Welcome Ralph and Sarah

Well there is a lot to update you on. I am just going to go day by day and will give you a brief over view of what has been going on.

On Friday May 1st, my parents arrived and I met them at their hotel and we spent the day walking around a bit and going on a Harbor Cruise around the Surfers Paradise and Broad beach areas. It was very nice and a great way to see the gold coast!

Saturday May 2nd
We went to the Q1 tower and check out the view and it was a beautiful day so we got to see all the way up to Brisbane (50 min drive north). Even though I had down the Q1 tower before, it was still so gorgeous and a view I don’t think anyone would get sick of.

After that we travelled on the bus to Arundel and I showed them my house and they got to meet Karina and Molly. From there Karina gave us a ride over to the field where we got to watch or #1 and #2 men’s team play. This was the first time my parents had seen men’s field hockey and it was obvious that they were pretty impressed. What a different game it is when men play it! From there we caught another bus to take us back to the hotel. They pretty much got to experience the bus route I take very often.

Sunday May 3rd
We took the train up to Brisbane for the day. It was Labor Day week end here so there was SO much going on and it made it very exciting. There were markets all along the river and we walked around them and then through the botanical gardens were we even got to see a wedding going on. From there we walked over the Goodwill Bridge to Southbank (an area of Brisbane just on the other side of the river). There were thousands of people, mainly families, walking along the boardwalk where there were even more markets! We walked through China Town where there was a show going on in an outdoor theater that we watched for a bit before we continued on to a huge Ferris Wheel. The views from the top of the wheel were amazing. After spending the day there we returned on the train back to surfers paradise.

Monday May 4th
Cairns here we come! We arrived in Cairns around noon and we cam straight to the hotel and then spend the afternoon planning out what we were going to do the next few days and exploring the area around where we were staying.

Tuesday May 5th
Off to the Kuranda train station we went. This famous train station travels up through the hills and parts of the rainforest to a little town, Kuranda. The history of how the train was built is mind boggling because lots of the hill side was solid rock. The views, as you can imagine, were incredible. . . waterfalls, valleys, rivers. . . plenty of pictures were taken. When we arrived to Kuranda we went to a butterfly sanctuary and a wildlife sanctuary where we were able to feel wallabies! They were so sweet and there was even a new born, that was 6 weeks old that couldn’t even walk yet but was clearly trying to. We also got to see some koalas, snakes and crocs. The best part of the day is yet to come. . .

You see, we went to a bird sanctuary after this and literally we walk into the enclosed area and within 30 seconds a pink & white cockatoo flies onto dad’s head trying to get the little button off of his hat. . .very cute for a moment and then dad shakes it off but the bird wasn’t ready to leave. The bird sat on dad’s shoulder and within moments was biting his neck. . .literally, dad had 2 bird bite marks bleeding pretty badly. While all this is going on, a lorikeet lands on my bag and chews off the top of my water bottle right through the plastic! At this point we are all a bit freaked out so we do a quick sprint around the place to arrive at the exits where dad finally got the damn bird off of him! Hahaha it was pretty funny, but also kind of scary and no joke I have been startled by every bird I’ve seen since then! Poor dad. Haha. No worries though, 2 band-aids later everything was all better.

So from Kuranda we took a skyrail down over the rainforest which was a very cool way to travel back to the bottom of the mountain. Since the skyrail goes over the rainforest, the whole thing was constructed by helicopter in order to not disrupt the rainforest during the building process. . . pretty cool huh?

Wednesday May 6th
We traveled up to Port Douglas (about an hour and 20 mins north) and took a boat out to The Great Barrier Reef. The coolest part was the boat dropped us off at this floating pontoon where there were plenty of things to do off of. As soon as we got there I went scuba diving, just me and this other girl and our guide. HOW AMAZING!!! I have never seen anything as beautiful and peaceful as The Great Barrier Reef. . .I saw hundreds and hundreds of fish, all different sizes (up to about 4 feet long) and even did my first cave diving where we went through 2 coral reef caves which were very cool. I can’t even begin to describe what an incredible experience it was.

I also went snorkeling and tried to get some good pictures with my underwater camera. My parents and I went on a submersible, where the boat drives around and we sit underneath where you get a great view of the reef. . . the boat get’s so close to the reef that it’s shocking it doesn’t just crash right into it. You also could have taken helicopter rides from the boat but we didn’t do that. The weather was perfect while we were there because as soon as we left it began to rain. The boat ride from and to shore was rough because there were 25-30 knot winds!! YIKES. Luckily none of us suffered from the bumpy ride but there were some who did. . . if you know what I mean. Haha.