night. There were heaps of them! Dinner we ate at the cafe adjacent to our cottage and it was amazing :) of course it was accompanied by local wine.

Tuesday morning we got an early start so that we could drive to get a view of Mt. Cook. Along the way we went to see the Moeraki Boulders, stopped at another winery, ate a delicious lunch at Poppies, fed farm raised salmon, and saw Maori rock art (Indigenous New Zealanders). Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand and it is really rare to get a good view because it is usually too cloudy. However we were really lucky and it was a crystal clear day. We got to the glacier lake, Tekapo the water is so blue you can't even describe it and then above it loomed this huge snow capped peak- gorgeous! Then we had to start the drive back to Christchurch. We made it back in time for a late dinner that we ate at the Honey Pot Cafe, a great local place with lots of character. Dad and I spent quite a while that night walking off our dinner and peaking in tourist trap shops :)

Wednesday was another early morning as it was the last bit of time we had in New Zealand. We mostly went to the Christchurch Cathedral, this time climbing to the top, and shopped for our souvenirs. We then flew to Cairns via Sydney, arriving in Sydney with not quite enough time to leave the airport but just long enough of a layover to go crazy.

Thursday we went up to Kuranda a village in the rainforest outside of Cairns. We took the skyrail to get up there- this gondala that goes over the rainforest. In Kuranda I went to the Butterfly Sanctuary while mom and dad went to the Bird Sanctuary and then we met up at the Koala park. Apparently all kinds of birds were landing on mom because they liked her red hat! We had such a delicious lunch of pumpkin pizza and a salad with pumpkin and fish. On the way back down the skyrail we stopped at the rainforest stations and we were lucky enough at the last one to be able to get there right as one of the park rangers was starting a tour so we got a mini-introduction to the rainforest. Delicious dinner in Cairns of Thai food and gelato with a long walk about.

Friday up early (noticing a trend) to head up through Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation to see the Daintree Rainforest. We were on a tour that took us to the Mossman Gorge, on a river crew along the Daintree River where we got to see estuarine crocs in the wild, a walk through the rainforest, a tropical lunch, 4WD to a secluded beach and tropical fruit ice cream.

Saturday was our big day out on the reef! Dad even did two introductory scuba dives and when he came up all he could say was "oh man! that was great!!!" I got to do 3 dives that day- so blessed- I saw a whitetip reef shark, stingrays, sea turtle, lionfish, you name it! The best part was doing a drift dive, we just jumped in the water and the current carried us along the reef- we barely had to kick our fins! Mom snorkeled and saw amazing things as well.

Sunday we headed down to Townsville via Josephine Falls and Murdering Point Winery (named that b/c people actually did get murdered near there, original hey) and I took mom and dad to church with me at Calvary. Monday we went to a museum together downtown and then I got to show them around JCU. After that they had to head back up to Mission Beach and onto Sydney the next day while I had to hit the books again!

Mission Beach Field Trip- Sat 10 - Sun 11 April

Mission Beach Field Trip~

At the beginning of April my Natural Resource Management class took a field trip to the Mission Beach area to study some of the practices going on up there. We got real lucky and our first stop was at the just opened Mamu Canopy Walk. This is a raise boardwalk that goes through the rainforest at approximately canopy height so you can get an awesome view of all the different species. The rainforest is currently in recovery mode from Cyclone Larry in 2006 so we were able to see some of the pioneer species and natural succession of a forest. Normally the entrance would be $20 but our lecturers worked out a deal for us to go in free as long as we "evaluated the presentation," I thought it was a great deal :)

Next up was a banana plantation, which first of all I cannot say in proper Australian English (softer a-sounds and some aussies even add an r to the end, yea they don't pronounce r's when they are really supposed to be in words but they tack on r's to words that end in vowels). Anyways, I was excited about the banana plantation because I was anxious to compare the practices here in Australia to those used by countries that supply the US with bananas. Basically I'll spare you the details but Australia has fewer ethical issues, but overall I was a little disappointed that the sustainability goal in banana farming is not more progressive.

From there we went to a sugar cane farm. The coolest things we learned about there was precision agriculture. Using GPS to track exactly where the rows of crops are located for selective application of fertilizer and pesticide based on mapping of the most productive areas and the soil types. Also, this allows for fewer passes of heavy equipment through the fields, helping to reduce soil compaction and the resulting loss of soil structure.

The last stop of Saturday was comparing two re-vegetation sites; one that had failed and one that had been successful.

We stayed at Mission Beach resort- please don't let the name fool you- they were not near resort standards. But they had clean beds and aircon so I was happy.

Sunday we went to the largest surviving fan palm forest in Australia. I'm not really sure what we learned here to be honest, but it was a real awesome place to see.

At some point we went on another walk through the rainforest and talked about the cassowary (Australia's large flightless bird, the second heaviest in the world) that is being threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation. The area is called the Cassowary Coast but unfortunately we didn't see any. They are of such interest because of their visual appeal but also because they provide ecosystem services that sustain the rainforest such as scattering of seeds. Therefore, natural resources managers are unsure what the loss of cassowaries means for the rainforest.

Mission Beach is located halfway between Cairns and Townsville and that area is regarded as one of the most gorgeous regions in all of Australia (maybe even the world? I can't remember) and so it was awesome to be able to see it on  a field trip of all things and to be able to learn more than I would have had I driven through just on my own.

Fan Palm forest
At the top of the tower at the Mamu Canopy walk
 View out over the S. Johnson river catchment and the World Heritage listed Rainforest

Whitsunday's Sailing Trip!

Over Easter Break we had good Friday and Easter Monday off and so our school travel agent organized a trip to the Whitsunday Islands for us to go sailing.

Friday morning we left JCU and arrived in Airlie Beach mid-arvo. After checking into our backpacker's accommodation we headed out to explore- we laid out by the lagoon and then headed to Whitsunday Opal's for a free digeridoo lesson. Playing the digeridoo is so hard!

Saturday six of us went to breakfast at Village Cafe and I had a delicious breakfast of pancakes with fresh blueberries and cream- amazing! Then we headed over to the Airlie Markets- first highlight of the day was passing a group of cockatoos and getting them to land on our arms! After browsing around the market for a while it was finally time to head to our sailboat! I was on Wings II with 6 others from JCU. It was a catamaran and definitely smaller than I had been envisioning but still perfect none the less. There were four crew members; a skipper, two divemasters, and our "mum" for the trip. That first afternoon we got straight in the water for a scuba dive at Heyman Island (maybe it's actually Hayman, idk) and then we did a night dive at the same spot. The dive site was at Blue Pearl Bay and the coral in that area was called "the maze" and we ended at the "dance floor." While diving we saw a huge humphead maori wrasse named Priscilla that swam right up to us! and I got to hold a starfish.

Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful Easter morning sunrise at around 6:15am (who said you get to sleep in on holiday?) and we were straight in the water for two dives at Hook Island. We saw so many amazing fish- the fish you see at aquariums really are in the ocean! The highlights of the morning were feeling the underside of a sea anemone (it was soo soft and smooth!), seeing huge angelfish and a lionfish. Sunday afternoon we sailed through "the washing machine" to the largest island in the Whitsundays actually called Whitsunday Island home to Whitehaven Beach. For those of you who don't know, Whitehaven is consistently rated in the top 3 most beautiful beaches in the WORLD. The sand is made out of about 99% silica and it is the whitest, finest sand you will ever see- it was hard for me to imagine it before I got there but it is seriously like fine fine grains of sugar. 

Monday was another early morning- instead of scuba diving I decided to snorkel. It was a great spot to snorkel :) That afternoon all of the other JCU students left but I had decided to stay because my practicals for Tuesday had been canceled. Monday night our boat had an after party at one of the establishments in Airlie and so I went to that and had fun talking to one of the girls from Denmark and a couple from England that had been on my boat.

Tuesday morning I went sea kayaking with Salty Dog Kayaking. We kayaked through "the Gateway to the Whitsundays" out of Shute Harbor past some of the islands to this place called White Rock. Apparently when Captain James Cook was exploring the Whitsundays he charted it as a rock and it has never been reclassified as an island. They had delicious morning tea for us there and we were able to climb the rocks, maybe it was like bouldering?, to get a beautiful view of the Whitsundays. On the way back we took it slow and our guide told us all about the islands and the damage from the cyclone.

The Whitsunday Islands are a chain of 74 islands located off the Queensland Coast that are continental islands. This means they have been subsiding and became islands because of sea level rise (I believe but not 100% sure). As the islands have subsided fringing reefs developed surrounding the islands. These fringing reefs are now a part of the Great Barrier Reef.

Tuesday afternoon I ate lunch and wandered around Airlie with some Australians I met kayaking and then headed home on Wednesday morning.

Orpheus Island

Life is busy in Australia, but luckily not because of classes (I have just put all my school work off) but because of adventures :)

Orpheus Island- March 26-29th I had a field study class with my coral reef geomorphology class to our uni's research station off the coast of Queensland on an island that only has two things: 1. our research station and 2. the resort all the celebrities go to for like $2000 a night. It was amazing- I was full on expecting shacks in the bush but no- we had nice bunks, showers, a great porch to sit on while drinking our coffee in the morning :) While we were there we were working on doing reef flat surveys- comparing a low-energy leeward reef to a high-energy windward reef. In the afternoons after we got done with our work we were able to go snorkeling- my favorite site was the area with a clam bed with giant clams of the most brilliant iridescent blue you have every seen.

Great Weekend!

I had such an amazing weekend this weekend on Magnetic Island with the Red Frogs and Calvary Church. Okay so don't think typical church retreat in cabins with frozen food- I'm talking 5-star resort on a tropical island! Our speaker for the weekend was Matt Fielder from Planetshakers church in Melbourne- he was seriously the funniest pastor I have ever heard, he just said it like it was. Then on Friday afternoon my friends Jessica, Lindsay and I got to hang out with some of the guys we had met at church and hired (notice they don't say rent) a 4wd and toured around the island. Was the cyclone a problem? NO we swam in it! haha so there was a cyclone that hit Queensland between Saturday and Sunday but that didn't stop us from swimming in Alma Bay, a place they actually don't have stinger nets. Then we took this bush track out to West Point, a bay at the far tip in the middle of a nature preserve. At West Point there was all this conglomerate beach rock in the sand and Jess and I got all nerdy excited because we had just learned about it in our geomorphology class. On the way back to the resort we stopped at Cockle Bay (the best part was for sure the name). We had another great evening session then we had a cyclone dance party. All in all the cyclone definitely ended up being anti-climatic because when we woke up there wasn't even a ripple in the sea. 

Favorite Song of the weekend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnLhCPgPy5Y&feature=related

Church website:

http://queenslandchurches.com/calvary/

p.s. I don't know how to rotate pics or add captions

Updates :)

Hey! so since I wrote that first post school has really gotten started and so have all the normal activities. I signed up for social soccer, which is basically intramural, but here you can sign up as an individual and then they create the teams for you- perfect to meet new people. So I'm on team TNT and last week we dominated, the other team only got it past half field like twice. I'm also doing ultimate frisbee which is every wednesday for about two hours. The first two weeks was just learning how to throw and catch and scrimmaging and then this past week we got split up into teams that we will be on the rest of the semester and each week we will play another team. My captain's team has one the championship every semester for the past four semesters, but no pressure! Also, right now I'm playing Fisher Shield basketball. Fisher Shield is a competition every year between all of the colleges. Last year GR won so we actually have the Fisher Shield this year, but we have to defend the title! The games are next week so we are practicing hard to get ready. Luckily my body seams to be getting used to the hear or there is no way I would be able to handle all these sports!

Last weekend I started my scuba dive certification at Magnetic Island with Reef Safari. We just did theory (yep we have a textbook) and pool skills and so hopefully this upcoming week I will be able to go back and finish the course. I just have to do four ocean dives and I will be certified to dive anywhere in the world to 18m. Our class was very multi-cultural- the two instructors were from Austria and Scotland and there were 3 Norwegian girls, a guy from Denmark, and a guy and a girl from England in addition to the three of us from the US. I was supposed to finish my certification this weekend but I'm not going to be able to because we have a cyclone heading towards us (think Florida during hurricane season) and it's just not a good time to be scuba diving.

So instead I'm about to run to a retreat with the Red Frogs, also on Magnetic Island we are just doing different activities. Red Frogs are like a christian group here in australia that go to all the UniClub parties and college parties and just hang-out and bring water and donuts and red candy frogs (hence the name). SO this weekend they are having a young adults retreat through the church that they are associated with and so I figured I would check it out!

First Month! (transfered from previous blog)

Whoa! Australia is amazing- I love it here! 

1st week, 10 feb-14 feb: arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning for Study Australia orientation and it was hot! We took a bus to our hotel, the Meriton World Towever, and got settled in our room on the 73rd floor (we had a view of half the city, including Sydney Harbour). Our room was a actually an apartment complete with a kitchen, dining room table and living room area with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. In our apartment it was the four of us girls that are at James Cook (Alysia, Karlie, Jessica and myself) and two girls going to University of Sydney. That first night we went to dinner in Darling Harbour and I tried kangaroo. Apparently, kangaroo is the most sustainable meat to eat in Australia because of how plentiful kangaroos are, they are native to the land, it’s obviously local, and they have very humane killing practices. In fact some of the vegetarians in Australia have taken on “kangatarianism.” It was actually really good tasting, but because it has only 2% body fat they cook it rare. The next day we went on a walking tour through Sydney to see Hyde Park, the central business district, the shopping district and best of all the Botanic Gardens and Sydney Harbour. In the afternoon we went to a wildlife park where we got to pet koalas, kangaroos and wallabies. Then Friday, we woke up early and headed out to the Blue Mountains for a day of absailing- nothing like stepping over the edge of a cliff to find that you are mildly afraid of heights! But really it was an amazing way to explore the mountains. Then at the end of the day our guides had a nice cold beer waiting for us- the Australians are so chill! That night Jessica, Karlie and I decided to explore and so we basically ended up walking the whole city again before deciding to eat in Chinatown. We tried jellyfish. My advice is never try jellyfish. It was awful! so salt and slimy. We topped off the night by seeing Avatar-3D at the largest IMAX in the world (16 stories!). Saturday we were planning on doing the Bondi to Coogee beach walk but it poured all day! So instead we went to the Sydney Aquarium and Paddy’s Market (a huge indoor flee market). For our last night in Sydney, Study Australia had arranged a private Harbour cruise for our whole orientation. It was the perfect last night in Sydney, complete with fireworks (conveniently the Chinese New Years celebration was going on) over Sydney Harbour as we pulled back in.

2nd week, 15 feb-20 feb: O-week at JCU! Toga party, swimming in the river, sponsors night, UniClub, OP shop (wear the worst thing you can find at the thrift shop), the fun never ended I live in George Roberts one of the colleges (that’s what they call dorms) on campus. I’m in D-block with 3 other suite mates. At GR we have our own dining hall which is amazing, a sand volleyball court which is mostly always flooded, a basketball hoop and we are right across from the pool. That’s right my uni (that’s what they call universities) has an outdoor pool right across from my college- love it. My favorite roomie is Ellen, she is from Mackay which is 4ish hours south of Townsville. Don’t be jealous but I had the opportunity to be a freshman again; whenever it’s your first semester here, whether it’s your only one or not, you are called a “fresher.” If you stay, then your second year you get upgraded to “fossil.” SO all the first week all of us freshers had to wear gold headbands with our names written on them and if a fossil from GR caught us without it they could write our name in permanent marker on our foreheads.

Saturday we left Uni life for a little while and went with the Coastal Dry Tropics Landcare, Inc. to plant trees and help revegetate and island in the Ross River, I believe the location was called Mundingburra. Anyways I was so excited to be able to use a shovel and mattock again just like my SCA days :) The woman who was in charge, Lila, was awesome. She picked us up and gave us a ride and taught us as much as she could about the area- I hope to be like her when I am an adult. 

3rd week- 21 feb-27 feb: started off the week right by spending my Sunday at Magnetic Island right off the coast of Townsville. It was so nice to spend the day before classes started sleeping on the beach. Classes started Monday, but it was a pretty easy week with only lectures and no tutorials or practicals. I ended up being in Coral Reef Geomorphology, Foundations of Natural Resource Management, Geographic Information Systems and Biochemistry, which is a good combo because it lets me get to know a lot about Australia, meet a lot of Australians and graduate on time. Saturday was a swimming carnival between all of the colleges and so I spent the afternoon cheering on GR. My favorite events were the race to get as many people across the pool in 1 min as possible with 3 people from your college swimming in each lane at a time, the clothes relay where you had to pass a pair of shorts, tshirt and hat to the next person before they could dive in and take the stuff to the next and finally the belly flop competition. The scary event of the week was when I almost passed out at the UniClub on Thursday night- luckily my friend Jessica was there to catch me! She then force fed me water to rehydrate me- lesson of the week: always go out with a good friend.

4th week- 28 feb- 6 mar: Sunday afternoon we had a D & E block party for George Roberts; we went swimming in Ross River with the freshies (freshwater crocs) and a barbeque (the Aussies do love to bbq, however the phrase “throw some shrimp on the barbi” is inaccurate because they call them prawns). Then onto the second week of classes and practicals started. 

On Saturday, I went with Sharkies (our student travel agency) to Billabong Sanctuary- a place where they have all the native animals and let you pet them and teach you about them. So I got to pet a baby koala, then even hold another koala, wombat and croc! I could have held this huge snake but it kept winding it's head around peoples' shoulders and I knew that I couldn't handle that. Anyways, wombats are crazy animals, they are burrowing marsupials and they have this bone in their butt that they can kill things with by smacking it up against the top of their burrow. Tonka the baby wombat was so funny he kept running around and chewing people's shoelaces and shorts and everything. Apparently the wombats have more personality then the koalas.

Then that night we had fresher keg for GR. It was really fun, we took buses out to this field in the middle of nowhere where they just had a huge tent for us to sit under and a shed with a mechanical bull. I did not fall off the bull thank you very much (but I'm pretty sure he was going really easy on me). 

Sunday was a nice lazy day- Townsville has a market every Sunday called Cotter's Market so I just went with my friend Jessica and checked that out. There were all kinds of local vendors with art, jewelry, food, wine, woodworks, kangaroo paw back-scratchers... then we had Greek for lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing on 'the Strand.' We went to Calvary church that night with the Red Frogs group and that was super fun too!