Oktoberfest October 10th
We spent the day going to Brisbane for Australia’s version of Oktoberfest. There was authentic German food which was quite delicious. I had chicken and chips (which are fries here) some bites of the huge pretzels, and a piece of “death by chocolate” cake that was to die for! We got to the park early on Saturday morning. There wasn’t very many people there so we just sat around and got a beer. I tried all the kinds, but just didn’t like any of them, so I just watched everyone drink theirs. After a couple hours of eating and drinking the entertainment started. A young Australian lady talking in a German/Australian accent came over the loud speakers saying “anyone who wants to learn to yodel come to the stage”. No one in my group of friends volunteered, so we just watched and listened to everyone attempting to yodel. Beer and yodeling don’t go very well together, so it made for an entertaining day.
Some of the people who attending got all dressed up in the typical German outfit, the boys in very short brown shorts, with suspenders over their white shirts, and wearing a hat. The girls were dressed in dresses that didn’t leave much to the imagination. For a second I thought I was in Europe, but then hearing all the Australian accents around me brought me back to reality.We didn’t get to look around Brisbane all that much, because by the end of the day everyone was tired and wanted to go home. The train takes about an hour and a half and its only 9 dollars round trip for a student. We are planning to go back up for the day sometime in November on a free weekend. Brisbane is the third largest city is Australia, so it will be easy to navigate around because I have already tackled the second largest city, which is Melbourne.
Bryon Bay Oct 16th-18th
Our adventure to Byron Bay began at 230 pm Friday afternoon. We were all trying to pack frantically and get last minute snacks together. After trekking over to the bus that seemed so far away and with way to much gear, we finally hit the road. Two hours later and an hour time change we made it to our home for the next two days, Lake Ainsworth recreational center. We had little cabins with 4 rooms and a bathroom each. There were only 7 of us in a 12-person room so we all go to spread out. Our first night we ate dinner and then went on a night walk down the beach. The stars were so pretty because we were so far away from the city lights so we were able to pick out some constellations. I saw Scorpio! I had never seen it before so it was really cool. One of the tour guides had a map of the night sky so we looked at it to try and find more constellations, but minutes later we realized the map was for the northern hemisphere, and not the southern hemisphere. Ha. That night while walking back to my room, my friend Monique and I ran into two cane toads!! They were the size of grapefruits. There were so many creepy crawly bugs everywhere, especially at night. We played some tennis and threw around a football before heading to bed. After turning off the lights to try and get some sleep I heard a distinct fluttering noise and new exactly what it was, a moth….or should I say, three HUGE moths. I never actually saw them because I was buried under my blankets while the boys from the cabin next door came to kill them. I was so worked up about the bugs that I didn’t get much sleep. When I woke up in the morning I found that everyone had a restless night and were worried about the bugs too!
Saturday started bright and early. We were up and eating breakfast by 630 Queensland time (730 New South Wales time). After eating some tucker (food) we headed off into Byron. There were over 50 of us so they split us up into three groups. My group went on a hike up the most easterly point of Australia first. We hiked up what seemed to be a million stairs then finally reached the lighthouse. On the way up we spotted a humpback whale jumping around in the water. It was so big and it jumped completely out of the water three or four times, but again, I didn’t get a picture ☹
We all got a picture of the sign saying we were at the most easterly point of Australia and as we turned to walk down the other side a man sternly warned us that there was an extremely poisonous brown snake on the grass and that we should not approach it. So naturally, we stayed far away until it slithered back into the bushes.
I felt like I was on the top of the world at the lighthouse, it was so pretty and the water was the prettiest shade of blue. We climbed down around some of the rocks and made sure to take advantage of the pretty scenery.
After the lighthouse we went into the town of Byron and explored the local shops and got some lunch before heading out to surf. Surfing was by far the highlight of my weekend. I don’t mean to brag, but I was really good ☺ It was so amazing. I will be making more surf trips in the near future. We were all geared up in wet suits and rash guards. The surf board was a cheap styrofoam board so it made it easier to get up on and when it came back and hit you it wasn’t that bad. There were three instructors helping us catch the waves. They would yell at us to start paddling and then push us off into the wave and then yelled to stand up and prayed that we wouldn’t get hurt and maybe make it a couple feet before falling. I made it all the way into the shore a couple of times with out falling. I think gymnastics and snowboarding helped me with the balance. The hardest part of the whole experience was trying to get back out to the waves. There was one point where all the waves would break and you were lucky to make it back out to the rest of the group. The waves came in sets so there was a nice lull, which made a nice rest period between attempts. When I was resting waiting for the next set to roll in I spotted some whales off in the distance jumping about in the water. I also saw a huge sea turtle make its way to the surface. There were rumors that a small shark made an appearance at one point during our surf session, but I didn’t see it, thank God! Surfing made me so tired!! I dragged my surfboard up to the beach and just laid on the sand for about ten minutes soaking up some sun to warm up, and reflecting on one of the most amazing activities I have ever done!
After surfing we headed back to Lake Ainsworth and had some down time to play on the rope swing and get showered. I was so worn out from a long day of hiking and surfing that I didn’t attempt the rope swing; I just enjoyed watching everyone do it. After taking a nice hot shower and getting into clean clothes we all met at the bbq pit and had a delicious cook out. They made burgers, sausage, chicken and even kangaroo!!
The kangaroo tastes just like steak, it was delicious!! After dinner we rested for another hour or so then made our way into the two of Lennox Head and got some gelato that was to die for. I had chocolate and hokey pokey, which was like creamy vanilla with bits of honeycomb cereal in it. I was so tired that I had to go right to bed when we got back. I fell asleep but then woke up to rain pounding on our roof. It poured for about 20 minutes. Since I was already awake I started wondering about the bugs and if there was another month in my room. So again I didn’t sleep very well on account of a moth…Sunday was another early day and I so much more tired than Saturday morning. I slept on the bus ride back to Surfers Paradise where we went sea kayaking. When we arrived to the kayaking company two Aboriginal men and an Australian man greeted us. The Aboriginals performed a welcoming dance and gave us a taste of their local language. We then began our journey of sea kayaking in some pretty rough inner coastal waters. We paddled for about 20 minutes before making it to our first stop. We had the chance to snorkel and sit in the sun and enjoy the scenery. There were tons of jelly fish in the water so I decided not to snorkel. They fed us some “morning tea” which consisted of delicious breakfast cakes and fruit all with sand on top. They said it was good for us ☺ After hearing an Aboriginal story about the guides ancestors we got back on our kayaks and made our way to South Stradbroke Island. The island is the 4th largest sand island in the world! We had another Aboriginal ceremony but this time we got mud out on our face, hands and feet. It was a neat experience to see the aboriginals in their native dress and be able to see what their dances were. They showed us their hunting tools and techniques and shared stories throughout our walk on the island. We hiked to the other side of the island and took a swim in the ocean. We rested on one of the most famous surfing beaches of Australia. There weren’t very many waves so there weren’t any surfers. It would have been so cool to see the professionals surfing, but the water just wasn’t right. We then headed back into the woods of the island in search for a wallaby. We spotted a few but they are so quick that they didn’t stay around for too long. We also saw some snakes that were tangled together underneath a tree. The group was so hot and restless so we made our way back to our kayaks and headed back to the main land. The kayak back seemed like an eternity. We were going against both the wind and current, so our arms were burning almost the whole way.
Thankfully it was a short bus ride back to Bond Uni! We were all so tired that we just sat for about an hour, and then casually showered and made our way to a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner. It is nice to be home in my own bed where I know there are no moths or other creepy huge bugs! I am slightly sun burned and incredibly sore! I will be definitely surfing in the near future and in two weeks I am going to the Great Barrier Reef!! I am sooooooo excited for that trip! I have had so much fun in Australia, I would not trade this experience for anything in the world
