Australian Adventure

Below is the story about the time I spent in Australia. I feel that I'm a lucky person to have had the opportunity to go on this adventure. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Enjoy -

We spent about 36 hours traveling the first day. After changing around our flights due to bad weather, we finally got to LA where we had a 5 hour layover to pace around the international terminal. This was my first international flight, and I found the atmosphere in the terminal to be quite different from any other airport I'd been in - maybe that's just the way LAX always is? There were a couple of "interesting" characters hanging out there - if you ever get to go, you'll see what I mean.

Anyway, we got on the Qantas flight for our long, 15 hour flight to Sydney. To nobodies surprise, our group managed to take full advantage of the open bar on the international flight. All Qantas international flights have an entertainment system where every seat on the plane has a small TV and remote control to play movies and games - it's a good way to kill time on the long flight. After taking a sleeping pill that only worked for a couple of hours, I woke up in a zombie like state that other international travelers seem to be accustomed to. Before our decent into Australia, our group enjoyed breakfast and mimosas. At this point, it looked like booze would play a significant role in our trip - after all, we were all young, single, and starting out on a great adventure, so why not celebrate? Unfortunately, we still had a 3.5 hour flight to Cairns before we could "officially" start our vacation.

Our meager group of 15 got to Cairns (pronounced "Cans") in the north east corner of Australia, Queensland, and went through customs without any problems - surprisingly, everyone's luggage made it all the way from KC. After traveling all that time, we wanted to relax, so after getting to the hotel, we had a cool beverage in the pool. That night we went into town and grabbed some Thai food, then promptly crashed (full bellies + international flight = tired). The SE Asian food down there is really good, and reasonably priced. One of the first cultural differences we noticed is that Australians don't tip - a strange concept that I think many in America might welcome. Their wait staff and bartenders actually make decent money, contrary to the states. Anyway, the exchange rate favored us, $.62 US was roughly $1 AU, so although most items cost a little more $AU, in the end, we actually spent less than we would have in the US.

The next day, a small group of us went snorkeling at Green Island off the coast of Cairns. Lots of coral, but it was only about a foot deep. The boat ride out there was rainy, windy. We had about one and a half meter swells, so we got thrown around a bit. Once we got out to the island, it was sunny and warm. We snorkeled around for a while and hung out on the beach. Green Island was a pretty cool place, but sort of wish I would have taken the day trip with the other half of our group.

That night when we got back into town, we'd heard that there was a "Match" between Brisbane and Geelong. What kind of match we wondered? Being sports fans of America, we decided to go out that night to check things out. It turned out to be an Australian Rules Football game - the one with 2 tall center goal posts, and 2 shorter ones to the outside. After grabbing a taxi going that direction and got behind a big line to get in. We had no idea what to expect. It took all of five seconds waiting in line, when one of the locals behind us (the entire arena was locals) noticed that we really didn't fit in with the crowd (maybe it was something we were wearing?). Even though she looked a little rough around the edges, she turned out to be really friendly - her favorite beer was oddly enough - Corona. (Once again, alcohol crept into our conversation - weird uh?) Our group had a tried a couple of different beers at this point in the trip, ranging from Victoria Bitter, to XXXX (or Four "X" as it's called), to Crown Lager.

So we got into this arena, and the only thing I can compare it to is a really really big version of our high school football. I felt like I was at Memorial Field (my hometown football stadium), only it was packed with about 8,000 Australians - about half of which actually cared to watch the game. They served beer with the utmost efficiency, and at the top of the menu was the Meat Pie. I have to take a second to write about the Aussie phenomena known as the Meat Pie. Take a store bought frozen chicken pot pie, and instead fill it with shredded beef, heat it to about 10 billion degrees, package it in cellophane, and sell it for $2.50. These things were served everywhere. At the concession, they also served "chips" (french fries), and "crisps" (potato chips), but the Meat Pie was the staple.

As for the actual match itself - I must say I have a whole new respect for the game of Aussie Football (and Rugby for that matter). I can't believe it's not played professionally in the states. Those guys going up for a jump ball make Marvin Harrison going over the middle to catch a pass surrounded by 4 defenders look like a walk in the park. They catch EVERYTHING - even when there are 3 Aussies waiting to (quite literally) dismember him.

The drunk 18 year old girls behind us kept yelling "GOOO BRIIIIISSSBAAAAANNNEEEE!" - and their comments were echoed by other spectators at random moments throughout the match. When the weather decided to turn bad on us (i.e.. monsoon-like rain), we decided to take off. It was only midway through the 4th period, so some of the locals jabbed us with comments as we exited the grounds. (this experience gets a thumbs waaay up)

The next day we traveled to the Great Barrier Reef on a Quicksilver tour. It was stormy on the way out, but once we got out to the reef it cleared up a bit. To get there, we were picked up at our hotel and bussed up north to Port Douglas. Because of a storm that hit the area the night before, there were a lot of downed branches. And since the road was about 3 feet wide, a lot of those branches ended up on the road. We even had to get out and help remove some of the debris while guys with chain saws cut it up.

Finally got to the Pier, where we were told that they were only going to take out one boat that day due to the high waves. Neat. So a bunch of tourists like ourselves all piled onto this 3 deck catamaran and journeyed off to the Quicksilver platform.

Basically, we docked at a giant anchored platform out in the middle of the reef - it took us about an hour or so to get there. From there, we could snorkel, take a boat ride that had submerged windows (mostly for older folks), scuba dive, or (the best part) go for a helicopter ride over the reef. After snorkeling all day, Laurie, CW, and I went for the helicopter ride. That may have been the best thing I did the entire trip. I took about 30 pictures in the chopper alone. Wow.

Afterwards, we boated back to shore and cruised back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went out for a night on the town. After eating a huge meal at the Raw Prawn (they don't have "shrimp" in Oz, only "prawns"), I suddenly felt as though I was back on the boat. The ground seemed to be moving around me, and I was doing all I could to stand up straight. It was like being drunk, only without the alcohol. So what does a guy with severe sea sickness do (and possibly a little jet lag as well)? Decide that beer would cure my ails of course! It took me 4 hours to down 2 and a half cold ones. After trying to keep up with some conversation about American politics, I decided I'd had enough, staggered to a cab, and went home.

The following day, we went up to the rain forest near the village of Kuranda on the train. The A/C or "air con" as they call it, consisted of leaning over, and opening the window. On a train made of oak traveling at 8 Km/hour, on a 30 degree (Celsius) day with no wind (which equates to about 95 F), things got a little cozy. We got a lot of good pics on the way up though. Once we got there, we went around town, did some shopping, and hung out. Next, we got on the Sky Rail to come back down out of the mountains over the rain forest. This was definitely the best part of the day trip. Lots more pics, and a great view of the area. The next day we hung around Cairns, did some shopping, ate at the Night Markets, and called it an early, relaxing evening. The next day we were off to Sydney.

- Our Adventure Down Under (pt. 1) - Cairnes - Queensland			- Our Adventure Down Under (pt. 2) - Sydney - New South Wales
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