HELLLOOOOO from Heron Island! I wasn't sure I'd have access to my computer or any internet while we're here, and even though we do, I'm trying to use it really sparingly. Technology detox, if you will. PLUS why would I want to be staring at a screen when I'm in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef??
Seriously, in the last few days, dream have come true. Heron Island is a TINY island, and by tiny I mean like 800 meters by 300 meters. There's a fancy people resort on one side and a research station on the other, and it's pretty much just stretches of beach and tropical foresty business in the middle. AMAZING
We left UQ on a bus Friday night at 11 pm, drove until 8 am ish, and then took a two hour ferry ride from Gladstone to here.
Saturday they fed us and stuck us right in the water. We snorkeled around the dock and the shipwreck and saw SUCH AMAZING FISH. Gonna be real, Finding Nemo is unrealistic because coral is rarely those vibrant colors, but the fish are beautiful shades of green and blue and pink...we also saw a few reef sharks and whitetip sharks which I never thought I'd be close to. AH SCARY
Yesterday was a swim on the north side of the island. The way the current runs and weather hits the island makes the north side really calm, flat, and sandy, so it's a perfect place to swim. After lunch they boated us out through the channel to the edge of the reef flat, where we jumped off in our fins and wetsuits to snorkel for an hour or so. We saw more sharks, spiny lobsters, gorgeous corals, and more species of fish than I ever knew existed.
Last night we went on a night snorkel in the harbor. We were split into groups with a tutor, so it wasn't just 50 kids swimming around blindly. They gave us flashlights and attached glowsticks to the top of our snorkels and we went out to the shipwreck and back. Since the tide was higher than the day before, we were able to swim into the wreck and see the fish and other organisms that had found a habitat there. On the way back in, we saw a barracuda, two green sea turtles, and a squid. The squid literally turned up in our faces out of nowhere, and was such bright pink and orange and WOWEE WOW so cool! It was so frantic about having 5 flashlights blinding it that it almost swam right into Bridget.
Since the point of being here is to do a research project, we're examining the amount of alive coral vs dead coral in the research zone and in the marine park zone. We're expecting that the coral will be more degraded in the research zone, because there's pretty consistent collection and surveys being done. We woke up at 5am this morning to catch the low tide, and got our measurements done for the research zone, so tomorrow morning we'll get up at the crack of dawn again and do the marine park! I actually love being up that early, because it makes the day seem so much longer, and I'm pretty obsessed with this place...
We spent all day today snorkeling and laying on the beach. Bridget and I saw a MASSIVE reef shark and a few stingrays.
This is seriously a dream come true. I have spent the past few days with salt in my hair and sand on my feet and no makeup and 100% outside and no cares except this project but even that is super chill and I LOVE IT HERE. It is so surreal to me that I'm IN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. I swam in one of the 7 wonders of the world. WHAAAAAAAAAAAT
It's almost dinner time, but I'll hopefully write again when we get back to Brisbane Wednesday night!
Monday, October 6th
Well, I'm finally back in Brisbane. And, I DID write another piece to this blog post on the plane Thursday morning, but, alas, my phone was pick pocketed in Sydney and my notes did not save to the cloud. More on that later...
Where did I leave off...
Last Tuesday on Heron Island we finished up our research, went for another boat snorkel where I swam three feet away from a giant sea turtle, went snorkeling with Bridget in Shark Bay where we saw two MASSIVE sting rays-at first we were like oh its just a stick in the sand lets keep going WAIT WAIT THATS A TAIL THOSE ARE BARBS WE ARE ABOVE A STING RAY GET OUT GET OUT-and I spent some time alone on the beach before realizing I was actually the only person on the beach. I legitimately could not see another person. HOW CRAZY IS THAT
That night we spent sunset on the jetty and jumped off into the warmest ocean water I've ever experienced.
Wednesday we presented our research, said goodbye to our four new Danish boyfriends-jkjk just the guys we roomed with, #greatdanes-and had to restrain ourselves from running to hide in the forest so as not to get on the ferry back to the mainland. Because after all an amazing 5 days of sun and sand and hanging out in the coolest place in the world, Brisbane was sounding pretttyyyyy boring.
We got back to the Pink Palace around midnight on Wednesday and left for the airport to fly to Sydney at 5 am Thursday. So Wednesday night was a frantic unpacking-packing-sleeping for an hour-caffeinating adventure.
Reina, Bridget, Martha and I checked into our hostel in Bondi Beach and went straight towards the opera house to meet up with our (Aussie) friends Jess and Renata, who were also in Syndey for the weekend. The 6 of us took the ferry across the harbor to Manly Beach, which is kind of tourisy but really gorgeous. We spent a few more hours lying in the sun and taking goofy pics before heading back toward the bridge and opera house for cool sunset views.
And when we were getting off the ferry, in the massive crowd, someone plucked my phone out of my backpack.
In reality it's really not that bad, because there's the mystery that is the cloud that put my Heron Island pictures on my computer, and I just have to order a new SIM card for like $5 and get a phone that will last me the next 6 weeks. It's a BUST though because I couldn't take pictures in Sydney! And it was hard to stay in touch with friends/my group of 4 in Sydney couldn't get too split up because somehow between us we ended up with only 2 functional phones by the 2nd day....SO we went old school and actually MADE CONCRETE PLANS
I never realized how dependent I am on my phone though. I was sitting by myself at one point waiting for my friends and I had nothing in my hands, and I was thinking "wow I must look so lame sitting here alone" because I couldn't even PRETEND to be texting anyone or anything...
Needless to say, this weekend was a good technology detox, even more so than Heron Island, and while I will be keeping this next pone glued to my hand so it doesn't get lost, I won't be using it as much. I've become too dependent on wifi and snapchat. NEW YEAR NEW ME-Chag Sameach y'all!
That night we were all so exhausted from multiple 5am mornings in a row and a combined 4 hours of sleep between all of us we crashed at 9pm. WOOO SPRING BREAKERS GETTIN CRAZY IN BONDI BEACH
Friday we met Jess and Renata on the beach and did a gorgeous coastal walk to Bronte beach.
That night we met them at Jess's aunts house in Paddington, the cutest little part of the city EVER, and had dinner and shopped in the book stores nearby.
Saturday was Yom Kippur, so Reina and I were fasting, but in the morning we all went to the Paddington Markets, which is basically just a really cool street fair.
Then Reina and I headed back to the hostel, where we watched Temple Adat Shalom's Kol Nidre services. Yup, my synagogue in San Diego is so cool that it STREAMS IT'S SERVICES. And since the time change puts us a day ahead, we watched the Kol Nidre services on Yom Kippur, but we both agreed it was better than no services and it was pretty enjoyable.
That afternoon we met back up with Bridget and Martha for an adventure downtown to the Botanical Gardens, which are gorgeous and right across the water from the opera house.
Sunday was spent shopping, sunbathing, and eating around Bondi Beach before flying back to Brisbane that night.
Overall, it was an amazing week and a half and now I have to try and convince myself to focus because there's only 3 more weeks of classes and 6 more weeks in this crazy country! I'm not ready for it to end!!
I've never been so tan or blonde or spent so many days happily being lazy in the sun and ocean.
Here's to SIX MORE WEEKS
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