Brisbane Part 4: Halloween

My last weekend in Brisbane was Halloween.  While not historically celebrated in Australia, the Aussies to seem to be picking up on the awesomeness of Halloween.  A few stores had decorations up and I managed to scrounge up a cheap packaged costume.  The options were still pretty basic Halloween: ghost, witch, vampire, pirate.  Jon and Kieran's building had even set up trick-or-treating for the kids (you were given a balloon to put on your door if you were participating).  So we had a couple groups stop by (one of which included an apparently confused girl who was wearing moose antlers and claiming she was an antelope) before we headed off to a costume party.

Pirate Shannon and rocker Kieran.

Pirate Shannon and bogan (Aussie term for redneck) Jon.  No, his tattoos aren't real.

Brisbane Part 3: Trip to Straddie

While Brisbane isn't right on the ocean like Melbourne or Sydney, it's still pretty close.  And in that ocean is a little island called North Stradbroke Island a.k.a. Straddie.  It was about 2-2.5 hours each way with the train, bus, ferry, bus trip between Kieran and Jon's and the tourist spot on Straddie, but it was entirely worth it.  First of all, it's just a plain beautiful spot and it was a beautiful day to boot.

On top of that, I totally lucked out in my wildlife spotting.  I knew it was a popular place to do whale watching tours, but I didn't think I'd be able to see whales from shore.  I saw two!  Granted they were quite far away, but it was still cool.  And within an hour of that I saw two large pods of dolphins, a sea turtle and a manta ray!

Okay, so this doesn't look like much in the photo, but it was cool in person!

 I could have left Straddie happy at that point, but instead I went "swimming" at Main Beach which was gorgeous.  Swimming is in quotes because I haven't really been swimming in the ocean here.  The waves are too big and the current too strong.  It's more wading/floundering around in waist/chest high water.  It's very graceful, I swear.


Main Beach



Brisbane Part 2: Weekend in Surfer's

The first weekend I was in Brissy, we actually made a little trip down to Surfer's Paradise (just an hour-ish drive).  We went because Jon and Kieran and some of their friends had tickets to a V8 Supercars event there.  I could have gotten a ticket last minute, but really, I couldn't care less about that sort of thing.  So I checked out something a little more up my alley - Seaworld!

The dolphin show was quite good.  It's amazing how high they can jump!

Fairy penguin - I just can't get enough of these little guys.

Big Bird all dressed up for Halloween.  Impressive given that Halloween isn't very big in Australia.

The next day Jon and Kieran had to hightail it back to Brisbane; Jon to prep for a meeting the next day and Kieran to get some school work done.  But their friend James who was with us really wanted to go to the Wet 'n' Wild water park, so I figured I'd tag along.  Let me tell you, waterslides are not what they used to be.  Some of these rides were terrifying and I'm quite proud of myself for braving them at all.  The Aqualoop in particular:

That's not the greatest picture, but it gives you an idea.  At the top you stand in this capsule like enclosure, it counts down from 3 and then the floor drops out from underneath you and you go almost straight down before hitting the loop.  I screamed like someone was gutting me with a dull knife.  I didn't try it a second time.  After an adrenaline pumping day, James and I hopped on the train back to Brisbane where I had a very relaxing night to recover.

Brisbane Part 1: The Return

I had the pleasure of spending 10 glorious days in Brisbane with my friends from back home, Kieran and Jon.  For those that don't know, they are living in Brissy for about 2 years while Kieran goes to law school.  I was definitely ready for both some stability and some familiar faces.  They have a lovely apartment in Southbank with a view of the river where I had the luxury of my own bedroom and bathroom.  Such a nice change!  Views from their balcony:

My stay was filled with relaxing evenings with Kieran and Jon, long wanders downtown and around the West End (just as confusing as Vancouver's West End), trips to The Plough (a local pub with live music), catching up with Emma (who I met in Byron) and just generally enjoying Brisbane.  It's a lovely city.

Cape Tribulation Tour Part 2

We were picked up from Cape Trib and made a couple more stops on the way back down towards Cairns.

Apparently Steve Irwin died out there.

Mossman Gorge

We had the option of spending a night in Port Douglas, so I was dropped off there to check out the town that is apparently "a playground for the rich and famous".  It was a cute little spot, but nothing particularly special unless you count being expensive as special.  I mostly just poked around in the shops and did a little unnecessary spending.

I was picked up again the next day and taken back to Cairns.  There was another Canadian girl named Stephanie in my room and we joined forces to hit the Cairns Night Markets.  The most exciting part was crocodile burgers!  It tastes kind of like chicken, but is meant to have a fishy texture.  Mine didn't, I think because it was really overcooked.  It was quite tough, but still tasty.

Mmmm...crocodile.

We ran into Ashley (from the Cape Trib tour) when we got back to the hostel, so the three of us grabbed a beer at the in house pub before I took off for Brisbane the next day.

Ashley, Stephanie et moi.

Cape Tribulation Tour Part 1

Cairns is also a good takeoff point for tours to Cape Tribulation, which is getting into far-North Queensland.  The tour was pretty good overall.  Our first stop was the Daintree River for croc spotting.  We only saw three: a couple little ones on land and one biggie, but he was mostly submersed in water.

It was really hard to spot this little guy from the boat.  Even when the guide had pointed him out to us.  I'm amazed that he was able to see it while the boat was moving!

Apparently, it wasn't a very good day for it because of the wind.  Any sort of breeze makes them cold really quickly, so they spend as much time as they can under shelter.  And unfortunately, or actually forturnately, in Queensland it is illegal to interfere with the crocs (e.g., feed them, poke them) unlike in the Northern Territory where they will taunt giant crocs with raw meat getting them to jump out of the water, snapping angrily just feet away from your boat.  There are far fewer incidents of croc attacks on humans in Queensland.  Surprise, surprise.

Our next stop was for a quick walk through the Daintree Rainforest.

This is a fig tree that grew around an existing tree eventually strangling and killing it.  The original tree has long since decomposed leaving a hollow tunnel through the roots of the fig tree. 

We were dropped off to spend the night in Cape Tribulation.  A teeny, tiny town in the middle of the rainforest.  I made friends with a nice New Brunswicker named Ashley and poked around the area together.

Sign on the way to the beach.

Pattern left in the sand by a feeding stingray.  They lie down on top of a hole that a crab or other unfortunate creature is living in and blow the sand out of the hole until the can reach it.

Female Golden Orb spider.  This one (including legs) was probably about the size of my hand.  The males are so tiny that you can't see them in this photo.  There are about five of them in the web though, I swear.

Edward the bat at the Bat House. 

Cairns and The Great Barrier Reef

So, after Maggie I hopped on a bus up to Cairns.  It was uneventful and the highlight of the trip was the drunk guys sitting across from me.  I have no idea how it came up, but I caught this gem of a snippet from their conversation: "My favourite organ is the eyebrow.  All the other hair on your body keeps growing.  The eyebrow knows when to stop."  Uhhh...okay.  I'd hate to see how hairy his legs must be.

Cairns itself was nothing exciting other than being a good launching point for checking out the outer reef of the Great Barrier Reef, which was supposed to be much better than the fringing reef that I snorkelled around the Whitsundays.  And it was.  Aaaaaand, I finally got to use my underwater camera!

Our first snorkel spot was just off a teeny island...

Rockin' my super cool snorkel outfit.  The stinger suit protects you (mostly) from jellyfish and the sun.

First dip into the water.

First thing I saw - a stingray!

No, that isn't a really good zoom-in.  It's a GIANT fish (probably about 1/3 my size).

 

Giant clam!

View of our first snorkel spot.

Our second spot was a reef that had built up over the years to reach just below the surface of the water.  So, basically, just the middle of the ocean.

Lots o' fish

Trumpet fish