Jess Down Under: Easter Weekend in Cairns

Hey guys!

I just got back from my weekend escape to Cairns with Danielle. It was pretty fun, though we mainly just did a ton of souvenir shopping and took a day trip to Green Island.

One little tidbit of information: flying domestic in Australia is crazy easy. After flying in they States and getting used to our crazy amounts of restrictions and stuff, Danielle and I were shocked at the seeming slack security. We never showed our IDs throughout the entire trip, and when I forgot to tell them about an aerosol can of sunscreen I bought in Cairns, they found it and just let me through with it. I even got to take my full water bottle through. But I must have looked a bit like a terrorist, because both flights I was the one randomly selected for the bomb residue test. Oh well...

Cairns Lagoon on the Esplanade

We left JCU for the airport at 4:30am on Friday for our 6:30am flight because we caught a cab with Julie and Ashley(who went to Brisbane and flew out at 6am). Running on 4-ish hours of sleep, we got into Cairns around 8am and went to the hostel, not realizing we couldn't check in until noon. So we just wandered around and waited to take a nap. Then we went to the lagoon for a little while, which was pretty fun. Other than that, we just shopped and hung out. I got some little nick-nacks for everyone, including t-shirts for Emily and Hannah. (Sorry if your shirts too big for you Emily! You're losing weight, so I have no idea how small you are now! And mom, if you want a shirt, let me know so I can find you one...I didn't know what to buy you!) That night, we were thinking about how boring Saturday was going to be, so we decided to take a day trip: either out to a random island or white water rafting.

We decided on the Green Island trip (though I want to get a group together to go rafting later in this trip) and headed out on the boat Saturday morning. Most of the tourists who were on our boat and on the island were Japanese and Chinese...it was so different being in the minority! About a 1.5 hour boat ride out of Cairns is the tiny (we walked around it on the beach in about 40 minutes, and its about 30 acres) island that only has a resort on it. It's a type of island called a cay, which is a small, low-elevation sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs. They're mostly made up of biogenic sediment (the skeletal remains of plants and animals), which is pretty cool, because after a while, sediment gets built up and birds can deposit seeds, then plants start colonizing the place. Woo ecology and biology! The island was originally an initiation ground for the males of the Gungandji people. In Aboriginal, Green Island is called Wunyami which means 'place of haunted spirits'. Pretty cool. (PS- The cheapest rooms in the resort start at AUS $450!)

Green Island with surrounding reef

We started out the day snorkeling, and as soon as we got in saw all kinds of cool fish. My favorite part was when we saw the 3 meter long reef shark. He was just hanging out on the bottom, and didn't even move when some stupid guys dove down and touched him. While we were swimming around, another smaller shark just swam right under me. It was pretty awesome. I have to say that my favorite fish are the super colorful parrot fish. They make me happy:) After snorkeling, we grabbed some lunch and headed onto the island. We just walked around in the rainforest, which was nice. On the beach, we found these random crabs that I have to find the name of.

Parrotfish

We got back to Townsville around 8:45am and when I got back to Rotary I remembered we had an Easter egg hunt. Not too many people were here, so the few of us that stopped by got a ton of chocolate eggs, which was pretty cool. I left not too long after we found them and headed back to my room.

Now I'm back with a lot less money in my pocket and a ton of stuff to do. Namely, write at least 2,000 words for my lovely vert. fauna paper and study for my psych midterm. Both of which must be done before Tuesday! Then I just have to get through 4 days of class and then I'm on lecture recess (aka spring break). I've got no plans for the first half(possible a trip to Maggie, or get certified and dive the Yongala...maybe) and then we're going to Undara for Australian Vertebrate Fauna the second half, which includes my 21st birthday. So, I'll be camping out in the middle of nowhere for my 21st...though, all the super awesome animals I get to play with will probably make up for that!

Speaking of 21sts, I called Wes while they were downtown for his in Clemson. Actually speaking to my friends(other than Jessie) on the phone for the for the first time since I left was pretty fun, and them saying they missed me made me realize how I miss my awesome friends. Though I can't wait to get back and hang out, I don't really want to leave Oz any time soon. The perfect solution? Get them all to fly here:)

But that's it for now, got to get work done! There will be more pictures later, becuase they are all on Danielle's camera and, since I'm mooching them from her, I have to wait until she posts them to Facebook:)

-Jess

Easter Weekend Pictures:)