Our last Australian sunset, on our drive from Gladstone to Brisbane.

Day 32 recap (Sat Mar 12) - The Last Day

[Stef] At 3:30AM we arrived at the airport, and got ready for our long trip back to the USA. Since we didn’t sleep much we weren’t that tired – yet! We returned our rental car and went to check our luggage. The very nice woman at the Qantas desk was able to check all of our luggage all the way to Denver for us. We would have to get it in Los Angles for customs but then it would get put all back on again to go to Denver with no troubles. We were even more excited about this, since we were both over the domestic weight limit. If the bags were never re-weighed, they would never find out and charge us more! PERFECT! That was a nice option too because we wouldn’t be worried about it in our groggy state that was sure to come that day.

Our flight to Sydney was only a couple hours and we fell right asleep. That was the last sleep I got. We asked for an exit row to LA – which is a great thing on an international flight because we had a lot of legroom. Well, seeing as I am so short, I was having trouble reaching the floor with my legs. When we have a seat in front of us, I can put my knees up on the back of the seat. Here, I could not, so, my legs got really cramped as they strained to touch. Yes, I really am that short! It was really hard for me to sleep. Scott was able to fall asleep, so I watched 5 movies while in flight and attempted sleep a half a dozen times. 12 hours on a plane is awful; sleep or not!

We arrived in Los Angles and made it through customs very easily. Even though I declared some silver-fern seeds I bought, the woman asked me one question “are you American?” and once we said yes, she let us through without even so much as opening our bag.

We knew we were in Los Angles when someone offering to help us find our gate also asked us for money. We missed Australia and New Zealand already! We declined to give them money- it wasn’t like we had any left at that point! And we split up to get to our airlines. I was flying on a voucher through Frontier and Scott was flying on American Airways. It was the first time we were separated from each other at all in 5 weeks. What a weird feeling… it was almost a tearful goodbye but our eyes were so sleepy that our tear ducts didn’t work! I was able to take an earlier flight but my bags wouldn’t get there until an hour after. I agreed to it.

In Denver, I was able to relax while I waited for Scott and my luggage. Luckily, the woman in Brisbane who checked our bags, checked them all the way through under my name, so all 4 bags came in together on my flight. I fell asleep a few times at a table in the corner of an airport restaurant (looked real classy to the public, I am sure…) while I waited for Scott. Once he got there, we were picked up by Melinda, Joaquin and Cruz (thanks gang!) and we were officially back in the USA.

The entire trip was a dream for both of us. I often tell Scott that if I had known I would get two honeymoons in my first year of marriage, I would have gotten married years ago! In all seriousness, I have traveled a decent amount worldwide and I have seen many amazing, breathtaking sites, but nothing I have ever done beats the month I have spent with Scott exploring. It didn’t matter where we were as much as it mattered that we were together. This trip will be one that I will never forget. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed doing it! Therefore, in closing, thank you Intel, you have provided us with the most unforgettable 5 weeks of our lives!

Our last look back at Heron Island - taking with us many fond memories.

View of the rusty shipwreck as we pull away from the dock at Heron Island.

Scuba divers getting ready for a training dive right off the beach. The darker spots in the water are the live coral.

Waiting by the dock for our boat back to the mainland.

Scott at our final lunch eating fresh fruit and shrimp.

Day 31 recap (Fri Mar 11)

[Stef] We got up at about 8 am and got dressed for breakfast. We enjoyed our last delicious pineapples and tried to act as though we were happy to get going. I think Scott and I could have stayed there for a really long time. It was a quiet breakfast, to say the least. We got back to the room, showered, and packed. We then put our bags outside of our room for the bell service to pick up and load on the boat. Since the boat leaves at 2 PM and we checked out by 11am, they gave us lockers to put our personal stuff in and a place to shower if we do any swimming in the two hours prior to the launch. Scott and I hit up the gift shop before he went on the 11:15am tour of the Research Center. I was not interested in doing anything like that on my last day, so I grabbed a lounger by the pool and enjoyed my last few hours in the sunshine.

We ate our lunch (our last fresh mangos and fresh catch shrimp) and grabbed a couple mangos for the airport. Scott and I then decided to go sit on the docks and wait for the boat. We took a few last minute pictures. It took all we had to smile for the pictures – What’s so great about LEAVING paradise? We saw some snorkelers going out and we watched with jealous eyes. We realized we did not get our launch tickets, so Scott ran back to the gift shop to pick them up. The woman there gave Scott some motion sickness medication. Thank goodness! I took that without any problem! We went to the lower level of the boat and to the back. Not long after the launch did I start to drift off to sleep. Apparently, the medication makes you drowsy, too! I woke a few times to see the boat was on a 45 degree angle because of the huge swell in the ocean. It was pretty scary, so I was happy to shut my eyes and got back to sleep! We both woke for the last 20-30 minutes and that was ok. We got off the boat to a nice day in Gladstone. Scott went to get the car and I waited for the luggage to come off. We loaded the car and we were off! We stopped for gas and then switched drivers – It was my turn!

We got going right away so that we could drive for the majority of the trip in the daylight hours. It was about 4pm so we did not have much time. Scott was going to sleep now in order to be well rested for his shift. When it comes to driving, I am my father’s daughter, especially with the challenge of driving on the left! I drove for most of the drive - about 4 or 5 hours. We stopped for dinner in the same small town we stopped in on the way down. We got subs at Subway, but we weren’t too hungry yet so we decided to eat on the road. There was a flock of lorikeets coming through. They were so loud and they all sat in one tree outside the sub shop! It was amazing. I am convinced that they remembered that we fed them a week before and so they were just following us to give us a proper send off! We drove for a bit longer and on the outskirts of Brisbane, we switched. I was starting to get tired but also anxious to “just get there”. We found a hotel near the airport called “Formule 1 Hotel”. They do not have a person at the desk after 10pm, but they have an outdoor machine where you can pay with credit and get a code to enter the building and get a room. We settled in, ready to sleep… we only had 3 hours of sleep before we were to be at the airport to fly to Sydney. We both had a vague memory of someone opening our door in the middle of the night, and we have no idea what that was all about. What a day….

Here we are in our Heron Island evening attire.

The snorkel/scuba boat.

Our favorite guide Paul, who led the scuba divers on this trip.

Shark below! This picture was taken with our (lousy) underwater camera. Scott got to within about 10 feet and snapped the shot.

Looking back at Heron Island from the snorkel boat.

Here we are on the boat heading out to the reef's edge for some snorkeling.

This baby turtle surprised Stef a bit when it climbed across her beach towel! The ipod gives you some perspective of the turtle's size.

Day 30 recap (Thurs Mar 10)

[Scott] No bird poop on Stef today, however my hair was the recipient of a good dumping. When we say there are a lot of birds on the island, we’re talking about more than you can possibly imagine really. I read that at peak times of year, there are over 100,000 birds here and we’re talking about an island less than a mile long! Anyway, we did sleep well last night, and we had decided before we went to sleep that first one up would wake the other up so we could go watch the sunrise. It’s no problem waking up early here with all the birds singing at dawn. I woke up at about 6:30 (about 20 min before sunrise) and we quickly got out to the beach in less than five minutes (we were surprised too!). It was very nice and a good way to start the day, but this particular sunrise was not nearly as nice as the sunsets we’ve seen here on the island each night. It’s pretty cool being a 3 minute walk to the sunrise in the morning and a 3 minute walk to the sunset at night! We also checked out the turtle nest right behind our room where we watched a mother lay her eggs last night. Stef pointed out the tracks in the sand where the turtle headed back out to sea. After walking up North Beach to Shark Bay for the sunrise, we didn’t discover any other turtle tracks so we quite possibly had the only one on the island right behind our room. We were amazed at how well the turtle disguised the nest. In addition to covering it back over with sand, she moved two or three large tree limbs over the nest. The dexterity of these animals is much greater than you would imagine. Her ability last night to dig a rather narrow two foot hole with her rear flippers was quite impressive.

After watching the sunrise, we went to the restaurant for breakfast. They have really great fresh fruit, and I think between the two of us we’re eating a whole pineapple each day. They have incredibly fresh mangos at lunch, which are my personal favorite. After breakfast, we headed back to Shark Bay and I snorkeled while Stef relaxed on the beach. I was hoping to get a glimpse of some reef sharks and manta rays up close, but there were none to be found. At this same spot last night, we saw dozens of sharks and rays circling close to the beach awaiting the little turtle hatchlings. So the snorkeling wasn’t so hot there, as the coral was mostly dead with few fish cruising around. There is a huge difference between snorkeling on just off the beach versus taking the boat out to the reef edge. Out at the reef edge the coral is so much more brilliant and there are many more fish in those deeper waters. The depth of the water on the reef around the island is only about 10 feet at high tide and about 2 feet at low tide, which prevents the coral from growing very large. Since today is our last day, we decided to sign up for two boat trips out to the reef edge – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each trip will give us one hour to snorkel in the water.

The 11am trip took us out to the same spot we were yesterday afternoon called “Blue Pools”. They didn’t have to twist our arm at all to go back out there. Yesterday when we were out there it was low tide, and this morning it was at high tide that time of day so it’s a completely different experience. Today was even better. The water was so clear and there was so much to see. We saw four or five reef sharks with the largest being about 8 feet long. It’s really exciting to see one of those – gets your heart rate up a little bit! Even though this is a relatively harmless small shark, it still has a pretty powerful look about it. There is such a variety of coral out there - it’s really hard to put in words. It’s all built up on top of each other, with so many different varieties with every color imaginable. Some look like big boulders, some have the look of tree branches, others like huge mushrooms, and that’s just to name a few. The size of these varies from rather small to 30-40 feet or more, and there are many caves and canyons in between all the reef colonies which make it exciting and sometimes even a little eerie. There are also many clam shells, which exist in a variety of colors with interesting patterns - some of them as big as three feet long. We bought some disposable underwater cameras, and we are really hoping our photos turn out well (turns out they didn’t turn out well at all). We saw many bright colorful fish of all sizes. I really like seeing the schools of large fish (1’-2’ long) – it’s exciting to watch 40 or more of these big fish cruise right by you. Maybe our most exciting viewing was of a manta ray swimming through the deep water just off the reef (maybe 50’ deep). I squeezed Stef’s hand tightly and pointed excitedly and she whipped around to see it maybe 10 feet behind her (I think at first when I got her attention and pointed behind her, she thought maybe Jaws was behind her!). The ray looked so graceful cruising past. I don’t know if it sounds exciting, but it’s really thrilling to see these animals behave in their natural environment – and from minute to minute you never know what you’re going to see! That particular snorkeling trip was probably the best of our vacation, and we had so much fun that we decided since it was our last day we just had to go on the afternoon trip as well. The best thing about this place (for us) is being right on the reef. The boat trips out to spectacular snorkeling only take about five minutes!

We had a good appetite after that adventure so we got showered up and headed to the buffet lunch. Today’s specialties were Salmon Provencal, Pork Meatballs, and a Spinach Tortellini. All were excellent, but I just couldn’t seem to get enough of the Salmon – I think I had four or five fillets (which they pronounce fill-its here in Australia). The breakfasts are pretty similar from day to day, but the lunch has been varied and really quite good. I don’t think that they’ve had any repeats on the lunch menu, other than the fresh fruit. It’s so nice having it all-inclusive so you don’t have to find out about a place to eat and get directions or decide how much you want to spend or any of that. I can’t think of a single thing we’ve had to worry about this week, not even if we grabbed the room key since they don’t use keys!

In the afternoon we headed out on the 3pm snorkel boat to a spot called “Hole in the Wall”, just up the Heron Reef a bit from “Blue Pools”. They call it “Hole in the Wall” because it used to have a big archway underwater, so the name was fitting. Apparently a few years back it collapsed when a cyclone passed through, but the name has stuck anyway. This was our fourth and final snorkel boat trip. The afternoon trips aren’t as popular so they take the scuba divers out on the same boat as the snorkelers, and it is interesting to watch those guys get all geared up with their tanks and everything and hear the stories of their dive. All the trip guides are fun people, but our favorite is Paul, so we were glad to see he was heading out since he wasn’t on our boat this morning (that was the only bad thing about this morning’s trip - the guides were – well they just weren’t as funny as Paul). Paul has a real quick Australian wit, and always had us laughing. Anyway, we jumped in the water and had a look around for a bit and about half way through we were taking a break just treading water and talking above water. Stef put her head back underwater for a check of our water depth, and lo and behold within about five feet of her was a sea turtle swimming by. Five feet away and out of nowhere! It wasn’t full grown like the one we watched nest last night, but it was probably a good two feet in diameter (maybe half the size of a full grown adult). I headed off following it for a bit at a distance, which was really fun. They are slow boring animals on land, but very graceful in the water. We were really excited because that was the one large creature we had yet to spot in the water. We did see another reef shark and this guy was cruising around pretty fast looking for food right below us maybe 30-40 feet down. We also spotted probably our biggest fish of the vacation – this one must have been 6’ long by 3’ tall and I’m guessing it weighed over 200 pounds. He popped out from under some coral just 15’ below us and made both Stef and I flinch a bit! It was brown with lots of spots. Another snorkeler, who also saw it, thought it was a Potato Cod. I don’t think they have dolphins here along the reefs, or at least no one has made mention of them. In the winter time, they say this is a great area for watching whales migrate. That will give us a reason to come back someday – on top of many other reasons!

We had another nice dinner. We’ve been getting the latest reservation (8pm) so we can get the most out of the daylight hours. The sun sets just after 7pm here, so it works out perfect. Their dinners always have great presentation, and they give us three choices each for appetizer, main course, and dessert. We had a nice bottle of wine from Hunter Valley with our dinner. Stef had a spicy quail salad that she said was delicious, a slow roasted beef entrée, and the lemon lime tart with crème anglaise. I had a tian of tomato and mozzarella to start that was okay, a pretty good pork entrée, and a strawberry dessert that was unexpectedly jello-like. My meal was good, but somehow Stef’s selections seemed to be much better across the board. As we were walking out of the restaurant, we started talking with an Australian couple from Sydney that we’ve snorkeled with a couple times. We ended up sitting out on the veranda for two or three hours listening to the waves roll in and chatting about differences between America and Australia among other things. One of the best parts of our travels has been talking with the citizens and learning about their culture, so we were really glad that we got to spend some time with them before we left. We’re sad it’s our last night on the island, but it has been a great four days.

The mother sea turtle laying her eggs on the beach right behind our room. The shell is probably about 4ft long by 2.5ft wide.

Heron Island sunset

A seagull snags a baby turtle. These turtles are a threatened species. Interesting statistic from the turtle talk: only 1 out of 1000 of these baby turtles survives to adulthood.

A dozen or so manta rays just off the beach.

The newborn turtles making a mad dash for the sea. Little do they know that there are sharks and manta rays circling in the water, as well as sea gulls in the sky above.

The nest of baby turtles starting to hatch.

Day 29 recap (Wed Mar 9)

[Stef] Today was a good morning, and it felt good to sleep in until 8AM. Scott woke up a little earlier and walked the coast around the entire island – which only takes about 30 minutes! We went to eat and after breaky (as the Australians call it), Scott took a little nap and I relaxed on the balcony. At 11AM, Scott and I went over to the Marine Center to hear a speaker talk about the turtles on the island, and it was really interesting. The Marine Biologist talked about the breeding, nesting, predators, and endangered list of turtles in Australia and specifically to this island. It was about 90 minutes long. We also got some good tips for turtle watching on the beach in the evenings. One thing we have discovered here is that all the workers here have a great sense of humor and heaps of personality. That makes every event more exciting. The interesting thing is that the Marine Biologists have many jokes about “science stuff”. It really cracks me up. Our Turtle lady started her presentation by cracking jokes against birds. Since birds evolved from reptiles, when she sees birds she thinks – “perfectly good waste of a reptile.” She used it a few times, actually. Luckily the subject matter was more interesting than that.

After the turtle talk, Scott and I hit up the lunch buffet. It was, as always, tasty. After lunch, we got ready for the 3PM snorkel boat. This snorkel trip was even better than the preceding trip. We went to a place named “Blue Pools”. It was a really amazing snorkel trip because this part of the reef had two areas next to each other where the reef had been naturally cut out and pools had formed on the top of the reef. We were able to swim over the reef’s edge into pools and see all that the underwater world had to offer. We were able to see so many beautiful corals and varieties of fish. The tide was going out so it was pulling the sand and debris off the reef, but that did not effect the ability to soak in the brilliance of the pools and the reef’s perimeter. We did find out later it made our pictures cloudy. The pictures may not be the best, but our memories will never fade. At one point, a school of squid came upon us, circled and swam off. There were also tons of electric blue fish swimming together. It was surreal. We would reach out, hoping to touch them, as if they were fake exhibits in a museum. Of course, they scattered, but they were so blue and mirage-like against the orange, yellow and tans on the reef walls it constantly astounded us.

We got back to the island and we showered and got ready for a walk on the beach. Although we still have a few more days here, we want to use every minute to our advantage. Who knows if we will ever get back! We signed up for the late dinnertime so we could see all that there is to see in daylight. Scott and I walked out to the beach behind our room. There were several people out enjoying the setting sun and hoping for the chance to see some baby turtles hatching. We came upon a group of students who were working at the research station on the other side of the island. They had found a baby turtle’s head poking out from the sand and they sat around it, waiting for the clutch to come out. We waited with them, and not long after we got our camera lens focused on the little heads, the clutch exploded from the sand. There must have been a 100 of these little turtles, and in minutes they were at the waters’ edge hoping to get a chance at life. Many people walked along side of the turtles to shoo away the seagulls. The help is always nice for the little sea biscuits, but unfortunately, there were countless manta rays and reef sharks waiting for a snack. It was an incredible, spiritual experience to see Mother Nature at work.

After the hatching was mostly over, we walked down the beach and caught a few shots of the sun set reflecting in the sky. We were at the opposite end of the island where the sun rises, but the colors were so radiant and picturesque. It was like being on the set of a movie. Once it was dark, we walked back to dress for dinner.

Dinner was another new experience. I ordered a delicious duck salad for my appetizer and coral trout for my main dish. Scott ordered an eggplant salad for an appetizer and for his main dish – KANGAROO!! The server explained to us that it had a “gamish” taste. It definitely did have a different taste to it. Overall, it was pretty good, but the problem was, a few days before this meal, we played with the kangaroos and fed them. However, as unintelligent as they are, they are adorable, and so it was hard to swallow! We both enjoyed a mango mousse for dessert though! We enjoyed relaxing and sipping our drinks with the warm ocean air blowing through.

We decided to go back and see if we could see any mother turtles laying their eggs on the beach. Scott bought a small infrared flashlight from the marine biologist station so we could see our path but not disturb the turtles. It really wasn’t much help on the path and we stumbled our way to the beach. About 15 feet from our room, when we stopped tripping on everything, we could hear the sound of sand being thrown methodically. Quickly, we realized it wasn’t either of us throwing at each other – it had to be a turtle! So, we started looking and sure enough, in the brush, we found a mid-sized mother digging her whole. It was even more amazing than the video footage we saw earlier in the day at the “Turtle Talk”. Scott and I found a nice log to sit on and watch. It must have taken her 2 hours to dig and then lay, but we saw it almost all of it! After she was done, she began pulling dirt back onto the nest in order to cover her clutch. We were getting tired and thought maybe she would want some privacy, so we left. I cannot wait to check it out in the morning! What an experience!!!

Heron Island located approx 50 miles off the east coast of Queensland between Cairns and Brisbane.

Our view of the sun setting over Australia while we ate our BBQ dinner on the patio.

Our Tuesday night BBQ Buffet in Pandanus Lounge. We were fascinated by that marine mural which covered three of the walls and was probably altogether about 40 feet long by 3 feet high.

View of the white sandy North Beach from out on the reef at low tide.

A group of three clams, embedded in the coral.

This little slimy fella is a Sea Hare.

Marine Biologist Jason, our reef walk guide, telling us everything there is to know about this sea cucumber.

Looking down at some coral through the sea scope.

A group of about ten of us on our two hour guided reef walk. You can see Stef is carrying the walking stick and sea scope (for viewing the marine life). You can see all the patches of living coral that Stef is walking between.

island based activities posted for the day

Day 28 recap (Tues Mar 8)

[Scott] We woke up well rested today around 8am and headed over for breakfast. It’s setup like a buffet with some warm foods like eggs, bacon, and sausage, and some cold foods such as yogurt, fresh fruit, pastries, cereals, and toast. Stef really liked the egg McMuffin thing she had which had egg, cheese, and salmon on it. We decided to take the complimentary snorkel lesson at 9:30am to see if we could pick up any good tips, since we were planning on doing a lot of snorkeling this week. This is when we met Paul, who taught the lesson. He’s a really funny Australian guy, and he would be out on the snorkel boats with us throughout the week. We love the Australian sarcastic sense of humor, and this guy really has it! There wasn’t anything earth shattering in the lesson, as snorkeling is a pretty straightforward activity. He gave us a good tip for blowing water out of the snorkel by saying “two” and he noticed that our new masks were really foggy and spit wasn’t clearing it up. He said we needed to rub toothpaste on them to get the clear finish off – which worked really well! So we spent a few minutes in the swimming pool with all our snorkel gear on, and then we headed out with the group for a bit to “The Gantry” snorkeling area on the reef – right near the pool.

At 11am we took our first snorkel boat trip with Paul and Kate and a full boat of about 15 snorkelers. Kate also has a good sarcastic wit like Paul. In her briefing in the harbor, she showed us where to find the life jackets and how to put them on, and told us that if anything were to happen out on the sea, we may need to use the radio. She said to just tune it to Channel 99, press the button and say something like “Heron Island Help Help”. Then she said, “they should get back to you within two weeks if you’re polite!” The waters were a bit rough, but Paul was driving the boat and didn’t seem to care. We were all getting wet as the boat slammed down off the waves, and there was “The Guy” at the front of the boat who acted like he had never been on the water – or out of the house for that matter. (Paul later nicknamed this guy “Little Buddy”) “Little Buddy” was laughing hysterically and yelling every time a wave splashed him, and kept going up closer to the front of the boat to not miss a single wave. Then we hit “The Big Wave” where the bow of the boat came straight down off a 10 ft wave and everybody flew up out of there seats a foot or so and crashed back down on their butt. Everybody screamed a bit, but “Little Buddy”, who was now soaked from head to toe and couldn’t even open his eyes from all the saltwater, was convulsing in excitement now and jumping up and down. I’d say he’s lucky he didn’t get launched right off the boat! After about a five minute boat ride we got out to our snorkeling spot, which is called “Coral Canyons” located on the edge of Heron Reef. The guides buddied everybody up and told us the few signals we needed to know, and told us to all stay reasonably close together and drift down the reef in a group so they don’t have to be watching all over the ocean. They told us how important it is to not touch anything and not to get too close to the wall of the reef, and then they came around and defogged everybody’s goggles. Stef jokingly asked if it was spit that they were spraying on our goggles, and Kate quickly replied “yeah we all sat around and spit into this bottle last night after dinner. It’s a competition among the employees!”

Then they said the pool is now open for one hour, so we jumped in with our underwater cameras in hand. We were the first ones to jump in and looked down to have our first look at the edge of the reef where the really large bright coral is with huge numbers of fish. The guides just stay in the boat and keep a lookout for everybody and monitor the ocean currents. We did a one hour drift snorkel from one of their moorings to another a little ways down the reef. The water was a bit cloudy, and Paul said that was probably because the tide was moving out fairly quick at this particular time and pulling lots of sediment off the reef surface. Soon after we got in the water, our skin started stinging a bit in spots. At first we didn’t think much of it, but then as it was happening more and more, and we realized there were little jellyfish everywhere around us – about the size of a #2 pencil eraser. It never really hurt enough to matter and eventually we got clear of them, but it was our first experience with marine stings nonetheless. We had a good hour of snorkeling, and they put the lifejacket up on the bow of the boat indicating our time was up. We headed back to the resort, took a shower, and headed over for the buffet lunch. They have 3 or 4 cold salads to choose from, and maybe 6 hot dishes to choose from. They have heaps of food and all of it is really good. (heaps is a favorite word for Australians) Half of today’s hot dishes were an Italian theme, and the Chicken Cacciatore was really good.

After lunch we went on the reef walk. Each day they have a schedule of activities you can choose from. Almost everyday they have a reef walk, and then some days they have a walk on the island, or about birds, or on the island’s university research station. These are all guided and no additional charge (unlike the snorkel boat). A marine biologist named Jason was our guide for the two hour walk. We had a group of about 12 people. They schedule this at low tide so you can walk all the way out on the reef in water up to your knees. The water on the reef at low tide is a really beautiful light green color. He showed us all of the different types of coral and various marine animals that we passed along the way. All of the coral on top of the reef is small since it can’t grow any higher than the height of water at low tide. The big stuff is out on the wall of the reef edge, where the waves are breaking. Jason would pick up the various sea creatures (not the coral) such as a variety of sea cucumbers and a sea hare (like a snail) and describe how they function and their role in the ecosystem. We each carried something called a sea scope which basically looks like a megaphone with a lens on the small end. This allowed us to look at the underwater life, since you can’t see much looking down through all the ripples and reflections on the water surface. We learned a lot from Jason and he was able to answer all of our questions, and it didn’t feel at all like we were at school. The best part is that now when we’re out snorkeling we’ll know the names of the various types of coral and know what to look for. We’ve noticed that marine biologists really like their marine jokes. Jason told us that the pearl fish actually lives inside a sea cucumber’s butt for long periods of time and often eats the gonads if he’s not feeling up to hunting for food. He said, “This is why we don’t advise skinny dipping on the reef!” to which everybody chuckled and groaned.

On Tuesday night they have a BBQ buffet in the lounge instead of the usual three course meal in the restaurant. They had lots of seafood, lamb, and a good steak as well. Also, they had an assortment of salads and fresh fruit, and a large dessert table. Stef’s eyes almost permanently rolled back into her head as she ate the Pavlova (similar to meringue). The lemon strawberry mouse was really good as well. They had a really good guitarist playing throughout that we enjoyed listening to on the mezzanine. He played a lot of James Taylor, some Jack Johnson, and a variety of other tunes. We really love the relaxing pace here!

The bar and evening lounge. They have a wonderful view of the ocean, billiards tables, great drinks and live entertainment nightly. It isn't unusual to see one of the many island birds flying around this open air building.

The Dining Room. This is the lunch buffet they had ready for us upon arrival. Miam Miam! (French for "Yum! Yum!")

Scott right off the boat. They deliver all our luggage to our rooms for us, so we are ready to explore.

Arrival at Heron Island! It was a very, very rocky two hour boat ride. The island is located about 50 miles east of the Australian mainland. It is one of the only islands made of coral on the Great Barrier Reef.

Aerial view of Heron Island (from a book). It's so small and secluded! It is less than a mile long! The light blue color in the foreground is the Heron Reef and the background is Wistari Reef. You can see a smal white speck (at the bottom of the picture) on the reef's edge. This is a snorkeling boat, like the ones we took all week.

Day 27 recap (Mon Mar 7)

[Stef] As you read this, to get the full effect of my excitement please read aloud in a raised voice – HOLY CRAP I JUST SNORKELED THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!

Yup, it’s Monday and we snorkeled the reef today. We got up and packed our clothes up and set off to the Gladstone Marina to catch the boat over to Australia’s Heron Island (72km northeast of Gladstone). The boat ride over was really bumpy and for a bit I thought I was going to get sick…. But I made it! Good thing they took the boat today instead of the catamaran (which has a much rougher ride). We watched some informational movies on the 2 hour ride over. One told the story of Heron Island and the other talked about the University of Queensland Research Station on the island. About 40 years ago, this boat trip took 6 hours for visitors of the resort!

As we came into the island, there was an old rusty shipwrecked boat in the jetty area. It originally was a boat carrying supplies in the World War II, after being damaged by a tug it was towed to here where it is home for many of the birds on the island. The water was so blue and the island was so cute! There were a wide variety of birds were circling around the tops of the trees as well. This tropical island sits right on the Tropic of Capricorn, and is located on the Heron Reef (a part of the Great Barrier Reef). The island itself is only 42 acres with a circumference of just 1.8km! We chose this resort because it is one of the only ones located right on a reef. You need to take an hour boat ride to get to the good snorkeling at most of the other island resorts, compared to five minutes here. Another great selling point for Heron Island is they have a maximum of 200 guests and no day-trippers here – remote and very un-commercialized.

Once we walked to the reception area, they brought us into a conference room where they told us about the different resources on the island. Then we split into groups and the guides took us on a brief tour of the amenities and then dropped us off at our room one couple at a time. Scott and I didn’t book the cheapest rooms, but they weren’t the most expensive either. We were more than pleased with our decision. The expensive rooms were individual huts with a hammock off the back – too big for the two of us. The cheaper ones must be a bit smaller from looking at the outside – and they aren’t on the beach like ours. Scott and I have the second floor of a two floor building. (None of the buildings are over the tree line, so you can hardly see them from the beach.) It is a beautiful room with a spare daybed and some wicker furniture. No guest rooms on the island have a TV or phone, and it is a keyless society since there are no day-trippers. All the lights have dimmers on them too, so you can create your own mood lighting in the evening – and people on the beach can’t see in as well! We also have a little balcony which is shaded by the trees and a haven for our talkative birds. Scott says they talk almost as much as me! (I don’t think so! – haha ) I don’t think we could have gotten a more perfect room! After the tour guide showed us the room, he also told us our bags would be delivered to us and that at night we needed to close our curtains. The lights from our room would make it hard for the newly hatching turtles to find their way into the sea. They instinctively use the light horizons to orient them to the sea, so any light on land would confuse and disorient them. With all the birds around, there is of course a lot of bird waste as well. Another guest told us that it is supposed to be good luck if they accidentally hit you. Well, I think Scott wants to take me to Vegas because just in one day, I have become one lucky woman! (3 times already today!)

After we freshened up, we headed over to lunch. It was a buffet, and it was enormous. Everything was fresh – fresh whole shrimp (eyes and all), lobster, a variety of cold salads, and fresh fruit. We were amazed at the selection and how good it was. (Everything is included in our package except for some drinks.) We finished eating, checked in at the Marine Center for tide times and set out to try some snorkeling right off the beach! The water was so clear and amazingly warm. Nothing like New Zealand waters… It was as warm as bath water – somewhere around 28 degrees Celsius. We saw so many things. I even saw a lemon shark – which they say is a nice (non-aggressive) shark. I didn’t stop to find out! We saw beautiful coral and bright colored fish everywhere. It was incredible, and like nothing we had ever seen. I felt like Nemo! So we signed up for the boat tour the next morning to get to see more in deeper water.

After our snorkel, we showered up and went over to dinner. WOW AGAIN! It was a 3-course meal. I had potato gnocchi for an appetizer, roasted lamb loin for an entrée and strawberry something or other for dessert! Scott had seafood bisque for an appetizer, Mahi Mahi (with apricot glaze/marmalade) for an entrée and chocolate crème brule for dessert! It was great to relax and unwind.

After dinner we went over to the bar and I enjoyed a great Mango cocktail – which had fresh mango in it - and Scott had a Toohey’s pilsner (an Australian beer). We played a game of pool and relaxed some more before turning in for the night. It was an awesome day here – only can imagine what the next few days will bring! The air and water compete for the warmest temperature and the exclusion of modern conveniences is beyond perfection. It is the perfect combination of simplicity and elegance!

Day 26 recap (Sun Mar 6)

[Scott] Today is a travel day. This morning we woke up well rested at Fran and Bruce’s condo. They were so gracious and really made us feel at home. Our first surfing experience was really exciting yesterday, and the meals they cooked for us were fabulous! We ate breakfast with them and got on the road by 10am. We started our 8 hour drive north to Gladstone from Gold Coast. Tomorrow we will catch the boat to Heron Island for four nights, and we really can’t wait to get there. We’ve been looking forward to it the whole trip! Whenever we’ve mentioned to somebody that we are going to Heron Island, they really rave about it. One of Fran’s friends goes there every year and gave us some tips on where the best snorkeling spots are, and recommended a motel in Gladstone. Today, Stef drove her first 350k of the vacation – her first experience driving on the “wrong” side of the road. She found out first hand what I was talking about with the initial awkwardness. We both turn the wipers on when we want to signal to turn! The roundabouts take some getting use to as well. They’re everywhere here in Australia (and in NZ). Anyway, we split up the driving today which was great for me. There wasn’t much to see on the drive, and there are long distances between the towns here in Australia. We noticed that in Victoria last week as well. Lachie told us that 85% of Australia’s 20 million people live in urban areas. We stopped at about 3pm for a late lunch in a small town named Childers that Lachie recommended. It was a nice small town, but it was really quiet. Most places are either closed or close early on Sunday, so we just got a burger at this place called Tropicana Café. It was over 100 degrees inside so we ate outside. A short heavy downpour really cooled things down, so we just enjoyed relaxing for a bit there at our sidewalk table. Nobody there seemed to be able to agree on how long it takes to get to Gladstone, which we thought was funny. We got back on the road and it rained sporadically. We’re crossing our fingers that it won’t be raining on Heron Island! We arrived in Gladstone at 6:30pm, and got checked into The Rusty Anchor Motel. They even have a rusty anchor out front – classic! It won’t overthrow the motel with the huge Kiwi on it as our most memorable though. As we arrived, the pink sky was glowing as the sun set (early since they don’t go on daylight savings time in Queensland). We thought Childers was quiet today – well Gladstone is even quieter. I couldn’t even find an open gas station – all five I found were closed. It was a little creepy in the dark, and then around 8pm they turned off all outside lights at the motel and we felt like maybe we were part of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. And to top it off, a large bird scared Stef to death when it flew within a few feet of her. I tried to catch my breath from the laughter as she tried to catch her breath from the fright. We wanted to repack so we can take just one suitcase out to the island. When Stef opened up one of our suitcases, she was greeted by a really nasty odor. She couldn’t imagine what it could be, and then realized we had some musty clothes in the suitcase that didn’t get completely dry in Melbourne. We had intended to pull them out in Brisbane yesterday, but we were so tired that we forgot. So we scoured the town for a place to get change, and eventually found a Blockbuster that was open and got the laundry done. A pretty uneventful day though – exactly what you hope for on a travel day!

The surfers - or actually two surfers and two wannabe surfers! Scott, Stef, Lachie, and Marianna at the Gold Coast.

Scott and Stef "cuddling" a Koala at Currumbin. Incredibly soft fur! They keep track of every minute, ensuring that each koala is never held for more than 30 minutes per day.

Scott feeding the lorikeets.

Stef feeding the lorikeets at Currumbin.

Lachie imitating the lazy kangaroo.

A crocodile keeping an eye on a small lizard on the rock.

Our first picture together with an Aboriginal Dance Troop! Surely the first of many. The instrument on the ground is the didjeridoo, which was played magnificently by the guy next to Scott.

Aboriginal dancers demonstrating the fire dance - very interesting to watch. The man spun that stick incredibly fast while the woman continually blew on the parchment.

Close up of a grey kangaroo. You can see a kangaroo eating out of Stef's hand in the background.

Feeding the kangaroos at Currumbin Animal Sanctuary
Gold Coast, Queensland Australia

Day 25 recap (Sat Mar 5)

[Stef] Today we got up at 5AM to get on our flight to Brisbane, and arrived in Brisbane about 9AM. We were really looking forward to this trip because we would be staying with my Australian friend Lachie and his girlfriend, Marianna. Lachie and I were Rotary exchange students together in France, and have kept in touch off and on over the years. I would say it has been a good 4 years though since I last heard from him. When Scott and I were planning the trip, I made sure to write Lachie to see where he was and what he was up to in case we were in the same city. Considering the area we are covering, we had a good chance. Since he lives in Brisbane and that’s our place of departure for Heron Island, we made sure to set a day to spend together.

We got to Brisbane and picked up our rental car. It’s a Hyundai Accent. We were supposed to get a tiny rental car, but they upgraded us for free. It’s nice to have a little more room. We then followed the directions that Lachie emailed to us. He was going to be down on the Gold Coast for the weekend at Marianna’s parents’ vacation condo. They were going to show us around Brisbane, but teaching us to surf on the Gold Coast seemed much more exciting!

It took about an hour to get there. The condo was really nice – two bedroom, two bathroom and a huge living/dining room. The entire wall was sliding glass doors that looked out onto the ocean and the beach across the street. We couldn’t have gotten a better view if we tried! After we caught up a bit we set out to learn to surf. Lachie gave us a brief instructional lesson and then Marianna and I, and Scott and Lachie set out to work on our technique in the water. They would tell us when to go and give us a good push so that we would have a better chance of getting up. We were able to pop up on land but doing it on the board in water was much, much harder. Scott said he would get up on it but his legs wouldn’t be shoulder-width apart and he would fall backwards. I would get up and try and move a little and it would be the end of my wave. It’s a lot of timing and concentration. They were great teachers because we both got up a few times and rode a wave in! They said that’s hard to do on the first lesson – we don’t know how true that is, but we are going to believe them for the sake of our self-esteem! It was so fun to do and I can see why people love it here! Now when we see surfers on TV we will have a much greater respect for what they do!

After surfing, we went back to the apartment and had lunch. We had big toasted rolls, sliced avocados, cheese, pesto spread, butter, fresh prawns (shrimp) and a little lemon for flavor - a great oceanside meal. It was delicious and all the surfing worked up our appetites!

Following lunch we went to the Currumbin Animal Sanctuary. It was really fun because, although it was like a Zoo, it had all sorts of Australia-Only animals. We got to pet and feed Kangaroos, hold a Koala, and feed some lorikeets (parrots). We got into the park, and with the guidance of Marianna’s mom, we took the train to the kangaroo feeding. There are 2 types of ‘Roos… red and grey. They were so soft to the touch and really gentle. I think they would make a great pet – but I guess Scott didn’t want to try and explain something like that to customs. There was a really, really BIG crocodile as well that we enjoyed from a distance! It was a fun thing to do! The birds were especially interesting because they come in at the end of the day at the same time for the feeding. They aren’t caged or anything, they just fly freely through the sanctuary and the Gold Coast. There were hundreds of them circling around and landing on heads, arms and food trays. I think I fed six or seven at a time! One landed on Lachie’s head and another almost clipped Scott’s ear off on his way by! A few times they all would take off and circle the sky all together. The branches would be empty and food trays abandoned as if they were never there. The sky would fill with the parrots and they would fly completely in unison and put on a show. Then swoop back in and devour all the food waiting for them, filling the trees once again! So amazing to see! They come from all over the Gold Coast region for this specific meal everyday from 4-5pm. We also went to see a traditional Aborigine dance. There were two dancers, one singer and commentator and one man playing the didjeridoo (A long wooden Aboriginal instrument that makes a deep droning sound). They explained why they would do certain dances and while the man played and the other sang, the dancers would demonstrate the dance. They did about 10 difference dances and it was really interesting to see how graceful and unique the dances were. Afterward, Scott and I went to get our picture taken with the troop. Unfortunately, my eyes were closed in the picture which gives us even more of a good laugh when we look at the picture.

We left the sanctuary and walked along the beach before stopping at a surf club for a few drinks. It was great to chat and get to know them and find out more about their lives. Lachie and Marianna recently got back from a round-the-world trip. They are so intelligent and well traveled; it is amazing to hear about their experiences – especially since they are both only in their mid-twenties!

We went home after that to have dinner with Marianna’s parents. They had cooked a Middle Eastern couscous dish that was to die for! Her parents, Bruce and Fran, are really interesting as well. According to Lachie, they are the most well-traveled people you will ever meet. If Lachie thinks they are well-traveled, they must be! They told us that when they were in their early 20’s they hitchhiked from Europe to Australia! Yes, across continents! Another fascinating story they told us was about how much they loved Afghanistan and its people. This was a number of years ago, but it was really great to hear positive things, since the news really paints a different picture. Bruce is a retired pathologist and Fran collaborates on children’s books with him. They are some of the warmest, most open people I have ever met in my travels, and we were really lucky to have been able to spend a night there.

After dinner Lachie, Marianna, Scott and I went down to sit in the hot tub and have a swim in the pool. It was a great way to end the night. After showering, we both just passed out! It was an excellent day and we were so thrilled with our day - they are ordinary people living extraordinary lives. There is so much to learn from the people around you, and they were an outstanding example and reminder of that! Many thanks to Bruce, Fran, Lachie and Marianna for one of the most memorable days of our vacation!

Scott taking a hiking break, enjoying the views from the coast of Wilson's Promontory.

Stef walking on the beautiful white sandy beach - the destination of our hike.

Stef hiking in Wilson's Promontory.

This snake slithered out right in front of us on the hiking trail.

Stef at Squeaky Beach in Wilson's Promontory

Day 24 recap (Fri Mar 4)

[Scott] We woke up this morning to rain in Foster. We got our stuff together quickly and hit the road. We stopped at a bakery in Foster for a quick breakfast. We got going toward Wilson’s Prom about 9:45, and encountered some downpours on the drive. Wilson’s Prom is the southern most point of Australia, and back in the day there was a land bridge connecting it to Tasmania. Wilson’s Prom is like a large peninsula jutting out into the ocean so it has an island feel to it – lush vegetation and an abundance of wildlife – much of it unique to the area. It is mountainous and very scenic. The rain cleared and we stopped at Squeaky Beach. As you walk through the sand you hear a very loud “squeak squeak”. Sounds silly, but it was pretty interesting. One of the signs said it does that because on this particular beach all of the sand particles are the same shape and behave like marbles rubbing against each other. So we walked around for a little while there and enjoyed the peacefulness of the spot…until a mob of about 40 school kids came running down onto the beach screaming their heads off. That was our cue to head on.

We stopped at the visitor’s center and talked to the ranger about which hike we should do. She thought hiking to the summit of their highest peak would be rather pointless today since the area was pretty socked in with clouds. She said the views from up there were spectacular on a clear day, but today wasn’t our lucky day so we instead decided on a hike along the coastline. It turned out to be a really nice hike. It was cloudy the whole time, but it didn’t rain and the temperature was around 70 so really it was a perfect day for hiking. The trail followed the coastline pretty closely and the views were nice. The wildlife highlight of the hike was when a snake slithered across the trail right in front of us. Right after we saw the snake, Stef thought it would be funny to tell me that there was a snake hanging from a tree right behind me. I thought she was pulling my leg but I couldn’t shake the thought and did take a leap forward and turned around. She couldn’t stop laughing. Okay very funny. So we continued hiking and I let a few painfully long minutes go by before I seized my opportunity for revenge. I mustered up my best hissing sound and sounded it out nice and loud. Stef jumped like her feet were on fire and landed awkwardly on the side of a rock and yelped out in pain. She had sprained her knee (which had been hurting for a few days already) and now instead of feeling like I got the last laugh, I felt really bad (or at least I couldn’t laugh out loud). You know what they say about paybacks! And don’t worry – I think her knee is fine now – she just kicked me with the same leg. We ate our lunch on the beach at Oberon Bay, and after eating we turned around and headed back to the car. I think the roundtrip distance for the hike was about 5 miles.

After the hike, before leaving Wilson’s Prom, we drove down a dirt road a few miles. We were told that this was one of the best chances at seeing some wildlife. We saw our first emu (like an ostrich), actually two of them together. We also saw a kangaroo or two along the side of the road lounging in the field. We get excited anytime we see any of these animals in their natural environment – kind of our own mini safari. I’m sure they’re not as excited to us, although maybe they get a good laugh. We were hoping to see a lot more, after being spoiled with our koala safari the other day. We left the park around 4pm and got on the road back toward Melbourne. We stopped for a quick bite at a KFC on the road – good ol’ American fast food available all over the world! We could tell right away it was the same recipe as we felt our arteries clog and our hearts started beating irregularly. On a similar note, one interesting discovery we’ve made is that Pepsi in Australia is definitely not the same recipe. Both of us prefer Pepsi over Coke…but not here. Coke tastes like Coke. Pepsi tastes like dirt. I think we gave up on Pepsi after three tries. We just think that’s weird and we wonder why.

We found a Comfort Inn to stay at right near the airport, so it would make it easier catching our early morning flight tomorrow. Finding the hotel was actually a little challenging since they are hosting the Grand Prix in Melbourne this weekend and very few hotels have vacancies. I dropped off the rental car tonight so we don’t have to deal with that tomorrow. By pure coincidence, our hotel happened to be right next to the building with the large Airport Parking sign on it, which I recognized immediately as Red Spot Rentals. That was nice not having to worry about getting a shuttle back to the hotel or anything after dropping off the car. The under carriage of the car did have a run-in with an already road-killed kangaroo the other day, sorry but it happens, so I was just hoping the guy didn’t look under the car. Kangaroos are a serious problem on the roads here, and we saw evidence of that many times here in Victoria. The rental guy did come back with a concerned look on his face, and I thought “oh no”, but he just asked if we had a flat because apparently one of the tires was a different brand or something. Not sure what that was about, but he said it was no trouble. We were up late doing laundry, which has become a tradition for us before early morning flights. Our logic is always that it will be nice to start off at our next place with everything clean, but we always get to the hotel too late…and it almost always takes two dryer cycles. Hopefully we’ll remember this next time we travel.

wipe out!