The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. -- John 1:14 --
One of the hardest things I've had to do lately was say 'goodbye' to my friend, Storey. After getting to know each other, and hanging out together in Antarctica, and then traveling together for three weeks in New Zealand and Australia, I was beginning to get used to talking to him and finding things to do with him. He's a phenomenal friend to me.
We tried to get Jack Johnson tickets while we were in New Zealand, but it ended up that they were sold out. Since we were back in Brisbane on the day of the concert, we decided that seeing the show would be a great way to finish our trip in Australia. So, we drove into the city and arrived at the Botanical Garden to look for tickets, but found out that there were two botanical gardens in Brisbane and we were at the wrong one. We thought parking was too easy at that location, so we drove back into the city and with road closures, a big concert, and very little street parking, we drove around for over an hour before finally finding a place to park across the river from the Botanical Gardens. There was a foot bridge to cross that brought us right to the gates of the concert and we sat waiting for someone to offer up their precious pieces of paper to us.
The concert was a blast! An Australian, Will Connor played to kick off the show and Jack actually came out and played with him for a song. Then, one of my favorites, Matt Costa, also played (incidentally, he was also at Calvin College, my alma mater, two weeks prior). My favorite tune of his, Yellow Taxi Cab, came up and was so fun to hear in concert.
Jack Johnson music was chill and happy as usual. It was grass seating at the Botanical Gardens and most people stood for the entire concert. He played a lot of his old music as well as a few songs from his new CD, which was good for Storey and I because we were not familiar with most of the new CD.
The concert was the perfect way to end our trip. Afterward, we hustled to get gas and find the house of a friend-of-a-friend. When we got there the house was dark and no one opened the door, so we may have googled the directions wrong. Due to the fact that we had to leave for the airport within 5 hours, we decided to drive around the neighborhood and find some unsecured network to get some internet and then we headed to a park to nap a bit before taking off for the Brisbane International Airport. So, our last night was as uncomfortable as the first in our car!
I cannot tell you how often we looked in the trees for koala bears; well, I seemed to be scouting the dark forests of eucalyptus while Storey drove. We determined that it's a myth for tourists. On our last full day in Australia, we visited the Daisy Hill Koala Park. We saw one koala and it was in the visitors' centre. We took a walk through the park and didn't see one sleepy bear the entire time!
We liked the idea of checking out Surfers Paradise and seeing some good waves, but the city was pretty expensive, and since it was our last couple days in Australia, we wanted to keep things on the cheap. That meant no SeaWorld, or fancy hotel. Instead, we headed to Philip Park across from SeaWorld on the Pacific Ocean side of the spit. The first item on the agenda was to eat our fantastic pineapple that we had purchased at a roadside stand. It was delicious; even after we each had half of the huge thing!
Then we took off for the sand and surf. The beach was beautiful and very clean. We saw a variety of bluish jellyfish and though they were pretty, we wanted to be sure they weren't dangerous before we waded in the water. After talking to a local couple, we found out that we might feel a little sting, but they were harmless and most of them would not sting at all.
We watched a lot of people swim, surf, boogie board, and sunbathe. We looked at the sand a lot and found some crazy critters washing ashore. On our way back, we got in the water and did a little body surfing until we got in trouble for swimming where there was no lifeguard. It was too bad. We were having a lot of fun and staying close enough to the shore to remain safe, too.
Friends from Antarctica, Amanda and Seth, were staying at a hostel in the area that night, so Storey and I went to check in there as well. The only beds they had left were in the 10 bunk staff dorm room, so we settled in there and played Speed until our friends arrived. They showed up just in time for dinner and so we spent the evening talking over our travels and plans for the future. It was really great to be able to hang out with some familiar faces for a night!
Once I picked up Storey from his boat trip, we got in the car and drove...and drove...and drove. In fact, we drove about 7 hours that day all the way back down to Calliope where we found a free campground on a river. It was the first night that we dared to leave the fly off the tent and enjoy the stars through the roof! It was a beautiful night!
The next day we did some more driving through miles of eucalyptus trees that looked remarkably like the miles of eucalyptus trees on the way north. We detoured off the A1 to take the Steve Irwin Memorial Parkway and visit the Glass House Mountains. We found a lookout point deep along some curvy hilly roads and looked at all the volcanic cones from our perch in the trees. There is an Aboriginal tail as to how these mountains came to be in their spots, but Captain Cook actually named them the Glass House Mountains after their resemblance to the glass factories in Europe.
Our first stop was at a snorkeling and diving spot. I decided to try scuba diving for the first time. I didn't know if I really wanted to go under the water and Storey doubted that I would actually dive, so I had something to prove to he and myself! I was the only person on my boat to dive for the first time, so I had an instructor, Iain, all to myself, which was nice. It made me feel extra safe. I put on a stinger suit to protect me from the jellyfish and give me some buoyancy. Then came all the scuba gear which is super heavy!
The second stop was at Whitsunday Island, in a little cove where green sea turtles frequent the water. I saw two huge ones poke their necks out of the water. These turtles can stay down 5-6 hours at a time, but when active you may see the same one every hour, or two. At this stop we took a pontoon boat to the island for a short, one kilometer, walk up to a lookout toward Whitehaven Beach. The walk was nice and the lookout is the 4th most photographed spot in Australia.
When we pulled into this bay, Storey's sailboat was also taking a stop there. We nearly saw each other, but missed each other by about 15 minutes. If nothing else, it was nice to get a picture of our boats in the same frame!
Whitehaven Beach is one of the most pristine silica beaches in the world. The rumor is that 50 ton of sand from this beach was given to the Hubble Telescope project and when it was messed up, the Australian government denied the project from taking anymore of it's National Park's sand. The sand is a result of the coral in the area and two plates rubbing together to create a "washing machine" effect. Coral from the Reef area is pulled in, ground up, and washed up on the beach here. It is fine and great for exfoliation, cleaning jewelry, and sinking your feet into!
The actual beach was our final stop on our trip. The boat pulled right up to the shore, so we all put on our stinger suits, hopped off the back, and waded about 5 meters to the shore. Some played cricket, took walks, sat in the sun, or built sand castles. I sat and wrote in my journal for awhile and then hung out in the boat to stay out of the sun.
Monday morning came and we decided to head back into Airlie Beach so Storey could get ready for his two day, two night boat trip that left on Tuesday. We spent part of the morning in the inland town of Proserpine where we found cheap internet at the local library. Proserpine, incidentally, is also the town where there is a hospital equipped to take airlifted patients from the water to the emergency room for a three day stay if you have the unfortunate collision with a box jellyfish, or irukandji stinger.
After settling in our camp later in Airlie, we took off to find some late lunch at one of the restaurants on the tourist strip and take an evening swim in the town Lagoon. The Lagoon is a huge swimming pool built into the shoreline so that people can safely swim without the stingers all year long. It's also a close option for swimming as the tide can go out quite a ways when it is down. We successfully stayed out of the sun all day long to protect our sunburns and the water was so nice after a hot and humid day.
The next day, we spent the morning purchasing sunscreen, a beach bag, and an underwater camera for Storey's trip and I booked my own day trip for the next day. I was excited and sad to spend a day on my own, so I was happy to run into my friend Nichole, and her boyfriend, Drew, who were staying in the area. After I dropped off Storey at the marina, I caught up with them for the afternoon and evening.
Nichole and Drew had seen some colorful lorakeets in the palm trees the night before, so we took a walk to see if they would return. They did come back around 7:30pm. In all their noise, they are quite beautiful little birds. They swarmed the trees to find a mate. By the time we left them, they were all paired off. We had dinner together as well at Fish D'Vine. I had Spanish Mackerel fish 'n chips. This turned out to be a poor decision as I came down with a little case of food poisoning that night and the next morning.
