Beaches and a Rainforest

OK post number two, here we go. Erin left a few days ago, so we were trying to cram in as much as possible into the days between when I got back from The Alice and she had to leave. We went to Stradbroke Island (about an hour outside of Brisbane), Surfer’s Paradise (located in the Gold Coast), and to Springbrook National Park. Chronological order, you know the drill!

To get to Stradbroke it is an hour train ride, a bus, and then a 20 minute ferry. Short enough for a day trip, long enough to be boring.

Erin and I woke up early, intending to make the most of our time, and ended up getting there right after the ferry left right before the two hour lunch break. We explored the ferry harbor to discover it was pretty barren except for the little restaurant and the ticket station.

I think the Island is my favorite thing around Brisbane. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. We went on a gorge walk all around the island and there was almost no one there. Our bus driver on the way back told us that it’s practically empty all the time and he never sees a full bus except during festivals. We were the only people on the bus ride back, so we sat and talked with him for a while. He was very nice, I think because everyone he sees is going on a holiday and so is nice in return.

We didn’t really go much into the water at Stradbroke because it was a little chilly. We did, however, have a horse fly adventure. These horse flies would not leave us alone once we got down onto the beach itself. I managed to kill one with my shoe but that seemed to just make them angry. Since we were the only ones on the beach, they didn’t have any distracts and would not stop pestering us. That being said, it was still a really fantastic day.

Surfer’s Paradise is in the Gold Coast, about an hour outside of Brisbane. We went there on a “Cultural Outing” that Study Australia sponsors for us. Our Resident Director Marco met us in the morning at the train station and bought us tickets down. He brought a certain lady friend of his whom he said was his friend but then demanded a high five for “hitting that”. Silly Marco.

He was also participating in “Movember”. I say participating, but really it was more of a trying to participate. Movember is like no shave November in the States, except just the mustache. I think it is associated with a charity of some sort. It’s widely considered to be the most unattractive month of the year. Lots of men with half-grown porno mustaches. Blech.

Any who, Surfer’s Paradise was lovely. It was a true beachy experience, as opposed to Stradbroke which was mainly the Gorge walk. We lay down in the sun and played in the waves, it was glorious. It was like a wave pool only a hundred times better. The ocean here is so wild, you just have to close your eyes and let it sweep you away.

We ate at this fantastic place for lunch that was hot air balloon themed. We sat in this huge booth that was shaped like the basket of a balloon and then had draping above it to resemble the balloon, it was adorably fantastic. I had pancakes! Om nom nom pancakes.

There is really only so much I can say about a pretty beach. Onward to Springbrook National Park!

Erin and I signed up for a full day walk to see glow worms mainly. We had to be in the city fairly early to be picked up and driven to the Gold Coast. Fast forward through the drive and more pickups from Gold Coast hostels and then more driving, we got to the rainforest at around lunch time. A quick lunch of sandwiches and then we went for a walk around. The trees were huge, unbelievably so.

Australians like to name things for what they are, so we learned about Climbing Vines (vines that climb!) and Strangle Plants (these plants that strangle the tree they grow on) and Whip Birds (the male makes a whip noise and if there is a “Cachoo cachoo” after that means he has found a lady friend).

We saw some waterfalls which were just flipping cool. One was through a hole in the rock and fell into a cave with a circle of light falling around it. Another we got to walk under as the rock jutted out over the path. The best one was a giant one which had a pool in the bottom we could swim in. Most people didn’t have their bathing suits so didn’t swim; Erin and I went down and dipped in our feet.

We had some cool views from the top of our hike, blah blah there are only so many positive adjectives one can use to describe scenery before the words begin to lose meaning and I feel as though those should be saved for the truly spectacular. Highlights being the waterfalls in terms of scenery we saw.

During the walk we got to walk through a giant crevasse in the rock, which was pretty snazzy.

After the rainforest walk we went to this little place that was some land which some rich potter guy gave to the tour. I’m not entirely sure what the deal was, but he had cultivated a lot of glow worms and wanted people to be able to see and enjoy them. There was shop there to buy overpriced souvenirs and out back was a whole host of birds.

The birds were really cool, I must confess. They gave us handfuls of sunflower seeds and the brightly colored parrots would fly down and land on your hands to eat. Some people got creative and put seeds on their heads and had birds all over. They were kind of mean to each other, pushing and pecking to get to the seeds when there were plenty to go around. I had one which really didn’t want to climb onto my hand but would chase away all the other birds from my seeds. Little jerkface.

After feeding the birds we got to see the glowworms. They wouldn’t let us take pictures, as they distress the worms, though I imagine it would be like trying to take pictures of the stars. There were little green speckles of light all across this cave which we walked through, and it was really quite lovely.

Sorry this is a bit brief; I’m actually in New Zealand at the moment trying to catch up on a few things so I can start writing about the various adventures I’ve been having here. Sorry, folks, I’m writing when I have time but I’d rather be out having adventures than recounting them.